Creating dummy ASCII driver for thermal printer (Star TSP600)

[Luis Da Costa]

> Luis Da Costa wrote:
>
> >> Luis Da Costa wrote:
> >>
> >> > Hello everyone,
> >> >
> >> > I am new here, so if this is not the right place to post this please
> >> > tell me.
> >> >
> >> > I bought a thermal Star TSP600 for my POS installation. Normally this
> >> > device has a official website (licensed under GPLv2 if I'm not wrong,
> >> > which is pretty cool and useful), but it only works (under Gnu/Linux
> >> > and Mac, not on Windows) with the USB and Ethernet version... and as
> >> > you may already imagine my version is a Serial one.
> >> >
> >> > Long story short. After a long time understanding how all of this
> >> > should work, I've found a way to print. Simply by doing this :
> >> >
> >> > echo "Hello World" >> /dev/ttyUSB0
> >> >
> >> > It works nice (with no accents as expected) but this isn't a solution
> >> > for a POS installation since I need the software (proprietary) to work
> >> > with this printer (by using Cups as you may already understood).
> >> >
> >> > Under Fedora 18 I've managed to make it print something under cups
> >> > using one of those generic drivers : - PostScript
> >> > - Raw Queue
> >> > - Others from other printers randomly chosen.
> >> >
> >> > After installing them with one of the generic drivers, I've tested with
> >> > gedit and it would print, sometimes slowly, sometimes faster, but in
> >> > all the cases I couldn't even understand what was printed (the best I
> >> > got was one of the drivers that printed in big fonts all the settings
> >> > used for printing like the font used, the size used etc..).
> >> >
> >> > So my question is (as I know programming, and need to have this printer
> >> > working until the end of this month, and I am trying to not use
> >> > Windows, since it works in there perfectly), is it possible to create a
> >> > dummy driver for this kind of situations ? Or is it possible to edit
> >> > the original ppd from this printer in order to add the serial support ?
> >> >
> >> > If yes, could anyone help me do this ? (Or just help me find a better
> >> > solution that would work under cups in order for the POS software to
> >> > recognize the printer and use it).
> >> >
> >> > Thanks in Advance for all the help. And sorry for my horrible English.
> >> >
> >> > Best Regards,
> >> > Luis Da Costa
> >>
> >> Look at
> >> http://www.starasia.com/productshow.asp?id=82
> >> for Linux drivers.
> >>
> >> Helge
> >>
> >
> >
> > Hi Helge,
> >
> > Thanks for the help. But as I already said, those drivers are only for the
> > Ethernet and USB version and I've got a Parallel/Serial version which is
> > not compactible. I've already tried those drivers and they give me
> > problems with the rasterstar filter, and when they don't, they simply
> > don't print...
> >
> > I have better results with the Raw Queue drivers that with those ones :S
> >
> > Thanks in Advance,
> > Luis Da Costa
>
> The driver(s) are independent of the backend used. For your serial version
> you need to use the serial backend of CUPS. But it seems your serial
> connection needs to be capable of transferring 8-bit binary data.
>
> Helge
>

Hi there again,

I've tried to install those drivers in a Fedora 14 i686 box with sucess, then I added the printer, and selected the same options as the printer output in the debug mode :

- Baud Rate : 9,600bps
- Data Bits : 8 Bits
- Parity : None (Odd)
- Handshake : DTR

But nothing to do, I only receive "????????????" and some weird characters.

The only difference is that sometimes with some options the text just prints upside down.

What should I do then ? And how can I know if my serial connection is capable of transferring 8-bit binary data ? I have it connected to a serial-to-usb cable, can this be the problem ?

Sorry for all this questions, and thank you for all you help.

Best Regards,
Luis Da Costa