I need to integrate a printer (receipt printer) in an outdoor terminal.
Does anyone have any experiance in using OEM modules
(printermechanisms) for this? There are basically 3 alternatives:
1. Take a printer mechanism and build from scratch
2. Buy some module like a panel mounted one and integrate it
3. Buy and use a regular POS printer (but that will be a separate unit)
The price difference can be significant, and ready made POS printers
are not cheap ($250-$300 at least). The question is, how much pain is
it to source, integrate and build the printer component from scratch.
Getting to a target of sub $100 would be nice.

Comments?

Thanks

ElderUberGeek wrote:
I think a key question is how many do you need?
What else can you do instead of developing this printer?

--
Best Regards,
Ulf Samuelsson
ulf@a-t-m-e-l.com
This message is intended to be my own personal view and it
may or may not be shared by my employer Atmel Nordic AB

ElderUberGeek wrote:

Totally depends on how many you're
going to build.

Yes. I agree it depends on the volumes. I guess my question is really
more about the level of effort involved and the practicality of
building from scratch.


Jim Stewart wrote:

"ElderUberGeek" <aribloch@gmail.com> writes:

(top posting fixed)

I have done this with both thermal and impact mechanisms, it was
fairly straightforward. Your main problem may be mechanical, like
paper roll holders, access to change paper or ribbon, environmental
sealing etc (you said outdoor).

The actual mechanisms can be had for ~$30 in smallish quantities
(10-100). The extra electronics is not expensive provided power is
already available. Suggest you use thermal rather than impact unless
you have very good reason not to.

--

John Devereux

Hi John, thanks for the reply. Yes, the requirement is for plain paper
and not thermal.

Which mechanisms did you have good experiance with?

If I understand correctly, you have to get the mechanism separatly and
the control board separatly (i.e. every mechanism needs a control
board). Of course there is the PS and then issues of mechanical design
as you mentioned. Still, I would say that for a BOM of even ~$100 it is
worth it (especially if the enclosure holds other equipment like keypad
and display).

By the way, I am looking for an ActiveX for controlling such printers.
Any ideas?


John Devereux wrote:

"ElderUberGeek" <aribloch@gmail.com> writes:

Any particular reason? Thermal is faster, quieter, lower power and
cheaper in my experience. Also there is no ribbon to change. If you
are worried about fading, this may be less of an issue than is
popularly believed.

We only used one, a long time ago now. It was the Epson "PU160",
probably still available in some form since it was so widely used.

There are companies that will sell you the control board, controller
chips, mechanism, or any combination. Including packaged printers. We
only bought the mechanism since we integrated the printer control
electronics with our own. We sequenced all the dot driving from our
own software.

Sorry, not done this.

--

John Devereux