Driving parallel port printers

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) Hardware Interfacing
1

Hi, I'm new to arduino but have an ok understanding and experience with non-processor electronics.

What I'd like to do is use an old dot matrix printer to print out text. Can this be driven by arduino, or am I opening a whole can-o-complicated worms here?

Thanks in advance.

2

There was some discussion about doing this here: http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1200961536

3

Hi MagicPocket,

Shouldn't be any problem at all. The standard parallel interface will take 17 digital ports, but you should be able to eliminate 4 or 5 depending on your application. See Parallel port - Wikipedia for all the information. Good luck!

Regards,
David

4

For basic printing you'll only need, at most, 10 pins.

For more than you ever wanted to know...

5

As I commented in the above linked thread, I've done some initial research into this and compiled a small collection of Parallel Port Interface links.

You may find some of the linked information useful.

--Phil.