Thermal Printer's stepper motor rotation issue.

[sujayks]

Dear all,

We are using FTP-628MCL103#70-RB thermal printer for our project. All 6 strobes, paper sensor, thermistor signal and 4 stepper motor signals are pulsing fine. Now we stuck up with stepper motor rotation, we are following the same sequence given in the datasheet. We opened the retainer of stepper motor, we can see out of 5 wheels 4 are rotating as expected. But the one wheel which is connected to paper platen is not rotating at all. Could you please suggest the best solution to fix this issue.

 

[FvM]

Isn't it that the platen drive can be disengaged for paper insertion?

 

[sujayks]

Yes, while inserting the paper into the platen we couldn't able to rotate the stepper motor.

 

[BradtheRad]

Don't know if this applies to yours, but my inkjet printer has plastic gears that transfer rotation to the rollers. One plastic gear grips a metal shaft tightly. After a number of years the gear's hub cracked. Its grip on the shaft loosened. Paper movement was affected.

I could not understand what was wrong, because it was difficult to repeat the action while I watched. The gears and shafts turned quickly, and only when feeding paper. Then I looked closely with a magnifying glass. The break in the gear was virtually invisible. I believe the plastic aged and became brittle.

In trying to fix it, I had to bend the metal piece that holds the gears and the ends of the shafts together. I had to remove the plastic gear, drill tiny holes in it, and insert a short piece of wire, which I twisted at the ends to tighten up the plastic gear again. I replaced the gears and the metal end piece.

In the past few years the wires loosened and I had to tighten them.

 

[Suraj.K]

Can u share your code with me so that I can have pretty clear idea .