CN112590400B

CN112590400B - Thermal printer control method, thermal printer control device, thermal printer and medium

Info

Publication number: CN112590400B
Application number: CN202011437273.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 许统辉; 张斌; 唐滔; 吴桐
Original assignee: Nanyang Clear Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Nanyang Clear Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-12-11
Filing date: 2020-12-11
Publication date: 2022-01-14
Anticipated expiration: 2040-12-11
Also published as: CN112590400A

Abstract

The application discloses a control method and device of a thermal printer, the thermal printer and a medium. The method comprises the following steps: acquiring a hardware interface control signal, wherein the hardware interface control signal comprises a plurality of data signals, a first clock signal, a second clock signal and a third clock signal, and rising edges of the three clock signals are not overlapped; the first clock signal is used for controlling the signal state quantity received by the printing bit of the first area of the printing head of the thermal printer, the second clock signal is used for controlling the signal state quantity received by the printing bit of the second area of the printing head of the thermal printer, and the third clock signal is used for controlling the signal state quantity received by the printing bit of the third area of the printing head of the thermal printer; the data signals are used for sending data to be processed to the printing heads, and each data signal corresponds to at most three printing bits of the printing heads; and sending the data to be processed to the printing head according to the hardware interface control signal so as to enable the printing head to print the data to be processed.

Description

Thermal printer control method, thermal printer control device, thermal printer and medium

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of thermal printers, in particular to a thermal printer control method and device, a thermal printer and a medium.

Background

Thermal printers are widely used in various industries due to their advantages of small size, low noise, high speed, etc.

The most common thermal printer uses a fixed print head with a dot matrix, on which a semiconductor heating element is mounted, and the print head is heated and contacted with thermal printing paper to print a desired pattern. The thermal printer converts the print data into bitmap data after receiving the print data, and then controls the semiconductor heating elements on the print head to pass current according to the dots of the bitmap data, thus changing the print data into the print content on the thermal printing paper. When each line of bitmap dot matrix data is printed, the control unit needs to receive the current printing data to complete the printing of one line of dot matrix data. However, the requirements of people on the corresponding speed of data receiving and the processing speed of printing tasks of thermal printers are also increasing at present.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a control method and device of a thermal printer, the thermal printer and a medium.

In a first aspect, a method for controlling a thermal printer is provided, including:

acquiring a hardware interface control signal, wherein the hardware interface control signal comprises a plurality of data signals, a first clock signal, a second clock signal and a third clock signal, and rising edges in the first clock signal, the second clock signal and the third clock signal are not overlapped;

the first clock signal is used for controlling the signal state quantity received by the printing bit of the first area of the printing head of the thermal printer, the second clock signal is used for controlling the signal state quantity received by the printing bit of the second area of the printing head of the thermal printer, and the third clock signal is used for controlling the signal state quantity received by the printing bit of the third area of the printing head of the thermal printer; the data signals are used for sending data to be processed to the printing head in three clock cycles corresponding to three rising edges of the first clock signal, the second clock signal and the third clock signal, and each data signal in the plurality of data signals corresponds to at most three printing bits of the printing head;

and sending the data to be processed to the printing head according to the hardware interface control signal so as to enable the printing head to print the data to be processed.

In a second aspect, a thermal printer is provided, the printing circuit of which comprises a plurality of data lines, three clock signal lines, two latch signal lines, two strobe signal lines, and a plurality of heating circuits corresponding to a plurality of printing bits of a printing head;

each heating circuit in the plurality of heating circuits is respectively connected with a data line, a clock signal line, a latching signal line and a gating signal line; each data line of the plurality of data lines is connected with at least one printing position and at most three printing positions; each clock signal line in the three clock signal lines is connected with at least one printing position; each latching signal line in the two latching signal lines is connected with at least one printing position; each gating signal line in the two gating signal lines is connected with at least one printing bit;

the clock signal line is used for transmitting clock signals, and the clock signals are used for controlling the state quantities of other signals; the data line is used for transmitting data signals, and the data signals are used for sending data to be processed to the printing position; the latch signal line is used for transmitting a latch signal, and the latch signal is used for controlling the data to be processed to be temporarily kept in the latch circuit; the strobe signal line is used for transmitting a strobe signal for controlling the transmission of the data to be processed held in the latch circuit to the print bit.

In a third aspect, there is provided a control apparatus for a thermal printer, comprising:

the device comprises an acquisition module, a processing module and a processing module, wherein the acquisition module is used for acquiring a hardware interface control signal, the hardware interface control signal comprises a plurality of data signals, a first clock signal, a second clock signal and a third clock signal, and rising edges in the first clock signal, the second clock signal and the third clock signal are not overlapped;

and the processing module is used for sending the data to be processed to the printing head according to the hardware interface control signal so as to enable the printing head to print the data to be processed.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided a thermal printer comprising a memory and a processor, the memory storing a computer program which, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to perform the steps as in the first aspect and any one of its possible implementations.

In a fifth aspect, there is provided a computer storage medium storing one or more instructions adapted to be loaded by a processor and to perform the steps of the first aspect and any possible implementation thereof.

The method includes the steps that a hardware interface control signal is obtained, wherein the hardware interface control signal comprises a plurality of data signals, a first clock signal, a second clock signal and a third clock signal, and rising edges of the first clock signal, the second clock signal and the third clock signal are not overlapped; the first clock signal is used for controlling the signal state quantity received by the printing bit of the first area of the printing head of the thermal printer, the second clock signal is used for controlling the signal state quantity received by the printing bit of the second area of the printing head of the thermal printer, and the third clock signal is used for controlling the signal state quantity received by the printing bit of the third area of the printing head of the thermal printer; the data signal is used for sending data to be processed to the printing head, and each data signal in the plurality of data signals corresponds to at most three printing bits of the printing head; and sending the data to be processed to the printing head according to the hardware interface control signal so that the printing head prints the data to be processed, controlling the data signals through three clock signals so as to simultaneously complete the data sending of different printing bits of the printing head, and reducing the response time of the printing head for receiving the data to be printed, thereby improving the overall time of the thermal printer for processing the printing task.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments or the background art of the present application, the drawings required to be used in the embodiments or the background art of the present application will be described below.

Fig. 1 is a schematic flow chart of a thermal printer control method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a printhead according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of control signals of a printhead driving method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of control signals for another printhead driving method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a control device of a thermal printer according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a thermal printer according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

In order to make the technical solutions of the present application better understood, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present application, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present application.

The terms "first," "second," and the like in the description and claims of the present application and in the above-described drawings are used for distinguishing between different objects and not for describing a particular order. Furthermore, the terms "include" and "have," as well as any variations thereof, are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions. For example, a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or elements is not limited to only those steps or elements listed, but may alternatively include other steps or elements not listed, or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

Reference herein to "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment can be included in at least one embodiment of the application. The appearances of the phrase in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. It is explicitly and implicitly understood by one skilled in the art that the embodiments described herein can be combined with other embodiments.

The thermal printer in the embodiment of the application has the working principle that the printing head is mainly provided with the semiconductor heating element, and the printing head can print required patterns after heating and contacting with thermal printing paper, and the principle is similar to that of a thermal fax machine. Typically the heaters are logically controlled in the form of square dots or stripes by the printer which, when activated, produce a pattern on the thermal paper corresponding to the heating elements. The same logic that controls the heating elements also controls the feeding of the paper, thus enabling the printing of a pattern on the entire label or sheet.

The embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the drawings.

Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is a schematic flowchart illustrating a method for controlling a thermal printer according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The method can comprise the following steps:

101. acquiring a hardware interface control signal, wherein the hardware interface control signal comprises a plurality of data signals, a first clock signal, a second clock signal and a third clock signal, and rising edges of the first clock signal, the second clock signal and the third clock signal are not overlapped; the first clock signal is used for controlling the signal state quantity received by the printing bit of the first area of the printing head of the thermal printer, the second clock signal is used for controlling the signal state quantity received by the printing bit of the second area of the printing head of the thermal printer, and the third clock signal is used for controlling the signal state quantity received by the printing bit of the third area of the printing head of the thermal printer; the data signal is used for sending data to be processed to the printing head in three clock cycles corresponding to three rising edges of the first clock signal, the second clock signal and the third clock signal, and each data signal in the plurality of data signals corresponds to at most three printing bits of the printing head.

102. And sending the data to be processed to the printing head according to the hardware interface control signal so that the printing head prints the data to be processed.

The execution main body of the embodiment of the application can be a thermal printer. The thermal printer can comprise a host computer and a printing head which are controlled logically, and the printing head can be controlled to execute printing operation through a hardware interface control signal.

The DATA signal DATA may be transmitted by a DATA line for carrying the above-mentioned DATA to be processed, i.e., DATA to be printed. The data to be processed may be controlled by three clock signals, i.e., the first clock signal, the second clock signal, and the third clock signal.

The CLOCK Signal (CLOCK Signal) is the basis of sequential logic, which determines when the state in the logic cell is updated, and is a Signal quantity that has a fixed period and is independent of operation. The clock signal has a fixed clock frequency, which is the inverse of the clock period. In electronic, especially synchronous digital circuits of signals, the clock signal is a high and low state between special signal oscillations of the signal, the digital circuit of the signal acts coordinately like a metronome, and the digital clock signal is basically a square wave voltage. In the embodiment of the application, the state updating of other signals is controlled by the CLOCK signal CLOCK.

Specifically, the first data to be processed may be sent to an element in the first area of the print head when a rising edge of the first clock signal is detected;

sending second data to be processed to elements of a second area of the print head when a rising edge of the second clock signal is detected;

and transmitting third data to be processed to elements of a third area of the print head in a case where a rising edge of the third clock signal is detected.

In the embodiment of the present application, three clock signals, i.e., a first clock signal, a second clock signal, and a third clock signal, are used to control data transmission of three regions of a print head, i.e., 3 clock lines, specifically, data signals change states according to the corresponding clock signals, and data transmission is performed on a rising edge.

In a general driving method of a thermal printer, two clock signals are used, and the two clock signals have different effective times, that is, for example, a first clock signal controls data transmission of one half area of a print head, and a second clock signal controls data transmission of the other half area of the print head.

In the embodiment of the application, each data signal corresponds to at most three printing bits of the printing head, the printing bit data transmission responsible for each data signal is limited, the number of required data lines is ensured, the transmission efficiency is improved, and the overall printing processing speed is improved.

In one embodiment, the hardware interface control signals for a thermal printer printhead may include the following: DATA signal DATA, CLOCK signal CLOCK, LATCH signal LATCH, and STROBE signal STROBE.

The latch signal is used for controlling the data to be processed to be temporarily kept in the latch circuit; the strobe signal is used to control the output of the data to be processed held in the latch circuit to each element of the print head, and the role of the strobe signal can also be understood as specifying the energization time for energizing the heat generating elements.

A general thermal printer is constituted by: a thermal head (line head) including a plurality of linearly arranged heating elements; a shift register (shift register circuit); a latch (latch circuit) that temporarily holds a value of the shift register; a latch (latch circuit) for controlling the heat generation of the heat generating element; a latch driver configured as a driver of a driving circuit such as a transistor; a head control section, etc. The head control part can control the thermal printer to execute the printing function through the hardware interface control signal.

The head control unit may transmit print data (serial data, input data) to the shift register in synchronization with the clock signal, and may transmit the latch signal to the latch driver at a point of time when the transmission of the print data is completed. This causes the latch driver to latch the print data (temporary holding data), and the head control unit transmits a strobe signal to the latch driver. The latch driver energizes the heating element corresponding to the latched data "1" by the strobe signal (0 indicates no printing, and 1 indicates printing). By this energization, the thermal paper as a recording medium develops color, and a corresponding image is formed. Thereafter, the sheet is fed by 1 dot line by a sheet feeding mechanism including a motor or a roller. By repeating the above steps, printing can be performed sequentially for each dot row. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the hardware structure of the thermal printer.

Specifically, the operating time periods of the first CLOCK signal CLOCK1, the second CLOCK signal CLOCK2, and the third CLOCK signal CLOCK2 in the embodiment of the present application are different. In the embodiment of the present application, the first region, the second region, and the third region are divided according to the classification of the clock signals, that is, the three regions are respectively controlled by the three different clock signals.

In an optional implementation, the hardware interface control signal further includes a first latch signal, a second latch signal, a first strobe signal, and a second strobe signal;

the first latch signal is used for controlling the data to be processed to be temporarily held in a first latch circuit;

the first strobe signal is used to control the transmission of the data to be processed held in the first latch circuit to an element of a first control area of the print head;

the second latch signal is used for controlling the data to be processed to be temporarily held in the first latch circuit;

the second strobe signal is used to control the transmission of the data to be processed held in the first latch circuit to each element of the second control area of the print head.

In the embodiment of the present application, the print head of the thermal printer may be divided into two parts for the control of the latch signal and the strobe signal: the first control region and the second control region, whose data lines are multiplexed, may be controlled by different LATCH signals LATCH1, LATCH0 (first LATCH signal and second LATCH signal) and different STROBE signals STROBE1, STROBE0 (first STROBE signal and second STROBE signal), respectively. On the basis, different control signal combinations are formed by combining corresponding clock signals to completely control the data transmission of the printing head.

Optionally, the printing bits of the first control area include printing bits of the first area and partial printing bits of the second area;

the printing bits of the second control area include printing bits of the second area other than the partial printing bits and printing bits of the third area.

Specifically, referring to the schematic structural diagram of a printhead shown in fig. 2, in one embodiment, as shown in fig. 2, the printhead corresponds to 13 DATA lines (DATA 0-12), 3 CLOCK lines (CLOCK0-2), 2 LATCH lines (LATCH1, LATCH0), 2 gate lines (STROBE1, STROBE 0); where VH is the printhead voltage and R represents the firing resistance.

The print head is divided into 37 sub-areas or printing positions (element numbers IC1-17 in the figure), wherein IC1-17 is the first control area, and IC18-37 is the second control area; the IC1-13 region is the first region, the IC14-25 region is the second region, and the IC26-37 region is the third region. As shown in fig. 2, each print bit corresponds to a clock signal, a data signal, a strobe signal, and a latch signal; wherein:

CLOCK2, LATCH1, STROBE1 are responsible for first area communications;

CLOCK1, LATCH1, STROBE1, LATCH0, STROBE0 are responsible for second area communications;

CLOCK0, LATCH0, STROBE0 are responsible for third area communication;

the DATA12 is responsible for 1 print bit;

DATA11 is responsible for the 2,14,26 print bit;

DATA10 is responsible for 3,15,27 print bits;

DATA9 is responsible for 4,16,28 print bits;

DATA8 is responsible for the 5,17,29 print bits;

DATA7 is responsible for the 6,18,30 print bits;

DATA6 is responsible for the 7,19,31 print bit;

DATA5 is responsible for 8,20,32 print bits;

DATA4 is responsible for the 9,21,33 print bits;

DATA3 is responsible for 10,22,34 print bits;

DATA2 is responsible for the 11,23,35 print bits;

DATA1 is responsible for 12,24,36 print bits;

DATA0 is responsible for the 13,25,37 print bits;

in the embodiment of the present application, the hardware parameters of the printer are not limited, and include input power (power for printing each dot), input voltage (power supply voltage for the print head), pulse period, pulse width, and related hardware parameters of the heating platen.

Based on the foregoing schematic of the printhead structure, the following description is made in conjunction with hardware interface control signals.

In general, referring to the control signal diagram of another printhead driving method shown in fig. 3, as shown in fig. 3, the printhead is divided into 47 sub-regions (element numbers 0-46 in the figure), 6 DATA lines (DATA1-6), 2 CLOCK lines (CLOCK1, CLOCK2), 2 LATCH lines (LATCH1, LATCH2), 2 gate lines (STROBE1, STROBE 2); the scheme is a common scheme and is divided into two parts of area communication control: where sub-areas 0-23 can be considered as a first area and sub-areas 24-46 can be considered as a second area.

Specifically, the first CLOCK signal CLOCK1, the first latch signal LATCHl, and the first STROBE signal STROBE1 are responsible for communication of the first area; the second CLOCK signal CLOCK2, the second LATCH signal LATCH2, and the second STROBE signal STROBE2 are responsible for communication of the second region.

In fig. 3, 6 data signals are set, and data transmission is performed in corresponding areas:

DATA6 is responsible for the 0-3 and 24-27 regions;

DATA5 is responsible for the 4-7 and 28-31 regions;

DATA4 is responsible for the 8-11 and 32-35 regions;

DATA3 is responsible for the 12-15 and 36-39 regions;

DATA2 is responsible for regions 16-19 and 40-43;

DATA1 is responsible for the 20-23 and 44-46 regions.

Where CLOCK1 and LATCH1 are synchronized and CLOCK2 and LATCH2 are synchronized, data is transferred using multiplexed data lines while the CLOCK1 and CLOCK2 signals are active, respectively, by sending one region (e.g., a first region) of data to the printhead and then sending the other region (e.g., a second region) of data to the printhead. The detailed structure of the corresponding print head is not described again here.

Since there are four blocks in the area corresponding to each data signal DATAn on the left half, four cycles of clock signals are required to print all the left half area of the print head. Similarly, the rising edge of CLOCK2 receives data, LATCH2 latches the data, STROBE2 gates the data, and the corresponding resistors of the printhead heat up. Since there are four blocks in the right half of the area corresponding to each DATA signal DATA n, four cycles of the clock signal are required to print all the right half of the area of the printhead. The corresponding bits of one DATA in the left half area are 1,2, 3, 4 bits, and the corresponding bits of one DATA in the right half area are 5, 6, 7, 8 bits.

As can be seen from fig. 3, the time for printing 1 data signal corresponding to the printing film of the printer is 8n CLOCK, where n is the gray level. In one embodiment, to support proper operation of the printer, the printer prints per dot power: VH/R-24. 24/5000-0.115W/dot, and printhead supply voltage VH-24V.

Reference may be made to the control signal diagram of one printhead driving method shown in fig. 4, which may also be referred to as a communication timing diagram. As shown in fig. 4, the DATA representative area in the DATA line takes values of 0 and 1,0 indicating no printing and 1 indicating printing; CLOCK signals CLOCK0, 1,2 each transmit 13 bits of data. All data can be sent out within 3 clock cycles.

Specifically, after receiving data at the rising edge of CLOCK2 and latching the data by LATCH1, STROBE1 gates the data, the corresponding resistors of the print head are heated, and the heating area is 1-13; receiving data at rising edge of CLOCK1, latching 1 and LATCH0, gating STROBE1 and STROBE0, heating corresponding resistance of printing head, and heating area is 14-25; the rising edge of CLOCK0 receives data, LATCH0 latches the data, STROBE0 gates the data, and the corresponding resistors of the printhead heat up to a heating region of 26-37.

As can be seen from fig. 4, the time for printing 1 line of the film by the printer is 3n CLOCK, where n is the gray value. A bit corresponding to one DATA in the first area is 1bit, a bit corresponding to one DATA in the second area is 2 bits, and a bit corresponding to one DATA in the third area is 3 bits. Compared with the method shown in fig. 3, 8 clock cycles are needed for sending all the original data. The present solution is 2.67 times faster than the approximate solution. In one embodiment, the printhead prints per dot power: VH/R19, 19/7500, 0.04813W/dot, and printhead power supply voltage VH 19V. The voltage on the hardware is lower than in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, and the power consumption of printing is relatively reduced.

The print head in the embodiment of the present application may also have other structures, such as the number of data signals or sub-regions, or adjusting the control corresponding relationship between each data signal and a sub-region, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application. Compared with the method in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, the thermal printer control method provided by the embodiment of the application increases the number of data lines, can simultaneously send the printing data to three areas of the printing head through three clock signals, can shorten the data transmission time, and can reduce the response time of the printer for receiving the printing data of the host, thereby improving the overall time of the thermal printer for processing the printing task and saving the voltage.

Based on the description of the control method embodiment of the thermal printer, the embodiment of the application also discloses a thermal printer, and a printing circuit of the thermal printer comprises a plurality of data lines, three clock signal lines, two latching signal lines, two gating signal lines and a plurality of heating circuits corresponding to a plurality of printing bits of a printing head;

each of the plurality of heating circuits is connected with a data line, a clock signal line, a latch signal line and a strobe signal line; each data line of the plurality of data lines is connected with at least one printing position and at most three printing positions; each clock signal line in the three clock signal lines is connected with at least one printing position; each latching signal line of the two latching signal lines is connected with at least one printing position; each gating signal line in the two gating signal lines is connected with at least one printing bit;

the clock signal line is used for transmitting a clock signal, and the clock signal is used for controlling the state quantity of other signals; the data line is used for transmitting data signals, and the data signals are used for sending data to be processed to the printing position; the latch signal line is used for transmitting a latch signal, and the latch signal is used for controlling the data to be processed to be temporarily held in the latch circuit; the strobe signal line is used for transmitting a strobe signal for controlling the data to be processed held in the latch circuit to be transmitted to the print bit.

In an alternative embodiment, the print head of the thermal printer is controlled by 13 data lines, 3 clock lines, 2 latch lines, and 2 gate lines.

According to an embodiment of the present application, the steps involved in the method shown in fig. 1 may be performed by the modules in the thermal printer, and are not described herein again.

Based on the description of the embodiment of the thermal printer control method, the embodiment of the application also discloses a thermal printer control device. Referring to fig. 5, the thermal printer control device 500 includes:

an obtaining module 510, configured to obtain a hardware interface control signal, where the hardware interface control signal includes a plurality of data signals, a first clock signal, a second clock signal, and a third clock signal, and rising edges of the first clock signal, the second clock signal, and the third clock signal are non-overlapping;

the first clock signal is used for controlling the signal state quantity received by the printing bit of the first area of the printing head of the thermal printer, the second clock signal is used for controlling the signal state quantity received by the printing bit of the second area of the printing head of the thermal printer, and the third clock signal is used for controlling the signal state quantity received by the printing bit of the third area of the printing head of the thermal printer; the data signal is used for sending data to be processed to the printing head in three clock cycles corresponding to three rising edges of the first clock signal, the second clock signal and the third clock signal, and each data signal in the plurality of data signals corresponds to at most three printing bits of the printing head;

the processing module 520 is configured to send the data to be processed to the print head according to the hardware interface control signal, so that the print head prints the data to be processed.

According to an embodiment of the present application, the steps involved in the method shown in fig. 1 may be performed by the modules in the control apparatus 500 of the thermal printer shown in fig. 5, and are not described herein again.

The thermal printer control apparatus 500 in the embodiment of the present application may obtain a hardware interface control signal, where the hardware interface control signal includes a plurality of data signals, a first clock signal, a second clock signal, and a third clock signal, and rising edges of the first clock signal, the second clock signal, and the third clock signal are not overlapped; the first clock signal is used for controlling the signal state quantity received by the printing bit of the first area of the printing head of the thermal printer, the second clock signal is used for controlling the signal state quantity received by the printing bit of the second area of the printing head of the thermal printer, and the third clock signal is used for controlling the signal state quantity received by the printing bit of the third area of the printing head of the thermal printer; the data signal is used for sending data to be processed to the printing head, and each data signal in the plurality of data signals corresponds to at most three printing bits of the printing head; and sending the data to be processed to the printing head according to the hardware interface control signal so that the printing head prints the data to be processed, controlling the data signals through three clock signals so as to simultaneously complete the data sending of different printing bits of the printing head, and reducing the response time of the printing head for receiving the data to be printed, thereby improving the overall time of the thermal printer for processing the printing task.

Based on the description of the method embodiment and the device embodiment, the embodiment of the application also provides another thermal printer. Referring to fig. 6, the thermal printer 600 includes at least a processor 601, an input/output device 602, and a memory 603. The processor 601, the input/output device 602, and the memory 603 in the thermal printer 600 may be connected via a bus 604 or in other ways.

A computer storage medium may be stored in the memory 603 of the thermal printer 600 for storing a computer program comprising program instructions, and the processor 601 for executing the program instructions stored by the computer storage medium. The processor 601 (or CPU) is a computing core and a control core of the thermal printer, and is adapted to implement one or more instructions, and in particular, is adapted to load and execute the one or more instructions so as to implement a corresponding method flow or a corresponding function; in one embodiment, the processor 601 according to the embodiment of the present application may be configured to perform a series of processes, including the method according to the embodiment shown in fig. 1.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer storage medium (Memory) that is a Memory device in a thermal printer for storing programs and data. It is understood that the computer storage medium herein may include both the built-in storage medium in the thermal printer and, of course, the extended storage medium supported by the thermal printer. The computer storage media provides storage space in which one or more instructions, which may be one or more computer programs (including program code), are stored that are suitable for loading and execution by the processor 601. The computer storage medium may be a high-speed RAM memory, or may be a non-volatile memory (non-volatile memory), such as at least one disk memory; and optionally at least one computer storage medium located remotely from the processor.

In one embodiment, one or more instructions stored in a computer storage medium may be loaded and executed by processor 601 to implement the corresponding steps in the above embodiments; in particular implementations, one or more instructions in the computer storage medium may be loaded by processor 601 and executed to perform any steps of the method shown in fig. 1, which are not described herein again.

It can be clearly understood by those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the above-described apparatuses and modules may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not described herein again.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the division of the module is only one logical division, and other divisions may be possible in actual implementation, for example, a plurality of modules or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not performed. The shown or discussed mutual coupling, direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or modules through some interfaces, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

Modules described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as modules may or may not be physical modules, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network modules. Some or all of the modules may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the present embodiment.

In the above embodiments, the implementation may be wholly or partially realized by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. The procedures or functions according to the embodiments of the present application are wholly or partially generated when the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a network of computers, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored on or transmitted over a computer-readable storage medium. The computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center by wire (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)), or wirelessly (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device, such as a server, a data center, etc., that includes one or more of the available media. The usable medium may be a read-only memory (ROM), or a Random Access Memory (RAM), or a magnetic medium, such as a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape, a magnetic disk, or an optical medium, such as a Digital Versatile Disk (DVD), or a semiconductor medium, such as a Solid State Disk (SSD).

Claims

1. A method of controlling a thermal printer, comprising:

2. The method for controlling a thermal printer according to claim 1, wherein said sending the data to be processed to the print head according to the hardware interface control signal comprises:

sending first data to be processed to elements of a first region of the print head upon detection of a rising edge of the first clock signal;

sending second data to be processed to elements of a second region of the printhead if a rising edge of the second clock signal is detected;

sending third data to be processed to elements of a third region of the printhead if a rising edge of the third clock signal is detected.

3. The control method of a thermal printer according to claim 2, wherein the hardware interface control signal further comprises a first latch signal, a second latch signal, a first strobe signal, and a second strobe signal;

the first strobe signal is used for controlling the data to be processed which is kept in the first latch circuit to be sent to elements of a first control area of the printing head;

the second latch signal is used for controlling the data to be processed to be temporarily held in a second latch circuit;

the second strobe signal is used to control the transmission of the data to be processed held in the second latch circuit to the elements of a second control region of the printhead.

4. The control method of a thermal printer according to claim 3, wherein the print bits of the first control area include print bits of the first area and partial print bits of the second area;

the printing bits of the second control region include printing bits of the second region other than the partial printing bits, and printing bits of the third region.

5. A thermal printer is characterized in that a printing circuit of the thermal printer comprises a plurality of data lines, three clock signal lines, two latching signal lines, two gating signal lines and a plurality of heating circuits corresponding to a plurality of printing positions of a printing head;

6. A control device of a thermal printer, characterized by comprising:

7. A thermal printer comprising a memory and a processor, the memory storing a computer program which, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to perform the steps of the method of controlling a thermal printer according to any one of claims 1 to 4.

8. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that a computer program is stored which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to execute the steps of the control method of a thermal printer according to any one of claims 1 to 4.