JP2652831B2 - Printing control method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing control method in which a waiting time is provided when the time from the start to the stop of the movement of a carrier is shorter than a set time.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Carrier (CR) equipped with a print head
A printer device for printing by moving an image by a DC servomotor or the like is known. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a conventional carrier speed-time graph in this type of printer apparatus. In the figure, t ₀ is the carrier movement time, t _m is the time from start to stop of the carrier, and T ₀ is the carrier movement time for achieving the performance. In a conventional printer device, t ₀ = t _m , and the value of t _m changes with the passage of time or variations among the printer devices.

[0003]

Therefore, for example, when two printers of the same type are arranged side by side to print the same data, a situation occurs in which one printer finishes the printing process earlier than the other printer. .
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of this point, and an object of the present invention is to provide a printing control method in which printers of the same type can have the same printing performance.

[0004]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the principle of the present invention. A print control method according to the present invention is a print control method in a printer apparatus including a carrier having a print head, a carrier motor for driving the carrier, a control circuit for controlling the printer, a timer, and a counter. Clear the counter before starting the carrier,
The carrier is started, a timer is started, the speed of the carrier is controlled in accordance with a predetermined speed pattern, and the content of the counter is incremented by one each time the timer counts a predetermined time τ. Is stopped, and the counter is stopped at the same time as the stop of the carrier.
, And waits for a time obtained by multiplying by.

[0005]

[Action] In the present invention, since when the time from the carrier movement is started until the carrier is stopped is smaller than the time T ₀ for the performance achieved is put wait time, belong to the same type It is possible to make the performance of the printer device the same.

[0006]

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a printer according to the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a carrier, 2 is a print head,
3 is a belt, 4 is a carrier motor, 5a is a disk with a slit, 5b is a detector, 6 is a motor driver, 7 is a hammer driver, 8 is a processor, 9 is a print buffer,
10 is a program storage ROM, 11 is a data storage RA
M and 12 are interfaces, 13 is a main unit, DB is a data bus, and AB is an address bus.

[0007] The print head 2 is mounted on the carrier 1. When the carrier motor 4 rotates, the belt 3 also rotates, so that the carrier 1 moves. The carrier motor 4 is, for example, a DC servo motor. A disk 5a with a slit is attached to the shaft of the carrier motor 4. The disk with slits 5a has a plurality of slits arranged in a circle. The detector 5b has a light emitting element and a light receiving element. When the slit comes below the light emitting element, light emitted from the light emitting element is received by the light receiving element, and a pulse is output. This pulse is used as a dot pulse. The disk with slit 5a and the detector 5b constitute an encoder.

[0008] The motor driver 6 drives the carrier motor 4 based on a signal sent from the processor 8. The hammer driver 7 drives print pin driving means (for example, a solenoid) based on a signal sent from the processor 8. The processor 8 executes various programs stored in the program storage ROM 10. Processor 8
Has a built-in timer. In the print buffer 9,
Data to be printed is stored.

Various programs are stored in the program storage ROM 10, and programs for setting the set value N and the count period τ are also stored therein. Various data are stored in the data storage RAM 11,
There is also a counter in this. Interface 12
Is for receiving data from the main unit 13 or sending data to the main unit 13.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a processing flowchart of the present invention. In step S1, the counter is cleared, that is, the content of the counter is set to 0. The counter stores data R
It exists in AM11. In step S2, the counter cycle τ is set in the register of the timer. Note that the carrier movement control is performed by interrupting at regular intervals.
Counter up is also performed in the interrupt processing. The period is τ, which is the sampling period of the digital servo. The value is determined to be appropriate by experiment.

In step S3, the set value N is calculated based on the number of print digits.
To determine. N is determined by the following equation. N = T ₀ / τ T ₀ = T _UP + T _DN + (P × c) / V T _UP is the start-up time (calculated value) T _DN is the braking time (calculated value) P is the number of single-digit pulses V is printed The carrier speed c is the number of print digits. The number of print digits c in continuous printing may be larger than the actual number of print digits depending on the number of print digits of the next line. For example, in the case of 10 digits in the first row and 25 digits in the second row, the carrier moving digit number c in the first row is 25 digits. Instead of calculating the set value N one by one according to the above equation, it is also possible to have a table calculated from the number of digits in advance for each printing speed and load the set value N therefrom.

In step S4, the carrier is started, a flag indicating that the carrier is operating is set, and a timer is started (counting is started). In step S5, carrier movement control is performed, and the counter is incremented by one. The process of S5 is performed every time the timer counts τ. In step S6,
Stop the carrier and end counting by the counter. The content of the counter at this time is m. In step S7,
(Set value−counter value) is set in the accumulator. (Set value−counter value) = N−m.

In step S8, it is checked whether or not the value of the accumulator is 0 or more. If YES, the process proceeds to step S9, and if NO, the process proceeds to step S12. In step S9, the process waits for the count period (loop). In step S10, the value of the accumulator is set to -1.
I do. In step S11, it is checked whether the value of the accumulator is 0. If YES, proceed to step S12,
If NO, the process returns to step S8. In steps S7 to S11, the time waits for (N−m) × count cycle. In step S12, the flag during the carrier operation is cleared.

FIG. 4 is a graph showing a speed-distance graph of a carrier. In the figure, the solid line shows the actual speed-distance graph, and the dotted line shows the ideal speed-distance graph. Stopping distance L0 does not vary with time t _m from the startup of the carrier to a stop.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a speed-time graph of the carrier of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the carrier is started up according to a predetermined speed-time characteristic, and when the carrier reaches a predetermined speed, the speed state is maintained. Dot printing is performed with this speed being constant. When the dot printing is completed, the dot is dropped according to a predetermined speed-time graph shown by a dotted line, but actually falls as shown by a solid line. The time that the carrier was stopped and T _m, when the carrier moving time for performance achieved with T _0, in the present invention, after the carrier are stopped, a time for the time waiting for T ₀ -t _m = t _w. The speed control of the carrier is performed by knowing the speed of the carrier motor by the encoder and controlling the voltage applied to the motor based on the deviation from the target value.

[0016]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the carrier movement time for achieving the performance is T ₀ ,
When the time to stop the movement of the carrier to t _m,
Because doing T ₀ and difference t _w for the time waiting for t _m, it is possible to equalize the printing performance of the printer which belongs to the same type.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the principle of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a printer according to the invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a processing flowchart of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a graph showing a speed-distance graph of a carrier.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a speed-time graph of the carrier of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a speed-time graph of a conventional carrier.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 carrier 2 print head 3 belt 4 carrier motor 5a disk with slit 5b detector 6 motor driver 7 hammer driver 8 processor 9 print buffer 10 program storage ROM 11 data storage RAM 12 interface 13 main unit

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A print control method in a printer device comprising a carrier having a print head mounted thereon, a carrier motor for driving the carrier, a control circuit for controlling a printer, a timer, and a counter. Clears the counter before starting, starts the carrier, starts the timer, controls the speed of the carrier according to a predetermined speed pattern, and increments the content of the counter by +1 each time the timer counts a certain time τ. When the printing is completed, the carrier is stopped,
A print control method comprising: stopping a counter at the same time as a stop of a carrier; and waiting for a time obtained by multiplying a value obtained by subtracting the content m of the counter from the set value N by τ.