JP2000177209A - Recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To transfer data efficiently inside a recording device so as to shorten a printing time, by composing a printer controller so that in the case band information is all white data, the band information is not transferred to an engine controller but notice that the band information is all white data is transferred. SOLUTION: A printer controller 4 judges whether band information to be transferred to an engine controller 5 is white data or not. In the case there is band information to be transferred, the controller transfers it. In the case the information is all white data, it notifies the engine controller 5 of it, and proceeds, without transferring band data, to wait for receiving the next band data. On the other hand, in the case there is data received from the printer controller 4, the engine controller 5 judges whether the notice is about band information including image data or all white data. Therefore, an amount of data transferred from the printer controller to the engine controller and a transfer time are reduced.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus, and more particularly to a printing apparatus for transferring data between a printer controller and an engine controller in band units.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, in various recording apparatuses such as an ink jet recording apparatus and a laser printer, an image is recorded by transmitting and receiving print data from a host side and controlling driving of a printer engine unit such as a recording head based on the print data. I do. Various printer languages are used to transfer data between the host and the printing apparatus.
As the printer language, a language in which all processing such as rasterization is performed on the host side, and a language in which all processing such as rasterization is performed on the recording apparatus side are general.

In the former printer language, an image to be recorded (printed) is rasterized by a printer driver of a host computer to generate image data, and this image data is sent to a recording device via a Centronics (a so-called printer I / F). This is a protocol for transferring images to the Internet, and employs an image transfer method.

This is because most of the processing required for printing is performed by a printer driver on the host computer side.
A high-performance microcomputer (hereinafter referred to as
Abbreviated as “microcomputer”. ), And an inexpensive recording device can be provided. However, since the printer speed (recording speed) depends on the processing speed of the microcomputer of the host computer, and even a high-performance microcomputer takes a long time to transfer image data, the recording device has a relatively low recording speed.

The latter printer language transfers information to be printed as a drawing command to a recording device.
In other words, it is a command method. According to this, a recording device capable of relatively high-speed recording with a small transfer load from the host to the recording device is obtained. However, the recording device interprets the drawing commands and draws them in the full page buffer memory. Therefore, a high-performance microcomputer and a large amount of memory are required.

[0006]

As described above, data transfer between the conventional host and the recording apparatus has advantages and disadvantages. Recently, a unit called a band is set on the host side, and a drawing command is issued for each band. A so-called display-list method has been proposed in which a recording apparatus generates and performs drawing processing for each band, and according to this method, processing can be performed at a higher speed than image transfer.
Moreover, since a full page buffer memory is not needed,
Cost can be reduced compared to the command method.

Therefore, the recording apparatus also includes a printer controller for receiving print data transferred from the host and converting the print data into image data, and an engine controller for driving and controlling each unit of the apparatus. A recording device that transfers bitmap data (image data) to the engine controller unit in band units is conceivable.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and has as its object to reduce the printing time by efficient data transfer inside a recording apparatus. Specifically, an object of the present invention is to reduce the data transfer amount and transfer time from the printer controller to the engine controller. Another object of the present invention is to reduce the printing time. A third object of the present invention is to speed up the process of determining whether all image data in a band is white data. A fourth object of the present invention is to reduce the printing time.

[0009]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing apparatus which receives print data transferred from a host and converts the print data into image data. A printer controller that receives image data transferred in band units from the unit and drives and controls each unit of the apparatus.The printer controller unit is configured to execute the engine when the band information is all white data. Without transferring the band information to the controller,
It is configured to transfer that all the band information is white data.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the recording apparatus of the first aspect, the engine controller sub-scans the recording medium when the engine controller receives from the printer controller that all the band information is white data. It was configured to send in the direction.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing apparatus which receives print data transferred from a host and converts the print data into image data, and receives image data transferred in band units from the printer controller. A recording apparatus comprising: an engine controller for driving and controlling each unit of the apparatus; wherein the engine controller includes means for determining whether or not all band information received from the printer controller is white data. And

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the recording apparatus of the third aspect, the engine controller sends the recording medium in the sub-scanning direction when all of the band information from the printer controller is white data. The configuration was adopted.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an outline of a system including an ink jet printer which is a recording apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

This system comprises a host computer (hereinafter simply referred to as "host") 1 and an ink jet printer (hereinafter simply referred to as "printer") 2 as a recording device. The host 1 includes peripheral devices such as an external recording device and an image reading device in addition to the computer main body.

The printer 2 receives a printer engine 3 such as a recording head for recording an image and a drive source for performing main scanning and sub-scanning, and print data (drawing command) transferred from the host 1. The rendering command is interpreted and converted into image data (bitmap data) (the converted data is referred to as “video data”). The video data is transmitted in band units, and various commands are transmitted. A printer controller unit 4 for sending;
An engine controller unit 5 for controlling the drive of the printer engine 3 based on information such as video data and commands transferred from the printer controller unit 4;
Printer controller 4 and engine controller 5
Is called an engine I / F6.

Here, a part related to the printer engine 3 will be described with reference to FIGS. Note that FIG.
FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a mechanism, and FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view of a main part of FIG. The carriage 15 is slidably held in the main scanning direction (the direction indicated by the arrow A in FIG. 3) by the guide rods 13 and the guide plates 14 which are suspended between the left and right side plates 11 and 12 (see FIG. 3). A recording head 16 composed of an ink-jet head is mounted on the lower surface side of the printer with the ink droplet ejection direction facing downward, and an ink cartridge 17 for supplying ink to the recording head 16 is mounted on the upper surface side of the carriage 15. .

The recording head 16 comprises four heads for discharging yellow (Y) ink, magenta (M) ink, cyan (C) ink, and black (Bk) ink, respectively. Similarly, the ink cartridge 17 also includes four cartridges for supplying ink of each color.

The recording head 16 is a multi-nozzle ink jet head having a plurality of nozzle holes, and uses an independent head for each color. However, a plurality of nozzles for ejecting ink droplets of each color to one head are used. It may have a row. Further, as an ink jet head, a device using an electromechanical conversion element such as a piezoelectric element or a device using an electrothermal conversion element such as a heating resistor as a means for generating energy for discharging ink droplets, a vibration plate and an electrode An electrostatic type using the electrostatic force is generally used.

The carriage 15 is connected to a timing belt 21 stretched between a driving pulley 19 rotated by a main scanning motor 18 composed of a stepping motor and a driven pulley 20 to control the driving of the main scanning motor 18. By doing so, the carriage 15, that is, the recording head 16 is moved in the main scanning direction.

On the other hand, a transport roller 25 for transporting the paper 24 in the sub-scanning direction (the direction indicated by the arrow B in FIG. 2), and paper feed rollers 26 and 2 pressed against the peripheral surface of the transport roller 25 are disposed.
7, a pinch roller 28 for defining the paper feed angle, a guide plate 29 facing the recording head 16, a recording head 16
The discharge roller 30 includes a paper discharge roller 30 on the downstream side in the paper transport direction and a paper pressing spur roller 31 pressed against and abutted by the paper discharge roller 30.

Then, the rotation of the sub-scanning motor 33 composed of a stepping motor is transmitted to the transport roller 25 via gears 34 to 36 and gear 37, and the transport roller 25 is driven to rotate and stored in the paper feed section 38. The paper 24 is fed between the recording head 16 and the guide plate 29 via the transport roller 25, the paper feed rollers 26 and 27 and the paper pressing roller 28, and the transport roller 25 feeds the paper 24 by a predetermined amount. The paper 24 is sent out in the paper discharging direction (the direction indicated by the arrow B in FIG. 3) by the paper discharging roller 30 and the paper pressing spur roller 31 which are rotated via the gear 39 meshing with 37.

In the printer thus configured, the paper 24 is conveyed in the sub-scanning direction while the recording head 16 (carriage 15) is moved and scanned in the main scanning direction, and ink droplets are ejected from the nozzles of the recording head 16. As a result, a required color image is recorded on the paper 24. Although the sheet feeding section 38 is a single-stage tray for the sake of explanation, it can have a plurality of trays, and can also have a plurality of trays (discharge trays) for discharging paper.

Further, in this printer, a reliability maintenance / recovery mechanism (subsystem) 40 for the recording head 16 is disposed on the right side of the main scanning area of the carriage 15 so that the host can read the data from the host when in the print standby state. When print data is not transferred for a predetermined time, or at a predetermined time interval, a reliability maintenance / recovery operation such as removing stains on the nozzle surface and nozzles of the recording head 16 is performed.

Next, the printer controller 4 and the engine controller 5 constituting the controller of the printer 2 will be described with reference to FIG. The printer controller unit 4 includes an I / O 41 for receiving a printer language (drawing command) and the like transferred from the host 1, and an I / O 41.
A CPU 42 for interpreting the printer language received by the CPU 42 and performing transfer control and the like of data and commands with the engine controller unit 5; a ROM 43 storing fixed information such as programs necessary for the operation of the CPU 42; A work RAM 44 used as a working memory such as a work area for image development is provided, and an I / F 45 between the work controller 44 and the engine controller 5 is provided.

The engine controller 5 includes an I / O 51 for transmitting and receiving commands and video data transferred from the printer controller 4, a VRAM 52 for storing the received video data, and a storage of the video data in the VRAM 52. A CPU 53 for controlling the printer engine 3; a ROM 54 storing fixed information such as programs necessary for the operation of the CPU 53; a working RAM 55 used as a working memory; a recording head 16 of the printer engine 3; A dedicated ASIC 56 for sending drive signals to the motor 18, the sub-scanning motor 33, the subsystem 40, and the like is provided.

The engine I / F 6 between the printer controller 4 and the engine controller 5 includes
A command (serial) line 61 for transmitting and receiving commands and a video line 62 for transferring video data are provided.

The operation of the printer 2 having the above configuration will be described with reference to FIGS. First, FIG.
The printer driver of the host 1 converts a print document into a language (print information) of the printer 2 and transfers it to the printer 2.

In response, the printer 2 rasterizes the print information received from the host 1 by the printer controller 4, converts the rasterized data into bitmap data, and transfers the data to the engine controller 5 band by band.
Then, the engine controller unit 5 expands the data in band units received from the printer controller unit 4 in a buffer, and controls the recording head and the motors of the printer engine 3 to perform printing.

The control of the printer controller 4 and the engine controller 5 will now be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 6 shows the printer controller unit 4.
As shown in (1), it is determined whether or not there is print information to be transferred to the engine controller 5, that is, whether or not all the band information is white data.

If there is print information to be transferred, the data is rasterized and developed in a band, and the band information is transferred to the engine controller 5. On the other hand, when there is no print information to be transferred, that is, when all of the band information is white data, the engine controller unit 5 informs that there is no print information in the band information (all white data). And does not transfer the band data. The engine controller 5
Receives the notification that there is no print information from the printer controller unit 4 and shifts to waiting for reception of the next band data. These processes are repeated for one page, and the printing process for one page is performed.

On the other hand, the engine controller 5
As shown in (2), if there is received data from the printer controller 4, it is determined whether the received data is band information including image data or a notification indicating that all the data is white data.

If the band information contains image data, the printer engine 3 is controlled to print the image data of the band information. On the contrary,
If the notification indicates that the data is all white data, the printing of the band information is skipped and the recording medium (paper) is sent in the sub-scanning direction. These processes are performed for one page.

As described above, the printer controller section includes:
Without transferring the band information to the engine controller when the band information is all white data,
By notifying that all the band information is white data, the amount of data transferred from the printer controller to the engine controller and the transfer time are reduced, and the printing time can be reduced.

When the engine controller receives from the printer controller that all the band information is white data, the engine controller sends the recording medium in the sub-scanning direction, thereby shortening the printing time.

Next, another example of the engine controller 5 will be described with reference to FIG. In this example, a determination unit 57 is provided so that the engine controller 5 determines whether or not all data is white data, which has been performed by the printer controller 4 of the embodiment.

The determination unit 57 receives rasterized image data (image information) received from the printer controller unit 4 in band units and determines whether or not there is an image, that is, all the band information is white data. It is determined whether or not this is the case, the determination result is notified to the CPU 53, and the information is cleared for each band by the clear signal.

As shown in FIG. 9, the engine controller 5 checks the judgment result of the judging unit 57 when there is data received from the printer controller 4, as in the process shown in FIG. If the data is not all white data, the band information is printed, and if the data is all white data, the recording medium is skipped.

As described above, by providing the engine controller 5 with the determination means for determining whether or not all band information is white data, detection can be performed in real time and printing time can be reduced.

In the above embodiment, the present invention is applied to data transfer between the printer controller and the engine controller of the ink jet recording apparatus. However, the present invention can be similarly applied to other recording apparatuses. it can.

[0040]

As described above, according to the recording apparatus of the first aspect, when the band information is all white data, the printer controller does not transfer the band information to the engine controller. Since the configuration is such that all the band information is white data, the data transfer amount and transfer time from the printer controller to the engine controller can be reduced, and the printing time can be reduced.

According to the recording apparatus of the second aspect, in the recording apparatus of the first aspect, when the engine controller receives from the printer controller that the band information is all white data, the engine controller sub-scans the recording medium. Since the paper is sent in the direction, the printing time is reduced.

According to the recording apparatus of the third aspect, the engine controller is provided with means for determining whether or not all band information received from the printer controller is white data. Can be performed in real time, and the printing time can be reduced.

According to the recording apparatus of the fourth aspect, in the recording apparatus of the third aspect, the engine controller sends the recording medium in the sub-scanning direction when all of the band information from the printer controller is white data. The configuration reduces the printing time.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an outline of a system including an ink jet printer which is a recording apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a mechanism of a printer engine of the recording apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view of a main part of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a printer controller and an engine controller of the recording apparatus.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an overall flow of the recording apparatus.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating processing of a printer controller unit.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating processing of an engine controller unit.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating another example of the engine controller.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart for explaining processing of the engine controller of FIG. 8;

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Host, 2 ... Printer (recording apparatus), 3 ... Printer engine, 4 ... Printer controller part, 5 ... Engine controller part, 13 ... Guide rod, 15 ... Carriage, 16 ... Recording head, 18 ... Main scanning motor, 33 ... a sub-scanning motor, 40 ... a subsystem.

Claims (4)

[Claims] A printer controller that receives print data transferred from a host and converts the print data into image data, and receives image data transferred in band units from the printer controller to drive and control each unit of the apparatus. In a recording device including an engine controller, the printer controller does not transfer the band information to the engine controller when the band information is all white data, and the band information is entirely white data. A recording device for transmitting a message to the effect. 2. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the engine controller sends the recording medium in the sub-scanning direction when receiving that the band information is all white data from the printer controller. Characteristic recording device. 3. A printer controller which receives print data transferred from the host and converts the print data into image data, and receives image data transferred in band units from the printer controller to drive and control each unit of the apparatus. A recording device comprising an engine controller, wherein the engine controller comprises means for determining whether or not all band information received from the printer controller is white data. . 4. The recording apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the engine controller sends the recording medium in the sub-scanning direction when all the band information from the printer controller is white data. Recording device.