JP2012206428A - Printing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printing apparatus that can surely receive data transmitted from an external device immediately before automatic power-off.SOLUTION: The printing apparatus includes a communication part 103 receiving/transmitting data from/to the external device; a printing part 109 printing data received from the external device; a timer part 107 counting a data reception waiting time; and an automatic power-off determining part 108 determining a shift to automatic power-off processing based on the count result of the timer part. The automatic power-off determining part 108 instructs the external device on the prohibition of data transmission when determining the shift to automatic power-off processing. Afterwards, when the data is received within a predetermined time, instructions on the prohibition of data transmission are invalidated, and the shift to automatic power-off processing is stopped to continue receiving data. If data is not received within the predetermined time, the shift to automatic power-off processing is carried out.

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing apparatus having an automatic power-off function.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an information processing system composed of a host computer (for example, a PC) and its peripheral devices (for example, a printing apparatus), for the purpose of energy saving, an automatic power source that automatically turns off the apparatus when the standby state continues Those having an off function are known.
As such an automatic power off function, for example, in Patent Document 1, in the above information processing system, a power off sequence control circuit is provided in a peripheral device and a power off means is provided in a host computer. A technique is disclosed in which a power-off command is issued to a sequence control circuit to turn off power to peripheral devices.

As an example of the automatic power off function on the printing apparatus (printer) side, the printer is automatically turned off when data is not exchanged with the host computer (PC) for a certain period of time. There is technology.
That is, according to the present technology, the printer side determines to shift to automatic power off when the data waiting state continues for a certain period of time, and instructs the PC side to prohibit data transmission (for example, the Centronics interface protocol). In the case of connection according to (1), the printer BUSY signal is turned ON), and after receiving data from the PC side is rejected, automatic power-off is performed.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-24798

However, in the above technique, when the printer determines to shift to automatic power off and turns on the BUSY signal, there is a possibility that data is transmitted from the PC at a timing synchronized with the ON of the BUSY signal.
In this way, when the printer transmits data immediately after the printer turns on the BUSY signal, the printer ignores the data transmitted late due to a transmission delay related to the length of the communication cable connecting the printer and the PC. Since the automatic power off is performed, there is a problem that the transmission data of the PC is unintentionally discarded.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and provides a printing apparatus that can reliably receive and process data transmitted from an external apparatus immediately before automatic power-off in the printing apparatus. The purpose is that.

  That is, according to the present invention, in a printing apparatus having an automatic power-off function that automatically turns off the power of the apparatus at a predetermined timing, a communication unit that exchanges data with the external apparatus, and data received from the external apparatus A printing unit that performs printing, a timer unit that counts the reception waiting time of the data, and an automatic power-off determination unit that determines the shift to the automatic power-off process based on the count result of the timer unit, When the automatic power-off determining unit determines to shift to the automatic power-off process, it instructs the external device to prohibit data transmission, and then receives the data within a predetermined time, and then instructs the data transmission prohibition. If the data is invalidated and the transition to the automatic power-off process is stopped to continue receiving the data, and the data is not received within a predetermined time, the automatic power-off process It is characterized by migrating.

  According to the present invention, when the shift to automatic power-off is determined in the printing apparatus, the external apparatus is instructed to prohibit data transmission, and then no data is received from the external apparatus within a predetermined time. In addition, since the automatic power-off is shifted to, the data transmitted from the external device immediately before the automatic power-off can be reliably received and processed.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the electrical equipment part by Example 1. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the first embodiment. 3 is a time chart showing the operation of the first embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the electrical equipment part by Example 2. FIG. 6 is a flowchart (1) illustrating an operation of the second embodiment. It is a flowchart (2) which shows operation | movement of Example 2. It is a schematic block diagram which shows the printing apparatus of this invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of a printing apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In the present embodiment, a printer will be described as an example of a printing apparatus.

First, the configuration of the printer 10 as a printing apparatus to which the present invention is applied will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 7 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a main part of the printing apparatus of the present invention.
The printer 10 is connected to an external device (PC: Personal Computer) (not shown), and prints by receiving print data transmitted from the PC.

Reference numeral 7 in FIG. 7 is a guide member for transporting a recording medium, and a carriage unit 2 on which a print head 6 (dot impact head) is mounted is disposed above the guide member 7.
The carriage unit 2 is supported by a carriage shaft 1 provided along the guide member 7 so as to be slidable in the lateral direction (main scanning direction).
A driving belt 3 is attached to the carriage unit 2, and the driving belt 3 is parallel to the carriage shaft 1 via a left end rotary pulley 4 and a gear portion 5 a of a right end space motor 5 serving as a driving source. Are stretched to do.

  By rotating the space motor 5, the carriage unit 2 prints the received print data on the recording medium on the guide member 7 by the print head 6 while being moved in the lateral direction by being pulled by the drive belt 3. . Such a printing operation is performed under the control of the following electrical unit 100 (FIG. 1).

Next, the configuration of the electrical unit 100 provided in the printer 10 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an electrical component according to the first embodiment.
As shown in FIG. 1, the electrical component unit 100 of this embodiment includes a control unit 101, a space motor driver 102 connected to the control unit 101, an I / F unit (communication unit) 103, an I / F driver 104, Print data storage unit 105, status monitoring unit 106, timer count unit (timer unit) 107, Auto OFF transition determination unit (automatic power off determination unit) 108, head driver (printing unit) 109, power supply unit 110, operation unit 111, etc. It consists of
The space motor driver 102 is connected to the space motor 5 (FIG. 7), and the head driver 109 is connected to the print head 6 (FIG. 7).

  The control unit 101 is equipped with a CPU and collectively controls the operation of each functional unit constituting the electrical component unit 100.

The I / F unit 103 is connected to the PC 300 as an external device via the communication cable 120, and various data, information, and information with the PC 300 according to a predetermined interface protocol by communication control of the I / F driver 104. Send and receive commands.
In the present embodiment, as the interface protocol, a Centronics (IEEE1284) interface, a USB interface, or the like having an interface signal including a BUSY signal or a signal equivalent thereto can be used.

  The print data received by the I / F unit 103 is sent from the I / F driver 104 to the control unit 101, and is temporarily stored in a print data storage unit (for example, DRAM: Dynamic Random Access Memory) 105 by the memory control of the control unit 101. Stored.

The head driver 109 drives the print head 6 (FIG. 7) based on the print data transmitted from the control unit 101, and prints on the recording medium.
In synchronization with the printing operation, the space motor driver 102 drives the space motor 5 (FIG. 7) to rotate based on the main scanning signal transmitted from the control unit 101, and moves the carriage unit 2 (FIG. 7) to the recording medium. Move in the width direction.

The state monitoring unit 106 detects the current printer state, that is, the standby state, the print state, the sleep state, and the automatic power-off state. The control unit 101 acquires detection information from the state monitoring unit 106 and performs control according to each state.
Here, the standby state is a state of waiting for data reception from the PC 300.
The printing state is a state in which a printing operation based on received data is being performed.
The sleep state is a low power state in which power supply to an element with relatively high power consumption is stopped. However, the CPU can operate in the sleep state, and data communication with the PC 300 is possible.
The automatic power off state is a state in which the apparatus is automatically turned off.

The timer count unit 107 counts, for example, the transition elapsed time from the standby state to the Sleep state, the transition elapsed time from the Sleep state to the automatic power-off determination, and the like.
Note that the transition time from each of the above states can be arbitrarily set by the user through a menu setting unit (not shown) of the operation unit 111.
The timer count unit 107 is reset when data is received from the PC 300 or when the user operates the buttons on the operation unit 111.

Based on the count result of the timer count unit 107, the Auto OFF transition determination unit 108 determines to shift to the automatic power-off process. That is, when the sleep state continues for a predetermined time, the shift to the automatic power-off process is determined.
The automatic power-off process is performed when data is not received from the PC 300 for a predetermined time after the BUSY signal of the printer is validated after determining the shift to the automatic power-off process. If data is received within a predetermined time, the automatic power-off process is stopped and data reception is continued.

The power supply unit 110 converts AC power into predetermined DC power and supplies it to each element and each drive system in the printer. Power supply to each element and each drive system is performed according to an instruction from the control unit 101.
When the automatic power-off process is performed or when shifting to the sleep state, the control unit 101 issues a power-off signal or a DC output stop signal. Based on these signals, the power supply unit 110 stops the supply of power or the supply of a predetermined DC output.

  The operation unit 111 includes various operation switches, operation buttons, a display unit for displaying a status, and the like, and serves as a man-machine interface between the printer 10 and the user.

  Next, based on FIG. 2, operation | movement of Example 1 by the said structure is demonstrated. FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the first embodiment. The following processing is performed under the control of the control unit 101. Specifically, this is performed by the CPU of the control unit 101 executing a predetermined control program.

In FIG. 2, when the AC switch of the printer 10 is turned on (S101), the initialization of the printer 10 (the electrical unit 100) is performed (S102).
Next, the timer count unit 107 is reset once, and then a predetermined time (a transition time from the standby state to the Sleep state: for example, 5 minutes) is set in the timer count unit 107 and the count operation is started (S103). . Thereafter, the printer 10 enters a standby state (S104).

When print data is received from the PC 300 during the standby state (S105), a print operation based on the received data is performed (S106). The received data is temporarily stored in the print data storage unit 105 and then read out as appropriate to perform the printing operation. During this time, the printer 10 is in a printing state.
When the printing operation is completed, the timer count unit 107 is reset, the counting operation is started again at a predetermined timer setting time, and the printer 10 is shifted to a standby state (S104), and data reception from the PC 300 is monitored. While waiting (S104 to S105).

In S104 to S105, if no data is received from the PC 300 within a predetermined time, the printer 10 shifts to a sleep state (S107) and waits while monitoring data reception from the PC 300 (S107). To S108). In this case, the timer count unit 107 performs a counting operation for a predetermined time (a transition time from the sleep state to the automatic power-off determination: for example, 5 minutes).
Here, the sleep state is a low power state in which the power supply to the relatively high power consumption elements such as motor drivers and sensors is stopped. However, data communication with the PC 300 is possible in the Sleep state.

  When print data is received from the PC 300 during the Sleep state (S108), a print operation based on the received data is performed (S106). After the printing is completed, the timer count unit 107 is reset, and the counting operation is started again at a predetermined timer setting time (the transition time from the standby state to the Sleep state), and the printer 10 is shifted to the standby state (S104). .

  In addition, in the previous S107 to S108, when data is not received from the PC 300 within a predetermined time, the Auto OFF transition determination unit 108 determines to shift to the automatic power-off process and displays on the display unit of the operation unit 111. “Waiting for Auto OFF” is displayed (S109), and the PC 300 is instructed to prohibit data transmission. For example, if the interface protocol conforms to the Centronics interface, the BUSY signal is validated (ON) and data reception from the PC is rejected (S110).

The Auto OFF transition determination unit 108 monitors data transmission from the PC 300 simultaneously with the ON of the BUSY signal (S111). Data transmission is recognized by turning on the STB signal.
When the data transmission from the PC 300 is recognized within a predetermined time, the BUSY signal is immediately invalidated (OFF), the data reception from the PC 300 is continued (S112), and then the printing operation based on the received data is performed. (S106).

If the data transmission from the PC 300 cannot be recognized even after a predetermined time has elapsed since the BUSY signal was turned ON, the Auto OFF transition determination unit 108 is determined to be in a state in which the PC 300 does not transmit data by the previous BUSY signal being turned ON. Judge that. In this state, Auto
The OFF transition determination unit 108 performs an automatic power-off process (S113), and stops the power supply by the power unit 110 according to the power-off instruction of the control unit 101 (S114).

  Here, the automatic power-off process by the Auto OFF transition determination unit 108 will be supplementarily described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a time chart illustrating the operation of the electrical component according to the first embodiment. This operation conforms to the Centronics interface protocol.

  First, the transition operation to the normal automatic power-off process (the processes in S109 to S114 in FIG. 2) will be described with reference to FIG.

When the Auto OFF transition determination unit 108 determines to shift to the automatic power-off process (S109), the BUSY-P signal is set to “H” (data reception refusal state).
The PC 300 recognizes the BUSY signal “H”, maintains the STB-N (data latch signal) at “H”, and stops data transmission.
If the data transmission from the PC 300 (STB-N “L”) cannot be recognized after the predetermined time has elapsed, the control unit 101 issues an AUTO OFF-P signal to the power supply unit 110 and stops supplying power (S113). , S114). The predetermined time is a time for compensating for the transmission delay of the signal generated in the communication cable 120 during communication, and is set to several ms, for example. During this time, “Auto OFF standby” is displayed on the display unit of the operation unit 111.

  Next, when the Auto OFF transition determination unit 108 determines the transition to automatic power off, the operation when the data is transmitted from the PC 300 (the processing of S109 to S106 in FIG. 2) is shown in FIG. ).

When the Auto OFF transition determination unit 108 determines to shift to automatic power off (S109), the BUSY-P signal is set to “H” (data reception refusal state), but here, the BUSY-P signal is set to “H”. At the same time, the STB-N signal (data latch) of the PC 300 is set to “L” (data transmission state). That is, data is transmitted from the PC 300.
In response to the STB-N signal “L”, the printer 10 shifts to the data reception state, and immediately changes the BUSY-P signal from “H” to “L” so that the data can be received. Thereafter, the data receiving operation is continuously performed. Note that “L” in the ACK-N signal in FIG. 3B is a response signal to the PC 300 indicating that the data has been normally received.
In this operation, the control unit 101 does not issue an Auto OFF signal to the power supply unit 110 and, after receiving all the data from the PC 300, appropriately shifts to a printing operation (S106).

  As described above, according to the first embodiment, when the printer 10 is determined to shift to the automatic power-off process, the PC 300 is notified of the prohibition of data transmission, and then the data is not received within a predetermined time. In this case, the automatic power-off process is performed, so that even if data is transmitted from the PC 300 immediately before the automatic power-off, the data can be reliably received and processed.

Next, based on FIG. 4, the structure of the electrical equipment part 200 by Example 2 is demonstrated. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of the electrical unit according to the second embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 4, the electrical unit 200 according to the present embodiment includes an Auto OFF command transmission unit (command transmission unit) 112 in the control unit 101. This is different from the first embodiment (FIG. 1) in that it is newly connected. In addition, about the same function part as Example 1, the same number is attached | subjected and description is abbreviate | omitted.

  The Auto OFF command transmission unit 112 transmits a command requesting the PC 300 to determine whether or not to switch to the automatic power-off transition and to display the automatic power-off state when shifting to the automatic power-off process.

Next, based on FIG. 5, FIG. 6, operation | movement of Example 2 by the said structure is demonstrated. 5 and 6 are flowcharts illustrating the operation of the electrical component according to the second embodiment. The following processing is performed under the control of the control unit 101 (CPU) as in the first embodiment.
In FIG. 5, the processing of S201 to S208 is the same as the processing of the first embodiment (the processing of S101 to S108 of FIG. 2), and thus description thereof will be omitted, and only the portions that are different from the first embodiment will be described.

In S209 of FIG. 5, when the Auto OFF transition determination unit 108 determines to shift to the automatic power-off process, the BUSY signal is validated (ON) and data reception from the PC 300 is rejected.
The Auto OFF command transmission unit 112 transmits a command for requesting whether or not to shift to Auto OFF (automatic power off) to the PC 300 via the I / F driver 104 (S210).

Upon receiving this request command, the PC 300 displays a selection screen for determining whether or not auto-off transition is possible on the status monitor of the PC 300 (S211).
For example, in the status monitor, “After a few seconds, it will shift to Auto OFF. “OK” is displayed when it is acceptable to migrate, and “NG” is selected when migration is not allowed ”.

When “OK” (Auto OFF is possible) is received from the PC 300 in response to the request command (S212), the process proceeds to S216.
Alternatively, when a predetermined time has elapsed after waiting for a response from the PC 300, the process proceeds to S216 regardless of the user's judgment. This is because there is a high possibility that the user does not use the printer 10 or does not operate the PC 300 until shifting to Auto OFF.

  In S216, the Auto OFF command transmission unit 112 transmits a command for notifying the PC 300 of the transition to Auto OFF via the I / F driver 104 (S216).

Upon receiving this notification command, the PC 300 displays on the status monitor of the PC 300 that the printer 10 is in the Auto OFF state.
Next, the Auto OFF transition determination unit 108 performs an automatic power off process (S218), and stops the power supply by the power unit 110 according to an instruction from the control unit 101 (issue of an Auto OFF signal) (S219).

  On the other hand, if “NG” (Auto OFF disabled) is received from the PC 300 in response to the transmission of the request command in S210, the process proceeds to S203 (S220). In S203, after the timer count unit 107 is reset, a predetermined time is set and the count operation is started, and the printer 10 shifts to a standby state (S204). Thereby, the transition to the automatic power-off process once determined is stopped.

  In this case, the Auto OFF transition determination unit 108 determines that the user does not want the automatic power off process, invalidates the function of the automatic power off process, or lengthens the transition time to the automatic power off process. You may make it do.

Further, when print data is received from the PC 300 in a state where there is no response indicating whether or not the Auto OFF shift is possible from the PC 300 and a predetermined time has not elapsed (YES in S221), the user has no intention to shift to Auto OFF. Judgment is made immediately and the BUSY signal is invalidated (OFF), and data from the PC 300 is continuously received (S215). After receiving a series of data, a printing operation based on the received data is performed (S206).
At this time, in the PC 300, the selection screen for determining whether or not the Auto OFF shift is displayed on the status monitor is turned off (S222).

By the way, in the first embodiment, even if automatic power-off is performed in the printer 10, it cannot be confirmed from the PC 300 side, so the user transmits data even though the printer 10 is in the power-off state. There is a possibility that.
In order to confirm that the printer 10 is turned off, it is necessary for the user to go to the installation location of the printer 10 and make a determination based on the power lamp display of the printer 10. If this is the case, it will be extremely troublesome to confirm.

In this regard, in the second embodiment, since the status monitor of the PC 300 displays that the printer 10 is in the automatic power-off state, the user can turn off the printer on the spot by displaying the status monitor. It is possible to confirm. Therefore, according to the second embodiment, in addition to the effects of the first embodiment, it is possible to avoid an erroneous operation of transmitting data from the PC 300 even when the printer 10 is in the power-off state. Operability can be improved.
In addition, since the user can select whether or not the automatic power-off of the printer 10 can be performed on the PC 300 side, the printer 10 is automatically turned off unintentionally even though there is data to be transmitted to the PC 300 side. Can be avoided.

  In this embodiment, the dot impact printer has been described as the printing apparatus. However, the present invention can also be applied to an electrophotographic printer, an inkjet printer, a thermal printer, and the like.

10 Printer (printing device)
101 Control unit 103 I / F unit (communication unit)
107 Timer count part (timer part)
108 Auto OFF transition judgment part (automatic power off decision part)
109 Head driver (printer)
113 Auto OFF command transmitter (command transmitter)
300 PC (external device)

Claims (6)

In a printing apparatus having an automatic power-off function that automatically turns off the power of its own device at a predetermined timing,
A communication unit that exchanges data with external devices;
A printing unit for printing data received from the external device;
A timer unit for counting a waiting time for receiving the data;
Based on the count result of the timer unit, an automatic power off determination unit that determines the transition to automatic power off processing,
When the automatic power-off determining unit determines to shift to the automatic power-off process, it instructs the external device to prohibit data transmission, and then receives the data within a predetermined time and invalidates the data transmission prohibition. And stopping the shift to the automatic power-off process and continuing to receive the data. If the data is not received within a predetermined time, the printing apparatus shifts to the automatic power-off process. .   The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined time is set as a time that can compensate at least a transmission delay time of a signal to and from the external device.   And a command transmission unit that requests the external device to permit power off and display a power-off state to the external device via the communication unit when the automatic power off determination unit shifts to automatic power off processing. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:   The automatic power-off determining unit, after requesting the power-off permission and display of the power-off state, cancels the shift to the automatic power-off process when receiving a non-permission from the external device. The printing apparatus according to claim 3.   2. The display device according to claim 1, further comprising a display unit configured to display that the automatic power-off process is on standby for the predetermined time when the automatic power-off determination unit determines to shift to the automatic power-off process. Printing device.   The automatic power-off determining unit invalidates the function of the automatic power-off process when receiving a non-permission from the external device after requesting the power-off permission and displaying the power-off state. The printing apparatus according to claim 3.

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