JPH0630933B2 - Paper setting control method for printer - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Outline] With respect to a paper setting control system for a printer, a more accurate paper setting control system is realized by integrating a first-out control mechanism and a print position display mechanism by using light from a sensor for first-out position control. For the purpose of providing, the serial dot printer carriage is equipped with a sensor consisting of a light emitting / light receiving element in the vicinity of the head, and the paper feed drive control unit and carriage movement control unit are included in the paper set processing unit that is activated by a paper set command. The carriage movement control unit is activated when the operation of the paper feed drive control unit is finished, drives the carriage to the left and right, detects the position of the paper width by the input of the sensor, and sets the value based on the detected paper width. Is configured to drive the carriage only at the position corresponding to, and to drive the leading position of the sheet that indicates the first character position by the light from the light emitting element to the set position. To do.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a paper set control system for a printer.

In recent years, printers in which a serial dot type print head is mounted on a carriage have been widely used as printers. When paper is set in such a printer and printing is performed, the paper is set to the preset position (input from the keyboard) and printing is performed from the predetermined print start position (left or right). Whether or not it could be confirmed without actually printing. In other words, even if the paper advance amount is set, the paper is accurately fed to the head position by the set amount, or the head position moves horizontally by the set amount from the left end (or right end). There was a drawback that it was not always done accurately.

[Prior Art] In a conventional printer, even if the advance amount of paper is set in advance,
It was not possible to confirm whether the set amount of advance was done without printing on paper. Therefore, there is a problem that the trial printing is performed and the paper is wasted.

As a technique for solving this, a method of visually confirming whether a head mounted on a carriage is at a predetermined position when setting a sheet (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-44383 and Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 62-28548). (See) was devised.

To explain the contents, a light emitting element that emits light toward the paper is provided near the head provided on the carriage, and the position of the spot light emitted from the light emitting element is arranged so as to correspond to the print position on the paper. Before printing, the operator can check the position of the spotlight on the paper to confirm whether it will reach the planned position.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] According to the above-described conventional technique, an operator sets a sheet in a printer and then confirms with his or her own eyes whether or not it is at a planned position. However, recent high-speed printers,
For example, in the case of a serial dot printer, the head and the paper are extremely close to each other due to the improvement of the printing speed, and the light emitted from the vicinity of the head irradiates the paper facing the print position of the head on the paper. It is difficult to confirm because of its structure. Further, in the above-mentioned conventional method, since the position of the head is only visually confirmed, it is not possible to detect the exact position from the head (upper end and left or right end) position of the paper to the head.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a more accurate sheet setting control system by integrating the advance control mechanism and the print position display mechanism by using the light of the sensor for controlling the advance position.

[Means for Solving the Problems] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the principle of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, 10 is a paper set processing unit, 11 is a paper feed drive control unit, 12 is a carriage movement control unit, 13 is a carriage, 14 is a sensor, 15 is a head, and 16 is paper.

According to the present invention, a sensor is provided in the vicinity of a head mounted on a carriage, the sensor generates an output when it detects a sheet, and a sheet feed drive control that is activated in response to a sheet setting command detects the sheet feed by the detection output from the sensor. In the carriage drive control after the paper feeding, the paper width is detected by using the detection output from the sensors at the left and right ends of the paper, and the movement of the head to the reference position is controlled.

[Operation] The carriage 13 has a support shaft (not shown) formed by a conventionally known method.
The carriage 15 is slidably mounted on the carriage, and the carriage is provided with a head 15 having a pin corresponding to each dot position of printing, and a sensor 14 including a light emitting element and a light receiving element is provided in the vicinity of the head 15. ing. Sensor 14
Detects the paper by detecting the reflected light with the light receiving element when the light emitted from the light emitting element hits the paper, and does not generate the detection output when the paper is not detected (when the head is not at the position where the paper is). .

The operation will be described assuming that the carriage 13 is positioned substantially at the center of the support shaft.

After the paper is first prepared in the supply unit (not shown), when the operator or the program inputs the advance setting value and the paper set command, the paper feed drive control unit 11 in the paper set processing unit 10 is activated. Upon start-up, a paper feed motor (not shown) is driven. As a result, the paper is moved by the rotation of the platen (not shown), and the leading end of the paper 16 gradually moves toward the head position.

When the front end of the paper is detected by the sensor 14, a sensor output is generated and input to the front end position detection means 111, and the paper feed is stopped at the front end position. Subsequently, the set value driving means 1
12 is activated, and the preset advance amount setting value holding unit 1 is set.
The paper feed drive is performed by the advance amount of 71, and the advance amount set value holding unit 1 starts from the position detected by the front end position detection unit 111.
The paper is advanced by the distance of the set value of 71 and the paper feed drive is stopped.

The paper feed drive control unit 11 activates the carriage movement control unit 12 when the paper feed operation is completed. When the carriage movement control unit 12 is activated, first the paper width detection means 121 operates to drive the carriage left and right. This operation drives a carriage motor (not shown) to slide the carriage 13 on the support shaft. In this case, when the carriage at the center position moves to the left and moves in the opposite direction from the position where the left end of the paper is pushed out, the sensor 14 detects the left end of the paper. From that position, the carriage moves further to the right. Then, the right edge of the sheet is reached and the position where the sheet extends out of the sheet is reached. The movement amount of the carriage while the detection output is generated from the sensor 14 is obtained by conversion, and the movement amount corresponds to the width of the paper in principle.

When the obtained paper width is detected, the set value moving means 12
2, the carriage motor for driving the carriage 13 is driven to move the head 15 from the left end (right end) position by a distance corresponding to the preset value of the left (right) end set value holding unit 172 and move the head. Move to the set position and stop.

In this way, the head 15 of the carriage 13 can be positioned at a predetermined position on the paper in accordance with the paper setting command.

[Embodiment] FIG. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram of the embodiment, FIG. 3 is a process flow diagram of the embodiment, and FIG. 4 is a specific configuration example of the carriage.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing how the paper is fed and the carriage is driven.

In FIG. 2, 20 is a sensor, 21 is an operation switch (keyboard), 22 is an MPU (microprocessor) for controlling the printer, 23 is a memory, 24 is a carriage drive circuit, 25 is a paper feed circuit, and 26 is a carriage drive motor. , 27 is a paper feed drive motor, 28 is a sensor signal processing circuit, 29 is a host computer, and 291 is an interface (represented by IF) between the host computer and the MPU.

FIG. 3 shows a processing flow of the embodiment of the paper set executed by the configuration of FIG.

Figure 3A. Shows a processing flow of a form set, and this processing flow is started when a form set command is input by a command from the operation switch 21 or a processor on the main body side (not shown).

First, the paper feeding circuit (FIG. 25) is driven (step 31), and the paper feeding circuit 25 drives the paper feeding drive motor 27. Then, the output of the sensor 20 is checked to determine whether the leading edge of the paper has been detected (step 3).
2). In this case, when there is no sensor output, the paper feed circuit 25
When the leading edge of the paper arrives and the sensor output is generated, the operation of the paper feeding circuit 25 is stopped in the next step 33. At this time, before stopping, the paper is further fed from the tip position (sensor output generation position) by the set length, and the paper is first fed. The set amount is stored in the register area of the memory 23 in advance.

Next, the carriage drive circuit (FIG. 24) is activated and the carriage drive motor 26 is driven (step 3).
4). As a result, the carriage slides on a support shaft (not shown) and moves in the width direction of the paper.

In the next step 35, in this case, the width of the paper is detected corresponding to the driving of the carriage. That is, the carriage is driven to one end, and when it reaches a position where the head (sensor) is located outside the paper, the carriage is driven in the opposite direction to the other end.

As a result, there is no output from the sensor 20 outside the paper, but output occurs at the position of the edge of the paper, and when the carriage moves on the paper and passes through the other edge of the paper, the sensor output is output. Disappear. Therefore, the width of the paper can be detected by the amount of movement of the carriage during that time. The value of the width of the paper is stored in the register area of the memory 23.
This value is used to control the printing operation.

Next, move the carriage to the initial setting position (step 3
6). In this case, since the length from the edge (left or right) to the print start position is set in advance in the register area of the memory 23, the carriage is moved from the edge of the paper by that length and the sensor is set at the set position. To position. At this time, there is spot light generated from the light emitting element of the sensor on the paper, which coincides with the initial position (the position of the left end of the uppermost row of the paper) in the print processing flow described below.

Next, referring to FIG. The print processing flow shown in FIG. This flow is shown in FIG. In process step 36, the sensor is moved to the print position.
Executed when a print command is input. That is, in step 37, the sensor is moved to the first character print position, which is the print start position designated by the command. In the next step 38, when the operator inputs an instruction for confirming the position by the spot light of the sensor, the operation proceeds to step 39, and the head is moved to the place where the sensor is currently located (set print start position). Is done.

This operation drives the carriage drive circuit 24 to move the carriage by a length corresponding to the preset distance between the head and the sensor. Next, in step 37, the printing operation is executed, and the printing is performed by the same method as the conventional method.

Next, a configuration example of the carriage shown in FIG. 4 will be described. Fourth
Figure A. Is a plan view seen from above, and B. Is a plan view seen from the lateral direction.

In the figure, 41 is a carriage, 42 is a print head, 4
3 is a sensor, 44 is a paper (form), and 45 is a platen (for paper feeding).

As shown in the figure, in this example, the print head 42 is mounted on the carriage 41, and the sensor 43 is attached to the side of the carriage 41 in a position parallel to the head. As shown in, the light emitting element 431 and the light receiving element 432 are provided adjacent to each other, and when the paper 44 is detected, the light receiving element detects the reflected light. Also, the sensor 43 is As shown in (1), it has an inclination so that the operator can easily check the spot light generated at the same parallel position as the tip of the head (where a large number of pins for dot printing are provided).

FIG. 5 shows how the carriage is driven. As shown in the drawing, the carriage 41 provided with the print head 42 and the sensor 43 has the structure shown in FIG. The carriage 41 is located on the back side (the other side) of the paper 44, and is shown in FIG. Is viewed from above. A part of the carriage is hidden by the paper but shown in a transparent form.

In the illustrated state, the sensor 43 is located outside the edge of the sheet 44, and when the carriage drive motor 46 (corresponding to 26 in FIG. 2) is driven, the carriage slides on the support shaft (not shown) by the belt 47. The width D of the sheet is detected by moving the sheet to the other end (step 34 in FIG. 3,
35) is performed.

[Advantages of the Invention] According to the present invention, it is possible to automatically and accurately set the paper advance and the head position (carriage) of the set length in the paper setting operation, and further, the operator uses spot light generated from the sensor. Since the first printing position on the paper can be easily confirmed with the eyes, the work efficiency is improved and the need for trial printing is eliminated, so that the paper can be saved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the principle of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a hardware block diagram of an embodiment, FIG. 3 is a process flow chart of the embodiment, and FIG.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a concrete configuration example of the carriage, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing how the paper is fed and the carriage is driven. In FIG. 1, 10: paper set processing unit 11: paper feed drive control unit 12: carriage drive control unit 13: carriage 14: sensor 15: head 16: paper

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) Reference JP-A-2-187381 (JP, A) JP-A-60-44383 (JP, A) JP-A-57-38178 (JP, A) JP-A-62-1 27169 (JP, A) JP-A-57-105381 (JP, A) JP-A-52-58614 (JP, A) Practical application Sho-63-161743 (JP, U)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A carriage for a serial dot printer (13)
A sensor consisting of a light emitting / receiving element close to the head (15)
Paper setting processor (10) that is equipped with (14) and is activated by the paper setting command
The paper feed drive controller (11) and carriage movement controller (12)
The carriage movement control unit (12) is activated at the end of the operation of the paper feed drive control unit, drives the carriage left and right, detects the paper width position by the input of the sensor, and detects the detected paper width. A paper set control method for a printer, characterized in that a carriage is driven only at a position corresponding to a set value, and a first character printing position is designated by light from a light emitting element.