I am currently working on a low speed single pin dot matrix printer, and I am in need of advice on how to program the Arduino Nano to use the commands sent from a slightly modified driver for the Epson LX350 dot matrix printer. The hardware part is mostly done (mechanical parts are in place, I just have to do up the electronics), all I need is some coding advice. I will see if I can edit the baud rate to less than 115200 baud to get way less data per second because my printer will be data intensive over the span of the page, not per second. Once again, I plan to use just one pin. I will have to partially revise the hardware though, so something might change. I will provide steps/pixel when the hardware will be finalized. For now I can write that I will use 16th step for both motors. I will have to recalculate the step/pixel coefficients anyways.
While you may feel you have given sufficient information, sadly you have not. Sounds like you're receiving data via Serial, but what's the format? Are there blocks to be dissected? Are there line returns, page feeds, etc. like a classical format, or ??
And that's just the beginning. Tell us a lot more about your project, and your specific abilities and background.
Do you mean "sent to" the printer, as in printer control codes?
I had an Epson MX-80 (back then) that I could program each pin of the single column of nine pins as it stepped across the page, allowing "full page" drawing capability (if you didn't mind chewing through ribbon). All that other stuff you mentioned is beyond me.
Do you actually know all the commands, if so , why not tell us?
I wanna use the output of a modified driver for an existing printer to control it
I don't know the commands that the driver sends to skip pixels or lines, but I plan to modify the driver so the commands are easier to find than some bytes that my Arduino doesn't know what to do with (for now)
Worst case scenario is that I'll have to send data of a (just black and white because of no halftoning) 256 color bitmap line by line, and wait for the printhead to return back to it's origin.
False. Newsprint used stippling.
False. The Epson is bidirectional.
Did you read the user manual?
You have a lot of work to do before you can think of writing an Arduino program.
I do not have the bloody instructions manual. I never bought the bloody printer. I am just using the driver for it.
As if I did not already know that...
I am using Windows 10. Ask before you assume
I already have a program, but it does not support bidirectional printing. Yet. I plan to implement it myself (and fail to do so) to cut down the printing time in half. I could show my existing program if you want to, but do not be surprised if it will be heavily broken.
Did you ask the internet? Did you try the link above?
No need to ask. Newspapers used stippling for grey shades.
I did try the link
You know what? Forget shades. I want to print
just black or white anyways.
Just to be sure I point to the correct link; the link in post #3 contains control codes used to control a printer.
I know what link you meant