JP2752951B2 - Printer setting item selection device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a setting item selection device for designating a selection element which is a printing condition for each specified setting item when printing with a printer. The present invention relates to a setting item selection device of a serial printer that performs printing while a print sheet moves in a vertical direction.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, printers used as output devices of information processing equipment have become multifunctional with the development of information processing equipment, and accordingly, the length of printing paper (paper length) and the space between printed characters (paper length) have been increased. With respect to various items (setting items) such as a character interval) and a line feed interval (line feed interval), desired conditions are selected and printed.

[0003] In such a printer, before starting printing, it is necessary to select a printing condition for each designated setting item. For this purpose, a printing condition (selection element) for each setting item is selected. Selection means for this are disclosed in, for example, JP-A-5-309920 and JP-A-5-307455.

[0004] All of these conventional means display the selected element of each setting item on a display, and an operator (operator).
Adopts a method of selecting a desired selection element while watching the display.

[0005]

In the conventional setting item selection device for a printer as described above, since the display capacity of the display is limited, it is impossible to simultaneously display the selection elements of all the setting items. Yes, it is necessary to go through the procedure of displaying and selecting several times, and the operation is troublesome.

In order to solve this problem, the selection elements of each setting item are printed, the operator looks at the print result, specifies the desired selection element using a panel switch, and the printer correctly recognizes the specification. In order to confirm that the selected element or message is selected, the selected element may be interactively selected by printing the selected element or message, but this also has a problem that the operation takes time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a printer setting item selecting apparatus which has improved operability when designating such setting item selection elements.

[0008]

According to the present invention, there is provided a printer setting item selection device, comprising: a switch panel having a plurality of switches for designating the selection elements desired to be selected from the selection elements of the printer setting items. A selection element storage unit that stores all the selected elements of the setting items of the printer and their column positions and row positions, and reads out all the selected elements of the specified setting items and sets the current position. A switch control unit that controls the operation of the value storage unit and the motor printhead control unit; a buffer that temporarily stores all the selected elements of the setting items read by the switch control unit; and a buffer that stores the selected items in the buffer. A selection element printing unit for instructing the printing of the selection element; and a current element storing the currently specified selection element for each of the setting items. A value storage unit and a line feed motor for reading a print position of the selected element stored in the current position storage unit from the selected element storage unit and moving a print sheet to position a print head at the position. And a motor operation amount calculation unit that calculates the operation amount of the spacing motor for moving the print head,
A motor printhead control unit that inputs signals from the motor operation amount calculation unit and the switch control unit to control operations of the printhead, the line feed motor, and the spacing motor; and the motor printhead. A motor drive unit that drives the line feed motor and the spacing motor by a signal from a control unit; and a print head drive unit that drives the print head by a signal from the motor / print head control unit. After printing all the selected elements of the setting items on the printing paper and moving the print head and the printing paper so that the print head indicates the currently specified selected element, Operator by command from switch panel The print head is positioned at a position indicating the selection element to be specified. In particular, a switch panel having four switches for specifying respective directions of up, down, left, and right is provided, or And a switch panel for specifying each of the up, down, left, and right directions by a combination of the switches.

[0009]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view showing an example of a print result of a selection element of a setting item according to the embodiment of FIG. 1, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a format diagram showing an example of contents stored in a selection element storage unit. FIG. 4 is a plan view showing a relationship between a moving state of a print head and printing of selection elements in the embodiment of FIG. 1. FIG. FIG. 6 is a plan view showing the switch panel, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment of FIG.

In FIG. 1, a switch panel 1 is used to designate a printer setting item desired to be selected and a desired selection element among the selection elements of the specified setting item. The selection element storage unit 3 stores all selection elements of the setting items of the printer. The switch control unit 2 reads the selected element of the setting item specified by the switch panel 1 from the selected element storage unit 3. The buffer 4 temporarily stores the selected element of the setting item read from the selected element storage unit 3 by the switch control unit 2. The selection element printing section 6 transfers the selection elements of the setting items sent from the buffer 4 to the motor / print head control section 8 according to a command from the switch control section 2. The current position storage unit 5 stores a currently specified selection element. The motor operation amount calculation unit 7 calculates the operation amounts of the line feed motor 11 and the spacing motor 12 for moving the print head 13 to the print position of the selected element stored in the current position storage unit 5, and The data is transferred to the print head controller 8. The motor / printhead control unit 8 operates the printhead 13 via the printhead driving unit 10 to print all selected elements of the setting items specified by the data from the selected element printing unit 6, and then prints the selected elements. Motion amount calculator 7
The print head 13 and the printing paper are moved to the printing position of the currently selected element by operating the line feed motor 11 and the spacing motor 12 via the motor driving unit 9 according to the data from the printer.

The switch panel 1 is, as shown in FIG.
Switches 31 to 34 are provided along each of the upper and lower sides and the left and right sides of the rectangular board.
, The names of setting items such as “line feed interval” and “character interval” are added, and arrows in the vertical and horizontal directions are engraved. Therefore, by pressing the switch to which the name of the desired setting item is added, the setting item can be designated. After the setting item is designated, the switch of the desired direction can be designated by pressing the arrow switch in the desired direction. The print head 13 or the printing paper can be moved to the second position.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 6 in the case where "paper length" is designated as a setting item.

The operator specifies the setting items,
The switch 33 is pressed. As a result, “paper length” is designated as a setting item, and the designation is transmitted to the switch control unit 2. The switch control unit 2 reads out all the selected elements of “paper length” from the selected element storage unit 3 by this.

As shown in FIG. 3, the selection element storage unit 3
All selection elements “1” to “99” of “paper length” 25
And a column position 26 and a row position 27 corresponding to each selected element. Column position 26 and row position 27
As shown in FIG. 2, the print position when all the selected elements “01” to “99” of “paper length” 25 are printed on the print paper 15 (the column position 16 in FIG. (It is written for easy understanding and is not printed on the actual printing paper.) In this example, the selection elements “01” to “99” are inserted between adjacent selection elements. All characters are printed with two-digit numbers at intervals of one character. Since the number of print digits in one line is 125, "01" is displayed in the first line.
To "40", "41" to "80" on the second line, and "81" to "99" on the third line. Column position 16 is
Since three blank spaces are provided on the left side, “01”, “41”, and “81” are 4, and “02”, “42”, and “82” are 7.

All the selected elements of “paper length” read from the selected element storage unit 3 by the switch control unit 2 are stored in the buffer 4
To be temporarily stored, and then the switch control unit 2
Is sent to the selection element printing unit 6 where
And is sent to the motor / printhead controller 8. Upon receiving the data from the selected element printing unit 6, the motor / print head control unit 8
, The print paper 15 is moved in the direction of arrow A by operating the line feed motor 11, and the printing head 13 is moved in the direction of arrow B by operating the spacing motor 12. Then, the print head 13 is operated to print all the selected elements of the "paper length" 25 in the format of FIG.

Next, the switch control section 2 sends a command to the current position storage section 5 to cause the currently selected element of the setting item “paper length” stored in the current position storage section 5 to be transmitted. (Step 41 in FIG. 6). As a result, the current position storage unit 5 stores the value “7” of the column position 26 corresponding to the selection element “42” of the “paper length” 25 from the selection element storage unit 3.
And the value “2” of the row position 27 are read and sent to the motor operation amount calculation unit 7. Upon receiving the value “7” of the column position 26 and the value “2” of the row position 27 from the current position storage unit 5, the motor operation amount calculation unit 7 determines the column position of the print head 13 at the end of printing in FIG. Line feed motor 11 and spacing motor 1 for positioning print head 13 at the print position of the selected element with reference to row position
2 is calculated, and the motor / printhead control unit 8 is calculated.
(Steps 42 and 43 in FIG. 6). The motor / printhead control unit 8 operates the line feed motor 11 via the motor driving unit 9 to move the printing paper 15 forward or backward according to the data from the selected element printing unit 6 as shown in FIG. Then, the row position "2" is aligned with the print head 13 (steps 44 to 46 in FIG. 6), and the spacing motor 12 is operated via the motor drive unit 9 to move the print head 13 leftward or rightward. The arrow plate 21 provided on the card holder 22 that moves integrally with the print head 13 is moved to the position of the right column of the column position 26 "7" (steps 47 to 50 in FIG. 6). As a result, the arrow on the arrow plate 21 indicates the selection element “42” printed on the printing paper 15.

When the value of the selected element is changed after the designated position of the arrow plate 21 is determined, the operator presses the switches 31 to 34 to change the printing paper 15.
Alternatively, move the print head 13 and move the arrow plate 2
Move so that 1 indicates the value of the desired selection element.
That is, when the switch 31 is pressed, the printing paper 15 reverses the line feed and the arrow plate 21 indicates the selection element “02”. When the switch 32 is pressed, the printing paper 15 returns the line and the arrow plate 21 changes the selection element “02”. 82 ".
When the switch 33 is depressed, the print head 13 moves to the left, and the arrow plate 21 becomes the selection element “41”.
When the switch 34 is pressed down, the print head 13 moves rightward, and the arrow plate 21 indicates the selection element “43”. In this way, the switches 31 to
By combining the pressing of 34, the printing paper 15 or the printing head 13 can be moved so that the arrow plate 21 indicates the value of the desired selection element at the shortest distance, and thus the selection of the setting item "paper length" is performed. Operability when designating elements can be improved. A signal generated by pressing the switches 31 to 34 at this time is sent to the current position storage unit 5 via the switch control unit 2, and the storage contents of the current position storage unit 5 are updated. The same operation is performed for other setting items.

When the number of setting items is five or more, two or more setting items are assigned to the switches 31 to 34, respectively.
The setting items may be sequentially switched by pressing each switch twice or more. In addition, setting items can be input from other input means, and switches 31 to 31 can be used.
In addition to the switch 34, a dedicated switch for inputting setting items can be provided on the switch panel 1.

FIG. 7 is a plan view showing a switch panel according to another embodiment of the present invention.

The switch panel 61 of this embodiment is provided with only two switches 62 and 63.
The left switch 62 is engraved with a left arrow, and the right switch 63 is engraved with a right arrow. An upward arrow is stamped on the left switch 62, and a downward arrow is stamped below the right switch 63.

The switch panel 61 configured as described above
When changing the value of the selected element after the pointing position of the arrow plate is determined by the
Is pressed to move the print head to the left, and when the switch 63 is pressed, the print head is moved to the right.

When it is desired to indicate a line above the line indicated by the arrow plate, the left switch 62 is depressed while the right switch 63 is depressed. As a result, the printing paper reverses the line feed by one line, and the arrow plate indicates the line one line higher. Similarly, when the user wants to indicate a line below the line indicated by the arrow plate, the switch 63 on the right is pressed while the switch 62 on the left is pressed. As a result, the printing paper feeds one line at a time, and the arrow plate indicates the next lower line.

In the case of this embodiment, the switch panel 61
Since there is no switch for specifying a setting item, when specifying a setting item, the setting item is input from another input means.

[0025]

As described above, the setting item selecting apparatus for a printer according to the present invention designates setting items, prints all the selected elements on printing paper, and moves the print head and the printing paper to perform printing. After the head indicates the currently selected selection element, the print head or the printing paper is moved so that the print head indicates the desired selection element by a command from the switch panel. Can be changed from the selected element to the desired selected element at the shortest distance and the shortest distance, so that the operability for changing the specification of the selected element of the setting item of the printer can be improved. There is.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view illustrating an example of a print result of a selection element of a setting item according to the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a format diagram showing an example of contents stored in a selected element storage unit of the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing a relationship between a moving state of a print head and printing of a selection element in the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a plan view showing the panel switch of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation of the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is a plan view showing a panel switch according to another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1.61 switch panel 2 switch control unit 3 selection element storage unit 4 buffer 5 current position storage unit 6 selection element printing unit 7 motor operation amount calculation unit 8 motor / print head control unit 9 motor drive unit 10 print head drive unit 11 line Feed motor 12 Spacing motor 13 Print head 15 Print paper 16 Column position 21 Arrow plate 22 Card holder 25 "Paper length" 26 Column position 27 Line position 31-34.62.63 Switch 41-50 Step

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) B41J 5/30 B41J 21/00 B41J 29/38 B41J 29/42 G06F 3/12 G06F 17/21

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A switch panel having a plurality of switches for designating a selection element desired to be selected from selection elements of a setting item of a printer, and all the selection elements of the setting item of the printer. A selection element storage unit storing the column position and the row position, and reading out all the selection elements of the specified setting items and controlling operations of a current position storage unit and a motor / print head control unit. A switch control unit, a buffer for temporarily storing all the selected elements of the setting items read by the switch control unit, a selected element printing unit for instructing printing of the selected elements stored in the buffer, The current position value storage unit that stores the specified selection element for each of the setting items, and the selection position that the current position storage unit stores. The print position of the element is read from the selected element storage unit, and the operation amounts of the line feed motor for moving the print paper and the spacing motor for moving the print head to position the print head at that position are calculated. A motor operation amount calculation unit; and a motor / printhead control unit that receives signals from the motor operation amount calculation unit and the switch control unit to control operations of the print head, the line feed motor, and the spacing motor. A motor drive unit for driving the line feed motor and the spacing motor by a signal from the motor / print head control unit; and a print head drive for driving the print head by a signal from the motor / print head control unit. Parts and designated After printing all the selected elements of the setting items on the printing paper and moving the print head and the printing paper so that the print head indicates the currently specified selected element, A setting item selecting device for a printer, wherein the print head is positioned at a position indicating the selection element specified by an operator according to a command from a switch panel. 2. Designating the respective directions of up, down, left, and right
The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a switch panel having a plurality of switches. 3. The printer setting item selection device according to claim 1, further comprising a switch panel that has two switches and specifies each of up, down, left, and right directions by a combination thereof.