What I wanted to learn, and why it interested me: This week, I would like to explore the thermal printer. I want to learn how to use a thermal printer because I have seen people use it to print shipping labels and stickers. Through this topic, I can learn about how a thermal printer works while also learning about how to wire an Arduino to it.

Final outcome: The thermal printer prints a little script where the User gets to choose four designations to travel to.  Then, the user can press a button on the breadboard labeled A-D. Depending on the button letter, the thermal printer will print a plane ticket that corresponds to the options on the script. 

Process and reflection: 

First,  I started by experimenting with the thermal printer and Arduino commands. For the technical training, I made two buttons that would trigger the thermal printer to print out a haiku and an image of a house, respectively. The process was relatively straightforward, as the image of the house was already converted into a file that was readable for the thermal printer. For my final project, I wanted to wire multiple buttons to the thermal printer, where each button would trigger a print of a different plane ticket design to a destination of New York, Boston, Las Vegas, or Los Angeles. Throughout the process, I had some trouble with converting the images and fitting them into the memory of the Arduino because the image files were quite big. I had to shrink the size of the actual jpeg first and then put it into processing to convert it into a form that can go through the thermal printer. After several rounds of resizing with different parameters and mutiple conversions, I was able to get 4 files that printed out. However, due to the limited memory capacity of the Arduino, only two options can be choose from at once. 

#include "Adafruit_Thermal.h"

//ticket files

#include "NewYork3.h"

#include "LasVegas1.h"

#include "Boston3.h"

#include "LosAngeles3.h"

#include "SoftwareSerial.h"

#define TX_PIN 6 // Arduino transmit  YELLOW WIRE  labeled RX on printer

#define RX_PIN 5 // Arduino receive   GREEN WIRE   labeled TX on printer

SoftwareSerial mySerial(RX_PIN, TX_PIN); // Declare SoftwareSerial obj first

Adafruit_Thermal printer(&mySerial);     // Pass addr to printer constructor

//setting the pin values

const int BUTTONA = 12;

const int BUTTONB = 8;

const int BUTTONC = 9;

const int BUTTOND = 13;

void setup() {

 pinMode(7, OUTPUT); digitalWrite(7, LOW);

 mySerial.begin(9600);

 printer.begin();

 pinMode(BUTTONA, INPUT);

 pinMode(BUTTONB, INPUT);

 pinMode(BUTTONC, INPUT);

 pinMode(BUTTOND, INPUT);

//welcome message

 printer.println("Welcome to the travel printing center");

 printer.println("Are you ready for an unforgettable adventure?");

 printer.println("Where would you like to travel to?");

 printer.println("Here are the Options:");

 printer.println("A: New York");

 printer.println("B: Boston");

 printer.println("C: Las Vegas");

 printer.println("D: Los Angeles");

 printer.println("");

 printer.println("");

 printer.sleep();      // Tell printer to sleep

 delay(3000L);         // Sleep for 3 seconds

 printer.wake();       // MUST wake() before printing again, even if reset

 printer.setDefault();

}

void loop() {

//reading button values

 int buttonValA = digitalRead(BUTTONA);

 int buttonValB = digitalRead(BUTTONB);

 int buttonValC = digitalRead(BUTTONC);

 int buttonValD = digitalRead(BUTTOND);

//ticket to New York

 if (buttonValA == HIGH){

   printer.printBitmap(NewYork3_width, NewYork3_height, NewYork3_data);

 }

//ticket to Boston

 if (buttonValB == HIGH){

   printer.printBitmap(Boston3_width, Boston3_height, Boston3_data);

 }

//ticket to Las Vegas

 if (buttonValC == HIGH){

   printer.printBitmap(LasVegas_width, LasVegas_height, LasVegas_data);

 }

//ticket to Los Angeles

 if (buttonValD == HIGH){

   printer.printBitmap(LosAngeles3_width, LosAngeles3_height, LosAngeles3_data);

 }

}