I’ve got an R-01 and I’m trying to get the printer working. Picked up a roll of BPA-free 2¼" paper from the local store and gave it a shot.
First problem noted: 2¼" is slightly smaller than 58mm and the paper roll slides back and forth a bit in the paper tray. Solution: tuck a quarter in on each side. now it sits comfortably in the middle.
The next problem I’m having more trouble with. It prints fine as long as the area being printed covers less than about 20% of the line. Once it tries printing longer lines than that, the paper starts sticking – I can see the roller still turning, but the paper does not advance. Pulling gently on the paper as it comes out helps sometimes, but is annoying and not entirely reliably in any case.
I’ve tried cleaning the print head with alcohol as suggested in another thread, but it made no difference. I wondered briefly if I was printing on the wrong side of the paper, but flipping it over resulted in no sticking, but also no visible printing.
My best guess is that the paper, when heated, sticks to the print head. Thus, longer lines are a problem because more of the paper in contact with the head becomes sticky, and the roller can no longer overcome it.
So – what do I do? Is this something I can mitigate by tweaking settings (printer heat time) or do I just need to try different paper manufacturers? If the latter, can anyone recommend one? Just trying things at random could get expensive fast – and leave me with huge amounts of useless paper, since it’s hard to buy less than 12 rolls at a time.
I’ve had good results with PeriPage 56mm off amazon. When I first got my DevTerm I used some receipt paper my wife had and I had a bad time not with sticking but half feeding the paper. I would definitely try some other paper first.
I’ve also had trouble with “myFirst” branded 57mm thermal paper. Mostly fine but struggles to feed with large solid black sections - larger than 20% though. Some slight tension while it’s printing does help.
It does seem to be dependant on the paper. I’ve got a few rolls coming from AliExpress this week that I’m hoping will be better.
Agreed, I ended up getting paper that had been mentioned here on the forums and it prints fine. The same is true for printing on adhesive/label paper. The thickness (and maybe stiffness?) of some brands can be a problem though. Also sounded like some papers don’t print as dark as others. I’d recommend searching the forums a bit. Any of the brands that people have posted with success should be good.
Here are the two kinds I bought (in December 2021 and January 2022), though it appears the regular paper is no longer available at this link (the info might be useful though).
Update: PeriPage paper arrived. I cleaned the print head with alchohol in case there was residue from the previous paper and gave it a shot, and it’s less bad, but it’s still not good – the print still has the loud ticking noise characteristic of the paper sticking, and when I do the test pattern it consistently gets stuck on the checkerboard pattern at the end.
If I set the heat to something low, like 0-2, it can at least usually print out full lines of plain text. I suspect any sort of raster image output is going to stick a lot, though.
Adding another recommendation, I ordered some “Fimax” branded 57mm sticker paper that arrived earlier this week. That’s been working well for me with the default printer settings. My test image that has large solid black sections did require a little gentle pressure with my thumb ensuring it kept feeding. But a few other prints I’ve done have worked very well.
It sounds like the paper might be the issue. I had a similar problem with my printer, and switching to a different brand of BPA-free paper helped a lot. I ended up using Zebra paper, which worked much better for me. Also, you might want to try adjusting the print density or speed settings on your R-01 to see if that helps. If you want to experiment with different papers, Bixolon is another good option to check out.
