Mini Thermal Receipt Printer (Adafruit 597)

Add a mini printer to any microcontroller project with this very cute thermal printer. Thermal printers are also known as receipt printers, they're what you get when you go to the ATM or grocery store. Now you can embed a little printer of your own into an enclosure. This printer is ideal for interfacing with a microcontroller, you simply need a 3.3V-5V TTL serial output from your microcontroller to print text, barcodes, bitmap graphics, even a QR code! 

This package comes with a thermal printer including the print head (it does not require ink, a set of power and data cables, and two plastic shims for panel mounting.Thermal paper not included! The printer uses very common 2.25" wide thermal paper, available in any office or stationary supply store. It can fit up to 50 ft of paper in the bay at once. You will also need a 5 to 9VDC regulated power supply, that can provide 1.5A or more during the high-current print - our 5V 2A power supply will work very nicely. We also suggest picking up a roll or two of 50' long thermal paper, and also a 2.1mm jack terminal block adapter which will make it easy to connect the power adapter. We also have a starter pack that includes all the above

We really like this printer because its easy to make Bold, underline, inverted text, variable line spacing, left/center/right justification, barcodes in 11 standard formats with adjustable height, and even custom bitmap graphics. 

Of course, we wouldn't leave you with a datasheet and a "good luck!" - We have a full tutorial and matching Arduino library that demonstrates the following:

• Printing with small, medium and large text
• Bold and underline text
• Inverted text
• Variable 
  line 
  spacing
• Left, center and right justification
• Barcodes in the following standard formats: UPC A, UPC E, EAN13, EAN8, CODE39, I25, CODEBAR, CODE93, CODE128, CODE11 and MSI - with adjustable barcode height
• Custom monochrome bitmap graphics!
• How to include a QR code

Note: We have these working great with classic Arduino UNOs (and other Atmega328-based 'duinos) but they are not yet MEGA compatible.

 

• Requires 2.25" wide, 50 ft or shorter thermal paper
• Requires 5-9VDC @ 1.5Amp power supply during print
• Printing Speed: 50-80mm/s
• Resolution: 8 dots/mm, 384 dots/line
• Effective Printing Width: 48mm
• Character Set: ASCII,GB2312-80(Chinese)
• Print Font: ANK:5×7, Chinese: 12x24,24×24
• Paper Type: Thermal paper
• Paper Width: 57.5 ±0.5mm
• Paper Roll Diameter: max 39mm
• Protocol: TTL Serial, 19200 baud
• Mean Cycles Before Failure: 5 million lines
• Power Supply (Adapter): DC5V-9V
• Outline Dimension (WxDxH): 111x65x57mm
• Installation Port Size: 103 x 57mm
• Color: Black
• Operating Temp: 5°C ~ 50°C
• Operating Humidity: 10% ~ 80%
• Storage Temp: -20°C ~ 60°C
• Storage Humidity: 10% ~ 90%
• COM-10438, DFR0503, 114990012

 

• Arduino Thermal library . To download. click the DOWNLOADS button in the bar, rename the uncompressed folder Thermal. Check that the Thermal folder contains Thermal.cpp and Thermal.h. Place the Thermal library folder in your/libraries/ folder. You may need to create the libraries subfolder if its your first library. Restart the IDE.
• NewSoftSerial library - required for the Thermal library. Download and install it as you did the Thermal library. Restart the IDE.
• LCD Assistant - bitmap converter
• Printer User Manual
• Printer Product sheet