Phomemo-tools

This package is trying to provide tools to print pictures onto the Phomemo M02 thermal printer from Linux.

All the information here has been reverse-engineered sniffing the bluetooth packets emitted by the Android application.

python3-pybluez and phomemo-tools CUPS driver can be found at phomemo-tools RPM

1. Usage

1.1. Bluetooth

• connection

$ hcitool scan
Scanning ...
  DC:0D:30:90:23:C7	Mr.in_M02
$ sudo rfcomm connect 0 DC:0D:30:90:23:C7
  Connected /dev/rfcomm0 to DC:0D:30:90:23:C7 on channel 1
  Press CTRL-C for hangup

• send the picture to the printer

  tools/phomemo-filter.py my_picture.png > /dev/rfcomm0

1.2. USB

• Plug the USB printer cable

• check the printer is present:

  $ lsusb
  ...
  Bus 003 Device 013: ID 0493:b002 MAG Technology Co., Ltd 
  ...

You can see the serial port in the dmesg and in /dev:

  $ dmesg
  ...
  usb 3-3.7.2: new full-speed USB device number 13 using xhci_hcd
  usb 3-3.7.2: New USB device found, idVendor=0493, idProduct=b002, bcdDevice= 3.00
  usb 3-3.7.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
  usb 3-3.7.2: Product: USB Virtual COM
  usb 3-3.7.2: Manufacturer: Nuvoton
  usb 3-3.7.2: SerialNumber: A02014090305
  cdc_acm 3-3.7.2:1.0: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
  usblp 3-3.7.2:1.2: usblp0: USB Bidirectional printer dev 13 if 2 alt 0 proto 2 vid 0x0493 pid 0xB002
  $ ls -lrt /dev
  ...
  drwxr-xr-x.  2 root    root         100 Dec  5 17:44 usb
  crw-rw----.  1 root    dialout 166,   0 Dec  5 17:44 ttyACM0
  ...
  $ ls -lrt /dev/usb
  total 0
  crw-------. 1 root root 180, 96 Dec  5 16:46 hiddev0
  crw-------. 1 root root 180, 97 Dec  5 16:46 hiddev1
  crw-rw----. 1 root lp   180,  0 Dec  5 17:44 lp0

• send the picture to the printer:

You need to be root or in the lp group

  # tools/phomemo-filter.py my_picture.png > /dev/usb/lp0

2. CUPS

2.1. Installation

  $ cd cups
  $ make
  $ sudo make install

2.2. Configuration

2.2.1. GUI

2.2.2.1.1. Pre-requisite

The CUPS backend (phomemo) uses the Python pyBluez to connect to the printer, so be sure to install the required dependencies, for instance with Fedora:

   $ sudo dnf install python3-devel
   $ sudo pip install pybluez

SELinux seems to prevent the backend to create a bluetooth socket. If you have such error message in your syslog:

localhost.localdomain cupsd[2659]: Can\'t open Bluetooth connection: [Errno 13] Permission denied

You might need to disable SELinux enforcement to allow the backend to run correctly:

  $ sudo semanage permissive -a cupsd_t

I didn't find a way to define correctly the SELinux rules to allow the backend to use bluetooth socket without to change the enforcement mode (the couple ausearch/audit2allow doesn't fix the problem).

2.2.2.1.1. Pair the printer

1. Switch on the printer
2. Open the "Settings" window:

3. Select the "Bluetooth" Panel:

4. Select your bluetooth printer (here "Mr.in_M02"):

5. Your printer must be paired but not connected ("Disconnected"):

6. Select the "Printers" Panel:

You'll probably need to unlock it to be able to add a new printer.

Click on "Add a Printer...".

8. Select your printer and click on "Add":

9. Your printer will appear in the printers list:

10. Click on the settings menu of the printer and select "Printing Options":

11. Select "Media Size Label 50mmx70mm" and click on "Test Page":

12. Check the result:

2.2.2. CLI

2.2.2.1. Bluetooth

This definition will use the "phomemo" backend to connect to the printer:

  $ sudo lpadmin -p M02 -E -v phomemo://DC0D309023C7 \
                           -P /usr/share/cups/model/Phomemo/Phomemo-M02.ppd.gz

2.2.2.2. USB

This definition will use the /dev/usb/lp0 device to connect to the printer:

  $ sudo lpadmin -p M02 -E -v serial:/dev/usb/lp0 \
                           -P /usr/share/cups/model/Phomemo/Phomemo-M02.ppd.gz

3. Protocol

After dumpping bluetooth packets, it appears to be EPSON ESC/POS Commands.

3.1. HEADER

  0x1b 0x40      -> command ESC @: initialize printer
  0x1b 0x61      -> command ESC a: select justification
  0x01           range: 0 (left-justification), 1 centered,
                        2 (right justification)
  0x1f 0x11 0x02 0x04           

3.2. BLOCK MARKER

  0x1d 0x76 0x30 -> command GS v 0 : print raster bit image
  0x00              mode: 0 (normal), 1 (double width),
                          2 (double-height), 3 (quadruple)
  0x30 0x00         16bit, little-endian: number of bytes / line (48)
  0xff 0x00         16bit, little-endian: number of lines in the image (255)

Values seem to be 16bit little-endian

If the picture is not finished, a new block marker must be sent with the remaining number of line (max is 255).

3.3. FOOTER

  0x1b 0x64      -> command ESC d : print and feed n lines
  0x02           number of line to feed
  0x1b 0x64      -> command ESC d : print and feed n lines
  0x02           number of line to feed
  0x1f 0x11 0x08
  0x1f 0x11 0x0e
  0x1f 0x11 0x07
  0x1f 0x11 0x09

3.4. IMAGE

Each line is 48 bytes long, each bit is a point (384 pt/line). size of a line is 48 mm (80 pt/cm or 203,2 dpi, as announced by Phomemo). ratio between height and width is 1.

3.5. Printer message

1a 04 5a
1a 09 0c
1a 07 01 00 00
1a 08 
51 30 30 31 45 30 XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX XX -> Serial Numer: E05C0XXXXXX