JP2020037204A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a handheld type printer capable of issuing a predetermined notification when a non-discharge state of a heated nozzle continues for predetermined time.SOLUTION: Provided is a handheld printer of an inkjet type which is capable of issuing a predetermined notification when a neglected state of the nozzle continues for predetermined time-out time, that is when a state that the nozzle has attained a predetermined setting temperature and a non-printing state when ink is not discharged from the nozzle are established at the same time, in the case of a non-capped state of the ink-discharging nozzle.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 8

Description

  The present invention relates to printing devices, and more particularly, to hand-held printing devices.

  Due to the miniaturization of notebook PCs and the rapid spread of smart devices such as smartphones, miniaturization of printers that can be easily carried has been cited as one of the great demands.

  In view of such demands, there has been proposed a hand-held type ink-jet printer which eliminates the paper transport system and applies ink while freely scanning (free-hand scanning) on a plane such as a paper surface by a human hand (for example, , Patent Document 1).

  In general, in an ink jet printer, when a state in which a nozzle of a recording head does not discharge ink continues for a long time, the nozzle is clogged due to an increase in viscosity of the ink due to evaporation of moisture. In order to avoid this problem, in an inkjet printer having a conventional paper transport system, when printing is completed, a capping operation of attaching a protective cap to a nozzle of a recording head is automatically performed.

  In this regard, even in the hand-held type ink jet printer, the user manually attaches the protective cap to the nozzle as soon as printing is completed. However, hand-held inkjet printers stop printing when the user stops moving the printer, so even if printing is in progress, the nozzles do not eject ink for a long time. There is.

  The nozzles during printing are heated by the heater, and the water content of the ink is apt to evaporate. Therefore, the viscosity of the ink may increase in a short time and the nozzle may be clogged.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above, and provides a handheld printing apparatus that can perform a predetermined notification when a state in which a heated nozzle does not discharge ink continues for a predetermined time. With the goal.

  The present inventor has conducted intensive studies on a handheld printing apparatus capable of performing a predetermined notification when a state in which a heated nozzle does not discharge ink continues for a predetermined time, and has arrived at the following configuration. This has led to the present invention.

  That is, according to the present invention, there is provided an ink-jet type handheld printing apparatus, in a state where a nozzle for discharging ink is not capped and a state where the nozzle reaches a predetermined set temperature and a state where ink is discharged from the nozzle. A printing device is provided, in which a predetermined notification is performed when a nozzle leaving state in which a non-printing state that is not simultaneously established is continued for a predetermined timeout period.

  As described above, according to the present invention, there is provided a hand-held printing apparatus capable of performing a predetermined notification when a state in which a heated nozzle does not discharge ink continues for a predetermined time.

FIG. 1 illustrates a printing system according to an embodiment. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an external configuration of a handheld printer according to an embodiment. The figure which shows the external appearance structure of the capping apparatus of this embodiment. FIG. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram of the handheld printer according to the embodiment. FIG. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram of a control unit of the handheld printer according to the embodiment. 5 is a flowchart of a printing process using the handheld printer according to the embodiment. FIG. 4 is a state transition diagram of the handheld printer according to the embodiment. 5 is a flowchart of a process executed by a control unit of the handheld printer according to the embodiment. FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a notification mode indicating that a print job has been canceled.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described with reference to embodiments, but the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described below. In the drawings referred to below, the same reference numerals are used for common elements, and the description thereof will be omitted as appropriate.

  FIG. 1 shows a printing system 1000 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the printing system 1000 includes a hand-held printer 10 and an image providing device 60.

  The hand-held printer 10 is a hand-held printing device, and is a printing device that employs an inkjet method as a printing method. The user can form an arbitrary image on the print medium 70 by holding the handheld printer 10 and freely moving the print medium 70 on the print medium 70.

  The image providing device 60 is an information processing device that provides image data to be printed to the handheld printer 10, and may be a smartphone, a tablet terminal, a notebook PC, or the like.

  Each of the handheld printer 10 and the image providing device 60 has a wireless communication function based on a predetermined wireless standard such as infrared communication, Bluetooth (registered trademark), and Wi-Fi (registered trademark). The necessary information is transmitted and received via wireless communication. However, the present embodiment does not exclude that both send and receive information via wired communication.

  The configuration of the printing system 1000 according to the present embodiment has been outlined above. Next, the external configuration of the handheld printer 10 according to the present embodiment will be described.

  2A, 2B, and 2C show a top view, a side view, and a bottom view of the handheld printer 10, respectively. As shown in FIG. 2, the handheld printer 10 has a substantially rectangular parallelepiped housing, and a power button 12, an LED lamp 13, and a print start button 14 are provided on the upper surface of the housing. . On the other hand, guide rollers 15a and 15b, a navigation sensor 21, a magnetic sensor 23, and a recording head unit 26 are provided on the bottom surface that faces the print medium when printing is performed. A gyro sensor (not shown) (not shown) is mounted in the housing.

  The navigation sensor 21 is a unit that detects the amount of movement of the handheld printer 10 using a mechanism similar to that of an optical mouse. The navigation sensor 21 irradiates the opposite print medium with light, captures the reflected light, and calculates the amount of movement of the handheld printer 10 based on the difference between the acquired image data. More precisely, the movement amount of the hand-held printer 10 is more precisely defined as an orthogonal coordinate system (hereinafter, referred to as the X-axis direction, the width direction of the bottom surface of the housing of the hand-held printer 10 and the Y-axis direction). (Referred to as a printer coordinate system) means the movement amount (ΔX, ΔY) of the position of the navigation sensor 21.

  The recording head unit 26 includes a recording head having a plurality of nozzles (ejection means), and forms a print image on a print medium in which ink droplets ejected from each nozzle face each other.

  The guide rollers 15a and 15b are means for smoothly scanning on the print medium, and at the same time, a spacer for securing a gap required for printing between the nozzles of the recording head and the print medium. Function as

  The magnetic sensor 23 is provided to detect whether a dedicated capping device is mounted on the handheld printer 10.

  FIG. 3 shows a capping device 30 of the present embodiment. The capping device 30 is a dedicated device for protecting the recording head of the handheld printer 10, and FIG. 3A shows a side view of the capping device 30 mounted on the handheld printer 10, and FIG. 3 (c) shows a cross-sectional view of the capping device 30. FIG.

  As shown in FIGS. 3B and 3C, the capping device 30 has a concave portion that can be fitted to the lower part of the handheld printer 10. A nozzle cap 34 is fixed at a position corresponding to the recording head unit 26 of the handheld printer 10 on the bottom surface of the concave portion of the capping device 30. When the handheld printer 10 is fitted to the capping device 30, the nozzle cap 34 The nozzle of the recording head is capped by a nozzle cap 34. In addition, a magnet 32 is fixed to the bottom surface of the concave portion of the capping device 30 at a position corresponding to the magnetic sensor 23 of the handheld printer 10, and when the recording head of the handheld printer 10 is capped, the magnetic field of the magnet 32 is Is detected by the magnetic sensor 23.

  The external configuration of the handheld printer 10 and the capping device 30 of the present embodiment has been described above. Next, the hardware configuration of the handheld printer 10 will be described with reference to FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 4, in addition to the above-described navigation sensor 21, magnetic sensor 23, and recording head unit 26, the handheld printer 10 includes a power supply 16, a power supply circuit 17, a memory 18, 20, a gyro sensor 22, an operation unit (OPU) 24, a heater 25, a recording head drive circuit 27, and an image data communication I / F 28 are mounted.

  The power supply 16 is a power supply for supplying power used by the handheld printer 10, and is, for example, a secondary battery such as a battery. The power supply circuit 17 is a circuit that controls power supply to each unit of the handheld printer 10.

  The memory 18 is a storage device including a ROM and a DRAM. The ROM stores a program for controlling the hardware of the handheld printer 10, driving waveform data for driving the recording head, data of initial setting information, and the like. The DRAM provides a program execution space, and temporarily stores various data such as image data and drive waveform data.

  The control unit 20 is a unit that performs overall control of the handheld printer 10, and details thereof will be described later.

  The gyro sensor 22 is a unit that detects a rotation angle of the handheld printer 10. Here, the rotation angle of the handheld printer 10 means a rotation angle (Δθ) about an axis orthogonal to the printer coordinate system (plane coordinate system).

  The OPU 24 is a unit for receiving a user operation or notifying the user of the state of the hand-held printer 10, and in the present embodiment, the power button 12, the print start button 14, and the LED lamp 13 correspond to this.

  The recording head drive circuit 27 is a unit that controls a recording head included in the recording head unit 26.

  The heater 25 is means for raising the temperature of the nozzles of the print head of the print head unit 26 to a predetermined temperature.

  The image data communication I / F 28 is a data communication I / F conforming to a predetermined wireless standard, and the handheld printer 10 receives data from the image providing device 60 via the image data communication I / F 28.

  The hardware configuration of the handheld printer 10 according to the embodiment has been described above. Next, the hardware configuration of the control unit 20 of the handheld printer 10 will be described with reference to FIG.

  The control unit 20 includes an SoC 40 and an ASIC / FPGA 50. The SoC 40 includes a CPU 41, a memory controller 42, a position calculation circuit 43, and a magnetic sensor I / F 44, and these perform data communication via a bus 45.

  The CPU 41 is a unit that performs overall control of the handheld printer 10. The memory controller 42 is a unit that controls the memory 18.

  The position calculation circuit 43 calculates the position coordinates of the navigation sensor 21 using the movement amounts (ΔX, ΔY) detected by the navigation sensor 21 and the rotation angle (Δθ) of the handheld printer 10 detected by the gyro sensor 22. And means for calculating the position coordinates of each nozzle of the recording head based on the calculated position coordinates of the navigation sensor 21.

  The magnetic sensor I / F 44 is means for performing data communication with the magnetic sensor 23.

  The ASIC / FPGA 50 includes a navigation sensor I / F 51, a gyro sensor I / F 52, a timing generation circuit 53, a recording head control circuit 54, an image RAM 55, a DMAC (Direct Memory Access Controller) 56, a rotator 57, And an interrupt circuit 58 for performing data communication via a bus 59. The bus 59 is connected to the bus 45 so that the SoC 40 and the ASIC / FPGA 50 can perform data communication with each other.

  The timing generation circuit 53 includes a timing at which the navigation sensor I / F 51 reads output values (ΔX, ΔY) of the navigation sensor 21, a timing at which the gyro sensor I / F 52 reads output values (Δθ) of the gyro sensor 22, Generates timings for discharging droplets, and notifies these timings to the navigation sensor I / F 51, the gyro sensor I / F 52, and the recording head control circuit 54.

  The navigation sensor I / F 51 is a unit that performs data communication with the navigation sensor 21.

  The gyro sensor I / F 52 is means for performing data communication with the gyro sensor 22.

  The DMAC 56 reads out image data to be formed by ejecting liquid droplets from each nozzle from the memory 18 via the memory controller 42 based on the position coordinates of the nozzles calculated by the position calculation circuit 43, and stores them in the image RAM 55. .

  The image RAM 55 is a storage device for temporarily storing image data read by the DMAC 56.

  The rotator 57 is means for rotating image data to be printed according to the head position and head inclination of the handheld printer 10. The rotator 57 acquires image data from the image RAM 55, rotates the image data according to the head position and the head inclination of the handheld printer 10, and uses the image data in a predetermined condition necessary for ejection (hereinafter, “ejection condition”). ), The image data is transmitted to the printhead control circuit 54.

  The printhead control circuit 54 is means for controlling the printhead drive circuit 27 to control the discharge operation of the printhead. The print head control circuit 54 transmits a control signal for controlling the discharge operation of the print head and image data to be printed to the print head drive circuit 27 at the timing designated by the timing generation circuit 53.

  The interrupt circuit 58 is a means for transmitting an interrupt signal to the SoC 40. The interrupt circuit 58 transmits to the SoC 40 an interrupt signal notifying that the navigation sensor I / F 51 ends communication with the navigation sensor 21 and an interrupt signal notifying status information such as an error.

  The hardware configuration of the control unit 20 of the handheld printer 10 has been described above. Next, the flow of printing using the handheld printer 10 will be described based on the flowchart shown in FIG. In FIG. 6, the user's operation is shown on the left side and the operation of the control unit 20 is shown on the right side with the broken line as a boundary.

  When the user presses the power button 12 of the handheld printer 10 (step S100), the control unit 20 starts operating upon receiving power supply (step S200). The SoC 40 executes initialization of each device (step S201), and upon completion of the initialization (step S202, Yes), turns on the LED lamp 13 (step S203) to notify the user that printing is possible. Notice.

  In response to this, the user operates the image providing device 60 to select an image to be printed (step S101).

  When the user who has selected the image to be printed operates the image providing device 60 to instruct the execution of the printing, the image providing device 60 generates a print job including the selected image (step S102), and transfers the generated print job to a handheld device. Send to printer 10.

  In response to this, the CPU 41 of the SoC 40 blinks the LED lamp 13 while receiving the image data, and notifies the user to that effect (step S204).

  On the other hand, the user places the handheld printer 10 at a desired position on the medium on which printing is to be performed, determines the position as an initial printing position (step S103), and then presses the print start button 14 (step S103). Step S104). Thereafter, the user freely scans over the print medium (freehand scanning) to form an image (step S105).

On the other hand, in response to the press of the print start button 14 (step S104), the navigation sensor 21 and the gyro sensor 22 start detecting the movement amount (ΔX, ΔY) and the rotation angle (Δθ), respectively (step S250). ), The CPU 41 of the SoC 40 stores the predetermined position coordinates (X _S , Y _S ) in the memory 18 as the initial position of the navigation sensor 21 (Step S205), and then acquires the movement amounts (ΔX, ΔY) from the navigation sensor 21. The gyro sensor I / F 52 notifies the gyro sensor I / F 52 to acquire the rotation angle (Δθ) from the gyro sensor 22.

  In response to this, the timing generation circuit 53 of the ASIC / FPGA 50 performs time measurement by a counter (step S206), and the navigation sensor I / F 51 and the gyro sensor I / F 52 transmit the signals to the navigation sensor 21 and the gyro sensor 22, respectively. It waits for the arrival of the read timing (step S207, No), and each time the set sensor read timing arrives (step S207, Yes), the movement amount (ΔX, ΔY) and the rotation angle (Δθ) are read (step S208).

The CPU 41 of the SoC 40 reads the movement amount (ΔX, ΔY) and the rotation angle (Δθ) from the navigation sensor I / F 51 and the gyro sensor I / F 52 of the ASIC / FPGA 50, respectively. The current position coordinates of the navigation sensor 21 are calculated based on the closest position coordinates (in this case, (X _S , Y _S )) and the movement amount (ΔX, ΔY) and rotation angle (Δθ) read in step 208. Then, it is stored in the memory 18 (step S209).

  The CPU 41 of the SoC 40 transmits the calculated position coordinates of the navigation sensor 21 to the ASIC / FPGA 50. In response, the rotator 57 of the ASIC / FPGA 50 calculates the position coordinates of each nozzle of the print head from the positional relationship between the navigation sensor 21 and the print head unit 26 (step S210).

  The DMAC 56 of the ASIC / FPGA 50 reads the image data around each nozzle from the memory 18 (DRAM) and transfers it to the image RAM 55 based on the position information of each nozzle calculated in step S210 (step S211).

  In response to this, the rotator 57 rotates the image data stored in the image RAM 55 in accordance with the head position and head tilt designated by the CPU 41 at the time of initialization, and converts the rotated image data and the coordinates of the position of each nozzle. A comparison is made (step S212), and it is determined whether or not the ejection condition is satisfied (step S213).

  If the ejection condition is not satisfied (step S213, No), the process returns to step S207, and if the ejection condition is satisfied (step S213, Yes), the rotator 57 transfers the image data to the print head control circuit 54. (Step S214). In response to this, the printhead control circuit 54 controls the printhead drive circuit 27 to cause the nozzles of the printhead to eject ink onto the print medium.

  Thereafter, steps S207 to S215 described above are repeated until the ejection of all image data is completed (step S215, No). When the ejection of all image data is completed (step S215, Yes), the CPU 41 of the SoC 40 executes The LED lamp 13 is turned off, and the user is notified of that (step S216).

  The flow of the printing process using the handheld printer 10 has been described above. Next, the state transition of the handheld printer 10 of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  The handheld printer 10 makes a transition to the “starting” state in response to the power button 12 being pressed. In the “starting” state, a predetermined initialization process is executed, and when the initialization is completed, the state transits to the “standby” state. In the "standby" state, the printer waits for a print job transmitted from the image providing device 60, and when the reception of the print job is started, transitions to the "warm-up" state.

  In the “warm-up” state, the heater 25 is driven to heat the nozzles of the print head of the print head unit 26. Thereafter, when the reception of the print job is completed and the temperature of the nozzles reaches a predetermined set temperature at which printing is possible, the state transits to a “print ready” state. In the “print preparation completed” state, the printer waits for the print start button 14 to be pressed, and transitions to the “printing” state in response to the press of the print start button 14. If the print job is canceled in the “print ready” state, the state transits to the “standby” state

  In the “printing” state, a printing operation is performed according to the movement of the handheld printer 10. When the print job is completed or canceled in the “printing” state, the state transits to the “standby” state.

  The state transition of the handheld printer 10 has been described above. Next, the processing executed by the control unit 20 (SoC 40) of the handheld printer 10 of the present embodiment will be described based on the flowchart shown in FIG.

  In response to the transition of the handheld printer 10 to the “standby” state, the control unit 20 starts the following processing (step S300).

  In step S301, the decap state of the handheld printer 10 is monitored (step S301, No). Here, the “decapped state” means a state in which the nozzles of the recording head are not capped by the nozzle cap 34 of the capping device 30. As described with reference to FIG. 3, in the present embodiment, when the nozzle of the handheld printer 10 is capped by the nozzle cap 34, the magnetic sensor 23 that has detected the magnetic field of the magnet 32 notifies that via the magnetic sensor I / F 44. Since the CPU 41 is notified, the CPU 41 determines whether or not the handheld printer 10 is in the decap state based on the presence or absence of the notification.

  If it is determined in step S301 that the handheld printer 10 is in the decap state (step S301, Yes), the process proceeds to step S302. In the following step S302, transition to the "print preparation completed" state is monitored (step S302, No). As a result, the process proceeds to step S303 when the state transits to the “print ready” state (ie, when the reception of the print job is completed and the temperature of the nozzle reaches a predetermined temperature).

  In a succeeding step S303, a timeout time [t1] is set in the timer 1 and a timeout time [t2] is set in the timer 2. Here, [t1] is a timeout time related to a continuation time of a state in which printing has not been started after transitioning to the “print ready” state. On the other hand, [t2] is a timeout time used for alerting the user that the timeout of [t1] is approaching, and an appropriate time shorter than [t1] is set.

  Thereafter, the timeout of [t2] and [t1] and the press of the print start button 14 are monitored (Step S304, No → Step S305, No → Step S306, No). As a result, if [t2] times out before the print start button 14 is pressed (step S304, Yes), the process proceeds to step S313, and the user is notified in a predetermined manner (described later). On the other hand, if [t1] times out before the print start button 14 is pressed (step S305, Yes), the process proceeds to step S315, and after performing a predetermined notification (described later) to the user, continues. In step S316, the print job being executed is canceled.

  On the other hand, if the print start button 14 is pressed before [t1] times out (step S306, Yes), the process proceeds to step S307.

  In the following step S307, a new timeout period [T1] is set in the timer 1 and a new timeout period [T2] is set in the timer 2. Here, [T1] is a timeout period related to a continuation time period in which the movement of the handheld printer 10 is not detected after the start of printing. On the other hand, [T2] is a timeout time used to alert the user that the timeout of [T1] is approaching, and an appropriate time shorter than [T1] is set.

  Note that the above-mentioned timeout times [t1] and [T1] are set so that the total time of the two does not exceed a limit time during which a nozzle that has reached a predetermined set temperature can maintain a normal state without ejecting ink. Further, the lengths of the two timeout periods [t1] and [T1] may be the same or different. In general, the duration of the nozzle leaving state that occurs before the start of printing tends to be longer than that after the start of printing. For example, [t1] is set to 120 seconds, and [T1] is set to 60 seconds. May be set.

  After a new timeout period is set, the timeout of [T2] and [T1] and the detection of the movement of the handheld printer 10 are monitored (Step S308, No → Step S309, No → Step S310, No). The movement of the handheld printer 10 can be detected based on whether or not the position coordinates of the navigation sensor 21 have changed. As a result, if [T2] times out before the movement of the handheld printer 10 is detected (Yes at Step S308), the process proceeds to Step S314, and a predetermined notification (described later) is given to the user. On the other hand, if [T1] times out before the movement of the handheld printer 10 is detected (step S309, Yes), the process proceeds to step S315, and after performing a predetermined notification (described later) to the user, In a succeeding step S316, the print job being executed is canceled.

  On the other hand, if the movement of the handheld printer 10 is detected before [T1] times out (step S310, Yes), the process proceeds to step S311.

  In the following step S311, it is determined whether or not the print job has been completed. If the print job has not been completed (step S311, No), the process returns to step 307, and each of the timers 1 and 2 has a new [ T1] and [T2] are set. Thereafter, the series of processes described above (steps S307 to S311) are repeated until [T1] times out or the print job is completed.

  If the print job is completed before [T1] times out (step S311, Yes), or after the print job is canceled in step S316, the process proceeds to step 312. In step 312, the driving of the heater 25 is stopped. As a result, the heating of the nozzles of the recording head is stopped, and the handheld printer 10 returns to the “standby” state. Thereafter, the process returns to step 301 and repeats the above-described series of processes.

  In the present embodiment, the above-mentioned time-out time [t1] and [T1] are set so that the total time is shorter than a limit time during which a nozzle that has reached a predetermined set temperature can maintain a normal state without ejecting ink. Set to. Further, the lengths of the two timeout periods [t1] and [T1] may be the same or different, and generally, the duration of the nozzle idle state occurring before the start of printing is the same as the duration of the nozzle leaving state occurring after the start of printing. For example, in consideration of the tendency to be longer than [t1], [t1] may be set to 120 seconds and [T1] may be set to 60 seconds.

  Here, the predetermined notification performed in steps S313, S314, and S315 described above will be described.

  In the above-described steps S313 and S314, the user can be notified of the execution of printing. On the other hand, in step S315 described above, a notification that informs the user that the print job is to be canceled can be made. In addition, the notification may be performed in any manner, and may be performed via an arbitrary notification unit included in the handheld printer 10 or may be performed via the image providing apparatus 60 that is the transmission source of the print job. You may.

  FIG. 9A exemplarily shows an aspect in which notification is performed via notification means provided in the handheld printer 10. In this example, the print start button 14 is configured as a glowing button having a built-in LED lamp, and the notification is performed by blinking the print start button 14. When one light emitting unit is used as the notification unit as in this example, the user can understand the content of the notification by changing the blinking pattern of light in steps S313 and S314 and step S315. be able to. In another embodiment, a display means (such as a display) and a sounding means (such as a buzzer) may be mounted on the handheld printer 10 as a notification means, and the notification may be performed via these means.

  When the notification is made via the image providing device 60, the handheld printer 10 transmits a unique timeout signal corresponding to each timeout period to the image providing device 60 in response to the timeout of the timers 1 and 2. In response to this, the dedicated application of the image providing device 60 displays a notification screen corresponding to the received timeout signal on the display.

  FIG. 9B exemplarily shows a notification screen displayed on the display of the image providing device 60 in steps S313 and S314. In the example shown in FIG. 9B, a dialog including the message “The time during which ink is not ejected continues. Please execute printing immediately to protect the nozzles” is displayed. On the other hand, FIG. 9C exemplarily shows a notification screen displayed on the display of the image providing device 60 in step S315. In the example illustrated in FIG. 9C, a dialog including a message “Printing has been canceled to protect the nozzles since ink has not been ejected. Please perform capping immediately” is displayed.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, in the decap state, the state in which the nozzles have reached the predetermined set temperature and the state in which ink is not ejected from the nozzles (hereinafter, referred to as a non-printing state) are simultaneously established. The predetermined notification is performed when the state (hereinafter, referred to as the nozzle leaving state) continues for the time-out time [t2] or [T2]. Is eliminated, and the state of the nozzle is normally maintained.

  On the other hand, the predetermined notification is also performed when the nozzle idle state continues for the time-out time [t1] or [T1]. Therefore, if the user who receives the notification immediately performs capping, the nozzle idle state is canceled. The state of the nozzle is normally maintained. In this case, since the driving of the heater 25 is automatically stopped, the evaporation of water in the ink until the user completes the capping can be suppressed.

  As described above, the present invention has been described with the embodiments. However, the above-described embodiments can be modified as follows.

  For example, in the above-described embodiment, the aspect in which the decap state is magnetically detected is described. However, in another embodiment, the decap state may be optically detected, or the decap state may be mechanically detected. You may.

  In another embodiment, a means for measuring at least one of temperature and humidity may be mounted on the handheld printer 10, and the timeout time may be dynamically changed according to the measured values.

  As described above, the present invention has been described with the embodiment. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and the operation and effect of the present invention can be made within the scope of other embodiments that can be deduced by those skilled in the art. As long as it plays, it is included in the scope of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Handheld printer 12 ... Power button 13 ... LED lamp 14 ... Printing start button 15 ... Guide roller 16 ... Power supply 17 ... Power supply circuit 18 ... Memory 20 ... Control part 21 ... Navigation sensor 22 ... Gyro sensor 23 ... Magnetic sensor 24 ... Operation Unit (OPU)
25 heater 26 print head unit 27 print head drive circuit 28 image data communication I / F
30 capping device 32 magnet 34 nozzle cap 40 SoC
41 ... CPU
42 memory controller 43 position calculation circuit 44 magnetic sensor I / F
45 ... Bus 50 ... ASIC / FPGA
51 Navigation sensor I / F
52 ... Gyro sensor I / F
53 ... Timing generation circuit 54 ... Print head control circuit 55 ... Image RAM
56 ... DMAC
57 ... Rotator 58 ... Interruption circuit 59 ... Bus 60 ... Image providing device 70 ... Print medium 1000 ... Printing system

JP 2016-215472 A

Claims (8)

An ink-jet handheld printing device,
In a state where the nozzle for discharging ink is not capped, a state where the nozzle reaches a predetermined set temperature and a non-printing state where ink is not discharged from the nozzle are simultaneously established, and a nozzle leaving state continues for a predetermined time-out period. Characterized by performing a predetermined notification when the
Printing device. When the nozzle leaving state continues for the timeout period, cancels the print job being executed, and stops driving a heater for heating the nozzles.
The printing device according to claim 1. The non-printing state is
A first state in which printing has not been started, or a second state in which the movement of the printing apparatus has not been detected after printing has started.
The printing device according to claim 1. Setting a first timeout period for the first state, and setting a second timeout period different from the first timeout period for the second state.
The printing device according to claim 3. When the nozzle idle state continues for a predetermined timeout time shorter than the timeout time, performing a predetermined notification,
The printing device according to claim 1. Wherein the predetermined notification is performed via notification means of the printing apparatus.
The printing device according to claim 1. Wherein the predetermined notification is performed via an information processing apparatus that is a transmission source of a print job.
The printing device according to claim 1. Measure at least one of temperature and humidity, characterized by changing the setting of the timeout time according to the measured value,
The printing device according to claim 1.