JP2820830B2 - Printer print 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 system for a printer for printing on a printing medium by a moving print head.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a print control system of a conventional printer, and FIG. 4 is a time chart of a print operation by the print control system of a conventional printer.

In a conventional print control method of a printer, FIG.
As shown in FIG. 1, a host computer 1 is connected to a CPU 3 via an I / O port 2, and this CPU 3
6, a ROM 5, a spacing timer 7, and an I / O port 12 are connected, and an impact timer 17 is connected between the CPU 3 and the I / O port 12.

The spacing timer 7 has a phase switch L
An SI8 is connected, and a motor driver 10 connected to a stepping motor M1 is connected to the phase switching LSI8. A magnet driver 13 and a motor driver 14 are connected to the I / O port 12. A print head 15 is connected to the magnet driver 13, and a feed motor 16 is connected to the motor driver 14.

In this conventional printing control method for a printer,
The printer inputs / outputs the print code from the host computer 1
When a spacing signal is input to the CPU 3 after receiving via the port 2 and calculating the spacing movement amount, the CP
U3 refers to data defining the carriage moving speed condition and the print head driving condition stored in the ROM 5,
The speed of the movement control of the carriage corresponding to the spacing signal and the time of the printing operation of the print head are calculated. Also, based on the obtained operation value, the spacing timer 7
The output time point of the time pulse signal output from is set.

As will be described below with reference to FIG. 4, the carriage is accelerated by the spacing interruption processing based on the calculated speed in the acceleration section A, and moves to the calculated speed in the constant speed section E. It is moved at the corresponding constant speed, and in the deceleration section D, it is decelerated based on the calculated speed. Further, in a constant speed section, when print data is input, the print head 15 is driven at predetermined time intervals by an impact interrupt process to perform a printing operation.

That is, through the acceleration section A, the constant velocity section E, and the deceleration section D, the CPU 3 performs a spacing interruption process by a time pulse signal from the spacing timer 7 and inputs a processing signal to the phase switching LSI 8. In response to this processing signal, the phase switching LSI 8 operates to input a drive signal to the motor driver 10, and the motor driver 10 drives the stepping motor 11, and the rotation of the stepping motor 11 causes the carriage to gradually accelerate.

At the end of the spacing acceleration, the impact timer is started. In the constant speed section, in addition to the spacing interrupt processing for moving the carriage, a time pulse signal from the spacing timer 7 is used. C
The PU 3 performs an impact interrupt process, inputs a processing signal to the magnet driver 13, and receives a drive signal from the magnet driver 13 that operates according to the processing signal.
The print head 15 is driven to perform a printing operation. In this case, if a line feed is necessary after printing, a drive signal is input to the feed motor 16 via the motor driver 14 to perform a line feed operation for moving the sheet by one line. Then, the reception processing of the next one line is performed by the CPU 3 during the idle time of the interruption processing.

[0009]

In the conventional method described above, the time t3 (reception processing available time) during which reception processing for the next one line in the constant velocity section is possible is 1 as shown in FIG.
320 μs assigned as processing time T for dots
From the time t1 (50
μs) and the time t2 (2
00 μs), which is 70 μs obtained by subtracting the sum (250 μs). In a normal printer, one line is almost 2,000 dots.
It will be 40 ms.

Under these circumstances, when the speed of the printer is increased and the processing time T for one dot is reduced, the reception processing time t3 is reduced accordingly, and the reception code for the next line is obtained. It takes time to print, so even if you increase the printing speed,
There has been a problem in that a waiting time for capturing is required, and it is meaningless to increase the printing speed. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-described current state of print control of a printer, and an object of the present invention is to provide a print control method for a printer that prevents a reduction in a reception processing time due to an increase in the speed of the printer. is there.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, a time pulse signal is output from a spacing timer based on a set value which defines a carriage moving speed condition by inputting a print code. Performing an acceleration movement, a constant velocity movement and a deceleration movement of the carriage by a spacing interruption process corresponding to the time pulse signal,
In the constant speed movement section, an impact interrupt process for printing by the print head corresponding to the pulse from the impact timer is performed, and the reception code for the next line is acquired during the idle time of the interrupt process corresponding to each time pulse signal. In the printing control method for a printer, a counter is provided which counts down based on a time pulse signal from the spacing timer, and at the end of the acceleration movement section, the remaining number of counts for constant speed movement and deceleration movement While the constant speed is set in the counter, the constant speed movement is continued by a time pulse signal at a constant pulse interval in the constant speed movement section to prohibit the spacing interrupt processing, and activates the impact timer, The impact interrupt processing is performed by a pulse to perform printing, and the impact splitting is performed. With cancels the prohibition of the spacing interrupt processing at the end of the write process is characterized in that the data at the time of the counter is read and to perform control for the deceleration movement.

[0012]

According to the above construction, the moving speed of the carriage and the printing operation time are calculated as operating conditions of the carriage and the print head based on the time pulse signal, and the output time of the time pulse signal is determined in accordance with the calculated value. Is set. Then, the acceleration movement and the deceleration movement with respect to the carriage are performed by the spacing interruption processing performed in response to the time pulse signal. In this case, the remaining count number of the time pulse signal is set in the counter at the end of the acceleration movement section, and the counter discounts the set count number from the end of the acceleration movement section by the pulse input of the spacing timer. The spacing interrupt operation is prohibited in the constant speed moving section, and the print head is driven to perform the printing operation by the impact interrupt processing performed in response to the output pulse of the impact timer. The reception code of the next line is fetched using the time lengthened by the prohibition of the spacing interruption operation during the idle time of this printing operation.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the embodiment apparatus, and FIG. 2 is a time chart showing the operation of the embodiment. In these figures, the same parts as those in FIGS. is there.

As shown in FIG. 1, the embodiment is different from the conventional printer print control method described with reference to FIG.
A counter 18 is added between the output side of the spacing timer 7 and the CPU 3 for detecting and discounting the time pulse signal output from the timer. The configuration of the other parts of the embodiment is the same as the print control method of the conventional printer already described with reference to FIG.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described. When the CPU 3 receives the print code from the host computer 1 via the I / O port 2, the CPU 3 refers to the carriage movement data and the print head drive data stored in the ROM 5 based on the received print code. Then, the speed of the movement control of the carriage in response to the spacing signal and the time of the printing operation of the print head are calculated. Then, based on the obtained operation value, the output time point of the time pulse signal output from the spacing timer 7 is set as shown in FIG. In this time pulse signal, the pulse interval is gradually narrowed as time passes in order to gradually increase the moving speed of the carriage in the acceleration section A, and the pulse interval is used in order to move the carriage at the same speed in the constant speed section E. Is set to be constant, and the deceleration section D
In this case, in order to gradually reduce the moving speed of the carriage, the pulse interval is gradually widened as time passes.

In the acceleration section A, the spacing timer 7
In response to the time pulse signal from the CPU 3, the CPU 3 performs an interrupt process and inputs a processing signal of the spacing interrupt process shown in FIG. With this processing signal, the phase switching LSI 8 inputs a drive signal to the motor driver 10, the stepping motor 11 is driven by the motor driver 10, and the carriage moves so as to be gradually accelerated.

If the output of the time pulse signal at the end of the acceleration section is detected in the spacing interrupt processing, the spacing interrupt processing corresponding to the time pulse signal is prohibited, and the counter is disabled. 2, the sum (n1 + n2) of the number of time pulse signals remaining, that is, the count number n1 of time pulses for moving at a constant speed and the count number n2 of time pulses for decelerating movement in the example shown in FIG. . Further, the impact timer 17 is started in the spacing interruption processing at the end of the acceleration.

Here, when a transition is made to the constant speed section, the CPU 3
Is disabled, and the counter 18 automatically discounts the set count number n1 + n2 by a time pulse signal. The count signal shown in FIG. 2C is output at regular time intervals. On the other hand, when the timer output from the impact timer 17 is input to the CPU 3, an impact interrupt process is performed by the CPU 3 shown in FIG. 4D, and a processing signal is input to the magnet driver 13 via the I / O port 12. The print head 15 is driven by a drive signal emitted from the magnet driver 13 based on the processing signal, and a printing operation is performed in the constant velocity section E. If a line feed is necessary after printing, the CPU 3 inputs a processing signal to the motor driver 14 via the I / O port 12 and receives a feed signal from the motor driver 14 operated by the processing signal. A line feed operation for driving the sheet 16 to move the sheet by one line is also performed. Further, in the idle time other than the impact interrupt processing operation in the constant speed section E, the operation of receiving the reception code of the next line is performed. As described above, in the constant velocity section, the spacing interrupt processing is prohibited, and only the impact interrupt processing is performed, so that the operation time required for the interrupt processing of the CPU 3 is reduced. At the end of the impact interrupt processing by the impact timer 17, the inhibition of the spacing interrupt processing by the spacing timer 7 is released, and the data of the counter 18 at that time is read out. The number of pacing deceleration steps.

At this point, the processing shifts to the deceleration section D. At this point, the CPU 3 restarts the spacing interruption processing based on the time pulse signal of the spacing timer 7, and returns to the output signal of the spacing timer 7, The phase switching LSI 8 inputs a drive signal to the motor driver 10, the stepping motor 11 is driven by the motor driver 10, and the carriage moves so as to be gradually decelerated.

As described above, in the embodiment, the reception time limit t1 + t2 (= 50 + 200 us) during the processing time T (= 320 us) for one dot during the printing operation is reduced to the time t1 (= 50 us) required for the spacing interrupt processing. ) Is reduced, the receivable time t3 per dot is increased to 120 us (= 320-200) in this embodiment, compared to 70 us (= 320-250) per dot in the past.
In response to the speeding up of the printer, it is possible to quickly take in the reception code for the next line.

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention, at the end of the acceleration movement section, the remaining counts for the constant velocity movement and the deceleration movement are set in the counter, and the constant count is kept constant in the constant velocity movement section. The constant speed movement is continued by the time pulse signal of the pulse interval to prohibit the spacing interrupt processing, and activate the impact timer,
The impact interrupt processing is performed by the pulse to perform printing, and at the end of the impact interrupt processing, the prohibition of the spacing interrupt processing is released, and the data at that time of the counter is read to execute the deceleration movement. Since the control is performed, the receivable time in the constant speed moving section is increased, and the reception code for the next line can be quickly taken in in response to the speeding up of the printer.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a time chart showing the operation of one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional print control method of a printer.

FIG. 4 is a time chart showing the operation of a conventional print control method for a printer.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 host computer 3 CPU 5 ROM 6 RAM 7 spacing timer 8 phase switching LSI 10 motor driver 11 stepping motor 13 magnet driver 14 motor driver 15 print head 16 feed motor 17 impact timer 18 counter

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A time pulse signal is output from a spacing timer based on a set value defining a moving speed condition of a carriage by inputting a print code, and the carriage is interrupted by a spacing interrupt process corresponding to the time pulse signal. Acceleration, constant speed and deceleration
In the constant speed movement section, an impact interrupt process for printing by the print head corresponding to the pulse from the impact timer is performed, and the reception code for the next line is acquired during the idle time of the interrupt process corresponding to each time pulse signal. A printing control method for a printer, wherein a counter that counts down based on a time pulse signal from the spacing timer is provided, and at the end of the acceleration movement section, the remaining count number for constant speed movement and deceleration movement. While setting the counter, in the constant velocity movement section, to continue the constant velocity movement by a time pulse signal of a constant pulse interval, inhibit the spacing interrupt processing, and start the impact timer,
The impact interrupt processing is performed by the pulse to perform printing, and at the end of the impact interrupt processing, the prohibition of the spacing interrupt processing is released, and the data at that time of the counter is read to execute the deceleration movement. A printing control method for a printer, characterized by performing control.