DE3306261C2 - - Google Patents

Description

The invention is based on a device according to the Oberbe handle of the main claim (US-PS 41 35 245).

By developing in the micro and mini-computer field have the cost of computer accessories in recent years the cost of the computer itself mostly outweighed. this applies especially for devices using electronic means work. That is why a number of Efforts are underway to reduce costs, with the Efforts were particularly directed to the number of reduce required electromechanical parts and replace as many as possible with passive elements. These The direction was particularly dominant in the development of devices for pen holding and writing replacement, the development in the field of Pen location devices did not keep up.

Belongs to the state of the art according to § 3 paragraph 2 patent law a device for receiving and exchanging writing donate, in which the type of interaction through the pre the presence or absence of a pen in the Pen holder or housing is determined (DE 32 47 460 A1).

With multi-point pen writing systems, it is important that Location of all pens in the device to locate avoid trying to select a pen  which does not exist at all, i.e. without a pen attempts are made to write and collisions of write pen to turn off pen. The pen locator problem is usually solved by mechanical switches or optical detectors are used, means which have considerable shortcomings. In the case of mechanical switches Each encoder requires switches, wire, solder joints and justification tion. In addition, the switches themselves are prone to problems regarding operational safety. Optical sensors are also required considerable construction time, wire, solder joints and adjustment, the cost of photodetectors is not insignificant. In addition, paper dust and other foreign particles are known Lich on the surface of the photodetector hit, which leads to malfunction of the function. The Solvents for the location problem are known to be expensive in the installation because it requires a considerable amount of hardware to hold or hold a pen require pen.

The invention has for its object a device to automatically locate pen positions keln that does not have the disadvantages described above, manages with a minimum of electromechanical parts and also a safe location of the respective pen positions possible.

This object is achieved by the main claim solved. Such a two-way letter change mechanism does not require additional mechanical switches or optical detectors to detect pen positions determine. The  The device is based on two pen housings, each on one side of a pen Transport rod is arranged to be unused Hold pens and it builds on one Pen holder that is between the two writing pen housing is arranged and a pen holds while writing. The pen holder is mounted on the pen transport rod and with equipped with two independent clamp arms, each one for interacting with any pen housing, which ent a symmetrical device stands. Each pen housing has one fixed the body and a single clamp arm around which Hold the pen close to the fixed body.

To get a pen from the pen housing the empty pen holder comes into contact brought with the housing, the pen holder arm to the pen housing clamp arm to the side pushes while taking control of the pen receives. The pen holder is then from the Pen case moved away and the normal Writes can be made. After Been The pen is used to complete the paperwork put the pen back in the pen holder house in reverse order. With this vice However, the pen holder will return in order arm by the pen housing arm to the side pushed, the latter then the pen around brackets, after which the pen holder moves away again Pen housing removed. Due to the symmetry of the  Pen holder it is possible to use a pen to take from the side or reinsert. The pen holder clamp arms are also ge designed that the pen body always in the same Chen position regarding the clamping arms is when the writing pen holder holds a pen regardless of from which side the pen was taken.

The information regarding the pen positions will delivered using a starting location scheme before using normal writing is started. After one before partial embodiment of the invention is the letter pen holder and each pen housing so designed that there are four independent partners working together and certain stopping points during their contact with give each other, these four stopping points the four possible positions correspond to that on each side are achievable; for example, either is first Pen in the pen holder as well as in the Pen case or second is neither in writing pen holder still in the pen housing a pen; or third, there is a pen in the pen housing, but no pen in the pen holder; or fourth, there is a pen in the pen holder, but no pen in the pen housing. These four stops correspond directly to one stop D.C. motor over which the pen holder is driven becomes.

To begin with, the pen holder first becomes one Pen case on one side of the pen pushed the transport rod until it hits a stop  and the D.C. motor stops. The pen holder is then relieved and is in contact with the same again Pen housing brought up to the D.C. motor holds a second time. The pen holder then becomes the opposite end of the pen transport rod moves until the D.C. motor stops, causing the Position for a first stop at the other Pen housing is determined. The pen pen ter is then relieved and gets in contact with again brought this other pen housing, where he be the relative position of a second breakpoint Right. The information about the relative locations of these four breakpoints through this starting point procedure was obtained is adapted together with a Algorithm sufficient to enter the write controller clear the starting positions of all pens in this System to determine.

An embodiment of the object of the invention is shown in the drawing and is described below described in more detail. Show it

Fig. 1 to 8, the embodiment schematically in different ver functional positions,

Fig. 9 to 13 is an oblique plan view of a schematic representation of the embodiment,

Fig. 14 starting positions defined four to 17,

Fig. 18 is a schematic representation of the various stop points which,

Fig. 19 the various possible pen situations and

Fig. 20 is a functional diagram of the invention.

In Figs. 1 to 8 before zugtes embodiment of the invention shown in an overview in function, namely, to dereinsetzung As the pen touch. Fig. 1 shows a pen housing 11 having a curved sides by 10 and 20 to the inside portion, as a support of a pen 12 in a well-defined position. In addition, a single clamping arm 13 is shown, which is pivotable about a vertical axis Z of the pen housing 11 and the end 23 of which has the shape of a truncated barb. On this clamp arm 13 engages a rubber band or a spring (not shown) to hold it firmly in contact with the pen 12 so that it is held in the section determined by the sides 10 and 20 of the inwardly curved section. Also shown in Fig. 1 is a pen holder 14 with which the pen 12 is tapped from the pen housing 11 and is held during writing. The pen holder 14 is mirror-symmetrical to a plane P ge that is perpendicular to the direction of movement, and it has two clamping arms 16 and 17 , which are opposite to each other (for example, on one side of the plane P, a writing pen from each side The ends 26 and 27 of the clamping arms 16 and 17 have a barbed cross section.

In FIG. 2, the pen holder 14 is moved in the direction of pen housing 11 to clamp arm 16 to slide the clamp arm 13 ver with its barb-shaped end 26 and thus to grip the stylus 12 from the housing. A rubber band or a spring (not shown) act as a restoring force on the clamping arm 16 in order to keep it close to the rest position shown in FIG. 1. In Fig. 3 it is shown how the pen holder 14 has fully penetrated when the barb designed end 26 abuts a stop 33 which is arranged on the clamping arm 13 . In Fig. 4, the pen 12 is shown in a nominal position in which it is centered by an inner curvature 15 of the pen holder 14 after gripping.

In Figs. 5 to 8, the process of re-insertion of the stylus pen is placed in the pen housing 11 is 12. During this process, the pen holder 14 is moved again in the direction of the pen housing 11 . The clamp arm 13 is arranged such that it holds a nominal position as long as it does not hold a pen, so that the clamp arm 13 slides onto the inside of the clamp arm 16 and urges it to the side when the pen holder 14 is in contact with the pen housing 11 reaches (see Fig. 6). The pen holder 14 continues its unlocking movement to the pen housing 11 until the pen 12 abuts on the side 20 of the inner bulge position of the pen housing 11 , which provides a well-defined stopping point for the movement of the pen holder 14 (see FIG. 7). Once inside the clamping arm 16 , the clamping arm 13 takes over the stylus 12 , and the stylus holder 14 moves empty away from the stylus housing 11 , as shown in FIG. 8.

In FIGS. 9 to 13 of this sequence is shown in the oblique plan view. As shown in Fig. 9, the pen holder 14 is mounted on a transport shaft 19 and is being moved against the pen housing 11 by means of a transport belt 39 which is driven by a motor 35 and has an optical Winkelko encoder 37 . The clamping arms 16 and 17 are rotatable bar about a horizontal axis in the direction of the extension arms 28 and 29 respectively. As shown in FIG. 10, the clamping arm 13 is pushed aside by the pen holder 14 when the latter grips the pen and takes it away.

In the reverse sequence, as shown in FIGS. 11 to 13, the pen 12 is reinserted in the pen housing 11 . When the pen holder 14 with a pen 12 approaches the pen housing 11 , the clamping arm 13 pushes the clamping arm 16 to the side, whereby the extension arm 28 is rotated in its hinge. The clamping arm 13 then clasps the pen, holding it in firm contact with the pen housing 11 . Just as the gripping and reinserting was carried out on one side with the pen housing 11 , the symmetry of the pen holder 14 allows the same process on the other side. In order to take advantage of symmetry, a second pen housing 31 and a second pen 22 are arranged opposite the pen housing 11 , so that a two-pen system as shown in FIGS. 9 to 13 is available, in which the pen holder alternatively one and the other uses another pen.

To eliminate the normally required pen position switches or optical detectors, the present invention uses a starting point scheme in which all pens present in the system are located before any writes are started. As shown in FIGS. 14 to 18, this scheme is based on the geometry and the interaction of the pen housing with the pen holder 14 . The pen holder is so designed that it interacts with each pen housing in a manner that four separate and be certain stop points are given, each stop point corresponds to a standstill point of the DC motor 35 , which serves to drive the pen holder 14 . The stop, which is closest to the center of the pen transport shaft 19 , results when the pen housing 11 and pen holder 14 each carry a pen. This case is shown in Fig. 14 Darge, where the barb-shaped end 26 collides with the blunted end portion 23 of the clamping arm 13 . The stop, which is closest to the center of the pen transport shaft 19 , results when neither the pen housing 11 nor the pen holder 14 carry a pen, as shown in Fig. 15. This stopping point is further away from the center of the pen transport shaft 19 than the stopping point, which is shown in FIG. 14, since the clamping arm 13 describes an arc about its axis of rotation, which is not in line with the barb-shaped end 26 . That is, the pen holder 14 moves a little further before the barbed end 26 hits the clamping arm 23 . Although this difference in distance is very narrow (1 mm), the optical angle encoder is chosen so that it has a measurement result of almost 0.025 mm or more precisely in order to meet the requirements for writing systems. It is therefore no problem to tell the two stop points apart in the test result. The stop point shown in FIG. 6 is even more distant from the center of the pen transport shaft 19 and corresponds to the situation shown in FIG. 3, in which a pen is in the pen housing 11 and not a pen in the pen holder 14 . As described above, this stop occurs when the barbed end 26 abuts the stop 33 of the clamp arm 13 . The farthest from the center of the pen transport shaft 19 is shown in Fig. 17, for which a pen is first arranged in the pen holder 14 and this enters an empty pen housing 11 , as described above for Fig. 7. The relative positions of these stop points for the left and for the right side are shown schematically in FIG. 18, and the various possible pen configurations in FIG. 19.

According to the embodiment of the invention, the output scheme begins as far as described in the sequence of FIGS. 9 to 13, wherein the control device 40 usually has no information about the starting position of the pen or the position of the pen holder 14 . As shown in the flow chart of Fig. 20, the pen holder is first slid to the left hand pen housing, the pen housing 11 , until penetration occurs, e.g. B. until the pen holder hits a stop and the DC motor 35 stops, so that the system is set to the beginning and a starting point Y 1 is set for the pen holder 14 , as measured by the optical encoder 37 . The pen holder will then release and move until there is contact with the pen housing 14 , in which case this new breakpoint is registered by the control device 40 as Y2. The pen holder 14 is then completely moved to the right side of the pen housing 31 , and it is registered by the control device 40, a new breakpoint Y 3 . As before, the pen holder is released and then brought back into contact with the pen housing 31 until penetration occurs. A new breakpoint Y 4 is thereby determined. As can be seen from FIG. 20, the information of the relative positions of Y 1 , Y 2 , Y 3 , Y 4 is sufficient to uniquely determine the starting position of the pen. Typically, the writing system controller 40 includes a ROM 41 , as shown in Fig. 9, for performing various writing procedures. Thus, by replacing small parts in the ROM, the simple logic shown in Fig. 20 can be easily performed to obtain the starting point scheme.

In addition, there are further advantageous embodiments of the invention. The arrangement of the various clamping arms can be varied, for example, and still have four separate stopping points, and other distance measuring systems other than the optical angle encoder can also be used for example. A number of different algorithm rhythms could also be developed. For example, instead of using only the relative positions Y 3 and Y 4 of the pen housing 31 , the actual distances of these right-hand stops of Y 1 and Y 2 could serve as direct information as to whether a pen is arranged on the right side or not. In some configurations, it can also be advantageous to change the logic sequence somewhat. If, for example, the control unit determines during its initial queries that a pen is in the pen holder on the left, but not in the pen housing, it may be advantageous to insert the pen into the pen housing 11 before the query process begins on the right side. The inventive concept is also applicable in a system in which pens are only provided on one side of the pen holder, such as in a pen magazine device. In such a system, however, something like a fixed stop would be required to have a start for the distance measurement. It should also be apparent that the concept of the invention is not limited to a starting point scheme, but it can just as well be used to determine pen positions during writing. For example, if a pen was to be replaced for some reason during normal writing from a pen housing, the control system would report the absence when attempting to grab the pen because the DC motor would stop at a stop point which would not correspond to the intended location.

Claims (4)

1. Device for locating at least one pen in a writing system, in particular an electronic computer, the writing system comprising a pen housing ( 11 ) for receiving pens ( 12 ) that are not currently in use, a pen transport device ( 19 , 39 ) and a pen holder ( 14 ) to guide a pen in use ( 12 ) and the pen holder ( 14 ) on the pen transport device movable with the pen housing ( 11 ) for receiving and replaying pens ( 12 ) cooperates, characterized in that the pen holder ( 14 ) defined stop Y takes, which is detected as location information via a sensor ( 37 ) and passed to a control unit ( 40 ) of the writing system, and that pen housing ( 11 ) and pen holder ( 14 ) are designed such that four different Stops Y (positions) can be defined , in which either a pen ( 12 , 22 ) in the pen housing ( 11 ) and pen holder ( 14 ) is arranged ( Fig. 14) or neither in the pen housing ( 11 ) nor in the pen holder ( 14 ) a pen is arranged ( Fig. 15) or a pen ( 12 ) in the pen holder ( 14 ), but no pen in the pen housing ( 11 ) is arranged ( Fig. 16) or a pen ( 12 ) in the pen housing ( 11 ) and no pen is arranged in the pen holder ( 14 ). 2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the encoder ( 37 ) is designed as an optical angle encoder. 3. Device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that a second, on the pen transport device ( 19 , 39 ) from the pen holder ( 14 ) approachable pen housing ( 31 ) is provided. 4. Device according to claim 3, characterized in that the second pen housing ( 31 ) is arranged mirror-symmetrically to the first ( 11 ) and with the pen holder ( 14 ) has corresponding defined stop, which can also be entered as information for the control device.