I am making a CNC laser pcb making machine and i want to use the pdf file of the layout and send it to the microcontroller(avr) serially so that it can control two steppers and the laser diode. I am not sure how to send the pdf data or how to decode it. Can somebody please provide me with links or advice where i can learn how pdf works and how to use the data in my application ? If i wanted to make the interface like a printer where i click the print option and my machine will print the pcb, what do i need to make ? I dont want to use any software but to develop it all by myself. Please help ! Thankyou.
On a PC, a document you want to be printed is sent to the driver of your target printer who converts it into a format acceptable by the chosen printer.
Printers by themselves use a full wealth of logic to convert acceptable input streams (Raw, PostScript, HP/PCL, EMF etc.) into print head movements (if the printer has a "head") and ribbon/ink/laser actions.
So from the architectural point of view you'd need to think about the following:
Printer side:
PC side:
If you don't want to develop printer drivers for the PC, you're probably stuck with PCL (ca. 370 pages) or PostScript (ca. 900 pages) for the PCB printer and a fair chance that a vanilla HP or PostScript printer driver will work for you.
If you don't mind writing printer drivers for the PC you'll have to convert application documents into the format the printer understands (go XY, drop Z, movedry, etc) ... so you are tied to application documents with well documented data formats.