bigclive
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Inside a "toy" thermal printer
🕑 Added 2023-09-02 14:41:08 +0000 UTCVery common on eBay and quite a fun device. It uses standard 58mm thermal paper on very small rolls (you can re-roll from a bigger roll though) and also prints on thermal label material as a continuous strip.
The circuitry is as minimalist as you'd expect, with the bulk of the work being done by a bluetooth microcontroller and the driver in the printhead itself.
The bits that added to the complexity of the reverse engineering were polarity reversal detection and the clever power activation section where the microcontroller can literally turn itself off completely.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dRGZEcAp38
Comments
Looks like this... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09WXZWYRC
Dave Frederick
Looking at them just now on Ali and there are a couple of packages you can choose for less than $20 that include a few rolls each of colored, white and self adhesive thermal paper. Pretty cheap for little notes or labels or what have you. I'm actually considering it as it looks like it could be kind of handy. As always thanks again Big Clive.
