Dot Matrix Photo Printer

By Brycen Westgarth and David Mleczko

Introduction: Dot Matrix Photo Printer is a 2-axis motion mechanical device controlled by an STM32l476 micro-controller that reproduces digital images onto paper with a fine tip marker. The printer is able to create physical prints of binary image data generated by our custom MATLAB image processing software. The main body of the printer is scratch built using custom designed laser cut parts and aluminum rods. The 2-axis motion is driven by 3 stepper motors (2 for the y-axis, 1 for the x-axis) and the fine tip pen is actuated by a 12v solenoid. The printer creates the image by traveling to every pixel position and creating a dot if the pixel is meant to be black. Detailed information on our prints and resolution can be found on the "Our Prints" page.