JP2010005912A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce power consumption by quickly detecting a state of a printer being no longer used and switching the printer to a power-saving mode. <P>SOLUTION: An optical sensor for measuring brightness outside the printer is arranged at the printer to detect that the light of a room is put out and to switch the printer to the power-saving mode. An RTC is used to measure the brightness of the room day and night and by time zones and to determine lights out with higher accuracy. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to timing for shifting to a power saving mode of a printing apparatus. In particular, the present invention relates to a printing apparatus such as a large-size printer that needs to check the printing state of printed matter.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been proposed an optical sensor that detects whether indoor lighting is turned on or off and switches the apparatus to a power saving (power saving) mode. Patent Document 1 relates to a facsimile apparatus, and Patent Documents 2 and 3 relate to a printing apparatus such as a printer.
JP-A-5-237959 JP 2004-2448047 A JP-A-2005-88521

  In devices that are always turned on, especially printers, reducing power consumption during standby is one of the major functions for power saving. As a timing for switching to the normal power saving mode, a printer normally switches to the normal power saving mode when a printing operation or a user operation is not performed for a certain period of time after printing is completed. However, when it is determined that the power is not used, the total power consumption is reduced if the mode is quickly switched to the power saving mode.

  For this reason, it is one of the important functions to judge how it is not used and to switch to the power saving mode.

  In addition, a large-sized printer called a large-size printer has many printed materials that are expensive and that require high precision such as drawings. For this reason, it is necessary to turn on the light to confirm the printed matter during printing. For this reason, the means for detecting whether the indoor lighting is turned on or off and switching to the power saving mode when the light is turned off, as in the literature disclosed in the background art, is a suitable means for a large printer.

  However, large printer users are often referred to as print shops.

  Printing is often done regardless of day or night at a store that provides print services. In this case, there is little possibility of erroneous detection because there is little difference between when the illumination is turned off in the daytime and when the illumination is turned on at night.

  In order to maintain the print quality as described above, it is necessary to periodically clean the ink ejection head, and for this reason, a large-sized printer often has a built-in clock IC called RTC (real time clock). This RTC can be acquired not only for the time but also for the date. By using this RTC function to distinguish day and night from the date and time, and memorizing changes in the brightness of the room at the location where the device is installed, the lighting can be turned on and off more accurately. It can be detected and can quickly switch to the power saving mode.

  As described above, by accurately detecting lighting on / off, it is possible to reduce power consumption by determining use of the printer and switching the power saving mode, thereby contributing to CO2 reduction.

  Next, details of the present invention will be described in accordance with the description of the embodiments.

  FIG. 1 shows a flowchart of the control of the present invention, FIG. 2 shows an outline of the printing apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 2 shows a main part of a printer main body and optical sensors, taking a large-sized printer as an example.

  The large printer shown in FIG. 2 normally performs printing as follows. First, the printing paper wound in the roll shape of 2-1 is conveyed to the platen of 2-2. Next, while moving the carriage 2-3 in the direction of the arrow, ink is ejected from an ink ejection head disposed in the carriage, and an image for one line is printed. Next, the target print image can be printed by conveying the paper for one line and repeating the above operation.

  Also, the optical sensor for monitoring the room illumination used in the present invention is 2-5, which is attached to the upper surface of the cover of the printer 2-4.

  Next, the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1-1, the power is turned on and control is started.

  1-2. The threshold value is calculated from the illuminance data 1-10 of the previous day according to the calculation method described later for each time zone. The illuminance data on the previous day 1-10 is data as shown in FIG. 4 and is obtained when the following flows 1-3, 1-4, and 1-5 are performed on the previous day.

  The obtained threshold value for each time zone is as follows. Here, X at 6 to 7 o'clock and 17 to 18 o'clock means that the change in outside light is large and the indoor lighting cannot be determined.

次に１−３、RTCから現在の時刻と、１−４、２−５のセンサにより部屋の照度を取得する。１−５、まずこのデータを１−１１の当日のデータに保存する。次に１−６、取得した時刻、照度、閾値の表から現在照明の点灯消灯を判断しその状態を記憶する。

Next, the illuminance of the room is acquired from the current time and the sensors 1-4 and 2-5 from the 1-3 and RTC. 1-5. First, this data is stored in the data of the day 1-11. Next, 1-6, it is determined whether the current illumination is turned on or off from the acquired time, illuminance, and threshold value table, and the state is stored.

  Next, 1-7, it is determined whether or not the lighting state has changed from the lighting state to the previous state. If it is not changed from lighting to extinguishing, the process returns to 1-3 and the above control is repeated. When changing from lighting to extinguishing, the mode is switched to the power saving mode and 1-9 control is ended.

  Based on the above flow, a representative operation when the illuminance changes as shown in FIG. 4 will be described.

  For example, if the illuminance is measured at time 4-2, the illuminance at this time is 200 lux, which is larger than the threshold value 150 at this time, and therefore it is determined that the illumination is on. Next, at the time point 4-3, it is determined that the lighting is turned on in the same manner. Next, at 4-4, the illuminance is 200 lux, which is smaller than the threshold value 150, so that it is determined that the illumination is off, and the mode is switched to power saving. In addition, since the threshold value is X, that is, cannot be determined at time points 4-1 and 4-5, no change is made to power saving regardless of any change in illuminance.

  Details of the threshold value calculation method 1-2 will be described with reference to FIG.

  First, start 3-1. 3-2. Set the processing time to 0:00. 3-3. The illuminance data corresponding to the processing time is acquired from the initial data of the previous day of 1-10. 3-4. Compared with the data at the previous processing time, if 3-5 has not changed, advance the 3-10 time and return to 3-3. If it has changed, it is determined whether the 3-6 change is large. 3-8. When the change is small, it is determined that the sunrise is when the illuminance increases, and the sunset is when the illuminance decreases, and it is not determined to switch to power saving at this time. 3-7, A value between before and after the change is set as a threshold value. Next, 3-9, if the processing time is not 24:00, advance 3-10 time and return to 3-3. If the processing time is 24:00, the threshold is determined for 3-11, sunrise from 0:00, sunrise to sunset, and time zone from sunset to 24:00, and the process ends.

  Also, the degree of change of 3-6 is preferably large if there is a change of about 50 lux or more during the processing time increment of about 1 minute.

Control flow chart of the present invention Outline of printing apparatus of the present invention Flow chart of threshold calculation method Illuminance change graph

Explanation of symbols

2-1 Printing paper 2-2 Platen 2-3 Carriage 2-4 Cover 2-5 Optical sensor

Claims (5)

It has an optical sensor that measures the illuminance outside the machine and a means to obtain the current time. It is judged whether the interior lighting is turned on or off due to a change in the illuminance, and the lighting has changed from on to off. The printing apparatus is characterized in that the apparatus is switched to a power saving mode and the threshold value of the determination is changed according to time.   The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the threshold value is obtained from a change in illuminance by storing illuminance according to the time of the previous day.   The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the threshold value is obtained, a device whose illuminance changes rapidly is used.   The threshold value is set by dividing the time when the change in illuminance slowly increases at sunrise, the time when the change gradually decreases as sunset, and dividing the time from sunrise to sunset and other time zones. The printing apparatus as described.   5. The printing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein it is impossible to determine whether indoor lighting is turned on or off during the sunrise and sunset times, and the power saving mode is not switched by turning off the lights. .

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