JP2007055025A - Method for controlling electric power source for recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem that in a conventional printer having such a constitution that is divided by the first and second controlling circuit parts, when the power is turned off, and when an electric power source is controlled only by the first controlling circuit part, and the electric power source is turned off by a judgement of a system controlling part side, it may be possible that falling down of a logic system electric power source (for example +5 V) precedes ahead of falling down of a driving electric voltage of a recording head, and as a driving element is carelessly turned ON in the recording head, it may be generated that a nozzle heater for an ink delivering nozzle is destroyed. <P>SOLUTION: In an inkjet printer having a constitution divided into two controlling circuit parts, electric power source controlling signals are provided in both controlling circuit parts, and the electric voltage of the logic electric power source is controlled by a logic operating circuit. In addition, it is possible to safely shift to a power off mode (or a low electric power consumption mode) by monitoring the electric power source controlling signal from the first controlling circuit part by the second controlling circuit part. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a power control method for a recording apparatus that includes a sequence of performing a predetermined operation and performing power-off (shutdown) after a predetermined operation is performed at a high speed that requires a relatively large amount of power for a recording operation.

  A configuration is provided that includes a second control circuit section (hereinafter referred to as an engine section) that performs a mechanical control operation of the printer and a first control circuit section (hereinafter referred to as an interface section) that performs data communication with a personal computer. In a recording apparatus such as an ink jet printer, a CPU is usually provided in an engine unit, and an independent CPU is also provided in an interface unit.

  As a feature of these recording apparatuses such as ink jet printers, various interfaces can be incorporated by customizing the interface unit.

  In recent years, various power consumptions (wattages) such as energy star support and blue angel support have been used as reference values so as to suppress standby power consumption in environmental problems. Various efforts have been made in inkjet printers to meet these standards.

  Some conventional ink jet printers are equipped with a soft switch key in addition to the main switch of the AC power supply. This is because the CPU inside the ink jet printer starts to operate simultaneously with the main switch of the AC power supply being turned on and monitors the power supply, and when the soft switch is pressed, the LED on the operation panel blinks to notify that it is in the low consumption mode state. It is configured.

  However, some hardware including the CPU in the inkjet printer continues to operate even in this state, leaving room for further reduction in standby power consumption.

In recent inkjet printers, after the power-off operation, in order to further reduce the power consumption in the low-consumption mode state, in addition to the function of turning off the power system power supply (for example, + 24V), the engine system logic system (+ 5V) output Low power consumption has been promoted by, for example, cutting off and continuing the operation of only some interrupt circuits of the CPU of the interface unit.
(For example, Patent Document 1)

JP2000-326590

In a recording apparatus having a configuration separated from a conventional engine unit and interface unit, there are the following concerns when the above-described devices are involved at power-off (shutdown).
For example, when the power control signal is controlled by the CPU of the interface unit, if the CPU of the interface unit accidentally malfunctions or runs out of control even during printing, the power supplied to the engine unit is disabled. Since the recording head is turned off in preparation, there is a problem that the recording head stops being exposed at the printing position.
In addition, when the engine unit performs on / off control of the drive voltage (for example, + 24V of another system) of the print head, if the power is suddenly turned off at the judgment of the interface unit, the print head It is conceivable that the fall of the logic power supply (for example, + 5V) precedes the fall of the drive voltage of the printer, and the drive element is inadvertently turned on inside the recording head, destroying the nozzle heater of the ink discharge nozzle. This will cause problems.

The present invention has been made to solve the problems described above, and the following means have been implemented to solve the problems.
That is, the power control method of the recording apparatus according to the present invention is as follows.
An independent CPU for controlling the first control circuit unit and the second control circuit unit is mounted in the recording apparatus, the first power control signal from the first control circuit unit, and the first 2, a logic operation circuit for the second power supply control signal from the control circuit unit, the first power supply control signal, and the second power supply control signal. A power control method for a recording apparatus, further comprising control means for controlling a part.

  The recording apparatus power control method according to the present invention further comprises monitoring means for monitoring the first power control signal by the second control circuit section.

  Furthermore, the power control method for the recording apparatus according to the present invention is characterized in that power is supplied to at least a part of the first control circuit after the control by the control means.

  According to the configuration of the present invention, a microcomputer for controlling each of the first control circuit unit and the second control circuit unit is mounted. In addition to the power control signal from the first control circuit unit, A power control signal is provided in the second control circuit unit, and the logic operation circuit controls the voltage of the logic power supply, thereby executing a safe sequence for shifting to the low power consumption mode during power down (shutdown). And an inadvertent failure of the recording head can be prevented.

  Embodiments relating to the recording apparatus of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a recording system in which a host computer is connected to a recording apparatus used in this embodiment.
The recording apparatus 101 and the host computer PC100 are connected by a printer cable 103, and the recording data processed by the host computer PC100 is recorded by the recording apparatus 101. The recording apparatus 101 has a recording unit 200 (see FIG. 2) including a recording head 203, which will be described later, in the upper part, and is supplied to the recording head in the lower part, including a transport unit 204 (see FIG. 2) that transports a recording medium. A front cover (not shown) that opens and closes to replace an ink cartridge that stores ink. An upstream portion of the recording apparatus 101 includes a roll driving shaft 113 for mounting a label paper 112 wound in a roll shape, a motor (not shown) for driving the roll driving shaft 113, and the like. Reference numeral 105 denotes a power switch of the recording apparatus, and reference numeral 106 denotes an operation panel of the recording apparatus, which has several LED display lamps and input keys in addition to the LCD 108 for display. One of the input keys is an eco switch (power on / off switch) 107. In this type of recording apparatus, the power switch 105 is normally operated while being turned on, and the eco switch 107 is simply turned on or off (shut down). The In the operation of the eco switch 107, only a high-power drive system power source (for example, + 24V) for driving an actuator such as a recording head or a motor is turned on / off, but a power source (for example, + 5V) for a control unit described later is partially turned on. To do. Further, when the printer is used as a network printer, it may be automatically turned on / off by a command sent from the outside to the recording apparatus 101 instead of the eco switch 107.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an outline of the recording unit 200 of the recording apparatus 101. The leading edge and the trailing edge of the label sheet 112 sent one by one from the sheet feeding unit are detected by the transmissive leading edge detection sensor 202, and the recording operation is performed by the plurality of recording heads 203 based on these positions. . In the embodiment of FIG. 2, the recording head 203 is composed of four recording heads 203Bk (black), C (cyan), M (magenta), and 203Y (yellow) from the upstream, and all the recording heads 203Bk, C, M and 203Y remain stationary at the recording position close to the label paper 112, and the respective recording heads 203Bk, C, C, and Y are kept stationary while the label paper 112 is passing at a constant transport speed, for example, 100 [mm / sec]. M, and color recording is performed by ink ejected from 203Y. Note that the width of each recording head is substantially the same as the width of the recording medium.
FIG. 3 is an electrical block diagram of the controller 300 of the recording apparatus embodying the present invention, and the electrical signal flow and the function of each component will be described.
In the figure, a CPU 301 is a processing unit that controls the recording apparatus based on a program described later. A CPU 302 is a host interface and is responsible for communication between the host computer 100 and the other CPU 301. Reference numerals 303 and 311 denote ROMs of a program memory. In particular, 303 stores a program corresponding to a flow described later and is read by the CPU 301. An image memory 304 stores recording data recorded by the recording device. A work memory 305 stores control data for exchange with the host computer and recording control of recording data. An EEPROM 306 is a non-volatile memory that stores data to be stored when the power is turned off. A print head control circuit 307 receives print data from the CPU 302 and control data from the CPU 301 and controls the print head 203. Reference numeral 308 denotes an input / output port that controls a conveyance unit, a sheet feeding unit, a power source, and the like. Reference numeral 308 inputs sensor information from a transmissive tip detection sensor or the like.
Various commands including recording data to be recorded by the recording apparatus 101 are received from the host computer 100 via the host interface CPU 302 of the recording apparatus, and the received data is temporarily stored in the reception buffer memory 310 and transferred to the engine CPU 301. The data is expanded according to the command analyzed by the CPU 301 and temporarily stored in the image memory 304. The operation of the CPU 301 is executed based on the program stored in the program ROM 303 as described above. In addition, the CPU 301 stores parameters and the like necessary for the work memory 305 for the recording operation. The EEPROM 306 is a rewritable non-volatile memory that stores, for example, manufacturing numbers of a plurality of mounted recording heads 203, variables for finely adjusting vertical and horizontal recording positions (registration) between the recording heads, and the like. To do. When the predetermined amount of recording data has been developed in the image memory 304, the CPU 301 activates a motor or the like (not shown) for feeding the label paper 112 from the paper feeding unit 109, and in parallel the capping position of the recording head 203. (Not shown) is moved to a recording position, and a motor (not shown) of the conveyance unit 204 is activated to prepare for a recording operation. The upstream end of the transmissive leading end detection sensor 202 (see FIG. 2) detects the leading end of the label sheet 112, and the CPU 301 detects each of Bk, C, M, and Y via the recording head control circuit 307 based on the detected position. Control is performed to transfer recording data synchronized with the recording position to the recording head 203. After the color recording is completed after passing through all the recording heads, the label paper 112 is detected by the downstream transmission type sensor 205 and then discharged from the recording apparatus 101. The downstream transmission sensor 205 is necessary for detecting slippage or jam of the label paper 112 when passing through the recording unit 200. The sensors 301 including the transmissive tip detection sensor 202 can read out the state almost in real time at the input / output port 308. A signal connected from the input / output port 308 to the power source 313 is a control line for turning on / off the drive system power source (for example, + 24V) when the eco switch 107 on the operation panel 106 is operated. The drive system power supply (for example, +24 V) can be read by an AD converter (not shown) after being divided in the control unit 300.

  FIG. 4 shows an electrical connection between the recording head 203 and the control unit 300 side of the recording apparatus 101 main body. The recording data from the recording head control circuit 307 is serially input to the control logic 401 inside the recording head, and is output in parallel to the nozzle heater driver 402 after parallel conversion. The number of nozzle heater drivers 402 is equal to the number of nozzle heaters 403 for ejecting ink from the nozzles. For example, a recording head having a recording width of 4 inches and a recording resolution of 600 [dpi] requires at least 2400 nozzles. In the embodiment of FIG. 4, the recording width is 4.2 inches (the number of effective nozzles: 2520), and there are fine adjustment ranges of 20 nozzles on both sides as redundant parts, and a total of 2560 nozzles are held. In addition to the signals related to the print data, the print head control circuit 307 also receives control signals for driving a large number of nozzle heater drivers in a time division manner.

  FIG. 5 shows input / output of the power supply 313 built in the recording apparatus 101. In response to the operation of the eco switch 107 on the operation panel 106, the level of the power control signal (SLEEP) 501 from the control unit changes to “H” or “L”, and the drive system power supply (for example, + 24V) is turned on / off. The Unless the power switch 105 is turned off, a logic power supply (for example, +5 V), which is a power supply for a partial control unit described later, always maintains an on state.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a configuration divided into an engine unit 300a which is a second control circuit unit of the present invention and an interface unit 300b which is a first control circuit unit. An engine CPU 301 and an interface CPU 302 for controlling the engine unit and the interface unit are mounted on the engine unit and the interface unit. In addition to the CONT signal 603 that is a power control signal from the interface CPU 302, the engine CPU 301 is provided with a power control signal POWER signal 604. The FET 602 is turned on / off using the OR gate 601 for the above two signals, and the logic power supply voltage (+5 V) to the CPU 301 and peripheral circuits is controlled. In this embodiment, unless both the CONT signal 603 and the POWER signal 604 become the logic value LOW, the logic power supply voltage (+ 5V) to the CPU 301 and the peripheral circuits is maintained.

The operation of the embodiment having the above configuration will be described with reference to the flow shown in FIG.
FIG. 7 shows a control flow of a power-off (shutdown) sequence executed by the control unit 300a when the eco switch 107 on the operation panel 106 of the recording apparatus 101 embodying the present invention is operated.
When the operation of the eco switch 107 is detected in the power-on state (S701), the CPU 302 of the control unit 300b performs display control indicating that the shutdown operation is being performed on the LCD 108 on the operation panel (S702), and then the CPU 301 of the control unit 300a. If recording is in progress, the recording operation is stopped (S703), and the recording head 203 is returned to the capping position (S704). Then, the drive power supply (for example, +24 V) is turned off by controlling the SLEEP signal 501 which is a control signal for the recording head and motor drive voltage (S705).

  Subsequently, when the interface CPU 302 controls the CONT signal 603, which is a power control signal, from “H” to “L” to shift to the low consumption mode (S706), the engine CPU 301 detects the CONT signal 603: L, On the other hand, it is confirmed by the SLEEP signal 501 that the drive system power supply (for example, +24 V) is sufficiently lowered (S707). The voltage value of the drive system power supply can be read out almost in real time by an AD converter (not shown).

  If the power supply voltage of the drive system does not decrease even after a predetermined time has elapsed (S713-Yes), it is determined as abnormal and an error is displayed (S714).

  If it is determined that the drive system power supply has sufficiently decreased (S707-Yes), the engine CPU 301 writes and stores the latest setting information and the like at the present time in the EEPROM 306 of the engine unit (S708). Subsequently, when the engine CPU 301 controls the POWER signal 604, which is a power control signal, from “H” to “L” (S709), the output of the OR gate 601 changes from “H” to “L”, so that the FET 602 is turned off.

At this time, the logic system power supply voltage (+ 5V) to the engine CPU 301 and peripheral circuits is shut off (S710). Subsequently, the interface CPU 302 also erases the display during the shutdown operation of the LCD 108 (S711). Finally, the interface CPU 302 sets the operation of the eco switch 107 to the accepting state (712) and ends.
When the recording device is a network printer, for example, the above-described processing may be started upon receiving a power-off instruction from the client. When there is no recording command for a predetermined time, the above-described control is performed by a timer output. You may start.

  Further, in the case of shifting to the low power consumption mode, when a print command is received through connection of an external interface (USB or the like), the interface CPU 302 changes the CONT signal 603, which is a power control signal, from “L” so as to be ready for printing. It is also possible to supply logic power (+5 V) by controlling to “H”.

  The present invention can be used for a recording apparatus in which a control unit is divided and controlled into an interface unit (or system control unit) and an engine unit.

1 is a schematic diagram in which a recording apparatus embodying the present invention and a host PC are connected. FIG. It is a figure which shows the outline of the recording part of the recording device which implemented this invention. 1 is an electrical block diagram of a recording apparatus embodying the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a method for supplying power from a recording apparatus embodying the present invention to a recording head. It is a figure which shows the connection of the power supply part periphery of the recording device which implemented this invention. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a recording device engine unit and an interface unit embodying the present invention. 4 is a flow showing a power-off (shutdown) sequence according to the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

100 host PC
101 Recording Device 105 Power Switch 106 Operation Panel 107 Eco Switch 108 LCD

203 Recording Head 204 Conveying Unit 300a Engine Unit 300b Interface Unit 301 Engine Unit CPU
302 Interface unit CPU
306 EEPROM
313 power supply

401 Control logic 402 Nozzle heater driver 403 Nozzle heater 404 Capacitor

501 Power control signal (SLEEP)
601 OR gate 602 FET

Claims (3)

A recording apparatus for recording on a recording medium by a recording head,
The recording apparatus is equipped with an independent CPU for controlling the first control circuit unit and the second control circuit unit, and a first power control signal from the first control circuit unit; A logic operation circuit for the second power supply control signal from the second control circuit unit, the first power supply control signal, and the second power supply control signal; And further comprising a control means for controlling a part of the power supply. 2. The power control method for a recording apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising monitoring means for monitoring the first power control signal by the second control circuit unit. 3. The power control method for a recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein power is supplied to at least a part of the first control circuit after the control by the control unit.

Images