JP2003107970A - Printer controller and printer device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To exactly detect the residual quantity of toner or ink. SOLUTION: A pixel counting part 27 counts the number of pixels to which the toner is actually mounted for printing to a recording paper in image data to be printed out, the counted number of pixels and the cumulative amount of toner consumption stored in a toner consumption storage 28 are added, and the consumption of the toner consumed until then is stored in the toner consumption storage 28. A toner residual quantity arithmetic part 29 calculates the residual quantity of the toner from the cumulative amount of toner consumption in the toner consumption storage 28 and the mass of the toner loaded in advance.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer controller mounted on a laser printer, an inkjet printer or the like and a printer device using the same, and in particular, it estimates the amount of toner or ink consumed in the laser printer or inkjet printer. In this way, the user is notified of the amount of toner or ink used.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the rapid spread of personal computers in recent years, the amount of printing in printers has increased. Along with this, the amount of consumables such as toner and ink used is also increasing. In addition, the amount of printing at one time is also increasing due to the improvement of printer engine technology. Further, due to the speeding up of the printer device, when printing a plurality of copies, only a part is printed by the printer device, and the required number of copies is made by the copying machine, so that all the copies are printed by the printer device. The work flow has changed. As a result, the number of times toner and ink are replaced is increasing, and more detailed detection, notification, and management of the remaining amount of consumables are desired.

When printing is performed using a conventional laser printer using an electrophotographic method, as shown in FIG.
The user of the host device 1 creates an image to be printed, specifies the printer device 2 for printing, and issues a print command for the created image. When a print command is issued, the host device 1 uses the printer driver software 32 in the connected printer device 2 to cause the printer controller 4 of the printer device 2 to operate.
The image data is converted into a command code system that can be interpreted by, and the image data is output from the host device 1 to the host interface 22 of the printer controller 4. When the reception of the image data to be printed by the host interface 22 is started, the CPU 23 of the printer controller 4 draws an image of the sent image data in the RAM 25 according to the code information written in the ROM 24 and expands it. The CPU 23 stores the sent image data in the RAM 25
Then, a print start command is issued to the printer engine 3, the printer engine 3 is driven, and the image data thus expanded is output to the printer engine 3 via the engine interface 30 to execute printing. Normally, in the case of video output for outputting an image to the printer engine 3, a huge amount of image data must be transferred in a short period of time, and therefore the video DMA controller 26 is used to perform DM.
A processing is performed to increase the speed. Also, video DM
When the DMA transfer is completed, the A controller 26
A video DMA end interrupt is issued to 23 to notify the end. In order to output the image data, the CPU 23 sets the band DMA parameter in the video DMA controller 26 and performs similar video DMA processing to complete the output to the printer engine 3.

In the case of the ink jet type printer device, basically, the same processing as that of the laser printer device is performed, but the laser printer device always outputs the image data to the engine interface line by line at the time of video output. On the other hand, in the ink jet type printer device, the image data is output in the order of pixels according to the nozzles mounted on the head. Further, when the image data is managed line by line in order to output the pixels in order in accordance with the nozzles, conversion processing to the nozzle pitch is performed.

Depending on the type of printer device, the image development may be performed by the host device, and the printer device may only transfer the image image.

In such a printer device, if the printing operation is performed in a state where the toner and the ink are exhausted, the printer engine will be damaged and the machine will be broken. In order to prevent this and detect the presence or absence of consumables such as toner and ink, a sensor is used to recognize when toner or ink is almost exhausted (near end) or completely exhausted (end) Even if a print command is issued, a message indicating that printing cannot be performed is displayed and the printing operation is not performed. Further, as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-185238, only a sensor for the near end of toner or the like is provided to detect only the near end, and after the detection, when a certain number of sheets are printed, the consumption amount of toner or ink Regardless of the end, printing is stopped as an end.

Further, as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 9-327957, the toner is calculated from the count value of the number of pixels counted using a counter for each page and the average toner usage amount calculated by a statistical method. Guess the remaining amount,
As shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-911136, the remaining ink amount is calculated from the number of recording pixels counted using a counter for each page and the electrode pair.

[0008]

However, when the number of pixels is counted by using the counter on a page-by-page basis as described above, when the number of pixels of an A3 original is counted with 1200 DPI, for example, The maximum number that must be counted is over 278.43 million, which requires a 29-bit counter. Actually, it is impractical and impossible to mount a very large counter such as a 19-bit counter on a device that transfers a large amount of image data in a short time such as a laser printer. .

Further, since the resolution of the printer engine will be further improved in the future, if the resolution is doubled, the image data will be quadrupled, the number of pixels to be counted will be quadrupled, and the counter circuit will be increased accordingly. As a result, there was a problem that the cost would be greatly increased.

The present invention solves this problem by counting the image data to be printed in a predetermined block, adding it to the previously stored toner or ink consumption amount, and updating it. An object of the present invention is to provide a printer controller that can detect the remaining amount with a simple configuration and high accuracy, and a printer device using the printer controller.

[0011]

A printer controller according to the present invention has a pixel counting means, a consumption amount storing means, a processing means, and a remaining amount calculating means, and actually prints image data to be printed on recording paper. The number of pixels on which the toner or ink is placed is counted by the pixel counting means, and the counted number of pixels and the cumulative consumption amount of toner or ink stored in the consumption amount storage means are added by the processing means, and the consumption amount storage means is added. The cumulative amount of toner or ink consumption is updated, and the amount of toner or ink consumed up to that point is stored in the amount-of-consumption storage means. The remaining amount of toner or ink is calculated by the remaining amount calculation unit from the cumulative amount of toner or ink stored in the consumption amount storage unit and the mass of the toner or ink installed in advance, and the remaining amount of toner or ink is calculated. Is always detected.

The pixel counting means divides the number of pixels of the image data to be printed, on which the toner or ink to be actually printed on the recording paper is divided, into blocks of regions smaller than the recording paper to be printed, and the pixels are divided for each block. Count the number.

It is desirable that the unit of this block is a band in the sub-scanning direction of the recording paper to be printed.

Further, it is preferable that the pixel counting means has a storage means for storing the number of pixels in band units.

A printer device according to the present invention has the printer controller described above.

[0016]

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a printer device according to the present invention. As shown in the figure, the printer device 2 that prints an image created by the host device 1 has a printer engine 3, a printer controller 4, and an operation panel 5. The printer engine 3 includes a photoconductor 6, a revolver unit 7, a transfer unit 8, a writing unit 9, a paper feeding unit 10, a recording paper conveyance path 11 and a fixing unit 12. Around the photoconductor 6, a charge eliminating lamp 13, a charging charger 14, a revolver unit 7, a transfer unit 8 and a drum cleaning unit 15 are provided along the rotation direction of the photoconductor 6. The revolver unit 7 has developing devices for each color of black (Bk), cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y). The transfer unit 8 is wound around a plurality of rollers, an intermediate transfer belt 16 having a belt mark 17, a primary transfer roller 18, a positioning sensor 19 for reading the belt mark 17, a secondary transfer roller 20, and a belt cleaning. It has a part 21.

When an image is formed on a recording sheet by the printer engine 3, it is not necessary to detect the belt mark 17 of the intermediate transfer belt 16 of the transfer unit 8 when the image to be formed is one color. The formed toner image is transferred to the intermediate transfer belt 16 regardless of the position of the belt mark 17.
Primary transfer to. The secondary transfer roller 20 secondarily transfers the toner image onto the recording paper sequentially fed in accordance with the tip of the toner image transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt 16, and the fixing unit 12
The toner image transferred on the transfer paper is fixed and discharged. The toner remaining on the intermediate transfer belt 16 is collected by the cleaning unit 21.

When the image to be formed has two or more colors, the first image is formed on the photoconductor 6 based on the fact that the belt mark 17 of the intermediate transfer belt 16 is detected by the alignment sensor 19.
An image of a color is formed, and the formed image is transferred to the intermediate transfer belt 1.
Primary transfer to No. 6 is performed. The image formation on the photoconductor 6 and the primary transfer on the intermediate transfer belt 16 are repeated for each color on the basis of the detection of the belt mark 17, and the intermediate transfer belt 1
6 and a predetermined color image are overlaid, and the intermediate transfer belt 1
The color image formed in 6 is secondarily transferred to the recording paper.

The printer controller 4 is a host device 1.
A host interface 22 that sends and receives commands from the computer and image data to be printed, and C that manages the operation of the entire device.
The PU 23, the ROM 24 that stores the control program of the CPU 23, the RAM 25 that stores the image data sent from the host device 1 and that is used as the work memory of the CPU 23, the video DMA controller 26, the pixel counting unit 27, and the toner consumption amount storage. It has a unit 28, a toner remaining amount calculation unit 29, an engine interface 30, and a panel interface 31.

The pixel counting unit 27 has a register, and counts the number of pixels of the image data to be printed on which the toner for printing is actually placed on the recording paper. The toner consumption amount storage unit 28 is composed of, for example, NVRAM, and stores the cumulative number of pixels of the printed image data as the toner consumption amount. The toner remaining amount calculation unit 29 calculates the toner remaining amount from the toner consumption amount stored in the toner consumption amount storage unit 28 and the mass of the toner loaded in advance.

The user of the host device 1 uses the application software of the host device 1 to create image data to be printed. There are various types of image data created by the user, such as image data spanning a plurality of pages and data created as color data. When the creation of the image data is completed, the user selects a printer device to be printed out of the printer devices connected to the host device 1 and capable of printing, and issues a print command. In this print command, specify the number of copies to print, specify whether to perform double-sided printing, specify whether to print in color or monochrome, and
Specify the reduction ratio, specify the size of the paper, or specify to perform aggregate printing to print multiple pages on one sheet of recording paper, prioritize speed or image quality when performing a printing operation, or Various print modes are designated, such as designation of cost priority.

When the user issues a print command in the host device 1 as described above, connection is made by software called a printer driver 32 of the host device 1 so that various modes designated by the user are satisfied. The printer controller 4 of the existing printer device 2 converts the code into a code that can be decoded, and outputs the converted image data code to the printer device 2.

The host interface 22 of the printer controller 4 provided in the printer device 2 is the host device 1
Receives image data sent from. When the host interface 22 starts receiving the image data, it causes an interrupt to the CPU 23 to notify that the print command is issued. The CPU 23 develops the received image data into an image and temporarily stores it in the RAM 25. After the sent image data is expanded in the RAM 25 by the CPU 23, a print start command is issued to the printer engine 3,
The printer engine 3 is driven. And CPU23 is R
In order to enable the printer engine 3 to print the image data temporarily stored in the AM 25, the image is developed and the image received as code information is converted into bitmap information and stored. At that time, in the case of the printer engine 3 capable of multi-value printing depending on the type of the connected printer engine 3, multi-value image development is carried out, and in the case of the printer engine 3 capable of printing only two values, the binary Image development at. Further, the image data, which is appropriately expanded in consideration of the free space of the RAM 25 and the like, is compressed and stored. All the image data sent from the host device 1 by the CPU 23 is converted into a bitmap image R
At the time when the image is developed in the AM 25, or when the image development of the image data of the first page is completed in the case of image data over a plurality of pages, the CPU 23 causes the video DMA controller 26 to start the video DMA start address, the number of transfer bytes, and the floor. Set the video DMA parameters such as the key. Further, the CPU 23 confirms the state of the connected printer engine 3, and when the printer engine 3 becomes ready for printing, issues a video DMA operation start command to the video DMA controller 26, and instructs the printer engine 3 to perform the printing operation. Let it start.

When the video DMA operation start command is issued, the video DMA controller 26 causes the sync signal LSYNC in the main scanning direction and the sync signal FGA in the sub scanning direction input from the printer engine 3 through the engine interface 30.
Image data is output to the printer engine 3 via the engine interface 30 according to the video control signal line called TE to perform printing. When the printing operation is completed in this way, the printer controller 4 returns to the idle state again, and when the print command from the host device 1 is received again, the printer controller 4 performs the same printing.

When performing this printing operation, the video DMA
Before or at the same time as the operation, the pixel counting unit 27 counts the bits of the image data on which toner is actually placed. That is, the pixel counting section 27 counts the number of bits in which the image of the image data stored in the RAM 25 exists, usually "1", and temporarily stores it in the register. CPU2
3 reads out the number of pixels counted by the pixel counting unit 27 and overwrites it on the toner consumption amount storage unit 28 in addition to the toner consumption amount which is the previous number of pixels previously written in the toner consumption amount storage unit 28. , Update toner consumption.
The toner consumption amount calculation unit 29 calculates, based on the toner consumption amount thus obtained, how much the mass of the toner loaded in advance has been consumed, and calculates the remaining amount of toner. Based on the remaining amount of toner obtained as a result, how much toner is currently secured is displayed on the operation panel 5 via the panel interface 31 to notify the user, or near end detection of toner is performed. When the near-end is detected, the operation panel 5 also displays that the toner will run out in a short period of time to notify the user, and when the toner is exhausted, the user will be notified thereafter. Even if the print start command is issued, a message indicating that printing cannot be executed is output to the host device 1 and the operation panel 5, and the printing operation is interrupted.

The process of counting the toner consumption amount by the pixel counting unit 27 will be described. As shown in FIG. 3, the pixel counting unit 27 divides the image data 40 into fences (bands) 41a to 41n in the sub-scanning direction for management. CP
Even when the image data 40 is image-developed by U23, it is divided into bands 41a to 41n and image development is performed for each band. Therefore, when temporarily storing image data in the RAM 25, it is not always necessary to secure a continuous area for one page, and each band 41a to 41n
Are mapped to different address areas. The CPU 23 sets the start address and end address of each band 41a to 41n in the pixel counting unit 27 and issues a count start command. The pixel counting unit 27 once reads the image data inside the bands 41a to 41n set by the DMA operation, and counts the pixels having valid bits. The registers provided in the pixel counting unit 27 are prepared by the number of bits that holds the maximum number of pixels that can be expressed in one band. For example, A
When counting the number of pixels of the image data 40 of 1200 DPI in three sizes, if the width of one band 41 is 5 mm, the number of pixels will be approximately 3.33 million pixels, and thus a 22-bit register is required. When the pixel counting unit 27 completes counting for one band 41a, the CPU 23 reads out the value of the register in the pixel counting unit 27 and consumes the toner stored in the toner consumption storage unit 28 before the toner consumption. The toner consumption amount storage unit 28
Write to and update the data. At the same time, the pixel counter 2 counts the effective pixels of the next band 41b.
After resetting to 7, the counting start command is issued again. By repeating such an operation and finally counting all of one page, the toner consumption amount can be calculated without providing a counter for the number of pixels for one page of full bits.

In the above description, a laser printer using an electrophotographic system as the printer engine 3 has been described as the printer device 2, but as shown in FIG.
Four sub-tanks 42 respectively containing inks of magenta M, yellow Y, and black Bk, four recording heads 43 having a plurality of nozzles and being supplied with ink from each sub-tank 42, sub-tank 42 and recording Head 43
A carriage 44, a paper feed tray 45a, 45b for accommodating recording paper, a conveyance roller 48 for conveying the recording paper from the paper feed trays 45a, 45b or the manual feed table 46 to the printing unit 47, and a printed recording paper. The ink remaining amount of the inkjet printer 51 having the discharge roller 50 for discharging to the paper discharge tray 49 can be calculated in the same manner.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention, the number of pixels of the image data to be printed on which the toner or ink to be actually printed is placed on the recording paper is counted and stored in the counted number of pixels and the consumption amount storage means. The cumulative toner or ink consumption amount being stored is added to update the cumulative toner or ink consumption value in the consumption amount storage means, and the consumed toner or ink consumption amount up to that point is stored in the consumption amount storage means. Since it is stored, it is possible to accurately obtain the amount of toner or ink consumed actually.

In addition, the remaining amount of toner or ink is calculated from the cumulative amount of consumption of toner or ink stored in the consumption amount storage means and the mass of the toner or ink that is installed in advance, and the remaining amount of toner or ink is calculated. The amount can always be detected accurately, and the function of the printer device can be improved.

Further, among the image data to be printed, the number of pixels on which toner or ink to be actually printed is placed on the recording paper is
Toner consumption can be calculated without dividing the pixel count for each page into full-bit pixel counts by dividing each block into blocks of a smaller area than the recording paper to be printed. Therefore, the cost can be reduced by counting pixels with a small hardware configuration.

Further, by configuring the unit of the block for counting the number of pixels by the band of the recording paper to be printed in the sub-scanning direction, the unit can be managed in the same manner as the unit managed by the host device or the printer controller. Therefore, the software does not need to newly manage the memory and address of the image data, the software processing can be reduced, the processing speed can be increased, and the system performance can be improved.

Further, since the pixel counting means has a storage means for storing the number of pixels in band units, it is possible to count pixels with a small hardware configuration.

By using this printer controller in a printer device such as a laser printer or an inkjet printer, the remaining amount of toner or ink can always be detected accurately and the function of the printer device can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a printer engine.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a pixel number counting process.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of another printer device.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

1; host device, 2; printer device, 3; printer engine, 4; printer controller, 5; operation panel, 2
2; host interface, 23; CPU, 24; RO
M, 25; RAM, 26; Video DMA controller,
27; pixel counting unit, 28; toner consumption amount storage unit, 29;
Toner level calculator, 30; engine interface, 3
1; Panel interface.

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    F term (reference) 2C056 EA24 EA29 EB49 EB58 EB59                       EC26                 2H027 DA32 DA43 DD02 DE04 DE07                       EB04 ED06 ED10 EE01 EE08                       EF09 EK03 EK09 GA30 GA54                       GB03 GB09 HB02 HB13 HB17                       ZA07

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A pixel counting unit, a consumption amount storing unit, a processing unit, and a remaining amount calculating unit, wherein the pixel counting unit is a pixel in the image data to be printed on which a toner or an ink to be actually printed is placed on a recording paper. Counting the number, the consumption storage means stores the cumulative toner or ink consumption of the previously printed image data, and the processing means
The number of pixels counted by the pixel counting unit and the cumulative toner or ink consumption amount stored in the consumption amount storage unit are added to update the value of the cumulative toner or ink consumption amount in the consumption amount storage unit, and the remaining A printer controller characterized in that the amount detecting means calculates the remaining amount of toner or ink from the cumulative consumption amount of toner or ink stored in the consumption amount storage means and the mass of the toner or ink that is installed in advance. 2. The pixel counting means divides, for each block, the number of pixels of the image data to be printed, on which the toner or ink to be actually printed on the recording paper is placed, into blocks of an area smaller than the recording paper to be printed. The printer controller according to claim 1, wherein the number of pixels is counted. 3. The printer controller according to claim 2, wherein the block unit is a band in the sub-scanning direction of the recording paper to be printed. 4. The printer controller according to claim 3, wherein said pixel counting means has a storage means for storing the number of pixels in band units. 5. A printer device comprising the printer controller according to claim 1. Description: