JPH0958083A - Printing device and controlling method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent printing operation from being started when normal printing is impossible by moving a printing head in the whole range of a printable area and detecting abnormality during movement of the printing head in initialization operation for detecting the absolute position in the printable area of the printing head. SOLUTION: When initialization operation is started, it is examined whether or not a home position detector generates a detection signal. When the detection signal is not generated, a printing head is moved in the left direction of a body by one step and this procedure (ST1-3) is repeated until the detection signal is generated. When the detection signal is generated, it is examined whether or not a step-out detector detects step-out. When step-out is detected, the function of a printing device is stopped (ST4-5). When step-out is not detected, the printing head is moved in the right direction by one step and the number of a driving step is examined. It is judged whether or not the printing head is positioned in the moving position of the rightmost end. When the printing head is not reached the moving position of the rightmost end, movement of the printing head is repeated (ST4-7). When the printing head reaches the moving position of the rightmost end, initialization operation is normally finished (ST8).

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a dot impact printing apparatus, and more particularly to a printing apparatus most suitable for a money handling system represented by POS / ECR.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a dot impact printing apparatus, as a print head initialization operation, the print head is moved until a print head position detector operates in order to detect the initial position of the print head. This movement is performed from the position of the print head immediately before the initialization operation toward the print head position detector, and a predetermined amount of movement is performed (more precisely, the motor is driven by an amount equivalent to this). If the position detection is not performed regardless of the above, it is determined that the initialization of the print head has failed, and a predetermined abnormality process is performed.

[0003]

The dot impact printing apparatus is used as an output terminal of various information processing apparatuses. In particular, it is often used in a money handling system represented by POS / ECR. The print result is very important for handling money, and it is always required that the print result is accurate and reliable. Further, the above-mentioned information processing devices and the printing devices attached to them may be operated by operators having various proficiency levels, and no matter who operates the printing, printing is surely executed. It is necessary that printing malfunction does not occur.

With respect to the dot impact printing apparatus, the print head initialization operation is performed, and the print head position is moved by moving the print head from the position of the print head immediately before the initialization operation until the print head position detector operates. Detect and know.

However, in the above initialization operation, only the position of the print head is detected, and it is not possible to detect an abnormal state in all movable areas of the print paper and the print head. That is, at the time when the initialization operation ends, some abnormality occurs in the print sheet or the movement of the print head in the portion where the print head does not pass, and normal printing is impossible. , There is a possibility that the printing operation will be executed as it is. Therefore, even though normal printing is impossible, the printing apparatus starts the printing operation, and thus the printing data received by the printing apparatus from the information processing apparatus is lost.
Especially, in a POS / ECR system that handles money, it can be a serious defect.

[0006]

In order to solve the above problems, a printing apparatus of the present application detects a print head that performs printing while moving a printable area and an absolute position of the print head in the printable area. Position detection means, a head movement control means for moving the print head, and a print head movement abnormality detection means for detecting that the movement of the print head does not correspond to the movement signal of the print head movement control means, In the initialization operation of detecting the absolute position of the print head in the printable area by the print head movement control means, the print head is moved over the entire range of the area, and the print head movement abnormality detection means detects that the print head is moving. It is characterized by detecting an abnormality.

In this case, a print data storage means for storing print data from another device and a print control means for reading the print data stored in the print data storage means and for printing using the print head are provided. Have more,
The print control means is particularly effective in deleting the print data from the print data storage means after reading the print data.

The present invention is also effective as a control method for a printing apparatus. That is, a print head that performs printing while moving in the printable area, position detection means that detects the absolute position of the print head in the printable area, print head movement control means that moves the print head, and movement of the print head. And a print head movement abnormality detecting means for detecting that the print head movement control means does not correspond to the movement signal of the print head movement control means, and an initialization operation for detecting an absolute position of the print head in the area. In the above, a total area moving step of moving the print head over the entire range of the area and a full area abnormality detecting step of detecting an abnormality in movement in the full area moving step by the print head movement abnormality detecting means are provided. And

In this case, the entire area moving step includes an absolute position detecting step of detecting an absolute position of the print head in the printable area, and at least an absolute position detecting step of the entire range of the area based on the absolute position. In the above step, a complementary moving step of moving the print head over the range where the movement is not performed may be included.

Further, in these control methods, the movement in the whole area moving step is composed of a set of movement units of a predetermined amount, and the movement abnormality detection in the whole area abnormality detecting step is preferably performed for each movement unit.

[0011]

As described above, by moving the entire print area where the print head can print during the initialization operation of the print head, the abnormal state detector during the movement of the print head detects the abnormal state. By adopting the above initialization operation means, a printing apparatus is provided which detects an abnormal state of the entire printing area before starting the printing operation.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an outline of part of the printing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention, which is particularly related to a printing operation. The printing apparatus of this example stores receipt paper 2 and journal paper 4 in parallel. Further, a print head unit 15 that moves in a direction traversing the receipt paper 2 and the journal paper 4 along the carriage guide shaft 6 is provided on the opposite side of the body 1 with respect to the stored ends of the receipt paper 2 and the journal paper 4. I have it. The print head unit 15 includes a print head 3 and a carriage 14 on which the print head 3 is mounted. The carriage 14 is supported by the carriage guide shaft 6, and is fixed by a part of the carriage belt 13 on the side closer to the receipt paper 2 and the journal paper 4 and a part of the lower part of the carriage 14. As the carriage belt 13 rotates, the print head unit 15 moves in the same direction as the portion fixed to the carriage belt 13 and parallel to the carriage guide shaft 6. The carriage belt 13 is supported by a carriage belt pulley 17 arranged at the left end of the body 1 and a carriage belt drive gear 8 arranged at the right end of the body 1, and the carriage belt drive gear 8 rotates and the carriage belt 13 rotates. Also forms a long ellipse to the left and right and rotates.

The carriage belt drive gear 8 is in contact with the stepping motor gear 9, and the stepping motor gear 9 rotates and rotates in the direction opposite to the rotation direction of the stepping motor gear 9. The stepping motor gear 9 is directly connected to the stepping motor rotation shaft 7, and rotates a stepping motor (not shown) by a stepping motor control circuit (not shown) and rotates in the same direction as the rotation direction of the stepping motor.

The stepping motor gear 9 is also in contact with the transmission gear 10, and the stepping motor gear 9
Rotates in the opposite direction to the rotation direction of the stepping motor gear 9. The transmission gear 10 is a star gear 11
, And the transmission gear 10 rotates and rotates in the opposite direction to the rotation direction of the transmission gear 10. Star gear 11
Has six wing-shaped plates uniformly formed, and the wing-shaped plates are arranged at positions where the out-of-step detector 12 detects them.

The step-out detector 12 has a built-in photo sensor. When the wing-shaped plate of the star gear 11 passes through the detection part of the photo sensor, a pulse signal is generated, and this pulse signal is step-out. It is used as a detection signal. The control unit of the printing apparatus (not shown) of the present example confirms that the print head unit 15 is performing a normal movement based on the number of pulse signals generated by the step-out detector 12.

A home position detector 16 is arranged at the left end of the body 1. Home position detector 1
6 has a built-in photo sensor, the print head unit 15 moves to the left of the body 1, and a part of the carriage 14 passes a detection portion of the photo sensor to generate a home position detection signal. When the home position detector 16 generates the home position detection signal, the stepping motor control circuit (not shown) stops the rotation of the stepping motor (not shown) and stops the movement of the print head unit 15. Then, the rotation step number of the stepping motor is set to 0 with reference to the position where the print head unit 15 is stopped. By counting the number of rotation steps of the stepping motor from the point where the number of rotation steps of the stepping motor is set to 0, the current position of the print head unit 15 can be grasped from the counted number of rotation steps of the stepping motor.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a control system relating to the printing apparatus of this example. The printing apparatus of this example has a control unit 21 that controls the movement of the entire printing apparatus.
An external personal computer 19, which is an information processing apparatus not included in the printing apparatus of this example, is connected to the input / output circuit 31 of No. 1 and sends print data to the printing apparatus. The input / output circuit 31 includes a home position detector 16, a step-out detector 12, a cover open detector 34, and a paper feed detector 3 which are built in the printing apparatus of this example.
3 and the paper end detector 32 are connected. The external personal computer 19 is connected to the input / output circuit 31.
Based on the input information, the control unit 21 mainly including the CPU 34 executes printing on the printing paper through the print head control circuit 23. Further, the input / output circuit 31 includes a home position detector 16, a step-out detector 12, a cover open detector 34, a paper feed detector 33 inside the printing apparatus,
Also, information indicating the state of the paper end detector 32 is input. The input information of each detector is controlled by the control unit 21 through the print head control circuit 23, the LED control circuit 30, and the paper feed motor control circuit 29, and the print head moving circuit 24, the print head printing circuit 25, the error LED lighting circuit. 26, the paper end LED lighting circuit 27, and the paper feed motor drive circuit 28 are controlled.

With reference to FIG. 3, description will be given of the initialization operation when the power of the printing apparatus of this example is turned on and the operation of the print head unit 15 after the initialization operation is completed. The position of the print head unit 15 immediately before the initialization operation of the print head unit 15 is unknown, and the print head unit 15 moves the leftmost end position 38 and the rightmost end position 37.
It is located somewhere in between.

When the initialization operation of the print head unit 15 is started, the print head unit 15 moves from the position immediately before the start of the initialization operation toward the left end of the body 1 in which the home position detector 16 is installed. Start.
The print head unit 15 is the home position detector 1
When the home position detection signal 6 is generated, the movement is stopped when the leftmost end movement position 38 is reached. In the conventional initialization operation, the initialization operation ends when the print head unit 15 stops at the leftmost end movement position 38, and thereafter, by inputting print data from an external information processing device not included in the printing device. The printing operation will start.

However, for example, the position of the print head unit 15 immediately before the start of the initialization operation is in the receipt paper printing area 35, the receipt paper 2 has no abnormality, and the journal paper 4 is bent and jammed. If it is, the print head unit 15 determines that the receipt paper printing area 3
5 is passed normally, and the robot waits at the leftmost end movement position 38. Next, the printing operation is started by inputting print data from an external information processing apparatus not included in the printing apparatus. The print head unit 15 attempts to print on the journal paper 4 after the receipt paper 2 is normally printed, but the journal paper 4 is in a paper jam state, and printing is not normally executed, and the printing operation is performed. It ends abnormally. In this case, since the print data received from the external information processing device which is not included in the printing device is deleted at any time when the printing operation is started, if the printing operation ends abnormally as described above. The print data is lost unless it is stored in the external information processing device.

Therefore, in the present invention, the home position detector 16 is included in the initialization operation of the print head unit 15.
After the position of the print head unit 15 is detected by the method described above, the print head unit 15 is moved from the leftmost end moving position 38 to the rightmost end moving position 37 in the entire printable printing region, thereby causing an abnormality in the entire printable printing region. It realizes to detect the state. The entire printable area means the leftmost end moving position 38 to the rightmost end moving position 3 in FIG.
A receipt paper printing area 35 and a journal paper printing area 36 located between 7 and 7.

The flow of the initialization operation of the present invention shown in FIG. 4 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 3. When the initialization operation is started in ST1, it is checked in ST2 whether the home position detector 16 generates a home position detection signal. If the home position detector 16 does not generate the home position detection signal, the process proceeds to ST3, and the print head unit 15 is moved one step to the left of the body 1. ST2 and ST3 are repeated until the home position detector 16 generates a home position detection signal.

If the home position detector 16 generates a home position detection signal in ST2, ST2
Move to 4. In ST4, the out-of-step detector 12 checks whether out-of-step is detected. When the out-of-step detector 12 does not generate a signal, that is, when out-of-step is detected, the process proceeds to ST5, all the functions of the printing apparatus are stopped, and the initialization operation of the print head unit 15 ends abnormally. . In the case of shifting to ST5, after removing the abnormal state related to the movement of the print head unit 15, turning off the power supply once and then turning on the power supply again, the means for restoring the stopped function of the printing apparatus is I have decided not to.

On the other hand, when the step-out detector 12 generates a signal in ST4, that is, when the step-out is not detected,
Transition to ST6. In ST6, the print head unit 1
Move 5 to the right of body 1 by one step. ST7
Then, by checking the number of driving steps of the stepping motor, the print head unit 15 moves the rightmost end position 3
Determine if it is 7. In ST7, print head unit 1
If 5 does not reach the rightmost end movement position 37, ST
Move to 4. Then, in ST7, the print head unit 1
ST4, ST until 5 reaches the rightmost end moving position 37
Repeat 6 and ST7. In ST7, when the print head unit 15 has reached the rightmost end movement position 37, the process proceeds to ST8, and the initialization operation of the print head unit 15 ends normally.

Utilizing the means of the present invention as indicated above,
After the home position position of the print head unit 15 is detected as the initialization operation of the print head unit 15, the print head unit 15 is moved over the entire printable area, so that there is no abnormality in the entire printable area. Make sure that. Although the present embodiment has described the initialization operation of the print head unit 15 when the power is turned on, the initialization operation of the print head unit 15 when the cover of the printing apparatus is opened, when the cover of the printing apparatus is closed, and when one receipt is issued. The same confirmation is performed at. When the power of the printing apparatus is turned on, when the cover of the printing apparatus is opened, when the cover of the printing apparatus is closed, and when the one-receipt is issued, an abnormality relating to the movement of the printing paper and the print head unit 15 is likely to occur,
In each case, it is effective to perform the initialization operation.

In the present embodiment, it is detected that there is no abnormality in the movement of the print head unit in the entire printing area by using the step-out detector that feeds in one step and outputs a signal corresponding to this. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, after reaching the home position, the home position detector 1 is moved to the rightmost end movement position 37 and then to the home position again.
The position is detected at 6. In this process, if there is a match between the number of steps moved and the home position, it is determined that the print head has been moved normally in the entire print area, and if not, in any of the print areas. Abnormality processing may be performed assuming that the movement of the print head is abnormal at the position.

[0028]

As described in the above embodiments, the printing apparatus according to the present invention detects an abnormal state related to the movement of the print head unit in the entire printable area during the initialization operation of the print head unit. It is possible to do. Therefore, it is possible to detect the print operation failure before the start of the print operation, and it is possible to prevent the loss of the print data received from the external information processing device not included in the print device.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a top view showing a general outline of a printing operation of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a block diagram of a control system relating to movement of a print head of the printing apparatus shown in FIG.

3 is a side view of the printing apparatus shown in FIG.

4 is a flowchart of a control system relating to movement of a print head of the printing apparatus shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ・ ・ ・ Body 2 ・ ・ ・ Receipt paper 3 ・ ・ ・ Print head 4 ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Journal paper 5 ・ ・ ・ Platen 6 ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Carriage guide shaft 7 ・ ・... Stepping motor rotating shaft 8 ... Carriage belt drive gear 9 ... Stepping motor gear 10 ... Transmission gear 11 ... Star gear 12 ... Detachment Adjustment detector 13-Carriage belt 14-Carriage 15-Print head unit 16-Home position detector 17-Carriage belt pulley 18- ..Paper pressing leaf spring 19 ... External personal computer 20 ... Printing device 21 ... Control unit 22 ... CPU 23 ... Print head control circuit 24. ... Print head moving circuit 25-Print head printing circuit 26-Error LED lighting circuit 27-Paper end LED lighting circuit 28-Paper feed motor drive circuit 29- ..Paper feed motor control circuit 30..LED control circuit 31..input / output circuit 32..paper end detector 33..paper feed detector 34 ..・ Curver open detector 35 ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Receipt paper printing area 36 ・ ・ ・ Journal paper printing area 37 ・ ・ ・ Rightmost edge movement position 38 ・ ・ ・ Leftmost edge movement position

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A print head that performs printing while moving in a printable area, a position detection unit that detects an absolute position of the print head in the area, and a print head movement control unit that moves the print head. A print head movement abnormality detecting means for detecting that the movement of the print head does not correspond to a movement signal of the print head movement control means, and the print head movement control means causes the print head movement abnormality detection means in the area of the print head. In an initialization operation for detecting an absolute position, the printing head is moved over the entire range of the area, and the printing head movement abnormality detecting unit detects the abnormality during the movement. 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein print data storage means for storing print data from another apparatus, print data stored in the print data storage means are read out, and the print head is used. And a print control unit for performing printing, the print control unit deleting the print data from the print data storage unit after reading the print data. 3. A print head for performing printing while moving in a printable area, position detection means for detecting an absolute position of the print head in the area, and print head movement control means for moving the print head. A method of controlling a printing apparatus, comprising: a print head movement abnormality detection means for detecting that the movement of the print head does not correspond to a movement signal of the print head movement control means; In the initialization operation for detecting the position, the entire area moving step of moving the print head over the entire range of the area, and the entire area for detecting the movement abnormality in the entire area moving step by the print head movement abnormality detecting means. A method for controlling a printing apparatus, comprising: a region abnormality detecting step. 4. The method for controlling a printing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the whole area moving step includes an absolute position detecting step of detecting an absolute position of the print head in the area, and the absolute position is a base point. A method of controlling a printing apparatus, comprising: a complementary movement step of moving the print head over at least a range in which the movement is not performed in the absolute position detection step, out of the entire range of the area. 5. The printing apparatus control method according to claim 3, wherein the movement in the entire area movement step is constituted by a set of movement units of a predetermined amount, and the movement abnormality is detected in the entire area abnormality detection step. And a control method of the printing apparatus, which is performed for each of the movement units.