Hello Adafruit Support,
I just bought a mini thermal printer starter kit for a personal project.
https://www.adafruit.com/products/600
Unfortunately, it is not working correctly. It has some strange behavior.
Especially the Printertest.py does not work properly and we are not able to print the inverseOn, the barcode...
When we try to print big text, the printer seems to shut down and restart.
Then we have sometimes some strange characters that are printed and sometime the lines are superimposed.
We connected the printer to a raspberry pi and use the 5V 2a power supply of the starter kit exactly as the tutorial of your website.
https://learn.adafruit.com/pi-thermal-printer?view=all
Do you have any idea what is wrong? Is the printer broken?
mini Thermal printer defected
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Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.
- letellim
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Sun Nov 30, 2014 2:18 pm
Re: mini Thermal printer defected
By the way,
if I don't plug my raspberry, but only in the same power supply than the printer : the raspberry shut down when I try to send information to print.
Regards
if I don't plug my raspberry, but only in the same power supply than the printer : the raspberry shut down when I try to send information to print.
Regards
- adafruit_support_mike
- Posts: 67454
- Joined: Thu Feb 11, 2010 2:51 pm
Re: mini Thermal printer defected
It sounds like the printer doesn't have enough power.
The 2A power supply is only strong enough to run the printer. It can't deliver enough current for the printer and a RasPi.
The 2A power supply is only strong enough to run the printer. It can't deliver enough current for the printer and a RasPi.
- letellim
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Sun Nov 30, 2014 2:18 pm
Re: mini Thermal printer defected
Hello,
Thanks for the reply.
The raspberryPi is connected by itself with another power supply.
For the printer we used the power supply you sending us.
Am I doing something wrong?
Thanks
Regards
Thanks for the reply.
The raspberryPi is connected by itself with another power supply.
For the printer we used the power supply you sending us.
Am I doing something wrong?
Thanks
Regards
- adafruit_support_mike
- Posts: 67454
- Joined: Thu Feb 11, 2010 2:51 pm
Re: mini Thermal printer defected
Post a photo of how you have things connected and we'll see if that gives us any clues.
- letellim
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Sun Nov 30, 2014 2:18 pm
Re: mini Thermal printer defected
Hello,
the connection is very simple and follow your tutorial.
first part :
Red wire on the + of power supply, the black one on the -.
second part :
Yellow wire on the TXD pin of the raspberry and the black one to a ground pin of the raspberry pi. The green one is not used.
The raspberry pi is also connected to power with the usb and an ipad power supply.
I believe that the problem come from the thermal printer, probably defected?
We can't do anything with it since we have a lot of strange random printed letters.
Thanks
Regards
the connection is very simple and follow your tutorial.
first part :
Red wire on the + of power supply, the black one on the -.
second part :
Yellow wire on the TXD pin of the raspberry and the black one to a ground pin of the raspberry pi. The green one is not used.
The raspberry pi is also connected to power with the usb and an ipad power supply.
I believe that the problem come from the thermal printer, probably defected?
We can't do anything with it since we have a lot of strange random printed letters.
Thanks
Regards
- adafruit_support_mike
- Posts: 67454
- Joined: Thu Feb 11, 2010 2:51 pm
Re: mini Thermal printer defected
We'd like to take a look at the physical connections. If nothing else, it helps us assemble a casefile to support a replacement.
Please post a photo of your harwdare and connections.
Please post a photo of your harwdare and connections.
- letellim
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Sun Nov 30, 2014 2:18 pm
Re: mini Thermal printer defected
Hello,
Here some pictures of our hardware and connections.
Thanks,
Regards
Here some pictures of our hardware and connections.
Thanks,
Regards
- Attachments
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- IMG_3766.JPG (842.02 KiB) Viewed 1268 times
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- IMG_3765.JPG (844.99 KiB) Viewed 1268 times
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- IMG_3764.JPG (978.76 KiB) Viewed 1268 times
- adafruit_support_mike
- Posts: 67454
- Joined: Thu Feb 11, 2010 2:51 pm
Re: mini Thermal printer defected
Thank you.
Try connecting an ammeter between the terminal block power adapter's + terminal and the printer's VCC line.. let's see how much current is getting through. It might be a problem with the power supply more than a problem with the printer.
Try connecting an ammeter between the terminal block power adapter's + terminal and the printer's VCC line.. let's see how much current is getting through. It might be a problem with the power supply more than a problem with the printer.
- letellim
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Sun Nov 30, 2014 2:18 pm
Re: mini Thermal printer defected
Hello,
I don't have any ammeter. We had to buy another power supply and this is now better.
Could you please give us a refund of this defected product and the additional costs that we had.
Regards
I don't have any ammeter. We had to buy another power supply and this is now better.
Could you please give us a refund of this defected product and the additional costs that we had.
Regards
- adafruit_support_mike
- Posts: 67454
- Joined: Thu Feb 11, 2010 2:51 pm
Re: mini Thermal printer defected
It was a power supply problem then.
Send a note to [email protected] with a link to this thread and the folks there will work out a replacement or refund for the power supply you have now.
Send a note to [email protected] with a link to this thread and the folks there will work out a replacement or refund for the power supply you have now.
- letellim
- Posts: 7
- Joined: Sun Nov 30, 2014 2:18 pm
Re: mini Thermal printer defected
Hello,
thanks for all your reply. I receive the new package.
We don't have anymore (almost) the strange character. But we know have a bad print quality.
The black is not totally black and always in the same place.
We print an image containing a logo and some text. The text is always bad quality.
(see attachment, you can see that the two first line of text are very bad quality, the next one is not that bad)
Could you please help me to know the reason.
Thanks
Regards
thanks for all your reply. I receive the new package.
We don't have anymore (almost) the strange character. But we know have a bad print quality.
The black is not totally black and always in the same place.
We print an image containing a logo and some text. The text is always bad quality.
(see attachment, you can see that the two first line of text are very bad quality, the next one is not that bad)
Could you please help me to know the reason.
Thanks
Regards
- Attachments
-
- IMG_3896.JPG (489.54 KiB) Viewed 1136 times
- pburgess
- Posts: 4161
- Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2008 2:29 am
Re: mini Thermal printer defected
These printers can be really picky about thermal settings. Let's try a couple of things.
First, when you call printer.begin(), you can optionally pass a 'heat time' value. Default is 200, so let's try bumping that up:
If that seems to be going in the wrong direction, can try a smaller value instead:
If this doesn't seem to be helping, or is working in the wrong direction, let's put it back at the default:
...and then need to try some changes in the library code itself (Adafruit_Thermal.cpp). Look for this block of code, around line 172:
Let's adjust the 'heating dots' setting (20 by default). Try 10, save the file, re-upload the Arduino sketch. Any change? Or try the other direction, try 40. With some trial and error, you should be able to dial in a combination of heat time and dots that balances appearance and reliability.
First, when you call printer.begin(), you can optionally pass a 'heat time' value. Default is 200, so let's try bumping that up:
Code: Select all
printer.begin(250);
Code: Select all
printer.begin(150);
Code: Select all
printer.begin();
Code: Select all
writeBytes(27, 55); // Esc 7 (print settings)
writeBytes(20); // Heating dots (20=balance of darkness vs no jams)
writeBytes(heatTime); // Library default = 255 (max)
writeBytes(250); // Heat interval (500 uS = slower, but darker)
- jimsen262
- Posts: 16
- Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2015 2:58 am
Re: mini Thermal printer defected
Hi, I've buy a raspberry pi with PITFT and MINI THERMAL Printer.
Now, I've success setup piTFT attached to my pi and work fine.
And now, how can I connect my printer into my pi ? Because the port already used by piTFT.
Please give me some advice step by step.
Thanks,
Jimmy Sentosa
order id : 736610-3329149380
Now, I've success setup piTFT attached to my pi and work fine.
And now, how can I connect my printer into my pi ? Because the port already used by piTFT.
Please give me some advice step by step.
Thanks,
Jimmy Sentosa
order id : 736610-3329149380
- adafruit_support_mike
- Posts: 67454
- Joined: Thu Feb 11, 2010 2:51 pm
Re: mini Thermal printer defected
Please stick to a single thread. There's a response over here: http://forums.adafruit.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=72814
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.