JPH0372468B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a print control device for a thermal serial printer.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

A thermal printer has a head with one or more rows of heating elements (pixels), and prints on paper by applying power to each heating element according to recorded pixel data to generate heat locally. be.

Therefore, the printing speed is relatively slow, and generally when the printing speed is increased, the printing quality deteriorates.

On the other hand, from the user's perspective, since it is a draft, they may want to print quickly even if the print quality is somewhat poor, or because it is a fair copy, they may want to print cleanly even if it is somewhat slow.

However, since conventional thermal printers of this type must ensure a certain level of high printing quality, the printing speed is slow and fixed, and therefore it is not possible to meet the above-mentioned user demands. Can not.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a print control device for a thermal serial printer that allows printing speed and print quality to be arbitrarily selected depending on the application.

[Summary of the invention]

The present invention has a structure in which the signal generation cycle of a timing generator that generates data print signals supplied to the data buffer and head drive circuit, carriage motor drive signals supplied to the carriage motor drive circuit, etc. can be arbitrarily varied, thereby increasing the printing speed. This enables users to easily select the desired print quality and printing speed according to their intended use, expanding the range of uses for thermal printers and increasing their efficiency. It can be measured.

[Embodiments of the invention]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 10 is a timing generator that generates a carriage motor drive signal (hereinafter referred to as CRMD signal) 102, a data print signal (hereinafter referred to as DPR signal) 103, etc., and 11 is a timing generator that generates a signal generation timing of the timing generator 10. This is a timing adjuster that outputs a timing control signal (hereinafter referred to as TC signal) 101 for control based on a preset state.
A CR 20 drives and controls a carriage motor (hereinafter referred to as CR motor) 21 in accordance with the CRMD signal 102 output from the timing generator 10.
A motor drive circuit 22 is a carriage for transporting the head 32 in a predetermined direction using the CR motor 21 as a drive source. 30 is a data buffer for storing data to be printed, 31 is this data buffer 3
This is a head drive circuit that drives the head (thermal head) 32 to print out read data 104 of 0 according to the DPR signal and print parameters. 40 is output from the timing adjuster 11
This is a printing parameter selector that supplies printing parameters (here, PULS 1/PULS 2) suitable for the printing speed to the head drive circuit 31 according to the TC signal 101.

FIG. 2 is a circuit block diagram specifically showing the configuration of the timing generator 10, timing adjuster 11, and printing parameter selector 40 in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. In the figure, 200 is a printing speed selection switch (SW), 201 is an oscillator (OSC), 20
2,203 is a flip-flop, 204,205
is a monostable multivibrator, 206 is an inverter, 207 to 210 are AND gates,
211 and 212 are or gates. here,
The printing speed is selected by switching between high speed and low speed using the switch 200, the voltage (V _H ) applied to the heating element of the head 32 is constant, and the width of the applied pulse (PULS) is set as above. The configuration is such that switching is performed according to the setting state of the switch 200.

Figures 3a and 3b show the above printing parameter selector 40.
Each applied pulse (PULS 1/
It is a waveform diagram of PULS 2). Here, when the switch 200 is in the OFF state (high-speed printing), an applied pulse (PULS1) with a width as shown in FIG. , the third signal output by the monostable multivibrator 205 when the switch 200 is in the on state (low speed printing; high print quality).
An application pulse (PULS2) having a width as shown in FIG. 2B is supplied to the head drive circuit 31.

The operation of one embodiment will now be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. When the CRMD signal 102 is output from the timing generator 10, the CR motor drive circuit 20 operates, the CR motor 21 rotates, and the carriage 22 to which the head 32 is attached moves.

On the other hand, from timing generator 10 to DPR
When the signal 103 is output, data 104 is sequentially read out from the data buffer 30 that stores print data in advance and transferred to the head drive circuit 31.

The head drive circuit 31 drives the head 32 having a plurality of pixels using the DPR signal 103 output from the timing generator 10 and the data 104 read from the data buffer 30 to perform printing.

The above is the general operation of a thermal serial printer.

In the present invention, the CRMD signal 10 output from the timing generator 10 is controlled by the TC signal 101 output from the timing adjuster 11.
2, and the period of the DPR signal 103 changes. Therefore, the printing speed will change. Furthermore, the TC signal 101 output from the timing adjuster 11
As a result, printing parameters suitable for the printing speed are selected from the printing parameter selector 40 and sent to the head drive circuit 3.
1. Here, Figures 2 and 3 a,
As shown in FIG. 3B, the voltage (V _H ) applied to the heating element of the head 32 is fixed, and the applied pulse width is changed. That is, when the switch (SW) 200 of the timing adjuster 11 is turned off, SEL=1,
SEL=0 and as print cycle (CLK)
CLK1 is selected, and PULS1 is selected as the print pulse width (PULS). Also, switch (SW)
When 200 is turned on, SEL=0,=1, and CLK2 and PULS2 are selected.

In this way, by operating the switch (SW) 200 of the timing adjuster 11, it is possible to select between high-speed printing and low-speed printing. It can be used differently depending on the purpose, such as "quality printing".

The above has described a serial printer that uses a head that has one or more rows of heating elements, but a line printer that uses a head that has one or more horizontal rows of heating elements, or a printer that generates heat for one page. It can also be applied to printing devices using heads with bodies. Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, for convenience of explanation, the printing speed is simply switched between two stages, "high-speed printing" and "low-speed printing", by an on/off switch (SW), but for example, a variable resistor,
It is also easily possible to change the printing speed continuously or in multiple stages using a multi-contact changeover switch or the like.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a printing control device in a thermal serial printer that allows printing speed and printing quality to be arbitrarily selected depending on the application.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The figures show an embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the invention, Fig. 2 is a circuit block diagram showing the configuration of the main parts in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the invention. 2A and 2B are signal waveform diagrams respectively showing signals selectively outputted from the printing parameter selector shown in FIG. 2 above. 10...timing generator, 11...timing adjuster, 20...CR motor drive circuit,
21...CR motor (carriage motor), 22...
...Carriage, 30...Data buffer, 31...
. . . Head drive circuit, 32 . . . Head (thermal head), 40 . . . Printing parameter selector.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a thermal serial printer that thermally drives and controls a thermal head installed in a carriage based on a print control signal generated from a timing generator, print parameters that define heat generation timing and heat generation time of the head, and print data. ,
an operation setting unit that manually sets the printing speed; a timing generator that generates print control signals including a carriage motor drive signal and a print cycle signal at a signal generation cycle according to the settings of the operation setting unit; a carriage motor drive unit that controls the movement of a carriage equipped with a thermal head at a speed according to an output carriage motor drive signal; and a head application with a time width according to the cycle of the print cycle signal in synchronization with the print cycle signal output from the timing generator. It has a printing parameter selection section that outputs pulses, and a head drive section that controls the heat generation of the thermal head according to the head application pulses output from the printing parameter selection section, and controls the thermal head according to the printing speed set in the operation setting section. A printing control device for a serial printer, characterized in that the moving speed of the head and the pulse width applied to the head are varied.