[help] How to interface wit printer?

Hi,
I am doing Car Park System project (for my diploma final year project). 1part i want to do is when the driver reach the Entrance, then the driver have to press a botton then the printer will print out the time and the barrier will open. (like real life Car Park Payment System, take the time card when enter the car park and return back when want exit for payment counting)

Can give me any guide or circuit diagram to look over?
Or have any idea to build a Payment Station at Car Park?

Thx.

Ok first .As a student you shouldn't ask for a schematic this design implies more than a schematic .You need software Are you going to use an emdedded architecture or a simple PC computer ??. .Second it also mean that you haven't even thought about a solution by yourself .Because this is a multi component design .one thing is the printer and other are the main gate controller or the payment solution .
I can give you all already cooked .But i will charge you $50,000 .Instead i can help you to determine what you need according to what your teacher asked you .
The printer ..is easy .you can but them instead of designing it .It will occupy all your time .So apparently you need
1) a controller with a user friendly menu
2) a payment unit
3) a ticket or payment proof trough a printer (for now just use a old printer)

So what have you done so far ??
what type of currency are you going to take ??
what is your level??

help me to help you ..

Hi eltonjohn,
Actually i wan do a simply "station" only. N what u offer is too expensive >.<.
I jz wanna the concept of how to interface wit the PC printer.
Jz like the system what i write,
1st, the driver press the botton, thn the PC printer will print out the time.
Is tht i need a Computer too?
Can use PIC (µcontroller) to interface with PC printer?

And at the Payment side i will using Microsoft Visual C++ to do it.
I jz wanna know how to build this part only ^^.

N now i m at diploma lvl.

Thx for ur help

First question:
What kind of printer?
Parallel or USB or serial (if you can find one)
what brand (because i don't think every brand uses the same protocol)

Antharax

Hi Antharax,
The Canon PIXMA 1500 can? Using UBS port.

Thx

and you want to connect a USB printer without open source linux drivers to a microcontroller?

seems like a project on it's own ;-)

I think you should either
- Select an industrial printer with good documentation and an API for interfacing
(if you can afford one for your project!)
- Use an embedded PC (or normal) with windows and a small program to do the printer interface.

and you're at diploma lvl?
what level?
Users on this board are from all over the world, education systems are different.
is it a general high-school project (age < 18 )
is is a higher education level
perhaps university level?
are you going for an engineering degree?

Do you have a budget or do you need to use 'cheaper' parts?

This is important for us to estimate the kind of solutions to offer

Hi Antharax,
I am at Diploma lvl, and this is my final year at diploma.
I m planing taking Degree after working 2year. Cos out of money

Antharax write:
I think you should either
- Select an industrial printer with good documentation and an API for interfacing
(if you can afford one for your project!)
- Use an embedded PC (or normal) with windows and a small program to do the printer interface.

May i know what is API?
The Visual C++ can do the interfacing with printer?

My idea is like previous i write one:
1st, the driver press the botton, thn the PC printer will print out the time.
Hope you will help me solve it. Cos i m facing problem at this part. Our course didnt teach us interfacing >.<

Thx.

I've never done programming involving printers, but I can tell you that the short answer is that a PC is required. All PC printers I've seen require their own specific drivers, implying that they probably all speak different languages. For usb printers, it's probably even a bigger nightmare as you have to "imitate" a usb host if you are not connecting it to a PC.

Everybody is talking or worried about a printer ,Get an old impact printer .some even have a serial connection .Example are the old mac pinters ..
Most of these old printers print ascii code . so is enough to print a ticket .
You can use any MCU under the sun to control those printers or to print to them.

Start with a pc terminal connection and see if you can print with a serial printer .
Parallel printers are much easier to find .
in that case you will need to implement that interface with your mcu .
But under a cmd (dos)session in windows do this

dir > prn
or even dir >lpt1

you can test the printers easly with dos sessions and even print files in ascii
by type myfile.txt > prn
this is called redirection to default printer .. (be shure that there is no default printer in windows )

I was just joking about the $50,0000
i can make it for $49,999 !!!

Even for parallel printers, do they have a standard protocol among them? I believe chances are higher that older printers like dot-matrix may be more easily interfaceable.

Hi eltonjohn,
Actually i also got parallel printer.
And what you means by:
You can use any MCU under the sun ?
Is tht MCU is a microcontroller like PIC16F877?

Emm, my idea of connection is like below, dont know is correct or not:
1st, i connect my Parallel Printer to MCU (but dont know what is tht, is that the "press botton" part?)
Then from the MCU connect to PC parallel port?

>.<, you just -$1 only. So $49,999≈$50,000
Seen like no different. ^^

If it a parallel port printer you can interface easily with a PC or a micro using IEEE1284-1994 standard. I understand you need to print only text (ticket). In this case it is just outputting the file on to parallel port.

If printer needs to be connected to a micro all of
8 data pins (input to micro)
5 status pins (input to micro)
4 control pins (output to micro)

of the printer to be connected to micro io pins.

But it will be pretty complex to print images (graphics). The problem here is not interfacing the printer but to convert the image to the undertsndale format. Out of many languages PCL (HP), EPP2(epson), PS2(generic post script) printer languages are most popular. But this will be any how a big project to write a printer driver it self. GIMP is the best example under linux open source.

But all printers which are supporting IEEE1284-1994 will also support simple text based printing along with it's own printing language. In this case
Your requirements can be easily done with a mirco / PC if you have parallel port printer. If printer is not in the budget (for a study project you can use any available one) that can be done with a small budget. If you use a PC there is no cost except your effort of writing software.

Some small serial printers are also available in the market, be care full you may not be able get help from internet. USB printers increases cost if you are using a micro based system. If you are using a PC any thing will do.

Cheers

Hi idlebrain,
Is tht you mean "Microtech 1.8M Printer Cable 25 IEEE1284-1994"?

My idea is like that.
1st, i have to press botton then the printer just print out the time.
That mean i have to build a simple circuit to send signal to printer.
May i know is that i need use a micorcontroller or PC to do it?
May i know how the Printer will automatic print out the accurate time value after we press the botton?
Cant i use back the parallel printer cable that provide by the printer itself?

Thx

If the printer can be connected to parallel port it should be of IEEE1284-1994. yes that is 25 pin standard one.

Printer will not print automatically. the software must print it. If you use a PC it will be much easier. Just write some C code to miniotr the keyboard, when key is pushed, output the data (string of time) to printer.

Up to my knwoledge just output the data what you want to print. You have to follow the rules output the data, wait for the ack and send the next byte etc...

This you must reffer to
**broken link removed**
**broken link removed**

If you are using Linux, You can directly use parport/lp driver and directly write the data. handshaking will be taken care by parport driver.

I will check if some code is available.

Cheers
idlebrain