Problem:
We often encounter with situations like we need to take out print outs of some files from a pen drive but the PC connected to the printer is malfunctioning .Eventually we fail to take out the print outs though the printer is in perfect condition.

Present Situation:
Presently, if we need to take a printout, we have to connect a pen drive to the CPU, then the CPU to the printer. Though a printer has a USB interface, we cannot directly take printouts from a pen drive. Suppose if there is any problem in some part of the CPU, it becomes difficult to take a printout.

Solution:
To solve the above mentioned problem, we propose a new idea that instead of connecting the pen drive to the CPU, we can directly connect it to the printer which can detect the text files and print them directly from the pen drive.

Applications:
• This makes the printer portable.
• Instant print outs are obtained without involvement of a computer.
• Device size is decreased.

Working:
In this printer, when a pen drive is connected to it, it detects the
files like ms word, pdf etc. A microcontroller in it performs the task of converting the text file/image into print descriptive language, which is given to the actual printing device. A small LCD screen is provided to the device so that we can easily select the files which we want to print and edit them if necessary. Editing the file is included in the advanced version of this printer.

Technical Details:

The printer needs to receive the page data and figure out how it's going to put everything on the paper. Printer controller does this. The printer controller is the laser printer's main onboard computer. It talks to the host computer through a communications port, such as a parallel port or USB port. At the start of the printing job, the laser printer establishes with the host computer how they will exchange data. The controller may have to start and stop the host computer periodically to process the information it has received. For the printer controller and the host computer to communicate, they need to speak the same page description language like PCL.

The task done by the host computer can be performed using micro controller, which we design.
The selected text file is translated to PDL by the micro controller and given to printer controller. This makes the printer independent of CPU .The selection of text files depends on input from touch screen.

List of components required:

Hardware:
? Micro controller
? LCD screen
? USB connector
? USB mass storage device
Software:
? Windows CE platform
? PDF to Vector Converter Command Line Server License
? PDF to Vector Converter Command Line Developer License
? VeryDOC PDF to PCL Converter (PDF2PCL)

Conclusion:

This embedded device can make the printer portable and makes our task easy.