JPS63145048A - Printing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enhance printing processing efficiency by facilitating the confirmation of printing data and narrowing a printing region, by a method wherein printing data are converted to character and mark patterns by character and mark pattern memories when a judge means has judged that a damp printing mode is set and printing is performed by a printing mechanism. CONSTITUTION:When a damp printing mode is judged, CPU 10 judges whether the corresponding dot pattern is stored in the character pattern memory region 9 of ROM 5. When the judge result is YES, the dot pattern corresponding to the character code of the character pattern memory region 9 is read from said memory region 9. When the judge result is NO, that is, when the inputted printing data is a non-character code and the dot pattern corresponding to the character pattern memory region 9 is not stored, the non-character dot pattern corresponding to the non-character code is read from a mark pattern memory region 15 and, on the basis of the read dot pattern, a printing head 1, a carriage driving motor 41 and a paper feed driving motor 45 are driven to perform damp printing operation.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a printing device having a function of easily and efficiently confirming data received from a host computer or the like.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, when a printing device receives data as shown in Fig. 1 from a host computer, in order to check the control code and character code in the received data, it prints the data as shown in Fig. 2. A so-called hexadecimal dump method was used in which all data was printed in hexadecimal representation.

The data in FIG. 1 above is a symbolic representation of the received data, and ESC, CR11F in the figure
represent control characters for the printing device, and these are expressed in hexadecimal code 18. 00HEX.

HE　X It is expressed as 0AHEX.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) According to the conventional hexadecimal dump method described above, in order to print data from a host computer printed in hexadecimal representation, it is necessary to combine character codes and control codes with the hexadecimal representation. It was necessary to prepare a correspondence table or to memorize the correspondence table by the operator. In addition, in order to be able to understand data printed in hexadecimal representation without looking at the above correspondence table or memorizing
As shown in the figure, a so-called character dump method was devised in which a hexadecimal representation is printed and at the same time, multiple bytes of characters corresponding to the character code are printed alongside the printed hexadecimal number. This method also had the problem of having to rely on hexadecimal representation to confirm control codes or six undefined characters.

Furthermore, in the case of the hexadecimal dump method, a printing area for three characters is generally required for each byte of received data, so if you want to check the back part of the received data, etc. Since it is necessary to print up to the data, there is a problem in that if the data to be checked is not at the beginning of all the data, a large amount of paper is wasted and the operator's time is also wasted.

Therefore, in the present invention, the print data outputted from the host computer is displayed as a symbol character or a character string to facilitate confirmation of the print data, and the print processing efficiency is improved by narrowing the print area. This is a technical problem to be solved.

(Means for solving the problem) The technical means for solving the above problem is to input print data consisting of non-character codes including character codes and instruction codes outputted from the host machine, A print mode in which the printing mechanism is controlled based on the print data stored in the character pattern memory and prints a character pattern corresponding to the character code in the print data on paper, and each code in the print data is coded as a symbol. a dump print mode in which the data is converted into a dump print mode and printed on paper; a symbol pattern memory that stores a symbol pattern represented by one character corresponding to the non-character code; a determining means for determining whether or not the dump printing mode is set; and when the determining means determines that the dump printing mode is set, the print data is transferred to the character pattern and symbol pattern by the character pattern memory and the symbol pattern memory. and a dump printing control means for converting the pattern into a dump pattern and causing the printing mechanism to print the converted pattern.

(Function) According to the printing device configured as described above, the determining means determines that the dump printing mode is set in which each code in the print data output from the host machine is converted into a symbol and printed on the paper. At this time, the dump print control means converts the print data into a character pattern and a symbol pattern using the character pattern memory and symbol pattern memory, causes the printing mechanism to print the converted pattern, and displays the dump print data.

(Example) Hereinafter, a practical example of the present invention will be explained with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 6 showing the control configuration of the printing device according to the present invention, eight external devices (not shown) such as a host copy computer are connected to a central processing unit (hereinafter referred to as CPU) 10 via an interface 3. Print data from this external device,
Various data such as print command data are input to the cpuio.

A ROM 5 and a RAM 7 are respectively connected to the cpuio, and the ROM 5 has a character pattern memory area 9, a program memory area 11, a predetermined value memory area 13, and a symbol pattern memory area 15. In the character pattern memory area 9, pattern data corresponding to various print data of characters is stored in advance. The program memory area 11 stores in advance a program for executing printing operations based on normal printing control and dump printing control. Data necessary for printing control is stored in the predetermined memory area 13 in advance. Furthermore, the symbol pattern memory area 15 stores a symbol pattern represented by one character corresponding to the non-character code output from the host computer.

The RAM 7 has a manual buffer area 17 and an image buffer area 19. and input buffer area 17
One print line worth of print data sequentially input from an external device is stored in . When print command data is input from an external device, the image buffer area 19 stores dot pattern data for a print line accessed from the character pattern memory area 9 based on the print data stored in the input buffer area 17. be done.

The CPU 10 includes a mode determining means 21 for determining whether the printing device is set to normal printing mode or dump printing mode, and drives the print head 1, carriage drive motor 41, and paper feed drive motor 45. dump printing control means 23 for controlling dump printing by
, and printing control means 25 for normal printing control.
will be provided.

A print head drive device 35 is electrically connected to the CPU 10, and the print head 1 is electrically connected to the print head drive device 35. This print head 1 has a plurality of print bins 2 arranged in a column direction perpendicular to the print rows, and each print bin 2 is built in the print head 1 and selected by a corresponding electromagnetic device (not shown). Driven. Said C
A carriage drive device 39 is electrically connected to the PLJ 10, and this carriage drive device 39 rotates a carriage drive motor 41 based on an input carriage drive signal. As a result, a carriage (not shown) carrying the print head 1 moves along the print line according to the drive of the carriage drive motor 41. A paper feed drive device 43 is electrically connected to the CPU 10, and this paper feed drive device 43 rotates a paper feed drive motor 45 based on an input paper feed signal to feed printing paper (not shown). feed the paper.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained according to the control flowchart shown in FIG.

When print data consisting of character codes output from the host computer and non-character codes including instruction codes, etc. is input to the printing device, the CPU.

In step S1, the mode determining means 21 determines whether the dump printing mode or the normal printing mode is set. When it is determined that the normal printing mode is set, the normal printing mode program is executed as shown in step S2. On the other hand, when it is determined in step S1 that the dump printing mode is set, the process goes to step S3 to check whether the inputted print data is a character code or not, that is, the dot pattern corresponding to the character pattern memory area 9 of the ROM 5 is stored. Determine whether or not. If the determination result is YES, a dot pattern corresponding to the character code is read from the character pattern memory area 9. On the other hand, if the determination result in step S3 is NO, that is, if the manually-printed data is a non-character code and the corresponding dot pattern is not stored in the character pattern memory area 9, the process is performed as shown in step S5. A non-character dot pattern corresponding to a non-character code is read from the symbol pattern memory area 15. Step S6
In accordance with the dot pattern Σj read out in step S4 or step S5, the print head 1, carriage drive motor 41, and paper feed drive motor 45 are driven to perform a dump printing operation, resulting in printing as shown in FIG. Get results.

As shown in Figure 4, the dumped data is
Bytes, that is, all data for one character corresponds to one character, and for character codes to which no print data is actually assigned, there is a one-to-one correspondence with that character code, and the existence of that character code - ○ is immediately recognized. Assign a distinguishable symbol to .

Fig. 5 shows dump data printed by an application example of the present invention, in which bit pattern data that tends to be large amounts of data, such as image data and external character data, are printed using special abbreviations. This is intended to speed up and simplify processing.

Incidentally, as an example of application of Haku, dump printing may be performed as in the image symbolic display shown in FIG.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, according to the present invention, the data received from the host machine is displayed as symbol characters or character strings, thereby making it easier to confirm the dump printing results, and narrowing the printing area. This has the effect of increasing printing processing efficiency.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a print data diagram symbolically displaying print data output from a host computer, FIGS. 2 and 3 are conventional dump print diagrams, and FIG. 4 is a dump print diagram according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a dump print diagram according to an application of the present invention, FIG. 6 is a control system diagram without showing the control W configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 7 is a control flowchart of an embodiment of the present invention. be. 1...Print head 5...ROM 7...RAM 9...Character pattern memory area 10...CPU 15...Symbol pattern memory area 21...Mode determination means 23...Dump Print control means 25... Print control means 41... Carriage drive motor 43... Paper feed drive motor Applicant Brother Industries, Ltd. Agent Patent attorney Hidehiko Okada (3 others) ESC (lB
Hex) + "P '10"ABC" + CR (eJDHe
x)+CF (OAHex)31 Figure+8. , -50,41,. 42, =410D=OA Figure 2 +8. ,．． 50. ,．． 41. =42-43-OD,,O
A.PABC. Figure 3 ESCPABCoRLF Figure 4 ESCS+200---0RLF Figure 6 Figure 7

Claims (1)

[Claims] Print data consisting of non-character codes including character codes and instruction codes outputted from a host machine is input, a printing mechanism is controlled based on the input print data, and the print data is stored in a character pattern memory. It is possible to select between a print mode in which a character pattern corresponding to the character code in the stored print data is printed on the paper, and a dump print mode in which each code in the print data is converted into a symbol and printed on the paper. The printing device includes: a symbol pattern memory that stores a symbol pattern represented by one character corresponding to the non-character code; a determining means for determining whether the printing device is set to the dump printing mode; and the determining device. Dump print control for converting the print data into character patterns and symbol patterns by the character pattern memory and symbol pattern memory and printing the converted patterns on the printing mechanism when the means determines that the dump print mode is set. A printing device characterized by comprising means and.