JP2001191511A - Information transmitter and printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the size and cost of an apparatus by minimizing the number of signal lines connecting between a movable body, e.g. a carriage, and a fixed body, e.g. a control section. SOLUTION: The number of signal lines between a carriage 4 and a control section 12 is decreased significantly by transmitting various information of a head 21 and an ink cartridge 22 carried on a movable carriage 4 to a control section 12 secured to a printer body 1 through serial data transfer.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information transmission device between a movable object and a fixed object and a printer device for processing print data from a host device and printing the same on recording paper, and in particular, a moving object such as a carriage that moves by scanning. The present invention relates to labor saving of a data information signal line between the control information and a fixed control system, improvement of reliability, miniaturization of the device, and reduction of cost.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, an ink jet printer apparatus prints on a recording sheet by directly ejecting ink from an ink jet head (hereinafter, referred to as a head) having ejection nozzles provided at a predetermined distance from a recording sheet to be conveyed. For example, as shown in a perspective view of FIG. 8, a carriage 4 slidable on guide shafts 2 and 3 of the printer body 1.
The carriage 4 has, for example, yellow Y,
A head unit 5 containing magenta M, cyan C, and black BK heads, an ink cartridge, and each detector is mounted. In the transport path of the recording paper 6, the recording paper 6
, A driving gear 8 attached to a sub-scanning motor for conveying the recording paper 6, and a platen roller 10 connected to the driving gear 8 via a roller gear 9. The recording paper 6 is sandwiched between the platen roller 10 and the sprocket roller 11 and is conveyed in the direction B in the drawing. A platen knob 10a is connected to the platen roller 10 so that the user can manually rotate the recording paper 6 by hand as needed.

The carriage 4 is moved by an arrow A by a main scanning motor.
As shown in (1), the ink droplets are ejected from the head unit 5 to print one line on the recording paper 6. afterwards,
After the recording paper 6 is conveyed by a predetermined amount by the sub-scanning motor,
Similarly, the carriage 4 is moved to eject ink from the head unit 5. This operation is repeated to form characters and images on the recording paper 6.

As shown in the block diagram of FIG. 9, a control unit 12 for controlling the operation of the printer includes an arithmetic unit 14 connected to a host device 13, a main scanning motor 15 of the printer body 1, and a sub-scanning motor. Main scanning motor driver 1 for driving motor 16 and head maintaining mechanism motor 17 respectively
8, a sub-scanning motor driver 19, a head maintaining mechanism motor driver 20, and a head 21 for yellow Y, magenta M, cyan C, and black BK mounted on the carriage 4.
a to 21d, a head driver 24 for driving the head unit 5 having the ink cartridges 22a to 22d and the detectors 23; a detection buffer 25 for receiving various detection signals from the carriage 4 and the head unit 5; A memory 26 such as a ROM or a RAM used for The head maintaining mechanism motor 17 is a mechanism for improving the reliability of the head unit 5 and always maintaining the printing quality, and mainly drives an ink suction pump, a cleaning wiper, and a cap for preventing the head surface from drying or the like. Used as a source.

In this printer, the carriage 4
Needs to perform the printing operation while moving in the scanning direction.
Generally, signals are transmitted and received by connecting the control unit 14 and the carriage 4 with a flexible cable. When the number of wires of this cable increases, the width of the cable increases, and it is necessary to reduce the number of cables as much as possible in view of miniaturization and cost. In the case where the heads 21a to 21d of four colors of yellow Y, magenta M, cyan C, and black BK and the ink cartridges 22a to 22d are mounted on the carriage 4,
As shown in the connection diagram of the signal lines between the detection buffer 25 and the carriage 4 in FIG.
A total of 14 signal lines, 12 signal lines and power supply lines 30 and 31 for 27d, ink cartridge presence / absence information 28a to 28d, and head presence / absence information 29a to 29d are required. As the color of the printer apparatus increases and the number of heads and the type of information increase, the number of signal lines between the carriage 4 and the control unit 12 increases, which contributes to a reduction in the size of the apparatus and an increase in cost.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned disadvantages and to reduce the number of signal lines for connecting between a movable object such as a carriage and a fixed object such as a control unit as much as possible to reduce the size and cost of the apparatus. It is an object of the present invention to provide an information transmission device capable of transmitting information without increasing the number of signal lines even if the information increases, and a printer device using the same.

[0007]

An information transmission device according to the present invention is an information transmission device between a movable object and a fixed object, and transmits various information of the movable object to the fixed object by serial data transfer. Features.

According to the present invention, there is provided a printer for printing on a recording sheet by scanning a carriage on which a plurality of ink jet heads and ink cartridges are mounted. In the printer, various information of the ink jet head and ink cartridge mounted on a movable carriage is provided. Is transmitted to a control unit fixed to the main body by serial data transfer.

It is preferable that various kinds of information on the ink jet head and the ink cartridge mounted on the carriage are assigned to one serial data signal and transmitted.

[0010] Further, the various information of the ink jet head and the ink cartridge mounted on the carriage preferably include information on detection of the remaining amount of ink, information on the presence or absence of the ink cartridge, and information on the presence or absence of the head.

Further, it is desirable that the serial data transfer be performed by optical communication or wireless communication.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The carriage of the printer of the present invention has four color heads of yellow Y, magenta M, cyan C and black BK, and four color ink cartridges. A serial data transmission element for detecting remaining ink amount (hereinafter referred to as an ink remaining amount transmission element) for transmitting various information of the head and the ink cartridge to the control unit;
It has a serial data transmission element for ink cartridge presence / absence information (hereinafter referred to as cartridge presence / absence transmission element) and a serial data transmission element for head presence / absence information (hereinafter referred to as head presence / absence transmission element). The control unit includes a serial data receiving element (hereinafter, referred to as an ink remaining amount receiving element) for detecting remaining ink amount and a serial data receiving element for detecting presence or absence of ink cartridge (hereinafter, referred to as a cartridge presenting / receiving element) connected to the arithmetic unit. ) And a serial data receiving element for head presence / absence information (hereinafter referred to as a head presence / absence receiving element). The ink remaining amount transmitting element of the carriage and the ink remaining amount receiving element of the control unit are connected by a serial data line (hereinafter, referred to as an ink remaining amount data line) for transmitting ink remaining amount detection information, and a cartridge presence / absence transmitting element and a cartridge presence / absence reception are provided. The elements are connected by a serial data line for ink cartridge presence / absence information (hereinafter, referred to as a cartridge presence / absence data line), and the head presence / absence transmission element and the head presence / absence reception element are connected to a serial data line for head presence / absence information (hereinafter, head presence / absence data line). ).

The serial data signals of the remaining ink amount detection information, the cartridge presence information, and the head presence information transmitted from the remaining ink amount transmitting element, the cartridge presence / absence transmitting element, and the head presence / absence transmitting element respectively have a start bit S at the beginning.
One byte (8 bits) of data is interposed between T and the last stop bit SP. The 8-bit data bits are divided into 4 sets for every 2 bits. For example, in the serial data signal of the ink remaining amount detection information, 1 bit and 2 bits are assigned to black BK ink remaining amount information, and 3 bits and 4 bits are cyan. Allocated to ink remaining amount information of C, 5
Bits and 6 bits are allocated to magenta M ink remaining amount information, and 7 bits and 8 bits are allocated to yellow Y ink remaining amount information. The cartridge presence / absence information and the head presence / absence information are similarly allocated.

The serial data signal to which the ink remaining amount detection information, cartridge presence / absence information and head presence / absence information are assigned is serially transferred from the carriage to the control unit. And information on the presence or absence of the head can be transmitted to the control unit. By transmitting a serial data signal to which the ink remaining amount detection information, the cartridge presence / absence information, and the head presence / absence information are assigned from the carriage to the control unit, the signal line between the carriage and the control unit is connected to the ink remaining amount data line and the cartridge presence / absence information. The number of data lines and head presence / absence data lines can be reduced to three, and the number of signal lines can be greatly reduced.

[0015]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing connection of signal lines between a control unit and a carriage of a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the carriage 4 of the printer body 1 has yellow Y, magenta M, cyan C, black B
A serial data transmitting element (hereinafter, referred to as an ink remaining amount transmitting element) 32a for detecting remaining ink amount, which is connected to the heads 21a to 21d of the four colors K and the detectors 23 of the ink cartridges 22a to 22d; It has a serial data transmission element for presence / absence information (hereinafter referred to as cartridge presence / absence transmission element) 32b and a serial data transmission element for head presence / absence information (hereinafter referred to as head presence / absence transmission element) 32c. The control unit 12 includes a serial data receiving element (hereinafter, referred to as an ink remaining amount receiving element) 33a for detecting the remaining amount of ink connected to the arithmetic unit 14, and a serial data receiving element (hereinafter, referred to as a cartridge) for detecting the presence or absence of the ink cartridge. And a serial data receiving element (hereinafter, referred to as a head presence / absence receiving element) 33c for head presence / absence information. The ink remaining amount transmitting element 32a of the carriage 4 and the ink remaining amount receiving element 33a of the control unit 12 are provided with a serial data line (hereinafter referred to as ink remaining amount data line) 34a for transmitting ink remaining amount detection information.
The cartridge presence / absence transmission element 32b and the cartridge presence / absence reception element 33b are connected by a serial data line (hereinafter referred to as cartridge presence / absence data line) 34b for ink cartridge presence / absence information.
2c and a head presence / absence receiving element 33c are a serial data line for head presence / absence information (hereinafter, referred to as a head presence / absence data line).
34c.

The serial data signals 35a, 35 of the remaining ink detection information, the cartridge presence information and the head presence information transmitted from the remaining ink amount transmitting element 32a, the cartridge presence / absence transmitting element 32b and the head presence / absence transmitting element 32c.
b and 35c have a general data configuration as shown in the time chart of FIG.
One byte (8 bits) of data is interposed between the first stop bit SP and the last stop bit SP. As shown in the information allocation diagram of FIG. 3, the eight data bits are divided into four sets for every two bits. For example, the serial data signal 35a of the ink remaining amount detection information includes one bit and two bits of black BK.
3 bits and 4 bits are assigned to cyan C ink remaining amount information, 5 bits and 6 bits are assigned to magenta M ink remaining amount information, and 7 bits and 8 bits are assigned to yellow Y ink. Assign to remaining amount information. And when each bit is “0”, there is no data,
When "1", it is determined that there is data, and when the state of 2 bits is "0, 0", it is assigned to ink end information.
In the case of "0, 1", it is assigned to the ink near-end information, in the case of "1, 1", it is assigned to a state where the ink amount is １ ／ consumed, and in the case of "1, 1", it is assigned to an ink full state. The cartridge presence / absence information and the head presence / absence information are similarly allocated.

The serial data signals 35a, 35b and 35c to which the remaining ink detection information, cartridge presence / absence information and head presence / absence information are assigned are transmitted to the remaining ink transmission element 32.
a, cartridge presence / absence transmission element 32b and head presence / absence transmission element 32c from ink remaining amount data line 34a, cartridge presence / absence data line 34b and head presence / absence data line 34c
Through the controller 12, the ink remaining amount receiving element 33a, the cartridge presence / absence receiving element 33b, and the head presence / absence receiving element 3
By transmitting the information to the control unit 3c, information on the state of each ink remaining amount, the presence / absence of an ink cartridge, and the presence / absence of a head can be transmitted from the carriage 4 to the arithmetic unit 14 of the control unit 12. The arithmetic unit 14 detects the state of the carriage 4 by processing the information of each bit of the transmitted serial data signals 35a, 35b, 35c.

By transmitting the serial data signals 35a, 35b, 35c to which the ink remaining amount detection information, the cartridge presence / absence information and the head presence / absence information are allocated from the carriage 4 to the control unit 12, the power supply line 3
The number of signal lines between the carriage 4 and the control unit 12 other than 0 and 31 can be three, that is, the remaining ink data line 34a, the cartridge presence / absence data line 34b, and the head presence / absence data line 34c. The number of signal lines can be significantly reduced. Further, even if the number of heads mounted on the carriage 4 is increased and the amount of information is increased, serial data transfer does not require an increase in the number of signal lines, and the information can be obtained without increasing the cost of a cable such as an FPC. And the size of the device can be reduced.

In the above embodiment, the case where three signal lines of the ink remaining amount data line 34a, the cartridge presence / absence data line 34b, and the head presence / absence data line 34c are provided between the carriage 4 and the controller 12 has been described. As shown in
A 3-byte serial data signal 36 composed of 1-byte (8-bit) data between the start bit ST at the start and the stop bit SP at the end during one information transmission.
May be transferred as serial data. In this case, the first byte is assigned to ink amount information, the second byte is assigned to ink cartridge presence information, and the third byte is assigned to head presence information, so that one carriage is assigned to the carriage 4 as shown in FIG. A serial data transmitting element 32 is provided, and one serial data receiving element 33 is provided in the control unit 12.
And the serial data transmitting element 32 and the serial data receiving element 33 can be connected by one serial data line 34. Therefore, the number of signal lines between the carriage 4 and the control unit 12 can be reduced to the minimum.

In the above-described embodiment, the case where the carriage 4 and the control unit 12 are connected by a cable such as an FPC is described. However, as shown in FIG. A light receiving element 38 may be provided, and serial data transfer between the carriage 4 and the control unit 12 may be performed by optical communication using light 39. As described above, by performing serial data transfer between the carriage 4 and the control unit 12 by optical communication, even if the carriage 4 moves left and right, light is not blocked, and data can be transmitted and received stably. In addition, it is not necessary to provide a signal line by a cable between the carriage 4 and the control unit 12. Further, the information transmission between the carriage 4 and the control unit 12 is not affected by the radio waves generated from the devices, and the information can be transmitted accurately.

As shown in FIG. 7, a radio transmitter 40 is provided on the carriage 4, a radio receiver 41 is provided on the control unit 12, and serial data transfer between the carriage 4 and the control unit 12 is performed by wireless communication. Is also good. Also in this case, there is no need to provide a signal line by a cable between the carriage 4 and the control unit 12, and even if there is an obstacle between the transmitting and receiving antennas, there is no need to be affected by data transfer.

In the above embodiment, the carriage 4 of the printer device is used.
Although the information transmission between the control unit 12 and the control unit 12 has been described, the present invention can be similarly applied to the information transmission between a movable object other than the carriage 4 and a fixed object such as a control unit that controls the operation of the movable object. .

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention, various kinds of information of a movable object are transmitted to a fixed object by serial data transfer, so that signal lines between the movable object and the fixed object can be greatly reduced. Thus, the size of the apparatus can be reduced and the cost can be reduced.

Further, by transmitting various information of the ink jet head and the ink cartridge mounted on the movable carriage of the printer device to a control unit fixed to the main body by serial data transfer, a signal line between the carriage and the control unit is transmitted. This can greatly reduce the size of the printer device and reduce the cost.

Further, by allocating various information of the ink jet head and the ink cartridge mounted on the carriage to one serial data signal and transmitting the serial data signal,
The number of signal lines between the carriage and the control unit can be minimized.

The various information of the ink jet head and the ink cartridge mounted on the carriage includes the remaining ink amount detection information, the ink cartridge presence / absence information, and the head presence / absence information, thereby accurately transmitting the information of the ink jet head and the like to the control unit. And a stable printing operation can be performed.

Further, by performing serial data transfer by optical communication, even if the carriage moves left and right, light is not blocked, and information can be stably transmitted and received. There is no need to provide a signal line by cable between them. In addition, information transmission between the carriage and the control unit is not affected by radio waves generated from the device, and information can be transmitted accurately.

Further, by performing serial data transfer between the carriage and the control unit by wireless communication, it is not necessary to provide a signal line by a cable between the carriage and the control unit, and there is an obstacle between the transmitting and receiving antennas. Is not affected by the transfer of information.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating connection of signal lines between a control unit and a carriage of a printer device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a time chart showing a serial data signal.

FIG. 3 is an information allocation diagram of a serial data signal.

FIG. 4 is a time chart showing a serial data signal of a second embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating connection of signal lines between a control unit and a carriage according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating signal transmission between a control unit and a carriage according to a third embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating signal transmission between a control unit and a carriage according to a fourth embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view illustrating a configuration of a printer device.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a drive control unit of the printer device.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating connection of signal lines between a control unit and a carriage in a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

1; printer body; 4; carriage; 12; control unit, 1
4; arithmetic unit 21; head 22; ink cartridge 23; detector 32; serial data transmitting element 3
3; serial data receiving element, 34; serial data line, 35; serial data signal, 36; serial data signal.

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An information transmission device between a movable object and a fixed object, wherein the information transmission device transmits various information of the movable object to the fixed object by serial data transfer. 2. A printer device for scanning a carriage equipped with a plurality of ink-jet heads and ink cartridges and printing on recording paper, wherein various information of the ink-jet heads and ink cartridges mounted on a movable carriage is transferred by serial data transfer. And a control unit fixed to the printer. 3. The printer apparatus according to claim 2, wherein various information of the ink jet head and the ink cartridge mounted on the carriage are assigned to one serial data signal and transmitted. 4. The printer device according to claim 1, wherein the various information of the ink jet head and the ink cartridge mounted on the carriage includes ink remaining amount detection information, ink cartridge presence / absence information, and head presence / absence information. 5. The printer according to claim 2, wherein the serial data transfer is performed by optical communication. 6. The printer device according to claim 2, wherein the serial data transfer is performed by wireless communication.