JPH0751382B2 - Printer - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Prior Art) A method in which a host machine controls a printer in accordance with diversification of computers, for example, control of horizontal and vertical print positions such as character, symbol, or dot pattern formats. There are various specifications for the print control function, the font to be printed, and the method of transmitting and receiving data and commands with the host machine. In order to correspond to a host machine having a different control method for these printers, it was necessary to change the control program built in the printer or add a data receiving circuit separately.

However, the conventional printer has a print head drive circuit 4, a CR (carriage) motor drive circuit 5, and an LF as shown in FIG.
(Paper feed) Motor drive circuit 6, controlling the entire printer
A control ROM that stores the MPU (micro processing unit) 7, RAM (random access memory) 8, MPU instruction data, etc., and controls the printer.
(Read-only memory) 9, a font ROM 10 for storing fonts to be printed, and an external interface 11 are provided on one or a number of circuit boards 12, and these are housed in a housing.

Therefore, in order to change the model of the connectable host, it is necessary to take out these circuit boards from the case and replace them, which is not only troublesome but also costly.

(Object) The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a printer capable of supporting a host machine of a different model by a simple operation. .

(Structure of the Invention) In order to achieve such an object, in the present invention, a single interface unit that can be exclusively connected to a host machine of a specific model and a host machine of a specific model connected to the interface unit are provided. A control program storage means for storing a dedicated control program for interpreting a command and a font storage means for storing a font for printing print data from a host machine of a specific model connected to the interface unit are the same box. The cartridge is configured to be housed in.

As a result, it is possible to print the print data from the host of the model specified by the mounted cartridge simply by exchanging the dedicated cartridge for each model of the host machine.

(Examples) Therefore, the details of the present invention will be described below based on illustrated examples.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention, in which a print head drive circuit 4, a CR (carriage) motor drive circuit 5, an LF (paper feed) motor drive circuit 6, an MPU 7, and a RAM 8 are mounted. It is composed of a basic substrate 20 housed in a housing, and a substrate 30 housed in a cartridge 31 (FIG. 2) which is separated from the substrate 20 and can be attached / detached from the outside of the housing.

The board 30 is configured to be connectable to the basic board 20 by mounting a control ROM 9 described later, a font ROM 10 storing various font patterns, and an external interface 11 for communicating with a host machine.

FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the cartridge which is a feature of the present invention. It has several lines 32 for transmitting and receiving data to and from a host machine and commands and print data from a host machine of a specific model. Correspondingly, a control ROM 9 storing a procedure for controlling the head drive circuit 4, the CR motor drive circuit 5, and the LF motor drive circuit 6 as a program, and a font pattern for printing print data from a host machine of a specific model. An external interface that connects to a host machine of a specific model by a font ROM10 that stores
11 is mounted on the substrate 30.

The substrate 30 is housed in the cartridge 31 so that the connection portion 33 is exposed from the opening 34 provided in the cartridge 31 and the substrate 30 can be connected to the basic substrate 20 of the printer body 40.

Although the control ROM 9 and the font ROM 10 and the individual ROMs are used in the above embodiment, the control ROM 9 and the font ROM 10
It is obvious that the same effect can be obtained even if and are constituted by the same ROM.

In addition, the font ROM 10 is not limited to one type of font, and may store print fonts such as Mincho, Gossik, and bold.

In addition to the RS232C specifications, the external interface 11
It is possible to select an interface compatible with IEEE-488 or GP-IB standards, or an interface compatible with a host machine such as serial or parallel.

On the other hand, the printer main body is provided with a cartridge receiving mechanism 41 for mounting the cartridge 31, as shown in FIG. Connection part 33 and basic board 20
And are configured to be electrically connectable.

Next, the operation of the apparatus configured as described above will be described based on the flowchart shown in FIG.

After the power of the printer is turned on, the MPM7 of the printer body reads the control ROM 9 of the cartridge 31, and based on the procedure program stored in this, the print head drive circuit 4, the CR motor drive circuit 5, the LF motor drive circuit 6, and the MPU7. , RAM8 is initialized (step), and then the interface 11 of the cartridge 31 is initialized (step).

When communication with the host machine becomes possible after completion of initialization, the host machine (not shown) starts transmitting commands and print data to the printer. The printer receives these commands and print data with the external interface 11 (step), interprets the command by the command processing routine in the case of a command (step), and stores the print data in the RAM 8 when receiving the print data. Do (step).

Upon recognizing the print command, the MPU 7 reads out the procedure corresponding to the connected specific type host machine from the control ROM 9 of the cartridge 31 and starts printing (step).

That is, the head 1 is moved to the print start position by the CR motor 2 (step), the print data is read from the RAM 8 (step), and if this data is character print, the specified character pattern is written from the font ROM 10 read out.

In this way, when the print head passes the predetermined print position (step), the print head drive circuit 4 is operated to perform printing (step).

Hereinafter, the above steps 1 to 3 are repeated until there is no print data (step). When there is no print data, the movement of the print head 1 is stopped (step) and the process jumps to the step.

When changing the model of the host machine to be connected, remove the cartridge 31 from the printer main body and attach another cartridge corresponding to the model of the host machine to the printer main body, so that the host machine can be connected via this external interface 11. And the character ROM 10 and the external interface 11 are operated based on the procedure corresponding to the model of the host machine stored in the control ROM 9 and applied to a different host machine to execute printing.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, according to the present invention, a single interface unit that can be exclusively connected to a host machine of a specific model and a command from a host machine of a specific model connected to the interface unit are interpreted. A control program storage means storing a dedicated control program and a font storage means storing a font for printing print data from a host machine of a specific model connected to the interface unit are housed in the same box. It is possible to print the print data from the host of the model specified by the installed cartridge by exchanging the dedicated cartridge for each model of the host machine with the configured cartridge, so it is suitable for the model of the host. It is possible to print the print data of different host machines with the extremely simple work of mounting the cartridge. Not only can this be done, but it is possible to simplify, downsize, and reduce costs by eliminating the need for incorporating functions to support other models.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a cartridge of the same device, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a coupling relationship with a printer body, and FIG. An operation flowchart and FIG. 5 are diagrams showing an example of a control board of a conventional printer. 1 ... Print head, 2 ... CR motor, 3 ... LF motor, 4 ... Print head drive circuit, 5 ... CR motor drive circuit, 6 ... LF motor drive circuit, 9 ... Control ROM, 10 ... Character ROM 11 ...... External interface

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A control program that stores a single interface unit that can be exclusively connected to a host machine of a specific model and a dedicated control program that interprets commands from a host machine of the specific model connected to the interface unit. The host machine is provided with a cartridge constituted by accommodating a storage unit and a font storage unit storing a font for printing print data from a host machine of a specific model connected to the interface unit in the same box. A printer that enables printing of print data from the host of the model specified by the installed cartridge by replacing the dedicated cartridge for each model.