The first test you should do is to just make sure that the printer is running and you have the power wired up right.
First up, pull the little plastic tab up top to open up the paper holder. Then insert a roll of 57.5mm (2 1/4 inches) thermal paper into the bay as shown below.
- For Product ID #597 "Mini Thermal Printer" The optimal length of the paper will be 50 feet (about 15 meters) so try to pick up that size. Sometimes if you buy paper from an office supply shop, its a little longer, around 80 or 85 feet in which case you'll need to remove paper from the roll until its 1.5"/40mm in diameter and fits easily.
- For Product #2751 "Tiny Thermal Printer" The optimal length of the paper will be 33 feet (about 10 meters) so try to pick up that size.
- For Proudct #2752 "Nano Thermal Printer" The optimal length of the paper will be 16 feet (about 5 meters) so try to pick up that size.
- For our Thermal Printer guts kit, there's no paper bay so you can use any size.
Make sure that the paper doesn't bind or stick in the bay, it should rotate freely.
None of these small thermal printers have a cut feature; pull the finished print against the perforated edge.
As previously described, power the printer using a 5V to 9V 1.5A or higher power supply, such as wiring up a 2.1mm DC power jack:
Print Test Page
Most of these thermal printers have a test feature providing basic diagnostics. You’ll then know that power is good, paper is correctly loaded, and have some configuration details of the particular unit.
On most Mini and Tiny printers: hold down the button on the top of the printer while connecting power to print a test page. In normal use, tapping this button feeds the paper by one line.
On most Nano printers and printer guts: connect power first, then tap the button on the control board to print a test page.
Not all “printer guts” units have a button installed. If needed, you can make a temporary connection across the “J1” pads using a jumper wire or metal tweezers.
Occasional factory production changes occur…if you don’t get a test page using the method above for you model, try the opposite method. A few may even lack a test page feature, but the status LED provides an indication of good power.
If you don't get a printout, check that the paper is inserted correctly and not binding, that the power is correctly wired, power supply is plugged in, etc. Then try again.
Note the baud rate on the test page. This may be 19200 or 9600. We'll need this number later:
