JP3064461B2 - Printer - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer with improved control at the time of initialization such as when power is turned on.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a printer, carriage initialization (hereinafter, referred to as CR initialization) for moving a carriage to a predetermined position is performed at initialization such as when power is turned on. In this CR initialization, the CR motor is driven to move the carriage toward the left end of the printer so that the carriage is located at a home position (hereinafter referred to as HP) at the left end of the printer, and a CR register indicating the position of the carriage is cleared to zero. I do. By controlling the CR register to be incremented when the carriage is moved rightward by a predetermined amount, and by decrementing the CR register when the carriage is moved leftward by a predetermined amount, the position of the CR can be obtained. Can be detected.

On the other hand, when printing on a cut sheet (cut sheet), there is an auto cut sheet feeder (hereinafter referred to as ACSF) as a device for automatically feeding a plurality of cut sheets one by one to a platen side. . In the printer equipped with the ACSF, at the time of initialization such as when the power is turned on, the ACSF initialization for discharging the paper already supplied to the platen side is performed. This is because there is a case where the leading end of the paper that has been supplied to the platen side before the initialization does not correspond to the print head. Then, when printing is performed, the ACSF is driven to feed a cut sheet to the platen side,
Thus, the print head is made to correspond to the leading end of the cut sheet.

[0004] The ACSF initialization is executed even when a paper empty sensor (hereinafter referred to as a PE sensor) detects that there is no paper. This is because the position where the PE sensor is attached is different from the position of the print head, and therefore the paper may be fed to the platen even when the PE sensor detects that there is no paper.

[0005]

The conventional ACS described above
In the printer equipped with the F, when the power is turned on, first, the CR register is initialized and the carriage is moved to the home position, and then the ACS for discharging the paper is performed.
F initialization is performed. For this reason, the user has to wait for a time obtained by adding the time required for CR initialization and the time required for ACSF initialization after the power is turned on, and there is a problem that the waiting time until the device becomes usable is long. there were.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a printer which can carry out carriage initialization and paper discharge processing in a short time at the time of initialization, thereby reducing a waiting time.

[0007]

Means for Solving the Problems The printer of the present invention, up
Equipped with a lint head, in the direction orthogonal to the paper feed direction
A carriage initialization means for moving to a predetermined position the carriage at the time of initialization is reciprocally moved along the paper feed direction
Paper feeding means for feeding paper to the printing position, and at initialization
In a printer comprising a paper discharge means for discharging paper already supplied by the paper supply means, an execution control means for controlling the carriage initialization means and the paper discharge means in parallel is provided. It has features in other places.

In this case, the paper feeding means is detachable.
Cut-sheet paper feeding means configured to feed paper one by one
In the case where the cut sheet supply is performed,
When the loading means is not mounted, the carriage initialization means is executed.
Control, and when the cut sheet feeding means is mounted, the carry
Execution control of the printer initialization means and the paper discharge means in parallel.
It is preferred to be configured so that:

[0009]

According to the first aspect of the present invention , at the time of initialization, the execution of the carriage initialization means and the paper discharge means are controlled in parallel.
Therefore, the time required for the initialization can be reduced and the waiting time of the user can be reduced as compared with the conventional configuration in which the process of discharging the already supplied paper is sequentially performed.

According to the second aspect of the present invention ,
When the paper feeding unit is not installed, only carriage initialization is performed.
When the cut-sheet feeding means is installed,
Initialization and paper discharge processing are performed in parallel.
Perform the appropriate initial processing according to whether the
Can be .

[0011]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, in FIGS. 7 and 8, a platen 2 is rotatably disposed inside the printer main body 1. The platen 2 is a paper feed step motor 3
(Refer to FIG. 10, hereinafter referred to as LF motor). The right end of the platen 2 protrudes from the right side wall of the printer main body 1 and the operation knob 4
Is installed. By rotating the operation knob 4 by hand, the platen 2 can be rotated.

A support shaft 5 and a guide rail (not shown) are provided on the front side of the platen 2 in parallel with the platen 2, and the carriage 6 can be moved on the support shaft 5 and the guide rail in the left-right direction. Is provided. A print head 7 is provided on the carriage 6, and a predetermined gap is secured between the tip of the print head 7 and the platen 2. The carriage 6 is provided with a guide 9 for guiding the printing paper 8 (in this case, for example, cut sheet paper) upward along the outer periphery of the platen 2.

The carriage 6 is driven in the left-right direction by a carriage step motor 10 (see FIG. 10, hereinafter referred to as a CR motor). Further, a ribbon cassette (both not shown) accommodating the printing ink ribbon is detachably provided to the printer main body 1. A part of the ink ribbon is exposed to the outside of the ribbon cassette, and is disposed in a gap between the tip of the print head 7 and the platen 2.

Further, in order to press the printing paper 8 against the platen 2 above the printing position, a paper bail 11 composed of a pressing roller is provided so as to be able to swing back and forth.
When the carriage 6 moves to a home position (hereinafter, referred to as HP) at the left end, the paper bail 11 moves to a non-pressing position (2 in FIG. 8) via an interlocking mechanism (not shown).
(Shown by a dashed line).

Paper feed rollers 12 and 13 are provided below the platen 2 and a paper empty sensor 14 (hereinafter referred to as PE) for detecting the presence or absence of the printing paper 8.
(Referred to as a sensor). The PE sensor 14
The presence or absence of the printing paper 8 is detected and a detection signal is output.

On the other hand, an automatic cut sheet feeder 15 (hereinafter, referred to as ACSF) is provided at an upper portion of the printer body 1. The ACSF 15 is a device that automatically feeds a plurality of cut sheets, that is, the printing sheets 8 to the platen 2 side one by one. The ACSF 15 includes a hopper 16 for accommodating a plurality of printing papers 8 in a stacked state,
Delivery rollers 17, 17 for contacting the upper surface of the printing paper 8 inside and sending out the printing paper 8 one by one from above, and an ACSF step for driving the delivery roller 17 to rotate via a rotation transmission mechanism (not shown). It has a motor 18 (see FIG. 10, hereinafter referred to as ACSF motor).

In FIG. 10 showing the electrical configuration,
The control circuit 19 includes, for example, a one-chip microcomputer, and has functions of a carriage initializing unit, a sheet discharging unit, and an execution controlling unit.
The control circuit 19 receives a control signal and print data from a host computer 20 such as a personal computer. The control circuit 19 can read the ROM 21 and can write and read the RAM 22. Further, the control circuit 19 receives a detection signal from the PE sensor 14 and a detection signal from the ACSF switch 23 for detecting whether or not the ACSF 15 is mounted, and detects whether or not the carriage 6 has moved to the HP. The detection signal from the HP switch 24 is received.

The control circuit 19 controls the power cutoff of the CR motor 10, the LF motor 3, the print head 7, and the ACSF motor 18 via drive circuits 25 to 28, respectively.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described with reference to FIGS. FIGS. 1 to 6 are flowcharts mainly showing the contents of the initialization processing when the power is turned on among the control contents of the control circuit 19, that is, the contents of each function of the carriage initializing means, the paper discharging means and the execution controlling means. is there. Hereinafter, the initialization at the time of turning on the power will be described. First, as shown in FIG. 1, when the power switch is turned on and the power is turned on (step S1), initialization processing of various data and the like is performed (step S2). ). Subsequently, “0” is set to each of the CR counter, the LF counter, and the normal rotation flag (step S3). Then, based on the detection signal from the ACSF switch 23, it is determined whether or not the ACSF 15 is mounted (Step S4).

If the ACSF 15 is not mounted, the process proceeds to "NO" in step S4, and only the processing step group H for performing CR initialization is executed (step S5).
To S10). In this CR initialization, the carriage 6 is
And the CR counter is cleared to "0" to enable the position of the carriage 6 to be detected, and further, the carriage 6 is moved to the standby position. The specific and detailed processing steps of the CR initialization will be described later. After the CR initialization, the interrupt is disabled (step S11), and the process proceeds to a process for performing a normal printer operation (step S12). In the normal printer processing, the state is appropriately reset to the interrupt enabled / disabled state.

On the other hand, if the ACSF 15 is mounted, the process proceeds to "YES" in step S4, and the PE sensor 1
4 based on the detection signal from the platen 2
It is determined whether or not the side has already been supplied (step S13 shown in FIG. 2). Here, even if it is determined that the printing paper 8 has not been supplied, as shown in FIG.
Since the arrangement position of the PE sensor 14 and the arrangement position of the print head 7 are different, there is a case where the printing paper 8 has already been supplied to the platen 2 side. Therefore, even when it is determined that the printing paper 8 has not been supplied, the printing paper 8 is
It is necessary to carry out the initialization of ACSF to be discharged from the.

If it is determined that the printing paper 8 has not been supplied, the process proceeds to "YES" in step S13, and a processing step group I for performing CR initialization and ACSF initialization in parallel is executed. (Steps S14 to S2
2). A specific and detailed description of the control for performing the CR initialization and the ACSF initialization in parallel will be described later.
Since the printing paper 8 is not normally supplied, the above C
Most often, R initialization and ACSF initialization are performed in parallel. Then, after the CR initialization and the ACSF initialization are performed, the process proceeds to step S11 shown in FIG.

If it is detected by the HP sensor 14 that the printing paper 8 is being fed to the platen 2 side, the process proceeds to "NO" in a step S13, and the processing step group J for performing the CR initialization is executed. (Steps S23 to S28 shown in FIG. 3), and subsequently, a processing step group K for performing ACSF initialization is executed (steps S29 to S28).
33). A specific and detailed description of the control for sequentially performing the CR initialization and the ACSF initialization will be described later.

Here, the reason why the CR initialization and the ACSF initialization cannot be performed in parallel is that the leading end of the printing paper 8 already supplied to the platen 2 side may not reach the position of the printing head 7. Because. In this case, since the paper bail 11 is at the holding position where the paper bail 11 comes into contact with the platen 2 (indicated by a solid line in FIG. 8), when the platen 2 is rotated and the printing paper 8 is discharged in this state, the leading edge of the printing paper 8 May hit the paper bail 11 and get caught.

For this reason, first, the carriage 6 is moved to the HP by performing the CR initialization, and the paper bail 11 is rocked to the non-holding position (indicated by the two-dot chain line in FIG. 8) in conjunction with the carriage initialization. Thereafter, if the printing paper 8 is discharged after performing the ACSF initialization, it is possible to prevent the leading end of the printing paper 8 from hitting the paper bail 11 and being caught.

Now, the processing step group H for performing the above-mentioned CR initialization will be described in detail. In this case, “1” is set to the CR initialization flag and the ACS
“0” is set to the F initialization flag (step S5). Subsequently, the masking of the interrupt of the timer 1 is canceled (step S6), the CR motor 10 is excited in an appropriate phase (step S7), and the CR motor 1
The time required for 0 to rotate by one step is set (step S8). Then, a timer interrupt is enabled (step S9), and an interrupt process of the timer 1 (described later) is performed.
Is performed, the CR motor 10 is driven to move the carriage 6 to the HP, and further to the standby position.
Whether it has moved to the standby position or not is determined based on whether or not the CR initialization flag has become "0" (step S1).
0).

Next, the interrupt processing of the timer 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. First, in FIG. 4, in step P1, it is determined whether the interruption is due to the timer 1 or the timer 2. In the case of interruption by the timer 1, it is determined whether or not the CR initialization flag is "1" (step P2). If it is "1", the process proceeds to "YES" in step P2 to perform CR initialization.

In this case, as shown in FIG. 5, since the forward rotation flag is initially "0", "NO" is determined in step P4.
To move the carriage 6 to the left. More specifically, the excitation phase of the CR motor 10 is changed by one phase in the reverse direction, and power is supplied (step P5). In this way, every time the interrupt routine is started, the carriage 6 moves to the left by one phase. This is continued each time the interrupt routine is started until the carriage 6 reaches the HP.

Here, when the HP switch is turned on, the process proceeds to "YES" in step P6, the normal rotation flag is set to "1", and the CR counter is set to "0" (step P6).
7). Subsequently, the time required for the CR motor 10 to rotate by one step is set in the timer 1 (step P).
8) Enable timer interrupt (step P9) and return.

If the HP switch is not turned on in step P6, the CR counter is incremented each time the CR motor 10 is rotated by one step (step P10). Here, the value of the CR counter is monitored, and even if the carriage 6 moves beyond the width of the printer, the HP
If the switch is not turned on, some abnormality (such as a failure of the HP switch or a failure of the CR motor 10) has occurred, so the drive of the CR motor 10 is stopped and an error is displayed on the operation panel (step P11, P12,
P13).

Now, after the carriage 6 reaches the HP,
Since the normal rotation flag is “1”, “Y” in step P4
ES ", the carriage 6 is moved rightward from the HP by a predetermined distance. Specifically, the excitation phase of the CR motor 10 is changed by one phase in the forward direction, and the current is supplied (step P1).
4) The CR counter is incremented each time the CR motor 10 is rotated by one step (step P1).
5). When the CR counter reaches "20" (steps P16 and P18), "0" is set in the CR initialization flag (step P19), the interruption of the timer 1 is masked (step P20), and the interruption is permitted. (Step P21), and the process returns.

The steps P9 and P21
Is for canceling the state in which the interrupt is automatically disabled due to the occurrence of the interrupt processing.

As a result, the carriage 6 is positioned at the standby position (for example, a position slightly moved rightward from the HP), and the CR initialization is completed. That is, step S11 in FIG.
The process proceeds to step S12, where interruption is disabled and normal printer operation is performed (step S12).

When the carriage 6 is moved rightward from the HP, the value of the CR counter is monitored, and if the HP switch does not turn off even if the carriage 6 moves by "10" counts, some abnormality (HP Switch failure or C
R motor 10 has a failure, etc.)
Proceeding to "YES" in steps P16 and P17, the drive of the CR motor 10 is stopped, and an error display is performed on the operation panel (steps P12 and P13).

If the CR initialization flag is "0" at step P2 and the process proceeds to "NO", the process of the timer 1 in the normal operation of the printer is performed (step P3). In this process, the timer 1
Is used to count the print timing. This is possible because printing and initialization are not performed at the same time.

Now, the processing step group I for performing the above-described CR initialization and ACSF initialization in parallel will be described in detail. In this case, as shown in FIG. 2, "1" is set in the CR initialization flag, and "1" is set in the ACSF initialization flag (step S1).
4). Subsequently, the masking of the timer 1 interrupt and the masking of the timer 2 interrupt are released (step S15,
S16), the CR motor 10 is excited in an appropriate phase, and the LF motor 3 is excited in an appropriate phase (step S1).
7, S18). Further, the time required for the CR motor 10 to rotate by one step is set in the timer 1, and the time required for the LF motor 3 to rotate by one step is set in the timer 2 (step S19, S2
0). Then, the CR motor 10 is driven by performing timer 1 interrupt processing and timer 2 interrupt processing (to be described later) by enabling a timer interrupt to drive the carriage 6.
To the HP, and further to the standby position, and the process of driving the LF motor 3 to discharge the printing paper 8 from the platen 2 is performed in parallel.

Thus, whether the carriage 6 has moved to the standby position is determined by whether the CR initialization flag has become "0" (step S21). Whether the printing paper 8 has been ejected is determined based on whether the ACSF initialization flag has been set to “0” (step S).
22).

Here, since the interrupt processing of the timer 1 is as described above, the interrupt processing of the timer 2 will be described with reference to FIGS. First, in step P1 shown in FIG. 4, the process proceeds to "NO" because the interruption is caused by the timer 2, and in step P22 shown in FIG. 6, it is determined whether the ACSF initialization flag is "1". Here, if it is “1”, step P
The process proceeds to “YES” in 22 to perform ACSF initialization. still,
In this ACSF initialization, no signal is issued to the ACSF driving step motor 18, and therefore,
The paper feed roller of F15 remains separated from the printing paper 8, and does not hinder the initialization of the ACSF 15.

In this case, the platen 2 is driven to rotate.
Specifically, the excitation phase of the LF motor 3 is changed in the forward direction by one phase to energize, and the LF counter is incremented (steps P23 and P24). Then, a predetermined number of rotations (for example, LF
It is determined whether or not it has rotated by the count value of the counter (the number of rotations corresponding to "2500") (step P25),
If it is not rotating, the process proceeds to “NO” and the timer 2
The time required for the LF motor 3 to rotate by one step is set (step P26), a timer interrupt is enabled (step P27), and the routine returns.

Thereafter, when the platen 2 rotates by a predetermined number of revolutions, if a sheet is supplied to the platen 2 side, the sheet is discharged. Then, the process proceeds to "YES" in step P25, sets "0" to the ACSF initialization flag (step P28), masks the interruption of the timer 2 (step P29), permits the interruption (step P30), and returns. I do.

Thus, the ACSF initialization for discharging the sheet from the platen 2 is completed. That is, the process proceeds to step S11 in FIG. 1, and the interrupt is disabled, and the normal printer operation is performed (step S12).

In step P22 described above, AC
SF initialization flag is “0” and “NO”
If the process proceeds to step P31, the process of the timer 2 in the normal operation of the printer is performed (step P31).

By the interrupt processing of the timer 1 and the timer 2, the CR initialization and the ACSF initialization are performed in parallel. Hereinafter, the general principle of this parallel processing will be described. That is, when performing the CR initialization, the CR motor 10
Is driven to move the carriage 6. In this case, the CR motor 10 is controlled by rotating the CR motor 10 one step at a time. Here, in order to rotate the CR motor 10 by one step, it is sufficient to change the excitation phase of the CR motor 10 by one phase and to energize the motor, and the energization time is the time set in the timer 1. is there. That is, the control circuit 19
After energizing the excitation phase of the CR motor 10, the timer 1
Until the time set in, the CR motor 1
It is no longer necessary to perform control for 0, and during this time, it is possible to perform other control, for example, energization control of the LF motor 3.

On the other hand, when performing ACSF initialization, LF
The motor 3 is driven to rotate the platen 2. In this case as well, the control is performed by rotating the LF motor 3 by one step. Therefore, in the same manner as in the case of the CR motor 10, the control circuit 19 controls the LF motor 3 until the time set in the timer 2 elapses after the excitation phase of the LF motor 3 is started. Need not be performed, and during this time, it is possible to perform other control, for example, energization control of the CR motor 10.

Therefore, the CR motor 10 and the LF motor 3 are controlled so as to be simultaneously driven to rotate. That is, the CR initialization and the ACSF initialization are simultaneously performed in parallel.

The case in which the above-described processing step group J for performing CR initialization and the processing step group K for performing ACSF initialization are sequentially performed will be described in detail. In this case, FIG.
As shown in (5), "1" is set in the CR initialization flag, and "0" is set in the ACSF initialization flag (step S23). Subsequently, the interruption masking of the timer 1 is released (step S2).
4) Excitation of the CR motor 10 in an appropriate phase (step S
25) Further, the time required for the CR motor 10 to rotate by one step is set in the timer 1 (step S).
26). Then, a timer interrupt is enabled (step S
27) By performing the above-described interrupt processing of the timer 1, the CR motor 10 is driven to move the carriage 6 to the HP, and further to the standby position.

Whether or not the carriage 6 has moved to the standby position is determined based on whether or not the CR initialization flag has become "0" (step S28). When the CR initialization flag becomes “0”, the CR initialization is completed.

Thereafter, "1" is set to the ACSF initialization flag (step S29), and then the masking of the timer 2 interrupt is released (step S30).
The LF motor 3 is excited with an appropriate phase (step S31),
Further, the time required for the LF motor 3 to rotate by one step is set in the timer 2 (step S32). Then, the platen 2 is driven to discharge the print paper 8 by performing the above-described interrupt processing of the timer 2 by enabling the timer interrupt.

Whether or not the printing paper 8 has been ejected is determined by ACS.
It is determined whether or not the H initialization flag has become “0” (step S33). When the ACSF initialization flag becomes “0”, the ACSF initialization is completed.

In a normal printer operation, when the feeding operation of the printing paper 8 is performed by the ACSF 15, when the ACSF driving step motor 18 is driven, the paper feeding roller comes into contact with the printing paper 8. , Printing paper 8 is 1
The sheets are sent out one by one, and then separated from the printing paper 8 again. Then, the leading end of the printing paper 8 reaches the entrance side of the platen 2. Thereafter, the LF motor 3 is driven to rotate the platen 2 so that the leading end of the printing paper 8 reaches a position corresponding to the printing head 7.

In a normal printer operation,
The timer 2 is used for drive control of the LF motor 3 and drive control of the print head 7. Since the LF motor 3 and the print head 7 are not driven at the same time, the timer 22 is switched and used when control is required. The timer 1 is used for controlling the driving of the CR motor 10. And a control circuit 19 for the printer.
Since the one-chip microcomputer generally has two timers, the above-described control can be performed.

According to the present embodiment having such a configuration, when the PE sensor 14 is off at the time of initialization such as when the power is turned on, that is, when it is determined that there is no print paper 8, Since the configuration in which the CR initialization and the ACSF initialization are controlled in parallel is performed, the time required for the initialization can be reduced as compared with the conventional configuration in which the CR initialization and the ACSF initialization are sequentially performed. Waiting time can be reduced. At the time of initialization, since the PE sensor 14 is normally turned off, the above-described parallel execution control is used most frequently, and the waiting time can be effectively reduced. still,
The case where the printing paper 8 is supplied to the platen 2 at the time of initialization is a case where the power is turned off during printing, and the occurrence frequency in such a case is small.

In this embodiment, the paper bail 11 is used.
Describes that the carriage 6 swings to the non-holding position by moving to the HP. However, a mechanism that swings the paper bail 11 to the non-holding position by a solenoid or the like regardless of the position of the carriage 6 is also conceivable. In this case, A
Even if the CSF 15 is mounted and the printing paper 8 is already supplied, the paper bail 11 can be swung to the non-holding position by the solenoid, and the CR initialization and the ACSF initialization can be performed at the same time. It may be. By doing so, the waiting time can be reduced even when the printing paper 8 is supplied to the platen 2 at the time of initialization with a low occurrence frequency as described above.

[0054]

As is apparent from the above description, the present invention is provided with the execution control means for controlling the execution of the carriage initialization means and the paper discharge means in parallel. And the paper discharging process can be performed in a short time, and an excellent effect that the waiting time can be shortened is exhibited.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of printer initialization control according to an embodiment of the present invention (part 1);

FIG. 2 is a flowchart (part 2);

FIG. 3 is a flowchart (part 3);

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of timer interrupt control (part 1);

FIG. 5 is a flowchart (part 2);

FIG. 6 is a flowchart (part 3);

FIG. 7 is an overall perspective view of the printer.

FIG. 8 is a longitudinal sectional view around a platen.

FIG. 9 is a longitudinal sectional view around a platen showing different states.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 is a printer main body, 2 is a platen, 6 is a carriage, 8
Is printing paper, 15 is an auto cut sheet feeder, 19
Denotes a control circuit (carriage initializing means, paper discharging means, execution control means).

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A print head mounted in a paper feed direction.
When initializing the carriage that is reciprocated in the direction perpendicular to
A carriage initialization means for moving to a predetermined position in the paper feed for feeding entering the sheet to the printing position along the paper feed direction
A carriage initializing means and a paper discharging means for discharging paper already supplied by the paper feeding means at initialization, wherein the carriage initializing means and the paper discharging means are executed in parallel. A printer comprising execution control means for controlling. 2. The paper feeding means is detachably configured.
And a cut-sheet feeding means for feeding the cut sheet one sheet at a time.
Control the carriage initialization means, and
When mounting the paper feeding means, the carriage initialization means
It is configured to control execution in parallel with the paper discharging means.
The printer according to claim 1, wherein: