JP2006123387A - Control method of inkjet printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a control method of an inkjet printer capable of reducing traffics on a network. <P>SOLUTION: This inkjet printer is directly connected to a network and performs the recovery processing of a print head upon booting. A plurality of host computers are provided on the network. The inkjet printer receives present time information from a host computer through the network, holds a time period in which the recovery processing of the print head is carried out, and changes a kind of the recovery processing upon the booting according to a time difference between a time when the previous recovery processing is carried out and the present time information. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to control of recovery processing at startup of an inkjet printer that requires head recovery processing at startup and that is directly connected to a network.

  Conventionally, if the stop period during which ink jet printers are not printed continues for a long period of time, ink near the nozzle that is the ink ejection part of the print head is fixed, and if printing is performed in this state, ink is not ejected or ink is ejected temporarily. Even if this is done, printing failure will occur if a predetermined amount of ink cannot be ejected. For this reason, the ink jet printer has a timekeeping means inside, and if printing is not performed for a predetermined period from this timekeeping result, the head is always ejected from the print head, which is called recovery operation, by irradiating the ink independently of printing. Keep in good condition.

  There are several types of recovery operations depending on the time interval during which printing is not performed. For example, when the time during which printing is not performed is short, the ink adhering to the vicinity of the nozzles of the print head is still not so much, so it is sufficient to perform ink ejection unrelated to small amounts of printing. When the period during which printing is not performed is long, the print head Ink adhering in the vicinity of the nozzle is advanced, and an ink ejection operation related to a large amount of printing must be performed. Such a method is also presented in Japanese Patent Publication No. 6-297730.

  In addition, when the power of the ink jet printer is turned off, this time is measured with a battery or the like inside the ink jet printer. Etc.

Japanese Patent Publication No. 6-297730 JP 2002-046293 A

  The present invention enables an appropriate recovery operation without a battery for clock operation in an inkjet printer in a recovery operation at the time of startup of an inkjet printer connected to the network. A function for adjusting the time information computer to one host computer between the other host computers, and when the time information computer stops functioning on the way, the time information function can be switched to another host computer, so that It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for controlling an ink jet printer that can reduce the traffic.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is an ink jet printer that is directly connected to a network and performs recovery processing of the print head at the time of startup. There are a plurality of host computers on the network, and the ink jet printer is connected via the network. To receive the current time information from the host computer, hold the time when the print head recovery process was performed, and change the type of recovery process at startup based on the time difference between the previous recovery process time and the current time information It is characterized by.

  According to the present invention, in an inkjet printer that is directly connected to a network, even when the power of the inkjet printer is turned off for a long time by using the time of a PC on the same network, However, the power-off time can be accurately determined without having a battery in the inkjet printer, and the recovery operation at the startup of the inkjet printer can be performed appropriately.

  In addition, by coordinating the time notification function of the inkjet printer between PCs on the network, all the PCs do not output time information on the network, and only when the network printer is activated on the network Since time notification is performed, traffic on the network is not unnecessarily increased.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows an example of an embodiment of the present invention. That is, the inkjet printer 100, PC # 1 (200), PC # 2 (210), PC # n (220P) (n is an arbitrary integer) and a plurality of n personal computers are connected to the network. In the figure, 101 to 112 are block diagrams showing the configuration of the ink jet printer 100, 101 is a CPU for controlling various operations of the ink jet printer 100, 102 is a ROM for storing programs and data for performing various operations of the ink jet printer 100, Reference numeral 103 denotes a RAM that temporarily stores data being processed by the CPU 101 and an operating program. Reference numeral 104 denotes an EEPROM that holds the operation state and past operation history of the inkjet printer 100.

  Reference numeral 105 denotes a clock unit for measuring time, and 106 denotes various motor drive and sensor detection operations such as developing print data from a PC received from the network interface unit into an image memory and feeding operation necessary for printing. Control the recovery mechanism, and input and display from the operation panel. A and 107 are image memories that receive print data and the like from a PC and develop them into a print form, 108 is a print head that ejects ink, 109 is various motors and sensors, 110 is a head recovery mechanism, and 111 is a user's recovery mechanism. This is an operation panel for inputting and displaying messages to the user. The EEPROM 104 keeps the date and time when the recovery process is performed as needed, and the clock 105 uses the clock to execute each function of the printer while power is supplied to the printer.

  In the figure, 201 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an inkjet printer control program installed in the PC according to the present invention, and 202 acquires clock information in the PC and notifies the inkjet printer on the network of it. A time notification unit 203 for determining whether or not another time notification PC exists on the network, and a time notification adjustment unit 204 for determining whether or not there is a time request from the inkjet printer on the network. And 205 respectively denote network control units of the PC. The time notification adjustment unit 203 adjusts which of the time notification adjustment units of each PC is the time notification PC.

  FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the time notification operation of the PC on the network in the present invention.

  When the PC is activated in FIG. 2, the time notification adjusting unit 203 in the inkjet printer control program 201 of FIG. 1 installed in the PC waits for a time request from the corresponding inkjet printer on the network (S101), and When there is a time request, each PC on the network waits for a random time, and confirms whether another PC performs time notification during this Wait time (S102). This is to prevent each pC from reporting the time without permission when a plurality of similar PCs exist on the network. If any one PC performs time notification before each PC performs time notification, the other PCs can confirm that this time notification information has been transmitted on the network. The process returns to S101 without notification.

  On the other hand, the PC that performs time notification is a PC having a shorter random wait time than any PC on the network, and since it is determined that the time notification has not been performed, the time in the inkjet printer control program 201 in FIG. The notification unit 202 acquires the time from the clock unit 204 and notifies the time, returns to S101 again, and repeats this operation. Information exchange on the network is performed via the network control unit 205.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the time detection operation of the ink jet printer on the network in this embodiment.

  When the inkjet printer is activated, the CPU 101 in FIG. 1 reads the initialization program for the inkjet printer 100 from the ROM 102 and executes initialization processing. In this initialization process, a time request signal is output on the network (S201). And it waits for time alerting to be performed on a network (S202). Here, when any PC on the network performs time notification, the information is acquired and compared with the time when the previous recovery processing held in the EEPROM 104 was performed (S203), and the clock 105 is acquired. The timing is started from the measured time (S204). Then, different recovery processing is performed depending on the recovery operation performed when the printer is activated and how long the printer has been idle. That is, the recovery process according to the comparison value is performed (S205).

  In the recovery process, the print head 108 shown in FIG. 1 is ejected with ink unrelated to printing, or the recovery mechanism 110 or the like is operated to wipe the print head surface. An appropriate recovery operation is performed by changing the discharge amount and the like. Then, the recovery processing time is written again in the EEPROM 104 (S206). The written time is obtained by adding the recovery process execution time to the time acquired in S201. Thereafter, the recovery operation of the ink jet printer that is in a normal operation is performed with reference to the clock 105 (S207), and the time when the recovery process is performed is written in the EEPROM 104 each time (S208). At this time, in S207, a recovery operation in a normal state using a clock inside the printer, or a recovery operation necessary according to the printing state is performed.

  On the other hand, when receiving the time information in S202, the inkjet printer does not know which timing can be received, so it waits for the time information to come (S209). If the time information cannot be acquired within the preset wait time (S210), the user is prompted to input the current time. This is done by displaying a message to that effect on the operation panel 111 of FIG. 1, and the user inputting the current time by operating the input button on the operation panel (S211). In S211, the internal clock of the printer is set according to the input current time, and thereafter, the time is managed by the internal clock.

It is a block diagram which shows embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart explaining the time alerting | reporting operation | movement of PC on the network in embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart explaining the time detection operation | movement of the inkjet printer on a network in embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

100 Inkjet printer 200, 210, 220 Personal computer 101 CPU
102 ROM
103 RAM
104 EEPROM
105 G. A
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 107 Image memory 108 Print head 109 Various motors and sensors 110 Head recovery mechanism 111 Operation panel 202 Time notification part 203 Time leaving adjustment part 204 Clock 205 Network control part

Claims (2)

  In an inkjet printer that is directly connected to the network and performs print head recovery processing at startup, there are multiple host computers on the network. The inkjet printer receives current time information from the host computer via the network and prints. A control method for an ink jet printer, characterized in that the time for performing head recovery processing is retained, and the type of recovery processing at startup is changed according to the time difference between the previous recovery processing time and current time information.   2. The ink jet printer control method according to claim 1, wherein, among a plurality of host computers existing on the network, which host computer transmits time information to the ink jet printer is arbitrated.

Images