JP2005014364A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer capable of preventing missing of a page even upon occurrence of an abnormality in the control signal between a control section and an engine section due to noise, or the like. <P>SOLUTION: In the printer 1, a control section 2 comprises an identification information generating section 23 for generating a page number based on reception of a plurality of pages of data, an identification information adding section 24 for adding the page number, as header information, to a plurality of bit map data developed at an image developing section 21, and a page managing/outputting section 22 for outputting the bit map data added with the page number to an engine section 3 in a specified order. The engine section 3 comprises an identification information reading section 30 for reading the page number from the header information, and an identification information checking section 31 for collating the page number thus read out with the surface of a page being printed next and stopping print in case of mismatch. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus that prints on a sheet of print data transmitted from a host device such as a personal computer (PC). In particular, even when an abnormality occurs due to noise or the like in a control signal between a control unit and an engine unit, The present invention relates to a printing apparatus capable of preventing page missing.
[0002]
[Prior art]
FIG. 6 shows a conventional printing apparatus. The conventional printing apparatus 1 receives print data such as format information, character information, and image data from a host apparatus 10 such as a PC, a workstation, or a general-purpose computer by a receiving unit 20 of a control unit 2, and an image developing unit 21. Are developed into bitmap data composed of dots in page units, and are output from the page management output unit 22 to the engine unit 3 in an appropriate page order. The engine unit 3 receives the output data sent from the page management output unit 22, converts the output data into a format that can be processed by the printing mechanism unit 33 in the output data processing unit 32, and performs transfer fixing on the paper in the printing mechanism unit 33 Perform physical printing operations.
[0003]
When double-sided printing is performed using the high-speed engine unit 3, printing is not performed in the order of pages in which print data such as the front side of the first sheet, the back side, the front side of the second page, and the back side is configured. In this method, only the back side is printed for 6 pages first, and then only the front side is printed for 6 pages. For this reason, the page management output unit 22 stores 12 pages of bitmap data developed in dot data in the page order by the image development unit 21 in the page memory 220 in the page management output unit 22 and prints it by the engine unit 3. Bitmap data for each page is selected in order and output to the engine unit 3. The engine unit 3 performs an operation of printing the output data on the paper to be printed at that time by the printing mechanism unit 33 in the order output by the page management output unit 22. The page management output unit 22 also performs storage control when the bitmap data developed by the image development unit 21 is stored in the page memory 220. The page memory 220 is composed of a large-capacity memory such as a DRAM, but basically has only a capacity size used for page management necessary for the printing mechanism unit 33 to operate at the maximum speed. There are cases where the generated bitmap data cannot be stored in the page memory 220 early. For that case to suppress the output of the image expansion section 21, to enable the suspend signals S ₁ as a control signal to be output from the page management output unit 22 to the image expansion section 21. Image expansion section 21, when the suspend signal S ₁ is enabled and will not be sent in bit map data to the page management output unit 22.
[0004]
The page management output unit 22 controls the order of pages to be printed by the printing mechanism unit 33, determines whether to print the front side or the back side, and stores page bitmap data stored in the page memory 220. Is output to the printing mechanism unit 33. Therefore, the page management output unit 22 sends an interrupt signal (hereinafter referred to as “output completion interrupt”) S ₂ as a control signal indicating that the output of the current bitmap data to the printing mechanism unit 33 is completed from the output data processing unit 32. The output page to be printed next is determined.
[0005]
Since the output data processing unit 32 of the engine unit 3 basically controls the printing mechanism unit 33 to print on the paper in the order that the page management output unit 22 has output, the content of the output data is printed on the front surface. It does not matter whether the content is printed or the content printed on the back side, but because the paper running mechanism and transfer mechanism are controlled, the printing mechanism unit 33 can grasp the front side or the back side currently printing. .
[0006]
Although not a printing apparatus, a conventional facsimile apparatus that prevents page loss is known (see, for example, Patent Document 1). This facsimile apparatus gives a page number to a multi-page signal and a procedure end signal of a facsimile protocol between a transmission side and a reception side.
[0007]
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-65439
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, according to the conventional printing apparatus shown in FIG. 6, it is the page management output unit 22 that controls the printing order of bitmap data in units of pages, but there is noise in the output completion interrupt S ₂ to the page management output unit 22. If an error such as a problem occurs, the output is not yet completed, but it is misrecognized as being output, and bitmap data that has not been printed is discarded or newly received. There is a possibility of overwriting with bitmap data of another page. In this case, the page management output unit 22 outputs the data to be printed next, and therefore, a page loss occurs in which the data to be originally printed is not printed.
[0009]
Also, when storing bit map data image expansion section 21 is deployed to the page memory of the page management output section 22, suspend signal S ₁ is not operating properly, do I need to suppress the output from the original image expansion section 21 However, there is a problem that other bitmap data is overwritten in the area of the page memory where bitmap data that has not been printed yet is stored, and as a result, page missing occurs.
[0010]
According to the conventional facsimile apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1, since the facsimile data and the multi-page signal are transmitted to the receiving facsimile apparatus at different timings, the communication procedure is troublesome.
[0011]
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus capable of preventing page missing even when an abnormality occurs due to noise or the like in a control signal between a control unit and an engine unit.
[0012]
[Means for achieving the object]
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention converts a plurality of print data transmitted from a host device in units of pages into a plurality of bitmap data and outputs them in a predetermined page order, and is output from the control unit. And an engine unit that prints the plurality of bitmap data on a corresponding portion of the sheet according to the predetermined page order, the control unit based on the plurality of print data transmitted from the host device Identification information generating means for generating identification information for identifying each print data; identification information adding means for adding the identification information corresponding to the plurality of bitmap data; and the plurality of bitmaps to which the identification information is added. There is provided a printing apparatus comprising output means for outputting data to the engine unit in the predetermined page order.
According to the above configuration, by adding the identification information to the bitmap data and outputting it to the engine unit, even if an abnormality occurs in the control signal between the control unit and the engine unit, the identification information of the bitmap data is stored in the engine unit. Can be recognized on the side.
[0013]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
FIG. 1 shows a printing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The printing device 1 includes a control unit 2 that converts a plurality of print data sent from the host device 10 in units of pages into a plurality of bitmap data and outputs the data to the engine unit 3 in a predetermined page order. And an engine unit 3 that receives the plurality of output data and performs operations such as paper conveyance and printing of the output data on the paper.
[0014]
For example, a host computer represented by a PC, a workstation, a minicomputer, or the like can be applied to the host device 10. When printing, print data including format information, character information, image information, and the like is printed on the printing device 1. To send to.
[0015]
The control unit 2 includes a receiving unit 20 that receives a plurality of print data sent from the host device 10, an image development unit 21 that develops the plurality of print data into a plurality of bitmap data, and outputs a plurality of bitmap data. A page management output unit 22 that performs output control so that the order is a predetermined page order, an identification information generation unit 23 that generates a page number as identification information, and an identification information addition unit 24 that adds a page number to bitmap data And a printer control unit 25 that controls the entire control unit 2 in an integrated manner.
[0016]
The receiving unit 20 is connected to the host device 10, satisfies physical connection specifications and logical communication specifications defined as the host device 10, and receives print data. Print data from the host device 10 is basically sent out in units of pages.
[0017]
The image developing unit 21 has a function of receiving the print data sent from the receiving unit 20, interpreting the format information, character information, image information, etc. of the print data and developing it into bitmap data.
[0018]
The identification information generation unit 23 generates one page number each time the reception unit 20 receives one page of print data sent from the host device 10. Since the page number is generated from 1, in the duplex printing mode, the odd number indicates the front side and the even number indicates the back side.
[0019]
The identification information adding unit 24 adds the footer information to the output data generated by the image developing unit 21 to generate output data.
[0020]
The page management output unit 22 includes a page memory 220 that stores output data from the identification information adding unit 24 in units of pages, and performs page management of output data to be sent to the engine unit 3. Further, when the page management output unit 22 outputs the bitmap data to the one-page engine unit 3, the page management output unit 22 internally generates a print completion interrupt signal and solves the necessity to limit the output of the image development unit 21. A suspend signal S ₁ is made effective in the image developing unit 21.
[0021]
The engine unit 3 includes an identification information reading unit 30 that reads a page number as identification information from output data from the page management output unit 22, and an identification information check unit that checks the consistency between the page number and the print page of the printing mechanism unit 33. 31, an output data processing unit 32 that controls the printing mechanism unit 33 for physical printing on paper, and a printing mechanism unit 33 that prints bitmap data on paper.
[0022]
The identification information reading unit 30 acquires the page number included in the footer information when receiving the output data from the page management output unit 22, and deletes the footer information and outputs only the bitmap data when sending the output data. The data is sent to the data processing unit 32.
[0023]
The identification information check unit 31 acquires the printing surface information indicating whether the printing mechanism unit 33 is currently printing the front surface or the back surface from the printing mechanism unit 33, and the printing surface information and the identification information reading unit. The consistency with the page number acquired from 30 is checked, it is checked whether the front is printed normally or the back is printed, and the check result is sent to the page management output unit 22. For example, in the double-sided printing mode, if the page number is “5” and the printing process of the printing mechanism unit 33 is currently printing on the back side, the printing on the front side is originally performed on the back side. Can be judged. In this case is a mismatch, information identifying the check unit 31 performs printing stop instruction S ₃ to the page management output unit 22.
[0024]
The output data processing unit 32, when outputting the bit map data to the printing mechanism unit 33, and outputs an output completion interrupt S ₂ indicative thereof to the page management output unit 22.
[0025]
The printing mechanism unit 33 is composed of mechanical parts including a motor, a sensor and the like for transporting paper and performing printing. When performing double-sided printing, the printing mechanism unit 33 can transport a maximum of six sheets at a time. Therefore, the back side of five sheets is printed first, and then the front side of the first sheet is printed. Therefore, after printing the second, fourth, sixth, eighth and tenth pages, the first page of the first front surface is printed, the first first page is printed, and then the eleventh page. In the form of printing the eyes (back), then printing the third page (front) and completing the printing of the second sheet, printing is performed in the order of back, front, back, front,.
[0026]
FIG. 2 shows the page memory 220 of the page management output unit 22. The page memory 220 includes a front surface buffer 221 having first to sixth areas 221a to 221f for six pages and a rear surface buffer 222 for one page, and the page output order in the engine unit 3 According to the specifications, the buffer configuration requires the least memory capacity.
[0027]
FIG. 3 shows an example of footer information added to the end of the bitmap data output from the image development unit 21 by the identification information adding unit 24. The first byte indicates the page number, the second to third bytes indicate the horizontal dot size, and the fourth to fifth bytes indicate the vertical dot size. The 6th and subsequent bytes are reserved.
[0028]
Next, the operation of the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
[0029]
FIG. 4 shows a time chart of the printing operation of the first embodiment. In the figure, “LOAD” indicates that the print data sent from the host device 10 is converted into bitmap data by the image development unit 21 and then the footer information is added by the identification information addition unit 24. A portion where data is sent to the page management output unit 22 is shown. The number written in the frame indicates the page number. The storage buffer indicates which buffer 221 or 220 of the page management output unit 22 is put in at that time.
[0030]
A case will be described in which printing data for 12 pages is transmitted from the upper level apparatus 10 and duplex printing is performed in a state where there is no print data to be printed in the printing apparatus 1. In this embodiment, because there are 12 pages (6 sheets), when the back side of pages 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 is printed first, the front side of page 1 is printed and the first page is printed. To do. Next, the rear surface of page 12 is printed, and then the front surfaces of pages 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 are printed.
[0031]
First, the receiving unit 20 of the printing apparatus 1 receives 1, 2, 3, 4,. . . Print data is received in the order of 12 pages. The receiving unit 20 sends the print data to the image developing unit 21. At the same time, the page reception information is entered into the identification information generation unit 23. The print data is composed of format information, character information, image information, and the like from the first page. The image expansion unit 21 expands the print data into bit map data for printing on paper in units of pages.
[0032]
The identification information generation unit 23 generates a page number “01” based on the page reception information entered in the identification information generation unit 23, and sends the page number to the identification information addition unit 24. The identification information adding unit 24 incorporates the page number generated by the identification information generating unit 23, here “01”, into the 16-byte footer information, adds the footer information to the end of the bitmap data, and the page management output unit 22. Output to. The page management output unit 22 stores it in the first area 221a of the front surface buffer 221 as shown in (1) of FIG.
[0033]
In general, it takes several seconds for the engine unit 3 of the printing apparatus 1 to be ready for printing unless the warm-up time is included. In the meantime, the host apparatus 10 sends print data for the second and subsequent pages to the control unit 2. It will be. Accordingly, the same processing as described above is performed for each print data, and the image expansion unit 21 sequentially expands the print data.
[0034]
Subsequently, when the bitmap data of the second page (back side) is output from the image developing unit 21, the footer information including the page number “02” is added to the bitmap data by the identification information adding unit 24 as described above. And stored in the back buffer 222 of the page management output unit 22.
[0035]
When the third page (front side) bitmap data is output, footer information including the page number “03” is added to the bitmap data, and the second area 221 b of the front buffer 221 of the page management output unit 22 is added. Stored in Here, the back management buffer 222 is provided in the page management output unit 22 for only one page. Since the fourth page (back surface) is not accepted in the page management output unit 22, a page management output unit 22, enable the suspend signals S ₁ by ▲ 2 ▼ timing shown in FIG. 4, bits from the image expansion section 21 Suppresses output of map data. After the engine unit 3 is ready for printing, the page management output unit 22 sends the output data of the second page (the back of the first sheet) to the engine unit 3.
[0036]
The identification information reading unit 30 of the engine unit 3 acquires the footer information from the print data received from the page management output unit 22 and outputs the remaining bitmap data to the output data processing unit 32. The identification information reading unit 30 outputs the bitmap data, reads the page number from the footer information, and outputs the page number to the identification information check unit 31.
[0037]
When the identification information check unit 31 obtains the page number from the identification information reading unit 30, the bitmap data output by the output data processing unit 32 at the timing of (3) shown in FIG. 4 is the second page. recognize. Further, the identification information check unit 31 recognizes that the printing mechanism unit 33 is currently performing the back side printing, and confirms that the page is a normal page.
[0038]
When the output of the output data of the second page is completed, the page management output unit 22 internally generates a print completion interrupt signal at timing (4) shown in FIG. 4 and recognizes the completion of output of the second page. By the output of the second page is completed, the page management output unit 22 for backside buffers 222 becomes available, it disables the suspend signal S _1, and receives the output data of the next page 4.
[0039]
When the page management output unit 22 recognizes the completion of the output of the second page in this way, the output data of the fourth page is subsequently sent to the engine unit 3 for printing in the same manner as described above, and the back side is 10 pages. Printing is performed up to the eyes, and then the first page of the front surface is printed to complete the printing of the first sheet. Thereafter, the back surface of the 12th page is printed, and thereafter the back surface is not printed. Therefore, the front surface is printed in the order of the third, fifth, seventh, ninth, and eleventh pages, and all printing is completed.
[0040]
Here, for example, the page management output unit 22 is a noise enters the output completion interrupt S ₂ immediately after performing processing for outputting the fourth page. In this case, the page management output unit 22 outputs the fourth page to the engine unit 3 as if the fourth page was output. When the identification information reading unit 30 of the sent engine unit 3 reads the page number “6” from the footer information and the identification information check unit 31 performs a check, the second page is printed, although it matches the reverse side. after, and since we have come sixth page, recognizes that there is a lack of pages, this was subject to print stop instruction S ₃ to the page management output section 22 as an error, which the operation of the printing mechanism 33 at the same time Stop.
[0041]
According to the first embodiment, ordinary fault signal such as noise enters the page management output unit 22 sends the completion of the output data to recognize the output completion interrupt S _2, transmission completion actual output data Even when the page management output unit 22 regards the output as complete and outputs the next page, although the transmission is not completed, the engine unit 3 recognizes the output order of pages to be actually printed and stops printing. Therefore, page missing can be prevented. Further, since the control unit 2 is provided with a page memory for temporarily storing bitmap data, even when the print data sent from the host device is faster than the print speed of the engine unit 3, it is possible to cope with it. it can.
[0042]
FIG. 5 shows a printing apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention. In addition to the configuration of the first embodiment, the second embodiment controls a checksum calculator 26 that calculates a checksum from bitmap data when outputting bitmap data from the image development unit 21. Provided in part 2. The engine unit 3 includes a checksum verification unit 34 that reads the checksum by the identification information reading unit 30 of the engine unit 3 and simultaneously generates a checksum from the bitmap data.
[0043]
Next, the operation of the second embodiment will be described. When the bitmap data is output from the image development unit 21, the checksum calculated by the checksum calculation unit 26 is added to the spare part of the footer information by the identification information adding unit 24. Output data is output from the page management output unit 22 to the engine unit 3, and the checksum of the footer information is read by the identification information reading unit 30, and at the same time, the checksum calculated from the bitmap data is identified by the checksum verification unit 34 Checked by the information check unit 31 to confirm the identity of the bitmap data. In the case where a difference occurs the performed printing stop instruction S ₃ to the page management output unit 22 to stop the printing.
[0044]
According to the second embodiment, it is possible to prevent missing pages as well as the first embodiment and to check illegal printing.
[0045]
In addition, this invention is not limited to the said embodiment, A various deformation | transformation implementation is possible. For example, the page memory 220 provided in the page management output unit 22 may use a plurality of front surface buffers and a plurality of back surface buffers to output bitmap data in a page order other than those described above. . As a result, the number of times that the suspend signal is made effective is reduced, and efficient printing becomes possible.
[0046]
In addition to duplex printing, the present invention can also be applied to other printing modes such as N-up printing in which a plurality of bitmap data is printed on a single sheet.
[0047]
In the above embodiment, the page number is used as the identification information, but other identification information such as A, B, C..., A, B, C.
[0048]
Further, when a print stop instruction is issued from the identification information check unit 31 to the page management output unit 22, the fact that printing has been stopped on the printing apparatus 1 side or the host apparatus 10 side is displayed on a display screen or the like to notify the user. May be.
[0049]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, the page information of the bitmap data can be recognized on the engine unit side, so that an abnormality occurs due to noise or the like in the control signal between the control unit and the engine unit. However, it is possible to prevent missing pages.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a printing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a page memory of a page management output unit according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining footer information according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a time chart for explaining the operation of the printing apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a printing apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a conventional printing apparatus.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Printing apparatus 2 Control part 3 Engine part 10 Host apparatus 20 Reception part 21 Image expansion part 22 Page management output part 23 Identification information generation part 24 Identification information addition part 25 Printer control part 26 Checksum calculation part 30 Identification information reading part 31 Identification Information check unit 32 Output data processing unit 33 Printing mechanism unit 34 Check sum verification unit 220 Page memory 221 Front side buffer 221a First area 221b Second area 222 Back side buffer S ₁ Suspend signal S ₂ Output completion interrupt S ₃ Printing Stop instruction

Claims (8)

A control unit that converts a plurality of print data transmitted from the host device in units of pages into a plurality of bitmap data and outputs them in a predetermined page order; and the plurality of bitmap data output from the control unit In a printing apparatus having an engine unit that prints on a corresponding portion of paper according to the page order,
The control unit includes identification information generating means for generating identification information for identifying each print data based on the plurality of print data transmitted from the host device, and the identification information corresponding to the plurality of bitmap data. An printing apparatus comprising: identification information adding means to be added; and output means for outputting the plurality of bitmap data to which the identification information is added to the engine unit in the predetermined page order. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the identification information adding unit adds the identification information as footer information to the plurality of bitmap data. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the identification information generation unit generates page information as the identification information. The engine unit recognizes an identification information reading unit that reads the identification information from the footer information, a print page to be performed next time, and determines consistency between the print page and the identification information. 3. A printing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising identification information check means for stopping printing. The control unit includes first checksum means for calculating a checksum for the bitmap data and adding the checksum to the bitmap data,
The engine unit calculates a checksum for the bitmap data output from the output unit of the control unit, and whether the checksum matches the checksum calculated by the first checksum unit The printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a second checksum unit that determines whether or not the two do not coincide with each other, and stops printing. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the engine unit performs double-sided printing that prints the plurality of bitmap data on a corresponding page on a front surface or a back surface of a sheet. The control unit includes a first buffer that stores the bitmap data to be printed on the first side of the paper, and the second buffer that is printed on the second side opposite to the first side of the paper. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a second buffer for storing bitmap data. The identification information generating means generates page information as the identification information,
The identification information adding means adds the page information as footer information to the plurality of bitmap data,
The engine unit performs double-sided printing that prints the plurality of bitmap data on a corresponding page on the front or back side of a sheet, and an identification information reading unit that reads the page information from the footer information; Printing surface information on the front side or the back side of the printer, and the consistency between the printing surface information and the page information is determined. If the printing surface information does not match, identification information checking means for stopping printing is provided. The printing apparatus according to claim 1.

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