JP2002200819A - Recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce cost required for interface. SOLUTION: An interface substrate 3 is connected with a control board 2 through respective removable connectors 4. A host computer 7 for transmitting various data, e.g. record data, to an ink jet recorder 1 is connected with the interface substrate 3 using an interface cable 6 through an interface connector 5. The interface substrate 3, the interface connector 5 and the interface cable 6 constitute a host interface 17.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording apparatus having an interface board whose interface with a host computer can be expanded and selected.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a recording apparatus such as an ink jet recording apparatus has a predetermined host interface. For example, a desired medium recording can be performed by connecting a host computer with a dedicated cable or the like according to a general Centro compatible protocol or the like as a printer interface.

[0003]

However, in addition to the above-mentioned conventional examples, various host interfaces have recently appeared, and the interface standards have also been added to high value. In order to keep up with the diversification of forms, it is necessary for the ink jet recording apparatus to prepare interface connectors corresponding to respective interface standards in order to meet the needs of each user. As a result, it has become common to arrange connectors conforming to a plurality of interface standards in one printer.

[0004] However, even if the recording apparatus has a plurality of interfaces, the general user's usage form usually uses one of the interface connectors that suits the user himself. Even with a connector, it is often the case that only one desired connector is eventually used. The equipment to which the unused parts are connected unnecessarily will be costly, and impose unnecessary costs on the user.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an ink jet recording apparatus in which the cost required for an interface is reduced.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, a recording apparatus of the present invention comprises a recording means for recording on a recording medium, and a recording operation of the recording means based on a signal from an external processing device. A control board having a control unit for controlling the control unit, the control board has an electrical connection to an interface board for transmitting a signal from the processing device to the control unit, the connection unit And is detachably connected to the interface board.

In the recording apparatus of the present invention configured as described above, the control board and the interface board can be separated from each other by the connection section that electrically connects the control board having the control section and the interface board. That is, the interface board can be a separate unit. For this reason, the interface board can be prepared according to the interface cable used by the user.

The connecting portion may have a card edge structure, or the connecting portion and a connected portion of the interface board which are connected to the connecting portion may be connectors, respectively. Each connector may be an optical fiber connector.

Further, the recording apparatus of the present invention has a transport means for transporting a recording medium, the recording means holding an ink jet recording head for discharging ink and performing recording on the recording medium, and It may include a holding unit that reciprocates in a direction substantially perpendicular to the recording medium conveyance direction.

[0010]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. (First Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of an example of a recording apparatus according to the present embodiment.

The ink jet recording apparatus 1 is supported by a guide shaft 52 attached to a main body chassis 51 so as to be slidable in the direction of arrow B ".
And a control board 2 (see FIG. 2) for controlling the printing operation and the like of the ink jet printing apparatus 1;
Paper feed tray 61 for supplying recording paper 60 on which recording is performed
And

A part of the carriage 53 is fixed to a timing belt 56 stretched between a drive pulley 54 coupled to a drive motor 63 and an idler pulley 55. Accordingly, it can reciprocate along the guide shaft 52 in the direction of arrow B ".

The recording head cartridge 57 is detachably mounted on the carriage 53, and is attached to the back of the main body chassis 51 via a flexible cable 58 for transmitting and receiving a current and a signal for driving the recording head cartridge 57. Is electrically connected to a control board 2 which is a board for controlling the main body of the ink jet recording apparatus 1.

A discharge port (not shown) is formed in the ink jet recording head 58 of the recording head cartridge 57 so as to face downward in the drawing.

The ink jet recording head 58 generates a fine liquid discharge port (orifice), a liquid path, an energy action section provided in a part of the liquid path, and a droplet forming energy to act on the liquid in the action section. Energy generating means.

As an energy generating means for generating such energy, a recording method using an electromechanical transducer such as a piezo element, or a method in which a liquid is heated by an electrothermal transducer such as a heating element having a heating resistor. There is a recording method using an energy generating means for discharging ink. Among them, an ink jet recording head 58 used in an ink jet recording method for discharging a liquid by thermal energy is:
Electric current is supplied to the electrothermal transducer in accordance with the recording signal, and the thermal energy applied by the electrothermal transducer causes ink to be ejected from the ejection port by the growth and shrinkage of bubbles generated in the ink utilizing film boiling generated in the ink. It is configured to perform recording. The inkjet recording head 58 having the electrothermal transducer can perform high-resolution recording because liquid ejection ports (orifices) for ejecting droplets and forming ejection droplets can be arranged at high density. It is possible to Further, the ink jet recording head 58 using this electrothermal transducer as an energy generating means can be easily made compact, and has recently achieved a remarkable advance in technology in the semiconductor field and a remarkable improvement in reliability. This is advantageous because the advantages can be fully utilized, high-density mounting is easy, and manufacturing costs are low.

The ink jet recording apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment having the above-described configuration includes black, cyan, magenta, and yellow inks on the recording paper 60 conveyed from the paper feed tray 61 to the recording area. The recording is performed by discharging the ink supplied from the stored ink tank 62 from the discharge port of the ink jet recording head 58.

Next, the connection between the ink jet recording apparatus of this embodiment and a host computer will be described with reference to the schematic diagram shown in FIG.

Control board 2 in ink jet recording apparatus 1
Are detachably connected to the interface board 3 by the connectors 4 included therein. Further, a host computer 7 for transmitting various data such as print data to the ink jet printing apparatus 1 and the interface board 3 are connected by an interface cable 6 via an interface connector 5. Also, the interface board 3, the interface connector 5,
The interface cable 6 constitutes a host interface 17.

FIG. 3 is a block circuit diagram showing details of the configuration of the control board and the interface board.

The control board 2 includes a first ASIC 8 containing a CPU for controlling the control board 2 and a first AS
A ROM 9 connected to the IC 8 and providing processing information to a CPU inside the first ASIC 8; a DRAM 10 connected to the first ASIC 8 and serving as a memory for temporarily storing data to be processed by the CPU or the like; ASIC
8 and a driver 11 for driving the inkjet recording apparatus 1.

The interface board 3 includes a second ASIC 12 for analyzing information transmitted from the host computer 7 by a dedicated interface cable 6 and transmitting the analyzed information to the control board 2, the interface connector 5 described above, and the interface connector 5 And the second ASI
C12 and an interface signal line 14 for connecting to C12.

Further, between each element in the control board 2 and between the first ASIC 8 and the second AS
The exchange of information with the IC 12 is performed via the bus 13.

Next, transmission of a signal from the host computer 7 to the control board 2 will be described.

The ink jet recording apparatus 1 which has received the recording data (not shown) from the host computer 7 transmits the data to the interface board 3 via the interface cable 6 and the interface connector 5.

The signal transmitted to the interface board 3 is input to the second ASIC 12, converted into a signal sequence (not shown) dedicated to the inside of the ink jet recording apparatus 1, and transmitted to the connector 4 via the bus 13.

The internal-dedicated signal sequence transmitted to the connector 4 is transmitted to the first ASIC 8 to analyze the recorded data and perform processing for analyzing, judging, and executing a control signal from the host computer 7. At this time, the bus 13 is connected to the DRAM 10
Also, they are used in time series in the data processing of the ROM 9. Further, the bus 13 is also used for controlling the driver 11 and the like in printing as a final operation of the ink jet printing apparatus 1.

Here, the internal dedicated signal sequence at the cut end of the connector 4 is designed to have a common signal specification regardless of the specification of the interface cable 6 of the interface board 3. For this reason, the inkjet recording apparatus 1 does not need to provide an interface that is not used by the user by making only the interface board 3 correspond to the interface cable 6 used by the user, that is, by customizing the host interface 17.

Since the interface board 3 is detachable from the control board 2, if the user intends to use a host interface different from the current host interface 17, another interface board is required. Another interface board 3 corresponding to the interface cable of the host interface can be connected to the control board 2 and used.

In the present embodiment, the connector 4 has a double-sided connector shape. However, the present invention is not limited to this. The same effect can be obtained even when the connector 4 has a card edge on one side and a connector on only one side. Having.

As described above, according to the ink jet recording apparatus of the present embodiment, since the interface board 3 is configured to be detachable from the control board 2, the user can use the interface board 3. It can be prepared according to the interface cable 6 that is used. For this reason, there is no need for the inkjet recording apparatus 1 to have an unnecessary interface that is not currently used by the user. (Second Embodiment) FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram for explaining the connection between the ink jet recording apparatus of this embodiment and a host computer, and FIG. 5 shows details of the configuration of a control board and an interface board. Are respectively shown in the block circuit diagrams.

In FIG. 4, the connector 4 of FIG. 2 shown in the first embodiment is the optical connector 16, and in FIG. 5, the connector 4 is the same as the first ASIC 8 of FIG. 3 shown in the first embodiment. A bus 13 for exchanging signals with the second ASIC 12
Is the same as that of the first embodiment except that is changed to the serial signal line 15. Therefore, the detailed description is omitted, and the reference numerals used in the description of the present embodiment are the same as those used in the first embodiment except for the optical connector 16 and the serial signal line 15.

Further, it goes without saying that the control board 2 and the interface board 3 of the present embodiment can be mounted on the ink jet recording apparatus 1 having the configuration shown in FIG.

The ink jet recording apparatus of this embodiment is also
As in the first embodiment, since the interface board 3 has a configuration detachable from the control board 2, the interface board 3 is prepared according to the interface cable 6 used by the user. Can be. For this reason, there is no need for the inkjet recording apparatus 1 to have an unnecessary interface that is not currently used by the user.

[0035]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The connection board can separate the control board and the interface board. That is, the interface board can be a separate unit. For this reason, the interface board can be prepared according to the interface cable used by the user. Therefore, it is not necessary for the inkjet recording apparatus to include an unnecessary interface that is not currently used by the user, and cost can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a recording apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a connection between the inkjet recording apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention and a host computer.

FIG. 3 is a block circuit diagram illustrating details of a configuration of a control board and an interface board in the inkjet recording apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a connection between an inkjet recording apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention and a host computer.

FIG. 5 is a block circuit diagram illustrating details of the configuration of a control board and an interface board in the inkjet printing apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Ink jet recording apparatus 2 Control board 3 Interface board 4 Connector 5 Interface connector 6 Interface cable 7 Host computer 8 First ASIC 9 ROM 10 Memory 11 Driver 12 Second ASIC 13 Bus 14 Interface signal 15 Serial signal line 16 Optical connector 17 Host interface 51 Main body chassis 52 Guide shaft 53 Carriage 54 Driving pulley 55 Idler pulley 56 Timing belt 57 Recording head cartridge 58 Inkjet recording head 59 Flexible cable 60 Recording paper 61 Feed tray 62 Ink tank 63 Driving motor

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A recording apparatus comprising: a recording unit that performs recording on a recording medium; and a control substrate that includes a control unit that controls a recording operation of the recording unit based on a signal from an external processing device. The control board has an electrical connection to an interface board for transmitting a signal from the processing device to the control section, and is detachably connected to the interface board at the connection section. apparatus. 2. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the connection section has a card edge structure. 3. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of the connection portion and a connected portion of the interface board connected to the connection portion is a connector. 4. The recording apparatus according to claim 3, wherein each of the connectors is an optical fiber connector. 5. A recording device, comprising: transport means for transporting the recording medium, wherein the recording means holds an ink jet recording head for discharging ink and performing recording on the recording medium, and The recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a holding unit that reciprocates in a direction substantially perpendicular to the transport direction.