 |
 |
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
sl1978
Joined: 11 Jul 2004
Posts: 7
|
| Printer driver. |
 Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2004 3:32 am |
 |
|
i m using a pic controller direct connect to a printer and print out a line of simple word like " Marry Christmas",but i cant find the printer driver (driver for common printer like canon or epson) ,i have search through the forum about the printer driver but still cant get it..c
an some one show me the code or where can find the pins and sequency to drive the printer...
ThankQ..:p |
|
 |
Ttelmah
Guest
|
| Re: Printer driver. |
| Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2004 4:04 am |
|
|
| sl1978 wrote: | i m using a pic controller direct connect to a printer and print out a line of simple word like " Marry Christmas",but i cant find the printer driver (driver for common printer like canon or epson) ,i have search through the forum about the printer driver but still cant get it..c
an some one show me the code or where can find the pins and sequency to drive the printer...
ThankQ..:p |
Seriously, all but the cheapest printers, should accept plain text 'as is', with no other code needed.
To actually drive their more sophisticated features, requires that you write your code to output in their corresponding _printer language_. Normally on a PC, the print driver does this translation, but there is no way that any off the shelf driver is going to work on a PIC. Do a search for ESC/P2, which is the standard language supported by all Epson printers (this does not allow access to all of their abilities, but has the advantage that they all will work with the same commands). HP printers support PCL (which is their own standard language). Generally all these languages allow plain text to simply be printed as a 'subset' of their abilities, with no extra commands (normally you may have to send a 'page feed' at the end to actually start the page printing).
Some very cheap printers, have no 'engine' in the printer itself, to convert text to the printer raster, and on these, direct drive is required, and differs for _every_ model. These would be very hard indeed to drive from a PIC.
Details of the Epson language are at:
http://www.epson.co.uk/support/manuals/select/escp.htm
while the PCL details are at:
http://www.hp.com/cposupport/eschome.html
However beware, that the dictionary _alone_ for most of these languages, is larger than the memory space of any but the very largest PIC, so driving the printer in plain text mode, with very limited extra commands for any specific graphics, is probably going to be your only option. Driver listings in C, are available from the Linux download sites, but typically compile to over 100K of code, and require a lot of RAM for some operations...
Best Wishes |
|
|
rwyoung
Joined: 12 Nov 2003
Posts: 563
Location: Lawrence, KS USA
|
|
| Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2004 8:04 am |
|
|
TTelmah is right about the printers. One other thing about Epson is that several years ago when I needed to add support to a project for Epson dot matrix printers, I prowled around on the Epson site until I came upon a developer's area and signed up. Doing so gave me full access to their technical documents for all "current" printers. HP on the other hand gave me the run-around so we ended up specifying only Epson printers.
It has been a few years since then so I don't have the URL anymore.
If your goal is to print to $25 Lexmark printers, I'd suggest you find something a little stronger than a PIC because you will need to "image" the entire page yourself because the cheap ink-jets don't have any brains for turning text into pixels.
_________________
Rob Young
The Screw-Up Fairy may just visit you but he has crashed on my couch for the last month! |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group
|
FAQ 
Search
Register
Profile 
Log in to check your private messages 
Log in
