Mini bluetooth thermal printer teardown - with schematic

These are really cheap and common devices on eBay, sold as toys for printing images onto thermally sensitive paper. This one came with several rolls including coloured paper and self adhesive label material.
The printer can only print one colour, usually black, dictated by the paper itself. The app does allow printing of photos, and uses dithering to get rough shades of grey. Given the relatively low resolution, the images are surprisingly identifiable.
The thermal printers are very minimalist and refined due to their widespread use in receipt and label printers. If you consider that almost every till has a thermal printer for ease of maintenance (no ink) and an absolute minimum of moving parts, then it makes them very cheap and available for items like this one.
The printing is done by heating up the paper with a row of tiny resistors. When heated the thermally sensitive paper changes colour.
Although the USB data lines are there, I plugged the printer into the USB port of my Chromebook and it didn't detect it. It may work with a PC.
Note that I've accidentally swapped the source and drain of the 2301A MOSFET in the schematic.
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:- www.bigclive.c...
This also keeps the channel independent of KZbin's algorithm quirks, allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty.
#ElectronicsCreators

[@simonhopkins3867]

Love those small stepper motors. So much accuracy for pennies.

[@jingarjay8754]

The Bluetooth SoC is an JieLi AC6956C4. Its actually a Bluetooth audio chip but it also has a decently powerful MCU that can be repurposed for applications like this.

[@darkindy]

I am impressed they even managed to make the USB port look happy and friendly.

[@jussikuusela7345]

If you have an old faded thermal receipt, sometimes a quick swipe of a hot clothes iron can reveal a negative image of the original.

[@Stealth86651]

Surprised I never saw this in an episode of CIA, seems like the perfect trick they'd throw in an episode.

[@UberAlphaSirus]

LOL, my boss ironed all his diesel recipts in one go. the look on his face was pricless.

[@jussikuusela7345]

@@UberAlphaSirus yep... big mistake unless the original printing has already faded. Also heating too much in one go will make it all fade to grey... kzbin.info/www/bejne/i36zdGuHf6tpqassi=-SVuLr2U923yts7U

[@vtbn53]

That's a great tip, I will try it, thanks.

[@vnvn-st5pn]

Takes me back to when microprocessor based computers first became in reach for hobbyists. Started with just a board that had a keyboard on it and connected to a TV and a cassette recorder for storage. Next upgrade was either a floppy that held 80k or a printer; and so many odd printers were available, most seemed to be dot matrix printers made for cash registers pressed into service for the hobby. Some had a typewriter ribbon, some were a kind of silvery paper, and some were thermal. But in the absence of the large scale ceramic assembly like this printer, they had a little ceramic print head of 7 or 9 dots and another motor to slide it across the page. Putting together a working system from these parts that were not meant to go together taught me a lot of electronics; like tacking on some TTL electronics to get a parallel port out of the serial port built into the board. I think kids miss out these days when you just pair it with your phone or laptop and it works.

[@Whiffert]

I remember the printer that Sinclair released for the ZX-81. It used the famous silver paper and the printhead was just a pointed wire that arced out and made a black spot.

[@aaronbrandenburg2441]

​@@Whiffertalways wondered if they had a way to do this commercially back in the day I had an idea of being able using or something like that assassin idea didn't even know that really existed that was just an idea the Bible head how to easily print something. There was another means of electrophonic printing back in the day that was used for some things including transmitting I believe charts and weather maps is things like this when it would be sent over some sort of wired connection it was covered nice thing later on but Tuesday pretty nasty chemical composition I know it was loaded with some pretty toxic stuff I think part of it was a cyanide based but I could be wrong on the chemical composition some people referred to this as Baines soggy paper. If anyone has any idea what system this was with the name of the printing process please give her a heads-up as well. Also somebody Evernote I discovered years and years ago if you applied and DC voltage through any mail or similar you could easily cut aluminum can material and also aluminum foil not that my current required. Had a idea of using some sort of ex-wife water and being able to to cut things out with lightweight aluminum material could almost be able to cut out a stencil for surface-mount perhaps this was really before die cut machines were real thing or at least as far as I knew at that time it was that far back that wouldn't really even know but then again back then we didn't have internet so there's that as well. Speaking of stencils does anyone know a good source for used X-ray film like use for stencils and such also was trying to use some for like diffusing. Need to cut very small discs of this invariable shades of transparency would be great and that's why I thought about using this particular stuff as well for both things. And also does anyone know what you would call that and translucent plastic it was fairly thin that is sometimes used to make stencils as well I'm trying to find this and don't know what to call it or perhaps an Amazon link as well. Much appreciate any info and replies

[@asciimation]

I recently, well a few years ago, made my own 6502 based computer from scratch and repurposed a little POS thermal printer to work with it. Being an older printer the power supply brick was the same size as the printer unit itself!

[@davelowets]

Yep. I can remember being a lad in school, playing "games" on those early P.C.'s with the data cable plugged into the cassette recorder's audio jack, very slowly retrieving data.. 😆

[@asciimation]

@@davelowets And often failing after a 5 minute or longer load time!

[@davidrichter57]

That 7.4V silkscreened note on the PCB somehow made me flash to our inevitable future, where the person doing the PCB layout leaves an easter egg for Big Clive. Something obvious enough to be recognized by the right crowd, while discreet enough to make it into production.

[@SeanBZA]

Circuitry on the back likely is a boost converter, so that they can use alternate print heads (likely faster print versions) that are either higher resolution or faster response time, that need a higher power supply voltage to operate them, as the most common print heads do need something higher than 3V to operate, typically something between 12 to 24VDC at a rather high current, so as to have the very fast heat up and cool time for fast response. Print head that blob is actually a few serial to parallel driver chips, thin and long, that take a common clock and enable, and then have a serial data in per chip, so that you clock in basically a small section of the data, and thus parallel load at least some of the shift registers in them. Then another connection provides the parallel output enable, so that all the print heads that will write thermally will get an enable on them, heating up the thin film element segments for the width of the pulse, while at the sale time the data is latched, and the shift register chain is busy being fed the data for the next line. End of the write pulse all the heads turn off, and then there is a cool down time, still clocking data in, before the next step is to have the stepper driver move the paper up one pixel height, and then repeat the write cycle. At 3V likely very slow, low resistance heads that need a good amount of power, thus the wide traces to the print head to provide it, and the missing electrolytic capacitors on the main board, removed for cost, relying on the lithium cell impedance being low, not so good after a few cycles or when the cell is getting low, and really should have been left in, as after all the 2 electrolytic capacitors would have cost under a cent in volume, but likely not compatible with SMD PNP line used, or the SMD versions were a whole cent more.

[@alunjones3860]

It might also be a buck converter, so the same printer can be run off two cells, giving 7.4V.

[@bskull3232]

The Chinese written on the sticker says low voltage version, and the board certainly has footprints for a boost converter chip, output diodes, and inductors. I think the board was designed to accommodate both 3.7V and 7.4V print heads, this particular unit has a 3.7V print head, thus the boost circuit is not populated.

[@keyboarderror1]

You should be able to print over USB as well. There's a person online who hooked one of those up to a web gateway and was letting people send text and images to it. They had a bit of a trick replacing the battery with a power supply to keep it going as the current draw during printing would reset the micro-controller.

[@sidewinder15599]

You absolutely can. It's kind of hilarious to print from Word to one.

[@hjalfi]

I have a couple of old word processors with thermal heads, including a portable laptop thing. They'll work either with thermal paper or if you attach a special ink transfer ribbon they'll print onto ordinary paper. I even have a 198x Epson thermal printer designed for a PX-8 CP/M laptop; it's incredibly slow and low resolution but lots of fun to use (search KZbin for 'hjalfi has a new printer' to see it in action). The cool thing is that the print head is only eight pixels high, and it somehow uses the same motor to wind the paper, move the head, and extend or retract the print head to touch the paper. The only problem is sourcing the paper; they still make it, but sourcing anything less than a kilometre is tricky...

[@GizmoTheGreen]

mine doesn't seem to be found over usb. "your luck may vary" kind of thing?

[@hayleyxyz]

Oh cool, I've already been reverse engineering the BLE protocol for this printer on and off for a while, planning to use ESP32 as a gateway. I'll take a look at that project though.

[@noahandthefurry4573]

what about printing from a pc over bluetooth?

[@s0litaire2k]

Takes me back to my old ZX Spectrum PC when I saved up my pocket and birthday money to buy the Thermal Printer and rolls of the silver coloured paper...

[@Mike-tv9rk]

Sectrum ?? Spellchecker on dude ? 😂😂

[@iamdarkyoshi]

I think this might actually be the first video I've seen on this channel where you had to blur out a portion

[@stepheneyles2198]

That's about the only editing BC does!! Except the "One moment please" pauses while things are dissected off-camera! But we love that simplicity, keep it up BC!

[@dolbyman]

Either a lewd app or background picture .. or he is actually using a secret app for MI6 .. we will never know :)

[@midnightzathras6870]

It was his OnlyBears app. ®️

[@Mikosyko]

The Sodastream app 😊

[@fluggaenkoecchicebolsen]

Porn app without a doubt

[@markiangooley]

I bought an HP-41C calculator when they were a new thing and also the thermal printer for it. Waste of money for me: I was 17 or so and it cost me my savings from a summer job. Never got serious use from them. But the printer and the thermal paper were especially fascinating to me! I had a lot of fun marking the thermal paper with pressure and friction heat between a table and a moving fingernail, or with any source of heat.

[@Lizlodude]

I can't remember the model, but I had the Casio (I think) one with the printer built in, purely to play with the printer heh.

[@beardedchimp]

As a kid I was captivated by my Da's fax machine, the magical simplicity is irresistible. I spent hours trying different methods like fingernails or a soldering iron. My favourite of course was a magnifying glass on a sunny day. Northern Ireland rarely having such weather made whipping out the magnifying glass even more special.

[@williamromine5715]

I am amazed about how interested I am in his videos. Being the channel's "village idiot", I have absolutely no idea what he is talking about, but my day is complete when he comes out with a new video. Being an old fart(81), I still think radio is magic, so electronics is totally science fiction. So, thanks again Clive in peacefully ending a rather upsetting day for this old man.

[@jam99]

It's his calming hypnotic voice.

[@amorphuc]

I'm with you there though over the years, I think my understanding of circuits and how they work grows with each video.

[@rjmun580]

"Radio" ? Is that the same as wireless - you young lads and your trendy talk.

[@williamromine5715]

@@rjmun580 Yes, they are the same. It's just that here in the former colonies, we generally called it radio rather than wireless. A rose by any other name...it's still magic.

[@williamromine5715]

@@jam99 Yeah. He would be one hell of a used car salesman.

[@U014B]

Even the charge/BT LEDs make a little smiley face with the charge port. I definitely need to start a business so I can use this to print receipts. Maybe a biker bar or a welding supply...

[@mikehibbett3301]

I remember a few years ago when I was working on a BLE Microcontroller SoC development at a big CPU manufacturer :) we had some insights on Asian competitor SoCs. One of them was selling a BLE SoC what was available for 10 cents at volume. Mad. The application of that SoC was specifically for the "selfie stick" market, but it still blew us away that they could sell a BLE SoC for less than the cost of our test process.

[@_BangDroid_]

The benefits of ignoring labor laws, human rights and environmental impact.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

IP theft is rampant in china so it's very possible they did not pay for development and just ripped off someone else. Also what the other guy said

[@mikehibbett3301]

@@_BangDroid_ A portion of that price for sure is covered by what you say. But I think a larger part was a strong focus on a specific market need, and an acceptance that these products would have a very short lifetime, so could have a very low quality bar.

[@nyetloki]

Mass production has its benefits of economies of scale, plus years of cost cutting analysis. You could probably even get the same soc for 5 cents from a ghost run ha

[@Wegetsignal]

People crap on China alot, but if they're saving me money I don't have an issue.

[@robroysyd]

Thanks for bringing this to our attention. What I really like about this device is the roll of paper doesn't need a chip in it. I'm thinking of Dymo who have been going down some dodgy paths of late e.g. no longer selling the tape for a not cheap printer. Their solution to the problem is to sell you a new printer. The only issue I can see with this and any thermal printer is the ink does fade over time especially in my toasty in Summer man cave.

[@rocketman221projects]

How quick the print fades really depends on the quality of the thermal paper. I have thermal labels on stuff that I printed 20 years ago that still look good. I've had others that fade out in months. Also, some brands of labels degrade very quickly when stuck on certain types of plastic.

[@robroysyd]

@@rocketman221projects Thanks for that, it's good to know, I understand store receipts fading but I would have thought the laminated Dymo labels would last forever but it can get hot in my workshop and they are on clear plastic trays.

[@neilcaldwell870]

Good point. Own goal by Dymo I reckon though. Where I work we bought a new Dymo label printer to replace a smashed one. Then the horror of the NFC labels were noticed. That's it for Dymo, no more! Brother from now on. Let's hope they don't go the same way.

[@outaspaceman]

I’ve found the rolls with the adhesive backing/sticker stock holds the image well and I’ve not noticed the labels fading on the jars in my (North Facing) shed…👍

[@patrickvdh8606]

Even Chinese manufacturers like Niimbot are going on this route. Where they have a NFC tag in the rolls.

[@TechBaffle]

That's a cool little printer. It's like a miniature version of a receipt printer and impressive how low price they are these days!

[@ksbs2036]

Clive, I don't have much useful to say other than every video of yours is just such a treat. I have taken to watching them twice, once for content and the second after a couple of whiskeys to bask in the joy of discovery and general good humour. Thanks Clive!

[@justcallmeavi3255]

Big Clive - "Just cause' you've got a cute face doesn't mean I'm not gonna' tear you to bits..."

[@JW-uC]

Brings back memories of the "printer" (and I use the term advisedly) of the Spectrum Z80. Its amazing how far that has transformed into a device that is found everywhere. I also remember that the silver prints went totally black over time.

[@bigclivedotcom]

The Sinclair printer used metallised black paper and an electrified stylus to burn off the metallisation.

[@JW-uC]

@@bigclivedotcom Wow, my memory of how they worked was so wrong, lol. I'd always, with the age of time and fuzzy recollection, thought it was a standard thermal printer.

[@McTroyd]

I guess we know where all the cast-offs from the portable point-of-sale machines go. Pretty nifty that this is even possible. Would be interesting to see it work on an oscilloscope that can do a memory capture, so we can see how fast those print pulses really are.

[@iamdarkyoshi]

Remarkably simple design, might pick up one of these to print rude messages. Side note, the thermal paper can be "written on" by a fingernail rubbed swiftly across the surface. Rather amusing screwing with sales clerks by signing the receipt without a pen.

[@MetalheadAndNerd]

Oh, we had the same idea

[@marcogenovesi8570]

oh yeah, rude messages printer, I like that

[@PaulSteMarie]

Looks like just the thing for printing out one's thoughts on other's parking ability for sub-wiper delivery.

[@NoDollarCrolla]

Reminds me of when I persuaded my mum to get me a mechanical Dymo label printer when I was young to 'label my lego". Sorry mum, rude and silly messages hidden round the house and school was way more fun! 😂

[@dennis8196]

Maybe I should release my code to print to this via RPi (easily rewritten in principle for an ESP32). It gave me flexibility to print without unreliable Chinese app of dubious quality and origin. It was good for a bit of fun, but I never completely finished the project, I moved over to a print assembly that could be packaged into one case.

[@bonce]

I've got one of these, they are marvelous! :) Mine is the GB04 variant (there are a few different boards used in these). I've taken a few sources of cat printer code that's out and about for this and made up a little local webpage from it on my network that prints markdown through a raspberry pi. Once you get through the device defined commands it needs for wrapping the data it's very normal to communicate to.

[@DaleyKreations]

I have one of these and it makes a very handy label printer. Particularly as it can print QR codes - I'm using it to organize our shop inventory, tools etc

[@paranoiia8]

It's still somehow amazing that this type of print head can managed to print as after all, those microscopic resistors need to get hot pretty fast and be precise and heat is heat, it's easy to make something hot but not that easy to cool it down fast without additional help and heat spread it self around so it's not super precise.

[@nyetloki]

No thermal mass means it won't retain the heat for more than a microsecond

[@BlacksmithGen]

I use one of these for DND it's great to be able to print spells out and things to give players

[@rickyrico80]

This is about the most nerdy usage possible and I love it 🤣

[@jexom]

You just convinced me that I as a fellow DM now need one

[@BlacksmithGen]

@@jexom awesome, I generally just do a long screen shot of the spell out what ever and print that. It's super handy. Plus my players like hearing it hum from behind the screen. Oh I have also printed monster stat blocks for complicated combat and NPC info for the players and maps. Ok I use it all the time 😆

[@user-qf6yt3id3w]

Looking it up it looks like those thermal printer heads look like a serial in, parallel out shift register. So you shift the data in and then fire a strobe to connect the shift register outputs to transistors which drive the thermal elements. Or, actually, several strobes covering different parts of the line, probably because driving them all at once would take too much current.

[@amorphuc]

I'm actually considering it as it looks like it could be kind of handy. There are some options that include white and colored types of paper as well as some self adhesive thermal paper for it. As always thanks again Big Clive.

[@richardbanks2669]

I have one, can confirm it prints nicely onto sticker roll, but they're very fiddly to split apart to peel the backing off! Works well for printing shipping labels

[@Xeno274]

Just be careful regarding BPA/BPS thermal papers…

[@dh2032]

@@richardbanks2669 will it just work as printer, if has some sort of Bluetooth printing ability, or are stuck using app that big Clive , demonstrated ideally if windows could USB or Bluetooth , out documents to it as just a printer??

[@dh2032]

@@Xeno274 what BPA/BPS ? on thermal paper?

[@paulharker7184]

@@richardbanks2669 - To get the sticker backing off, use a craft knife to fray an edge. You can then easily peel them apart.

[@ottopartz1]

I got a Bluetooth label printer for doing shipping labels right from my phone and I've been really impressed with it considering that it's not that much bigger than the rolls that it prints from. Now im wondering how much of the insides are just ballast weight to keep it from sliding around.

[@john_barnett]

Very surprised how well built and engineered this little thing was

[@vacumedballs]

I wonder if you'd be able to use your thermal camera and see the thermal printhead operating like a KITT scanner whilst printing

[@keithfarrell3370]

Ahh the trusty thermal print head. Reminds me when i were a lad repairing fax machines.

[@bahmad5811]

The print mechanism looks really similar to the printers in the hand held Bank Card Payment machines. They take similar size print roll.

[@TheHexCube]

Thanks Big Clive! I bought this one and then a high quality one a while ago. I love them! (The high quality one can print really solid blacks, sounds a lot smoother/quieter, and has a metal cutter). Again, I love them, and I find them really useful. The rolls of receipt paper come in big box quantities and are really inexpensive.

[@GizmoTheGreen]

whats a high quality one? a different model or an actual brand one?

[@TheHexCube]

@@GizmoTheGreen 'Paperang P2' - different brand.

[@KeritechElectronics]

How cute! I'd name it Temmie or something. Simple as it gets, nice to discombobulate. I wouldn't count on complete reverse-engineering here, not in case you've got a 4-layer board with signals buried in the inner layers. At least there's none of that BGA rubbish. Nice print head construction. I keep learning new things every day :).

[@ame7165]

challenge for someone: make a persistence of motion display with that print head. have it spin and you should be able to see the image through a thermal camera. I'm curious if the update rate is fast enough for that to work due to the thermal lag, though I guess they probably concentrated the heat into a very fine and insulated section

[@satibel]

given the print speed it probably wouldn't work, though with thermochromic paint and the head slowly rotating it would be interesting. edit: if it's spinning it would be cooling fairly well so it might actually work.

[@ame7165]

@@satibel i didn't actually see the part where he printed, but it makes sense for it to be slow. also good point about the air flow cooling it when spinning

[@idjtoal]

@@ame7165 00:35 for that

[@untildawncrepes]

Someone is going to have a version of Bad Apple running on it in no time

[@alejandroalzatesanchez]

ask a bored engineer they'll anything when bored XD

[@AntonioClaudioMichael]

Very nice simple laser printer my wife has a couple of these there just square and blue for creating labels for her garden they do work well being a Bluetooth setup

[@greenaum]

A ZX Printer would be smaller! Have to work on knocking up a Bluetooth adaptor for it, Clive. They're not even complex, just a couple of pins, two drive the motor, fast or slow, which does horizontal AND vertical movement (in a slightly diagonal line, good ol' Clive Sinclair). One emits the spark. One reads in the rotary encoder, 256 per row I think just like the resolution, plus a bit more round the edges probably. And that's about it. Wire that up to your favourite PIC, or else get an ESP or something with Bluetooth on it. Boost convertor for the voltage, from a lithium, nice charger circuit, Bob's yer uncle!

[@pauldzim]

So a Poke is an old-timey bag. I learned something today, thanks Clive!

[@twocvbloke]

I have a Citizen-branded serial printer for Commodore 64 & VIC20 computers, it's basically a repurposed receipt printer too, though a dot-matrix impact type versus thermal, and comparing all the discrete components inside it to this, miniaturisation is quite amazing, even the printer module itself is microscopic compared to the Citizen... :P

[@peterevenhuis2663]

The blurred part proof's the Clive is a secret service agent, hahaha. Clive love the video

[@steve64464]

Least their paper rolls don't use DRM RFID chips in em , Maybe people start using these to print their receipts soon.

[@threeMetreJim]

Excellent for printing all day tickets for public transport for the hackster kids. Just pre-prepare the backing design on some sticky printer paper, or raid the skips of the transport place (bus/tram station) for end of rolls.

[@dustymiller1813]

The 'toy' printer strip-down was brilliant. Thanks

[@bigclivedotcom]

Thanks. Much appreciated.

[@robinhandelman9228]

Another great video Clive. It looks as though there is a model that does an 80mm roll and stickers that boasts a 2200mah battery (on Amazon). My bet is that is where the extra parts are installed, (as well as the extra price). The bigger printer is $78 US while it's little cousin is $26 US. RAH

[@11danzizzle11]

I have a small PeriPage printer I bought a while back to use for scrapbooking and labeling various things. It was fun to use, but got much more use after I found out about all the different types of "paper" it can use, like translucent, transparent, and blue/pink/red on white paper. It's a good bit of fun for arts and crafts or even just labeling stuff around your house.

[@paulharker7184]

I find that you get much higher print quality from the sticker paper than the cheapo, thin receipt paper. Much darker blacks. I break photos down to strips (usually diagonal) in Photoshop and print each strip on a different colour paper. The only problem is that the print head overheats on really long images.

[@GizmoTheGreen]

opposite for me. I got darker blacks on the normal paper, sticker paper much lighter. though it -may- have something to do with current charge. I noticed while doing some stickers (10 copies) that it slowly got lighter and lighter.

[@squelchstuff]

What a fun little gadget! I'm contemplating the hackability of the mechanism. Fist thought - Part of an old fashioned fortune telling booth re-imagined.

[@gergoo_ic]

I did a really similar thing this Halloween. You don't have to modify the printer at all, you can connect to it with BLE and send whatever you want

[@repairdroid77]

A bit of tech trivia. The ribbon cable connector is called a ZIF connector. Zero Insertion Force. They either have a flip up/down retainer or a sliding type. As the name implies when the retainer is in the open position it takes no force to insert the cable into the contacts.

[@AntonioClaudioMichael]

Very well setup and made Chip very nice

[@majdnemkocka]

The IR sensor can also be used to detect the labels on those rolls that have individual pre-cut stickers (for price labels etc) on them, so the printer knows when to start.

[@CanizaM]

JL (ZhuHai JieLi) might be one of the biggest manufacturers of Bluetooth SoCs. They are also known for the infamous "The Bluetooth Device Is Connected Successfully" voice prompts on their speaker products.

[@WelshMullet]

I saw one of these that combined a camera. I was tempted, seems like the gameboy camera and printer of old

[@crazyhans]

First time seeing something I own on Clive's bench, it's a roller-coaster of emotion.

[@piconano]

Engineering work of art! Amazing times we live in...

[@Blinkerd00d]

I use this (the non-cartoon looking version) printer almost everyday. I use it to label concrete test samples made in the field. It uses the same app. It's extremely reliable.

[@jackwood8307]

Thanks for making the electronic world easier to understand! ❤

[@Lumibear.]

Oh I have one of these, they’re fun at parties and handy for printing lists and receipts.

[@nyetloki]

What kinda parties

[@Lumibear.]

MY kinda parties@@nyetloki

[@Tom_-]

This is giving me big Game Boy camera and printer vibes. Looks like a nice novelty.

[@theresarenee]

Wow a mini printer...guess that what being used in gas pumps...to print gas receipt in which has more chips to read/exchange data since no bt .. interesting. Just love your videos and voice.

[@Mueller3D]

Interesting; I have what appears to be the same printer externally, but the PCB and chip are very different. Also uses 3 AAA cells, probably NiMH.

[@joegroom3195]

Interesting that you did a teardown on this. I just got the exact same model a couple of weeks ago to mess around with. Neat little printer. Thanks for the video!

[@sidewinder15599]

I love my mini printer! I use it to print on thermal sticker paper quite a lot for larger labels, diagrams, instructions, and the odd sticker bombing.

[@Slikx666]

I think there's a chance that you could cut a slot in the back of that printer and feed the paper from a big roll through it. There doesn't seem to be anything in the way, the only thing that would be needed is some container to hold the new roll. 🤔

[@bigclivedotcom]

Yes, you could do that.

[@charlesxix]

This reminded me of the ZX Spectrum days with a thermal printer.

[@alangarland8571]

The 1980's Sinclair home computers had a similar thermal printer option, It worked but wasn't useful for much.

[@Richie_]

I bought similar for printing labels for component storage drawers. Handy.

[@daudzoss7628]

Great teardown and analysis. Is the 2301A PMOSFET symbol drawn flipped by chance? The drain typically goes to the power input side, and the source+bulk to the protected device. As drawn, the intrinsic diode would be pointing away from the intended direction of current flow, and would turn on when power polarity was reversed, not very protectively.

[@bigclivedotcom]

You may be right.

[@kimchristensen2175]

Yup... You are correct.

[@labiadh_chokri]

Nice teardown, with custom firmware we can use it as curve tracer or temperature logger.

[@Trueo9re]

I have a larger thermal printer, about 110mm width one. Not bad for printing postal labels. I find it really handy.

[@satyris410]

oh genius. sold me on the idea. now just need one to appear on amazon vine

[@Trueo9re]

@@satyris410 If you're not fussed about the quality of the thermal paper. I would recommend you get one that takes common width thermal till receipts. You can buy those and make smaller rolls to fit in the printer. I have 6 rolls of the 110mm paper and that will last me a lifetime. Some thermal printers have paper that only fits their machine so you have to buy their make. You can also play about with the sizes too, ie I can print portrait or landscape on mine and you get 2 different sized prints from the same sized paper. Also thermal prints fade, and doubley so if you expose the paper to sunlight. They last longer if you don't put them in direct sunlight or overtime the picture fades.

[@jkobain]

03:21 - There's «MX06». There exist several variations of these devices distinguished by these IDs.

[@LabArlyn]

This printer looks so cuteee 🍓💗 And very good result for its price. Making me want to buy it 🍓

[@danbrit9848]

you are amazing not only always inspire me but find such cool things ...have you seen the people making pocket PCs ...thay will love this thing i bet ...i know i want to buy one and try to do so

[@napalmholocaust9093]

I'd like just a tiny one axis round punch or a laser printer making text by small perforations, on regular paper. Some banks used to punch void or received info with the date that way. Like a dozen holes per letter. It is very legible and that width for receipts would be fine. Not s fan of thermal paper due to its short lifespan.

[@SueBobChicVid]

The Chinese apps you must install for things like this always make me suspicious.

[@stepheneyles2198]

Best thing to do is keep an old but working phone handy (keep WiFi off!) just to run the printer!

[@MetalheadAndNerd]

The worst products don't even have a stand-alone app but a WeChat plug-in as their app. So one must use WeChat to control the device.

[@NinoJoel]

To be honest. These concerns are quite the double standard considering pretty much all big brand apps spy anyway. It's not like the app is running when not in use. It also does not have any need for important account information.

[@InsideAlan]

​doesn't have the need for it but requests it as standard...

[@LookAlikeFilm]

Prints images AND uploads the entire contents of your storage directly to the Chinese government!

[@Fusako8]

I have a less kiddified version of one of these. I use it for printing receipts on the go, as well as writing notes to my future self. Notes like "Hey idiot, don't forget to unload the ladder from the back of your car, you knob."

[@gooddesign9991]

finally i've found you again! been lost in youtube home section..

[@user-hc6uo5fp8n]

I can remember thermal printer for the ZX81 it used a silvery coated paper I'm showing my age now the school had some ZX81 plus one printer.

[@bigclivedotcom]

It used a spark to burn the metalisation off the paper.

[@paulcollins3725]

Thanks for this Clive, based on the video, I bought 2 (each Grandkid) and they arrived today. Pretty cool indeed!

[@Tims_Projects]

On a side note. A good example of the opposite to thermal paper is those "erasable ink" pens. The ink goes invisible/white when you use the eraser end of the pen. The eraser end of the pen is just causing friction to make heat, which turns the ink transparent/white. Don't let a written note with one of these pens get hot, the text will disappear haha.🤣

[@xRepoUKx]

Put it in a plastic bag (to avoid it getting wet) & put it in the freezer, the text will come back!

[@outaspaceman]

The moment saw these (way back) I got two they’re great for ticketing… I’ve a different version now that can print stickers..👍

[@james-5560]

@1:02 Clive fuzzing out a "dating" app I think🤣

[@user-jt5vm3mi1w]

They work great for address label printers

[@TopEndSpoonie]

Wow, so much and complex circuit for a cheap piece o crap. Well done Clive, great work as usual.

[@tonysheerness2427]

For a cheap labeller it has its uses.

[@NinoJoel]

Its not realy crap. It has uses and is ridiculous cheap for what it does

[@tonysheerness2427]

For £12 its good value.@@NinoJoel

[@nyetloki]

​@@tonysheerness2427 12? Where?

[@tonysheerness2427]

Ebay several listings @@nyetloki

[@KittenRaee]

Yooo! I've got this exact model of the printer. It is immensely helpful on the go. Nearly infinite supply of "bad parking" stickers to put on cars

[@sshCode]

So many ideas and opportunities with this and Bluetooth Web API. Future is here

[@murraymadness4674]

I am wanting to understand how to interface the thermal strip directly from like an arduino. I've also got an old Kodak dye-sublimation printer and was trying to understand how to control that one but thought I'd start with something simpler first, the multiplexing/shifting interface must be the same, to get 640 (or 220) pixels from 16 lines. In the case of the Kodak, it has 30 lines going to the print head for a 640pixel width, and it has a kodak labeled chip in it, so might be a costume asic?

[@weaselbox6746]

i love it that you got the kitty thermal pocket printer!

[@wisher21uk]

Clever little gadget thanks Clive 😊

[@coondogtheman]

I have a few things like this. One is the Dymo label maker which prints on 1/4 inch strips. The second is the game boy printer which hooks to a game boy and can print things from games and the third thing I have is similar to what you have here but is made by paperang and uses 57mm receipt paper. I can buy the correct paper on amazon but I seemed to have bought a surplus of receipt paper so I shouldn't run out for a while. Printing images from the images on my phone produced interesting grainy black and white images. The printer you have is even simpler than mine. I took mine apart and the board is larger and the battery is in the opposite side and it has sensors galore. The Paperang printer uses 57mm paper which should be the same as yours.

[@Blinkerd00d]

The back of the pcb looks like it was for a barrel type (2.1mm?) power input. Maybe some units don't, or didnt used to, charge via USB.

[@randomergy683]

I use something similar to this for making QR code labels for my petri dishes (: they're really neat

[@randomoutcomes]

What kind of super intelligent AI bacteria are you growing in those dishes than can be communicated to via QR codes!

[@randomergy683]

@@randomoutcomes Shhhhhhhhhh. That part's a secret 😳

[@lavacat720]

I been waiting for bigclive to disassemble a thermal printer

[@RonLaws]

the old Gameboy camera printer is also a tiny thermal printer, Ben heck also did a tear-down and reverse engineers it! it has a moving print head which is an interesting design difference

[@PaulSteMarie]

Hmm, maybe AvE was paying a visit so the reflection was blurred out. Either that or Clive was dressed in his bear suit 😊

[@qlue7881]

It's a receipt printer that's been reimagined as a children's toy I've seen them advertised as a set with a matching camera

[@frankowalker4662]

I bought a USB version about 2 or 3 years ago, I used it for printing lables for birthday and xmas pressies.The first time I used it at christmas, I stuck them on with sellotape, after about 3 hours, I noticed that all the print had vanished. Very strange.

[@Insomnii95]

mind telling which you bought? might buy one for some simple label making.

[@GothGuy885]

must have been the "Now you see it, Now you Don't " Version 😆

[@wbfaulk]

All thermal paper does that. It seems that the adhesives in the tape dissolve (or otherwise react with) the matrix on the surface of the paper that contains the thermoreactive dyes, developers, sensitizers, and stabilizers.

[@marcogenovesi8570]

the glue in the tape has dissolved the ink on the tape

[@frankowalker4662]

@@Insomnii95 It just says 'Mobile Printer' on the box. I got it from ebay for about £25.

[@tlhIngan]

The simplicity is why they're popular - though the biggest metric for these printers is speed - the ones at the cash registers are designed to print very fast - inches per second which is why they can spit out your receipt in a couple of seconds even though it's anywhere from a foot to a mile long. But they're cheap to make and the simplicity means the person working the register can quickly change the roll when it runs out without needing to thread the paper around. They take a new roll, unspool a bit, open the lid, remove the old roll, and put the new roll in. Shut the lid which pushes the roller against the print head and it's done - paper changed in seconds. Older printers required you to thread the paper through slots, while newer (at least over a decode old) have the slot be where the lid opens so it's open, replace the roll, close and it's threaded and ready, you just rip off the leader and go. Because no one wants to wait for the cashier to waste time threading the paper while they're waiting in line.

[@alunjones3860]

The reverse polarity MOSFET is drawn backwards. The drain should go to the positive and source to the load, so that during normal operation, the body diode is forward biased at first, then bypassed the the MOSFET and is reverse biased, when the polarity is reversed.

[@bigclivedotcom]

I added a note about that in the comments.

[@Masterblack1991]

I don't understand why there is a polarity protection. The source is a usb connector so it's impossible to have the wrong polarity. But maybe for cost cutting (nothing wrong here,if it's work it work) they used a more general circuit project (like the 7.4v mentioned) and that why there is that polarity protection?