JP2002361952A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically detect a printing paper inexpensively and easily. SOLUTION: There is provided a printer which is provided with a pick up roller, a motor for driving the pick up roller, a pinch roller, a motor for driving the pinch roller, and an AD converter for measuring the voltage of an LF motor. An LF detects a load change because of a difference of printing papers from the voltage of the motor.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION In the present invention, the type of printing paper is detected by measuring the voltage of a paper feed motor during paper feeding.

[0002] The present invention relates to a printing apparatus that performs paper feed control using a paper feed motor and a pickup motor.

[0003]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a printing apparatus performs optimal control according to a printing paper. However, in order to detect a printing paper, a user has to designate a printing paper from a driver or a paper selection button of a main body. There is a problem that a troublesome process of checking the current paper is required.

[0004] In some cases, the paper is automatically detected, but in order to realize this, the surface of the paper is read by a photo sensor or the like to determine the printing paper. However, in this case, there is a problem that the cost of the expensive photosensor is increased.

It is an object of the present invention to pay attention to this problem and to perform inexpensive and easy automatic detection of printing paper.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, a line feed is performed by picking up a print sheet with a pickup motor for picking up the print sheet, and then stopping the pickup motor once while driving a line feed motor for feeding the sheet. Printing paper discrimination is realized by applying a load to the motor and judging the difference in the load depending on the printing paper from the voltage of the line feed motor.

[0007]

According to the present invention, it is possible to automatically and easily determine the printing paper at low cost.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows a printing apparatus that can suitably explain the present invention.

A CPU 101 is an arithmetic unit for creating print data of a printer device, driving a motor for print control, controlling print head ejection, analyzing commands transferred from a host device, and performing various settings by inputting from a panel. is there.

[0010] 102R0M is printer control software,
Various data, font data used for print data, and the like are stored. 102R0M is read by the 101 CPU and executed as a program. Various data are used as initial values as they are, and 103 RAM
And processed and used by the 101 CPU. The font data is read out from the designated font data by the 101 CPU as needed, expanded in the 103 RAM, and generated as print data. Since the number of mounted font data and the type of mounted character differ depending on the model, the font data also has a different capacity. In the printing apparatus of this embodiment, one font is Mincho font.

The 103RAM develops a result obtained by modifying the above-described font data by a designated modification method and uses the result as print data.

Similarly, in the case of image data, 101CP
The image data read by U is expanded on the 103 RAM at the designated print position and used as print data. Further, the 103RAM is used as a work memory required for executing the program and as a reception buffer as a temporary storage location for input data from the 104 I / F.

A 104 I / F is connected to a host device (not shown) and receives data such as print data and a print instruction command.

The I / F according to the present embodiment has electrical specifications based on IEEE-1284, and transfers not only data from the host but also the status of the printer to the host.
The I / F is capable of bidirectional communication. 105EE
PR0M not only stores the setting state of the printer, but also stores the number of prints, the remaining amount of ink, and the like. As the status of the printer, font items, corresponding paper, function items such as automatic power supply 0N / 0FF, and the like are stored as information.

In the printer of this embodiment, the 106 motor controller is used to perform printing by scanning the print head once or a plurality of times because the printer prints by scanning the print head in the main scanning direction. I do. The control to the 106 motor controller is performed by the 101 CPU, and printing is performed using the constant speed region of the motor. 106
Another control of the motor controller is a line feed motor controller which is a motor for moving the paper in the traveling direction. This motor can operate independently of the head scanning motor. In normal printing, after the head scanning motor performs scanning once or a plurality of times, the line feed motor controller controls to feed a predetermined amount of paper. Further, in the present embodiment, since a configuration is provided with a pickup motor for paper feed, the print paper is transported from the paper feed port, and the pickup motor controller moves the print paper to a predetermined position where the drive of the line feed motor is transmitted. Is transported.

Reference numeral 107 denotes a print head controller, which performs heat processing, head maintenance control, and the like for an inking section composed of two heads, a black head having 360 DPI 160 nozzles and a color head composed of 48 nozzles each having 360 DPI Y, M and C nozzles. Processing such as ink amount detection is performed. Reference numeral 108 denotes an A / D converter in the 101 CPU, which has a function of converting the value into an 8-bit value at a time of about 5 uSec. The 109 bus line is a data and address bus for transferring data. 101 CPU
Control each unit from 102 to 107 using a 109 bus line.

Reference numerals 110 and 111 denote power supply lines to each unit, and reference numeral 112 denotes a display panel provided on the upper portion of the printing apparatus main body. The display panel has a power key,
Resume key to specify recovery, test blink, error recovery, and LE to display data reception and power status
D is provided.

FIG. 2 is a simplified diagram for explaining the motor voltage measurement of this embodiment. 201 VM is a power supply for the motor, and 24 V is supplied in this embodiment. 20
2 is a transistor for determining the direction of the current.
203 is a stepping motor for performing line feed, 204 is the A phase, and 205 is the Å phase. 206 is a ground, and 207 is a resistor.

In this embodiment, when the resistance of the 207 is set to 0.5Ω, a current of 1 A flows through the 204 and 205, and the conversion value of the 208 AD converter at this time is such that the 8-bit value becomes B′11111111. Is configured.

FIG. 3 is a simplified diagram for explaining the printing paper transport section of the present embodiment. Reference numeral 301 denotes a print paper path through which the print paper passes, and 302 print paper is currently set in the paper feed port. Reference numeral 303 denotes a pickup roller, which is driven by a pickup motor. When picking up, the pickup paper is conveyed to the lower portion of the print head by rotating the pickup motor forward. In this embodiment, it is assumed that one rotation of the pickup motor has 3600 pulses. Reference numeral 304 denotes a pinch roller. After the pickup roller 303 is completely driven, the print paper is transported together with the 307 discharge roller. Both the 304 pinch roller and the 307 discharge roller are driven by a line feed motor. Reference numeral 305 denotes a PE sensor which outputs L0W when there is no print paper in the HI when the print paper is in the sensor area. 30
Reference numeral 6 denotes a print head which is 310 (200
(0 pulse) at the first nozzle. Reference numeral 308 denotes a pickup roller during picking up the printing paper. This state is achieved by rotating the line feed motor forward from the state of 303 by 2700 pulses. When the state 308 is reached, the printing paper 302 has been transported to the position 309.

FIG. 4 is an operation flow of the present embodiment. 40
At 1 the printing process is started. At 402, the pickup motor is rotated forward by 2700 pulses. When this stops,
The pickup roller is in the state of 308 in FIG. 3,
Here, the line feed motor 16560 pulses are rotated forward at 403 without waiting for the stop. 402 and 403 are driven almost simultaneously. At 404, the process waits for the stop of the pickup motor. At this time, since the pickup motor and the line feed motor are driven at the same speed, only the line feed motor is driven, and the pickup motor is stopped. The print roller is pressed down with the pickup roller 308 in FIG. 3 at 308, and the pinch roller 304 is trying to convey the print paper. In this state, the voltage of the 405 line feed motor is measured.

In this embodiment, the line feed motor is 2
Since it is driven at 000 PPS, the time per pulse is 500 uSec. In the present embodiment, data for 100 times (one AD conversion time is 5 uSec) is once stored in order to obtain a voltage value for one worst pulse, and the maximum value among them is stored. At 406, the pickup motor is further driven 900 pulses to return the pickup roller to the initial position. At 407, a check for no paper is made. Wait for two points when the line feed motor stops and the PE sensor detects the presence of printing paper.
At 09, an out-of-paper error process is performed. If the PE sensor detects the presence of the printing paper before the line feed motor stops at 407, it is 31 from the PE sensor detection position at 408.
The remaining drive amount of the line feed motor is switched to zero pulse amount (2000 pulses) to perform heading adjustment to the first nozzle of the print head. At 410, a process for determining the printing paper is performed. If the value stored at 405 is B'11001100 or more, the resistance of the printing paper is relatively small, so that it is determined to be 413 plain paper. At 414, the printing operation is performed while selecting the driving of the print head, the method of transporting the printing paper, and the like so as to match the determined printing paper, and the printing operation is completed at 415.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a main part block diagram showing a first embodiment of the present embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a simplified diagram for explaining motor voltage measurement according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a simplified diagram for explaining a printing paper transport unit according to the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is an operation flow of the embodiment.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 2C058 AB11 AB16 AB22 AB23 AC07 AE02 AE09 AF17 GA02 GB01 GB17 GB18 GB30 GB47 GB53 2C059 AA11 AA26 AA50 AA54 AA58 3F343 FA02 FB04 FC03 JA01 KB04 LD10 MA03 MA13 MA26 MA48

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A pickup for picking up printing paper at the time of paper feeding in a printing apparatus which performs printing while scanning a printing head in a scanning direction and forms a printing image while transporting the paper in a direction perpendicular to the main scanning direction. Rollers, a motor for driving the pickup roller, a pinch roller for conveying the picked-up printing paper in the main scanning direction and the vertical direction, a line feed motor for driving the pinch roller, and a line feed motor. A means for measuring the voltage, and a determining means for determining the printing paper based on the voltage value, temporarily stopping the pickup roller during paper feeding, applying a different load to the LF motor depending on the printing paper, and rotating the LF motor. A printing apparatus characterized in that the printing paper is determined based on the voltage fluctuation of the printing paper.