I'm interfacing a FTP-628 Thermal printer mechanism with a 89S52 Microcontoller. There are 6 - Strobe in in it. Strobe 1 to Strobe 6. Do I have to Strobe them seperately or can I join them together & stobe them from a single Microcontroller I/O. (as i have shown in the diagram). If it's required seperately please explain me why is it so & how should it be done.
I don't know the particular printer, but from the properties of similar dot matrix printers, I guess you should not connect the STBx signals to a single driver, if you want to be able to print meaningful text.
Generally, I doubt that you're able to use the printer without a detailed documentation. If you have it, it should answer the question as well.
THE STROBE DEPENDS of the CURRENT that you are able to HANDLE AT ONCE .. I designed battery operated printers and the BATTERIES were able to put out 10 Amps peak if i recal (12 years ago) .So calculate the amount of curent that your POWER SOURCE is capable of. And then match it to the NUMBER of strobes that you can use . So for example if you can only handle 3 blocks out of 9 .Strobe the 3 first blocks then the next 3 and so on . SO you will require 3 MOSFETS .and 3 constrol signals .I my case I COULD PRODUCE enough current from the battery so i STROB THEM ALL AT ONCE .i needed only a MOSFET .