Android Tutorial BlueTooth Printing via SPP

I finally have reliable, stable printing to a blue tooth printer (Citizen CMP-10 and CMP-20) from my Samsung 5570L Galaxy Mini Android Device running v2.3.6

Attached is a skeleton project (based on the Serial example posted here) in Basic4Android v1.8 that requires the following libraries

Core v1.77
Serial v1.20
ToggleLibrary 1.00

It may work with other versions but this is what works for me in my specific situation


To print you must first pair the phone/device to the printer

In the program you must place what you wish to print in PrintBuffer (string) variable and call StartPrinter (sub)

If the printer is not turned on it returns an error message and allows you to reprint

Hope this helps someone :)

Tim
 

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timwil

timwil

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The following should give you double wide AND double high printing

PrintBuffer = Chr(14) & Chr(28) & "This Is A DoubleWide & High Line"
 
timwil

timwil

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I don't think you can have bold plus double height plus double width
 
microbox

microbox

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timwil said:
I don't think you can have bold plus double height plus double width
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I'm looking for a text to print big fonts like the following format below..
TextSample.png
In the manual, I'm trying to use DrawText() (but not sure )command..but I'm having no luck. Do you think the format I'm requiring can be done?
 
timwil

timwil

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No idea

I only use the double wide and double high

I have not done any graphics
 
D

Dman

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This works very well. Thank you for sharing. I have a question though.

I have been studying this very hard and am finally starting to get how it works. I see to center justify you are using
B4X: 
 PrinterBuffer = PrinterBuffer & Chr(27) & "a" & Chr(1)

From the list of ESC/POS commands I see that center justify is
B4X: 
 PrinterBuffer = PrinterBuffer & Chr(27) & Chr(97) & Chr(1)

They both work when testing. My question is why do you use the "a" instead of Chr(97)? It might be a dumb question but where did the "a" come from?
 
timwil

timwil

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I guess?

It works for me as is so I don't devote any further time to it - but you are free to expand on it

This was built from code fragments that I found here in the forum so you can go ahead and evolve it further.....
 
K

kris A

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i am having a bit of a problem with printing to datec dpp 350. I can connect to printer, assigned strings to printbuffer. It says that it printed but nothing comes out of the printer. I know the printer works because I can send to printer using the datec app. Can anyone help?
 
K

kris A

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This is a bluetooth connection. The program detects the printer fine. It even detects when it is not connected. It just doesnt print
 
timwil

timwil

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Then it might be what you are sending to the printer. Do you have a list of the printer commands? A command reference?

If the printer is in STAR emulation mode but you send ESC/POS commands to it - it will be confused and not know what to do so it probably would not print. Can you confirm what commands your printer requires?
 
timwil

timwil

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I see that your printer has a page mode and line mode. Normally the printer would be in line mode and would print on getting a CRLF. In page mode you build the whole page before it prints anything.

Try sending ESC . [ESC = chr(27) plus a dot chr(46)] to the printer - this according to the printer manual should print a self test. If that prints we know that your application is communicating with the printer properly.
 
K

kris A

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I tried printing Chr(27) & Chr(46). It said printed but nothing comes out of the printer.

If Success Then
PrintBuffer = Chr(27) & Chr(46)
'Msgbox(printer.IsInitialized,"printer")
printer.Initialize(cmp20.OutputStream)
printer.Write(PrintBuffer)
printer.WriteLine(PrintBuffer)
printer.Flush
Msgbox("Printed!" & PrintBuffer ,"")
printer.Close
cmp20.Disconnect
 
timwil

timwil

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on page three of the manual you sent is the way to get into hex dump mode

Holding LF button while power on
for ~ 2.5 sec and releasing it after the 2-beep.
It starts Hex DUMP mode.
All input data are printed hexadecimal
and as text.

Put the printer into Hex Dump mode then send a long line of text to be printed followed by a FF - form feed chr(12). If the printer is getting it then it will print the data in hex mode. That would confirm that the printer is getting the data and can print.
 
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