Adafruit Thermal Library Error

[treysmith92]

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• Arduino board: Particle PHOTON

• Arduino IDE version (found in Arduino -> About Arduino menu): Particle IDE - build.particle.io

• Attempting to flash the adafruit_thermal code to the particle photon, which has the library included, returns errors which I've included an image of.

[MartyMacGyver]

First, ignore the unmaintained version of this library in the Particle libraries.

Edit: I did everything below by hand, and the following link may be sufficient for you to try this.

https://go.particle.io/shared_apps/58ed4c2f9b9b6f68b0000a98

If what you see has 5 tabs, it should be the right one (it wasn't sharing right at first - keyt trying to default to the broken default version of the library there - but now it seems to be sharing correctly.)

If that doesn't work, here's the manual steps:

Instead, get ready for some copy and pasting. For examples/A_printertest, create a project with a name of your choosing, and for that main file copy and paste the raw contents of A_printertest.ino with the following important changes:

..........
// Here's the new syntax when using SoftwareSerial (e.g. Arduino Uno) ----
// If using hardware serial instead, comment out or remove these lines:

//xx//#include "SoftwareSerial.h"
//xx//#define TX_PIN 6 // Arduino transmit  YELLOW WIRE  labeled RX on printer
//xx//#define RX_PIN 5 // Arduino receive   GREEN WIRE   labeled TX on printer

//xx//SoftwareSerial mySerial(RX_PIN, TX_PIN); // Declare SoftwareSerial obj first
//xx//Adafruit_Thermal printer(&mySerial);     // Pass addr to printer constructor
// Then see setup() function regarding serial & printer begin() calls.

// Here's the syntax for hardware serial (e.g. Arduino Due) --------------
// Un-comment the following line if using hardware serial:

Adafruit_Thermal printer(&Serial1);      // Or Serial2, Serial3, etc.

// -----------------------------------------------------------------------

void setup() {

  // This line is for compatibility with the Adafruit IotP project pack,
  // which uses pin 7 as a spare grounding point.  You only need this if
  // wired up the same way (w/3-pin header into pins 5/6/7):
//xx//  pinMode(7, OUTPUT); digitalWrite(7, LOW);

  // NOTE: SOME PRINTERS NEED 9600 BAUD instead of 19200, check test page.
//xx//  mySerial.begin(19200);  // Initialize SoftwareSerial
  Serial1.begin(19200); // Use this instead if using hardware serial
  printer.begin();        // Init printer (same regardless of serial type)
..........

Then create two tabs (Adafruit_Thermal.cpp and Adafruit_Thermal.h) and give them the same contents as are found in the repo here. (Make sure each has the appropriate content.)

Finally, create two more tabs (adalogo.h and adaqrcode.h) and give them the same contents as in the example headers of the same names. Remove the corresponding .cpp tabs the IDE automatically creates for these.

The printer appears to communicate at 3.3V. Use the Photon pins labeled TX and RX (route TX on the particle to RX on the printer and vice versa). Ensure you have a solid power supply for the 5V-9V printer power (2A is recommended). Make sure the printer is on and works (hold down the black paper feed button when powering it on to generate a test page if you haven't already).

Run the sketch and it should print (it's exactly what I ended up doing today).

After all this, I'm considering learning how to contribute the port of this library myself...

[trytofly94]

Old Topic,
But could you maybe share your app again?
I'm desperately trying to get my thermal printer to work using Particle Photon.
Thank you!

[treysmith92]

Hey there, not sure I have the assets to that project any longer; but I did find this bit of code saved from some point in the process, hope it helps: // This #include statement was automatically added by the Particle IDE. #include <Adafruit_Thermal.h> Adafruit_Thermal printer; // String tweet; char tweet[300]; String oldTweet; void setup(){ Serial.begin(9600); // Uses regular serial Serial1.begin(19200); //Starts printer serial (RX (green printer wire), TX (yellow printer wire) printer.begin(&Serial1); //uses RX and TX Particle.subscribe("Treytest", myHandler); //subscribes to the event printer.println(tweet); printer.feed(1); } void loop() { //empty } void myHandler(String event, String data) { /* Particle.subscribe handlers are void functions, which means they don't return anything. They take two variables-- the name of your event, and any data that goes along with your event. In this case, the event will be "buddy_unique_event_name" and the data will be "intact" or "broken" Since the input here is a char, we can't do data=="intact" or data=="broken" chars just don't play that way. Instead we're going to strcmp(), which compares two chars. If they are the same, strcmp will return 0. */ Particle.publish("myhandlerBlue Triggered", "YES"); //Debug - let me know it was triggered int result = data.compareTo(oldTweet); //compares to old tweet if (result == 0) { Particle.publish("Blue_the_same", "Samesies"); } else { // if the data is something else printReal(data); //sends this to the printing function oldTweet = String(data); //saves this tweet in oldTweet Particle .publish("Blue_the_same", "Not The Same"); //publish a message } } void printReal(String thing) { //the printer function printer.wake(); printer.boldOn(); Particle.publish("thing_I_printed_blue", thing); printer.println(thing); printer.feed(8); //8 lines are enough to clear the opening printer.sleep(); } void print2(String event, String data) { printer.wake(); printer.inverseOn(); printer.println(data); printer.inverseOff(); printer.feed(8); printer.sleep(); Particle .publish("thing_I_printed_blue", data); }

…

On Tue, Dec 29, 2020 at 3:17 PM trytofly94 ***@***.***> wrote: Old Topic, But could you maybe share your app again? I'm desperately trying to get my thermal printer to work using Particle Photon. Thank you! — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#25 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AGIXNWLAON35DPG3YZ5PHMTSXJPRRANCNFSM4DDCD5LQ> .

[caternuson]

Closing. Seems more like a Particle IDE issue.