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Design of controller card for Thermal printer for a leading Health Safe Equipment manufacturer in USA

 

This case study showcases design and development of Thermal Printer Control Card hardware based on M16 series Renesas microcontroller for industrial and commercial applications. The design supports both 2" and 3" thermal printer mechanisms from Fujitsu.

Client

The Client revolutionized the digital metering industry with its range of metering products and pioneers in design, development, and implementation of energy management systems for industrial applications. Today the Client has grown into a 325-strong, turnkey power management hub with three production facilities in India and having presence in four countries with a strong sales & support network that spans the entire globe.

Challenge

The Thermal printer market is huge but has limited choices. The challenge for the Client was to look for a controller which is cost effective considering the market segment they operate, feature rich to support multiple size print mechanisms (2" and 3") and fast enough to handle continuous print jobs. However, the bigger challenge was to support multiple mode operations like master and slave operations considering the applications for which the printers are being used. While the slave mode was simple and operated using conventional Rs232 interface the master mode was to support SPI interface so that it could be interfaced to any host supporting SPI interface. This challenge was compounded by the demand for development of APIs which could be used by any host for interfacing with the controller/printer.

Solution

Technology

Hardware Setup

Benefits