Gameboy Printer - Revision history

Nitro2k01 at 02:41, 5 April 2020

2020-04-05T02:41:14Z

Mattcurrie: /* Command 4: Fill buffer */

2019-02-16T10:18:27Z

‎Command 4: Fill buffer

Robbi Blechdose at 19:07, 16 August 2018

2018-08-16T19:07:48Z

Robbi Blechdose at 10:49, 16 August 2018

2018-08-16T10:49:08Z

Robbi Blechdose at 17:21, 15 August 2018

2018-08-15T17:21:58Z

Furrtek: Created page with 'The Gameboy Printer is a portable thermal printer made by [http://www.sii.co.jp SII] for Nintendo, which a few games used to print out bonus artwork, certificates, pictures ([[Ga…'

2012-01-08T23:52:09Z

Created page with 'The Gameboy Printer is a portable thermal printer made by [http://www.sii.co.jp SII] for Nintendo, which a few games used to print out bonus artwork, certificates, pictures ([[Ga…'

New page

The Gameboy Printer is a portable thermal printer made by [http://www.sii.co.jp SII] for Nintendo, which a few games used to print out bonus artwork, certificates, pictures ([[Gameboy Camera]])...

It can use standard 38mm paper and interfaces with the Gameboy through the Link port.

It is operated by an embedded 8bit microcontroller which has its own 8KiB of RAM to buffer incoming graphics data. Those 8KiB allow a maximum bitmap area of 160*200 (8192/160*4) pixels between prints.

==Communication==

The Gameboy Printer doesn't use the full-duplex capability of the Link port. It accepts variable length data packets and then answers back its status after two $00 writes.

The packets all follow this format:

{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
|'''Description'''
|colspan="2"|Magic bytes
|Command
|Compression flag
|colspan="2"|Length of data
|Command-specific data
|colspan="2"|Checksum
|Alive indicator
|Status
|-
|'''Size'''
|colspan="2"|2 bytes
|1 byte
|1 byte
|colspan="2"|2 bytes
|Variable
|colspan="2"|2 bytes
|1 byte
|1 byte
|-
|'''GB to Printer'''
|$88
|$33
|See below
|0/1
|LSB
|MSB
|See below
|LSB
|MSB
|$00
|$00
|-
|'''Printer to GB'''
|0x00
|0x00
|0x00
|0x00
|0x00
|0x00
|0x00
|0x00
|0x00
|0x81
|See below
|}

'''Warning: There is a 250ms timeout. If no byte is received during this period, the link and graphics buffers are reset.'''

The checksum is simply a sum of every byte sent except the magic bytes and obviously, the checksum itself.

==Detection==

Send these 9 bytes: $88,$33,$0F,$00,$00,$00,$0F,$00 (Command $0F, no data).

Send $00 and read input, if the byte is $81, then the printer is there.
Send a last $00, just for good measure. Input can be ignored.

==Command 1: Initialize==

This clears the printer's buffer RAM.

No data required. The normal status replied should be $00.

==Command 2: Start printing==

Data length: 4 bytes
*Byte 1: $01 (what is this ?)
*Byte 2: Margins, high nibble is the feed before printing, low nibble is after printing. GB Camera sends $13 by default.
*Byte 3: Palette, typically $E4 (0b11100100)
*Byte 4: 7 bits exposure value, sets the burning time for the print head. GB Camera sends $40 by default.

==Command 4: Fill buffer==

Data length: max $280 (160*16 pixels in 2BPP)
To transfer more than $280 bytes, multiple "command 4 packets" have to be sent.

'''Warning: the graphics are organized in lines, not in tiles ! Also, and empty command 4 packet needs to be sent right before sending command 2 !'''

==Command $F: Read status==

No data required, this is a "nop" command used only to read the Status byte.

==Status byte==

A nonzero value for the higher nibble indicates something went wrong.

{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
|Bit 7
|Too hot/too cold
|Set when the measured temperature in the case is above or below threshold (°C's ?)
|-
|Bit 6
|Paper jam
|Set when the encoder gives no pulses when the motor is powered
|-
|Bit 5
|Timeout occured
|Not sure, manual says "link cable not properly inserted"
|-
|Bit 4
|Battery voltage too low
|Set when the (regulated ?) voltage is under threshold
|-
|Bit 3
|Ready to print
|Set when at least $280 bytes if graphics were received
|-
|Bit 2
|Printing requested
|Set when printing starts, stays set until command 1 is received
|-
|Bit 1
|Currently printing
|Set as long as the printer's burnin' paper
|-
|Bit 0
|Checksum error
|Set when the calculated checksum doesn't match the recevied one
|}

==Example==

*Send command 1, the answer should be $81, $00
*Send command 4 with $280 of your graphics, the answer should still be $81, $00
*Ask for status with command $F, the answer should now be $81, $08 (ready to print)
*Send an empty command 4 packet, the answer should still be $81, $08
*Send command 2 with your arguments (margins, palette, exposure), the answer should still be $81, $08
*Ask for status with command $F until it changes to $81, $06 (printing !)
*Ask for status with command $F until it changes to $81, $04 (printing done)
*Optionnally send 16 zero bytes to clear the printer's receive buffer (GB Camera does it)

==Compression==

Some sort of RLE ? The GB Camera doesn't use it.

([http://furrtek.free.fr/?a=gbprinter&i=2 Details and pictures], need to be copied here)

← Older revision		Revision as of 02:41, 5 April 2020
Line 1:		Line 1:
		+	{{Pandocs\|game-boy-printer}}
	The Gameboy Printer is a portable thermal printer made by [http://www.sii.co.jp SII] for Nintendo, which a few games used to print out bonus artwork, certificates, pictures ([[Gameboy Camera]])...		The Gameboy Printer is a portable thermal printer made by [http://www.sii.co.jp SII] for Nintendo, which a few games used to print out bonus artwork, certificates, pictures ([[Gameboy Camera]])...

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:18, 16 February 2019
Line 93:		Line 93:
	and the tiles are sent in the same order they occur on your tilemap (do keep in mind though that the printer does not have 32x32 tiles space for a map, but only 20x18).		and the tiles are sent in the same order they occur on your tilemap (do keep in mind though that the printer does not have 32x32 tiles space for a map, but only 20x18).

		+	An empty data packet must be sent before sending command 2 to print the data, otherwise the print command will be ignored.

	==Command $F: Read status==		==Command $F: Read status==

@@ Line 58: / Line 58: @@
 |See below
 |}
 The checksum is simply a sum of every byte sent except the magic bytes and obviously, the checksum itself.
@@ Line 153: / Line 151: @@
 ==Tips==
-*The printer has a timeout of 100ms for packets. If no packet is received within that time, the printer will return to an initialized state.
+*'''The printer has a timeout of 100ms for packets. If no packet is received within that time, the printer will return to an initialized state (meaning the link and graphics buffers are reset).'''
-*There appears to be an undocumented timeout for the bytes of a packet. It's best to send a packet completely or with very little delay between the individual bytes, otherwise the packet may not be accepted.
+*'''There appears to be an undocumented timeout for the bytes of a packet. It's best to send a packet completely or with very little delay between the individual bytes, otherwise the packet may not be accepted.'''
 *To print things larger than 20x18 (like GB Camera images with big borders), multiple data packets with a following print command need to be sent. The print command should be set to no linefeed (neither before nor after) to allow for continuous printing.

@@ Line 119: / Line 119: @@
 |-
 |Bit 4
 |Unprocessed data
 |Set when there's unprocessed data in memory - AKA ready to print
 |-
 |Bit 2
@@ Line 149: / Line 149: @@
 *Ask for status with command $F until it changes to $81, $06 (printing !)
 *Ask for status with command $F until it changes to $81, $04 (printing done)
-*Optionnally send 16 zero bytes to clear the printer's receive buffer (GB Camera does it)
+*Optionally send 16 zero bytes to clear the printer's receive buffer (GB Camera does it)

@@ Line 81: / Line 81: @@
 Data length: 4 bytes
-*Byte 1: $01 (what is this ?)
+*Byte 1: Number of sheets to print (0-255). 0 means line feed only.
 *Byte 2: Margins, high nibble is the feed before printing, low nibble is after printing. GB Camera sends $13 by default.
 *Byte 3: Palette, typically $E4 (0b11100100)
-*Byte 4: 7 bits exposure value, sets the burning time for the print head. GB Camera sends $40 by default.
+*Byte 4: 7 bits exposure value, sets the burning time for the print head. GB Camera sends $40 by default. Official manual mentions -25% darkness for $00 and +25% for $7F.
 ==Command 4: Fill buffer==
-Data length: max $280 (160*16 pixels in 2BPP)
+Data length: max. $280 (160*16 pixels in 2BPP)
 To transfer more than $280 bytes, multiple "command 4 packets" have to be sent.
-'''Warning: the graphics are organized in lines, not in tiles ! Also, and empty command 4 packet needs to be sent right before sending command 2 !'''
+The graphics are organized in the normal tile format (16 bytes per tile),
@@ Line 106: / Line 107: @@
 {| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"
 |Bit 7
-|Too hot/too cold
+|Low Battery
-|Set when the measured temperature in the case is above or below threshold (°C's ?)
+|Set when the voltage is below threshold
 |-
 |Bit 6
-|Paper jam
+|Other error
-|Set when the encoder gives no pulses when the motor is powered
 |-
 |Bit 5
-|Timeout occured
+|Paper jam
-|Not sure, manual says "link cable not properly inserted"
+|Set when the encoder gives no pulses when the motor is powered
 |-
 |Bit 4
-|Battery voltage too low
+|Unprocessed data
-|Set when the (regulated ?) voltage is under threshold
+|Set when there's unprocessed data in memory - AKA ready to print
 |-
 |Bit 3
@@ Line 126: / Line 127: @@
 |-
 |Bit 2
-|Printing requested
+|Image data full
-|Set when printing starts, stays set until command 1 is received
 |-
 |Bit 1
@@ Line 135: / Line 136: @@
 |Bit 0
 |Checksum error
-|Set when the calculated checksum doesn't match the recevied one
+|Set when the calculated checksum doesn't match the received one
 |}