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1-3
1.2 DESIGN AND HANDLING PRECAUTIONS
To maintain the primary performance of the printer and to prevent future problems from occurring, follow the
precautions below.
1.2.1 Design
Precautions
•
Apply power in the following manner:
At power on : 1) V
dd
→
2)
V
P
At shut down : 1)
V
P
→
2)
V
dd
•
A surge voltage between
V
P
and GND should not exceed 10V.
•
For noise countermeasure, connect a 0.1
μ
F capacitor between V
dd
and GND pins near the
connector.
•
Make the wire resistance between the power supply (
V
P
and GND) and the printer (connecting
terminals) as small as possible (below 50m
Ω
). Keep distance from signal lines to reduce electrical
interference.
•
Keep the V
P
power off while not printing in order to prevent the thermal head from electrolytic
corrosion. In addition, design the product so that the Signal Ground (SG) of the thermal head and
the Frame Ground (FG) of the printer become the same electric potential.
•
Use C-MOS IC chips for CLK,
LAT
, DI and
DST
signals of the thermal head.
•
When turning the power on or off, or during not printing, always disable the
DST
terminals.
•
To prevent the thermal head from being damaged by static electricity, the printer main body and the
platen block are connected to Frame Ground (FG) of the outer case. See Chapter 6 “OUTER CASE
DESIGN GUIDE” for the connecting method. Verify the performance with your actual device.
•
Always detect the outputs of the platen position sensor and out-of-paper sensor. Never activate the
thermal head when the platen block is in open state and when there is no thermal paper. Incorrect
activation of the thermal head may reduce the life of the thermal head and the platen and may
damage them.
•
A pause time between thermal head activations of the same heat element shall be secured more than
0.5ms. Pay attention to when using one division printing or when a thermal head activation time
becomes longer. If activating for a long time without the pause time, the thermal head may become
damaged.
•
If too much energy is applied to the thermal head, it may overheat and become damaged. Always
use the printer with the specified amount of energy shown in Chapter 3 “CONTROLLING THE
ACTIVATION PULSE WIDTH FOR THERMAL HEAD”.
•
Noise and vibration during printing vary depending on the motor pulse rate. Verify the performance
with your actual device.
•
Paper feed force can be decreased depending on the motor pulse rate. Verify the performance with
your actual device.
•
Do not perform continuous printing to prevent the motor from overheating. Refer to Chapter 3
“Motor Drive Method” to set a pause time.
•
Paper feeding may be confused with several dot lines when printing is started from waiting status.
When printing and paper feeding are interrupted and then started printing, as this may cause the
paper feeding be confused. It especially affects printing of bit images. Always feed the thermal
paper for more than 48 steps at start up or do not interrupt printing.
•
To prevent degradation in the print quality due to the backlash of the paper drive system, feed the
thermal paper for 48 steps or more at the initialization, at a time after setting/releasing the platen
block, and a time after cutting with a tea bar.