Method for managing a thermal printer, corresponding device and program

A thermal printer powered by a power source and comprising:

• a thermal print head, said thermal head comprising a plurality of points, each point having an effective resistance rd,
• a processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon, which when executed by the processor configure the thermal printer to perform acts comprising:
• measuring a voltage U given by said power source,
• measuring an internal resistance ru of said power source, and
• computing a duration t to heat a number n of points as a function of said voltage U of said power source and of said internal resistance ru of the power source, at least one said effective resistance rd of at least one point to be printed for the printing of said data as a function of at least one value of parasitic resistance rp of at least one element of said thermal printer, wherein computing computes said duration according to the formula below:
• t
• =
• W
• ×
• r
• d
• U
• d
• 2
• ×
• n
• =
• (
• n
• ×
• r
• u
• +
• (
• r
• d
• +
• r
• p
• )
• )
• 2
• n
• ×
• r
• d
• ×
• U
• 2
• ×
• W
• wherein:
• n represents the number of printing points of said thermal print head;
• W represents the energy needed to heat n points of said thermal print head;
• rp represents the parasitic resistance of a printing point of said thermal print head.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon and comprising program code instructions for execution of a method for managing printing of data by a thermal printer, when the instructions are executed on a computer of the thermal printer, which comprises a thermal print head, said thermal print head comprising a plurality of points, each point having an effective resistance rd, said thermal printer being powered by a power source, wherein the method comprises the following actions:

• measuring a voltage U given by said power source of said thermal printer;
• measuring an internal resistance ru of said power source, and
• computing a duration t for heating a number n of points as a function of said voltage U of said power source, said internal resistance ru of the power source, said effective resistance rd of at least one point corresponding to a dot to be printed for the printing of said data and as a function of at least one value of parasitic resistance rp of at least one element of said thermal printer,
• wherein said duration is computed according to the following formula:
• t
• =
• W
• ×
• r
• d
• U
• d
• 2
• ×
• n
• =
• (
• n
• ×
• r
• u
• +
• (
• r
• d
• +
• r
• p
• )
• )
• 2
• n
• ×
• r
• d
• ×
• U
• 2
• ×
• W
• wherein:
• n represents the number of printing points of said thermal print head;
• W represents the energy needed to heat n points of said thermal print head;
• rp represents the parasitic resistance of a printing point of said thermal print head.