Interfacing with an Maxatec POS receipt printer, printing "downloaded images"
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Hello, I'm writing an application that needs to interface with a Maxatec MT-200 receipt printer. This is done through posting bytes to the device. I have successfully changed character encodings and made text bold in the past, so my basic approach is sound. I am working off the MT-200 technical manual, but I don't seem to be having much luck getting it working printing monochrome bitmap images (bitmap in the traditional sense, 1-bit per pixel). ftp://ftp.maxatec-europe.com/Public/Maxatec/MT-200_Technical.pdf[^] Look to page 59 and 60, defining and printing a downloaded bit image. It certainly has me confused.
[Name] Define downloaded bit image
[Format] ASCII GS ∗ x y d1 ... d (x x y x 8)
Hex 1D 2A x y d1 ... d (x x y x 8)
Decimal 29 42 x y d1 ... d (x x y x 8).................
The number of dots in the horizontal direction is x x 8, in the vertical direction it is y x 8.Surely the number of horizontal dots is the number specified by x. Does it simply mean x must be a multiple of 8? When I write the following bytes to the device: 1D 2A 10 10 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 in an effort to define a downloaded device image, the device becomes unresponsive - it doesn't print any additional ascii bytes I might send. It certainly doesn't respond to the print dowloaded image command: 1D 2F 30 What should I do? Can anyone make sense of this documentation? I myself cannot work it out, so I'd appreciate if someone else could weigh in, Regards, Sternocera
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Hello, I'm writing an application that needs to interface with a Maxatec MT-200 receipt printer. This is done through posting bytes to the device. I have successfully changed character encodings and made text bold in the past, so my basic approach is sound. I am working off the MT-200 technical manual, but I don't seem to be having much luck getting it working printing monochrome bitmap images (bitmap in the traditional sense, 1-bit per pixel). ftp://ftp.maxatec-europe.com/Public/Maxatec/MT-200_Technical.pdf[^] Look to page 59 and 60, defining and printing a downloaded bit image. It certainly has me confused.
[Name] Define downloaded bit image
[Format] ASCII GS ∗ x y d1 ... d (x x y x 8)
Hex 1D 2A x y d1 ... d (x x y x 8)
Decimal 29 42 x y d1 ... d (x x y x 8).................
The number of dots in the horizontal direction is x x 8, in the vertical direction it is y x 8.Surely the number of horizontal dots is the number specified by x. Does it simply mean x must be a multiple of 8? When I write the following bytes to the device: 1D 2A 10 10 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 66 in an effort to define a downloaded device image, the device becomes unresponsive - it doesn't print any additional ascii bytes I might send. It certainly doesn't respond to the print dowloaded image command: 1D 2F 30 What should I do? Can anyone make sense of this documentation? I myself cannot work it out, so I'd appreciate if someone else could weigh in, Regards, Sternocera
My suspicion is that the printer has an 8x8 dot head. So, anything it prints will have to be in multiples of 8. But they then have a choice. Ask people to set the size, but trust them to set the size on multiples of 8? Or make the parameter be number of "heads", rather than number of dots. So, you send: 9x3, which means 9 heads wide, and 3 heads deep, which means 72 dots by 24 dots. I hope that gives you a lightbulb moment! I've had similar fun working with an LCD remote display device in the past. Iain.
In the process of moving to Sweden for love (awwww). If you're in Scandinavia and want an MVP on the payroll (or happy with a remote worker), give me a job!
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My suspicion is that the printer has an 8x8 dot head. So, anything it prints will have to be in multiples of 8. But they then have a choice. Ask people to set the size, but trust them to set the size on multiples of 8? Or make the parameter be number of "heads", rather than number of dots. So, you send: 9x3, which means 9 heads wide, and 3 heads deep, which means 72 dots by 24 dots. I hope that gives you a lightbulb moment! I've had similar fun working with an LCD remote display device in the past. Iain.
In the process of moving to Sweden for love (awwww). If you're in Scandinavia and want an MVP on the payroll (or happy with a remote worker), give me a job!
Iain, hmmm. I'll look into that, thanks. It certainly doesn't help matters when the documentation is written in "engrish", with no practical examples. Regards, Sternocera