JP3146478B2 - Electronically controlled embroidery sewing machine - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronically controlled embroidery sewing machine, and more particularly to selecting an embroidery pattern to be sewn from a plurality of displayed embroidery patterns via a touch panel and sewing the embroidery pattern. The present invention relates to a sewing machine that displays a pattern portion to be selected and can be selected via a touch panel.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A recent electronically controlled embroidery sewing machine has an embroidery frame for removably attaching a work cloth and an embroidery frame X.
A drive mechanism for independently moving and driving in the direction and the Y direction, a control device for driving and controlling the drive means based on the embroidery data, a ROM card storing a large number of embroidery data of embroidery patterns, and the like. Read the embroidery data of the pattern,
By controlling the driving mechanism based on the embroidery data, the selected embroidery pattern is embroidered. Each of the embroidery patterns is usually composed of a plurality of pattern portions, and since each pattern portion is embroidered with the same thread in the same color, the sewing order of the plurality of pattern portions is set in advance in the embroidery data of the embroidery pattern.

For example, as shown in FIG. 9, an embroidery pattern of an elephant mark includes a face portion 100, ears 101, a hat 10
2. The embroidery data of this embroidery pattern is composed of the data of the respective parts 100 to 104, and the sewing order is from the face part 100 to the top part 103 of the hat and the eyes, eyebrows, and contour lines 104. The pattern portions 101, 10 on the right side of the figure in order
2, 103 and 104 are embroidered.
However, the color of the thread for embroidering each pattern portion can be freely selected by the operator. On the other hand, JP-A-2-450
In Japanese Patent Publication No. 87, a color change code for designating a color is stored in association with data of each pattern portion of the embroidery data of each embroidery pattern, and the same color pattern portion is compared by comparing the color change codes. An automatic embroidery sewing machine configured to perform embroidery stitching together is disclosed.

[0004]

In the former embroidery data, the sewing order for sewing a plurality of pattern portions is determined by the data structure in the embroidery data, and the sewing order cannot be freely set. Even when the first pattern portion and the fourth pattern portion are embroidered in the same color, the pattern portions of the same color cannot be continuously embroidered, and the first, second, and After the embroidery of the third pattern portion, the thread must be replaced with a thread of the same color as that of the first pattern, and then embroidery must be performed. Thus, there is a problem that the number of times of thread replacement is greater than the number of colors actually used. Was. In addition, when it is desired to sew only a part of the embroidery pattern, the embroidery sewing cannot be performed by reading out only the data of the part of the pattern. It had to be empty stitched, and there was little freedom in use.

In the automatic embroidery sewing machine disclosed in the above publication, the color of each pattern portion cannot be freely set because the color change code for designating the color of each pattern portion is stored in the embroidery data of the embroidery pattern. There are various restrictions such as that the sewing order of sewing a plurality of pattern portions cannot be freely set.
An object of the present invention is to select one or a plurality of embroidery patterns to be sewn from a plurality of displayed embroidery patterns through a touch panel, and to display a plurality of embroidery patterns and sew the pattern. The present invention provides an electronically controlled embroidery sewing machine that allows the user to select a sewing machine through a touch panel.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronically controlled embroidery sewing machine having a stitch forming means including a vertically driven sewing needle and a needle thread catcher cooperating with the sewing needle. An electronic device for performing embroidery on a cloth by operating based on information stored in embroidery data storage means storing embroidery data of a plurality of embroidery patterns composed of a plurality of pattern portions in a predetermined order for each embroidery pattern and each pattern portion. In the control-type embroidery sewing machine, display means including a display capable of displaying the plurality of embroidery patterns, a touch panel including a plurality of touch keys provided at least partially over a display area of the display, and the display and the touch panel. a plurality of pattern portions is displayed on di <br/> spray the over and selectable pattern selecting means an embroidery pattern to be sewn, the embroidery pattern selected by said pattern selecting means In state, in which one or more pattern portions tries to sew and a selectable pattern portion selection means via the operation of the touch panel.

[0007] A touch panel including a plurality of touch keys is provided on at least a part of the display area of the display in an overlapping manner, and the sewing is performed while a plurality of embroidery patterns are displayed on the display by the pattern selecting means. The embroidery pattern to be sewn can be selected by pressing the touch key of the embroidery pattern to be sewn. Then, by pressing a touch key at one or a plurality of pattern portions to be sewn while the plurality of pattern portions of the selected embroidery pattern are displayed on the display by the pattern portion selection means, A pattern part to be sewn can be selected.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the electronic control type embroidery sewing machine according to the first aspect, when displaying a plurality of pattern portions of the embroidery pattern on a display, the display means displays numbers corresponding to the pattern portions. It is characterized by being displayed together with the pattern portion. As described above, since the number corresponding to the pattern is displayed together with the pattern, the pattern can be specified via the number corresponding to the pattern.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the electronically controlled embroidery sewing machine according to the first or second aspect, the pattern section selecting means specifies a pattern section to be sewn via a number corresponding to the pattern section. It is characterized by the following. for that reason,
The input when designating the pattern portion is easy, and the display space may be small.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the electronically controlled embroidery sewing machine according to any one of the first to third aspects, the display means displays the pattern portion being sewn in a distinguishable manner. . Therefore, it becomes easy to confirm the pattern portion during embroidery sewing.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the electronically controlled embroidery sewing machine according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, the display means has a color display capable of displaying a plurality of colors, and is set for each pattern portion. The pattern part is displayed in a different color. Therefore, it is easy to grasp the color in a state where the pattern portion is embroidered.

[0012]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, display means,
A touch panel, pattern selection means, pattern part selection means, etc. are provided, so that embroidery patterns can be selected with the simple operation of operating touch keys at the embroidery pattern, and simple operation of operating the touch keys at the pattern part The pattern part can be selected by a simple operation. Then, the configuration of the operation unit other than the display is simplified. In addition, one or more selected
Since only a number of pattern portions can be sewn, embroidery stitching of only a portion of the embroidery patterns can be performed, which increases the degree of freedom in use.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, when displaying a plurality of pattern parts of the embroidery pattern on the display, the display means displays a number corresponding to the pattern part together with the pattern part. The pattern part can be specified via the number corresponding to. The other effects are the same as those of the first aspect. According to the third aspect of the present invention, the pattern portion selecting means specifies a pattern portion to be sewn via a number corresponding to the pattern portion. The space may be small. Other effects similar to those of the first or second aspect of the invention can be obtained.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the display means displays the pattern part being sewn in a distinguishable manner, so that the pattern part being embroidered is easily checked. In addition, the same effects as those of any of the first to third aspects of the invention can be obtained. According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the display means has a color display capable of displaying a plurality of colors, and displays the pattern in the color set for each pattern. Therefore, it is easy to grasp the color in a state where the pattern portion is embroidered. In addition, the same effects as those of any of the first to fourth aspects of the invention are obtained.

[0015]

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the present embodiment, the present invention is applied to an electronically controlled embroidery sewing machine with an embroidery device capable of detachably mounting an embroidery device capable of sewing various embroidery patterns. As shown in FIG. 1, the electronically controlled embroidery sewing machine M includes a sewing machine bed 1, a pillar 2 erected from the right end of the bed 1, and a bed 1 from the upper end of the pillar 2. And an arm 3 extending leftward so as to face the bed.
The needle thread catcher (for example, accommodates a feed dog vertical movement mechanism (not shown) for moving the feed dog up and down, a feed tooth back and forth movement mechanism (not shown) for moving the feed tooth back and forth, and a lower thread bobbin and cooperates with the sewing needle 6. , A horizontal hook) and the like, and the arm 3 has a sewing needle 6
A needle bar drive mechanism that moves the needle bar 5 up and down, a needle bar swing mechanism that swings the needle bar 5 in a direction perpendicular to the cloth feeding direction, and a balance 7 that adjusts the needle bar 5 up and down. A balance driving mechanism (not shown) that is sometimes moved up and down is provided.
The feed dog vertical movement mechanism, the needle bar drive mechanism, and the balance drive mechanism are driven by a sewing machine motor 17, the feed dog longitudinal movement mechanism is driven by a feed dog drive stepping motor 19, and the needle bar swing mechanism is a needle It is driven by a rod swinging stepping motor 18.

A large liquid crystal display 10 is provided on the front surface of the arm 3.
Various stitch patterns such as practical patterns and embroidery patterns and figures such as figurines and various messages are displayed. On the front surface of the display 10, 30 touch keys 1 made of transparent electrodes corresponding to a plurality of stitch patterns and other display items, respectively.
1, a desired stitch pattern can be selected by pressing the touch key 11 corresponding to the pattern. The head 4 is provided with a start / stop switch 12 for instructing start and stop of the sewing operation.

The pillar 2 has a ROM card (pattern card) 27 storing embroidery data of a plurality of embroidery patterns for embroidery sewing such as various concrete patterns, characters, marks, and one-point marks. A card slot for mounting to the connector 13 is formed. Furthermore, the pillar 2
An operation panel 9 is provided on the front surface of the upper end of the camera. The operation panel 9 has nine function keys (a practical sewing key for displaying a practical pattern, a character sewing key for displaying a character pattern, and an embroidery pattern sewing). , Etc.) is provided to start the operation.

A free arm 1a is formed at the left end of the bed 1, and an embroidery device 30 is detachably mounted on the free arm 1a. This embroidery device 30
The embroidery table 31 has a Y direction parallel to the cloth feeding direction (front-back direction) and an X direction (left-right direction) orthogonal to the Y direction.
The embroidery table 31 includes:
An embroidery frame (not shown) for detachably attaching a work cloth is detachably attached. In the body frame of the embroidery device 30, a first stepping motor 32 (see FIG. 2) for driving the embroidery table 31 in the X direction and a second stepping motor 33 (see FIG. 2) for driving the embroidery table 31 in the Y direction are provided. See also). Therefore, various embroidery patterns are formed on the work cloth mounted on the embroidery frame by the cooperation of the drive of the stepping motors 32 and 33 by the drive signal supplied from the sewing machine M via the connector 14 and the vertical movement of the needle bar 5. Is formed.

Next, an outline of a control system of the sewing machine M will be described.
A description will be given based on FIG. The start / stop switch 12, the touch key 11, the operation panel 9, and the timing signal generator 16 are connected to the input interface 21 of the control device C, respectively. The output interface 26 of the control device C is connected to a sewing machine motor 17, a needle bar swing stepping motor 18, a feed dog driving stepping motor 19, and a display controller (LCDC) 20 for the display (LCD) 10. . Further, a first stepping motor 32 and a second stepping motor 33 of the embroidery device 30 are connected to the output interface 26 via the connector 14, respectively.

The control device C comprises a CPU 23 and this CPU
23, an input interface 21 and an output interface 26 connected via a bus 22 such as a data bus.
A ROM 24 and a RAM 25 are provided. The ROM
The ROM 28 of the card 27 is connected to the bus 22 via the connector 13.

In the ROM 28 of the ROM card 27,
The embroidery data of each of the plurality of embroidery patterns is stored for each pattern type in association with a pattern code number. Each embroidery pattern includes a plurality of pattern parts of the same color (hereinafter, referred to as pattern parts). In the embroidery data of each embroidery pattern, as shown in FIG. The embroidery data is stored in the order of the second pattern part, the third pattern part,..., And the embroidery data of each pattern part specifies a plurality of coordinate data indicating a position to move the embroidery frame and the end of the pattern part. Stop code.

The ROM 24 has a drive control program for driving the motors 17 to 19, a display control program for displaying various display items on the display 10, and controls the first and second stepping motors 32 and 33 based on embroidery data. A control program for embroidery sewing control, a control program for later-described embroidery setting control specific to the present application, and the like, which are attached to the control program for embroidery sewing control, are stored. However, since the control other than the embroidery setting control unique to the present application is a general control, the description thereof is omitted. The RAM 23 has a CPU 23
There are provided a pointer, a counter, a buffer, and the like for temporarily storing the calculation result calculated in step (1).

Next, the embroidery setting control executed by the control device C of the sewing machine M will be described. First, an outline of selection of an embroidery pattern, setting of a sewing order of a plurality of pattern portions of the selected embroidery pattern, and setting of presence / absence of sewing will be described. Power on the sewing machine M and store the embroidery data of many embroidery patterns
When the card keys on the operation panel 9 are operated while the card 27 is set, the first five embroidery patterns are displayed on the display 10 as shown in FIG. By operating the touch key 11, the display content is switched, and when a desired embroidery pattern is displayed, the embroidery pattern can be selected by operating the touch key 11 at the desired embroidery pattern. Next, in the display state of FIG.
Assuming that 0 is selected, the five pattern portions (the face 41, the ears 42, the hat 43, the top portion 44 of the hat, the eyes, eyebrows, and the outline 45) constituting the embroidery pattern 40 as shown in FIG. It is displayed together with the copy numbers 1 to 5.

Therefore, the sewing order of the five pattern portions 41 to 45 is set so as to minimize the color change of the thread, assuming the color to be embroidered. Pattern parts 42, 43, 44, 41,
When sewing is to be performed in the order of 45, the touch keys 11 at these pattern portions are sequentially operated. As shown in FIG. 5, the pattern portion numbers 23415 of the five pattern portions are displayed in the upper right portion of the display 10 in the order of sewing. Is displayed. However, the above example is a case where all of the five pattern portions 41 to 45 are selected, but some of the pattern portions (for example, the pattern portions 41, 42, and 4) are selected.
If it is desired to embroider only 5), it is sufficient to select only these pattern portions and set the order in the same manner as described above. In this case, for example, the display of the pattern part number in FIG. still,
When the selection is completed, the selection end key 9 on the operation panel 9
By operating a, a selection end command is input.

Next, the embroidery setting control routine described above will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In the drawing, reference symbols Si (i = 10, 11, 12,...) Indicate respective steps, and the RAM 25 stores the start addresses of embroidery data of a plurality of embroidery patterns in the order of selection. A start address memory 25a (see FIG. 7);
A pointer P indicating an address of the memory 25a;
There is provided a pointer I for pointing the address of the embroidery data of the ROM card 27. As described above, the control is started by the operation of the card key on the operation panel 9, and then the embroidery pattern selection processing for selecting the embroidery pattern as described above is performed (S10). Is displayed on the display 10 (S11). Next, when one of the pattern portions is selected via the touch key 11 in order to set the sewing order and whether or not sewing is performed (S12), the pattern portion number is then displayed. Is displayed (S13).

Next, from the embroidery data of the selected embroidery pattern of the embroidery data of the ROM card 27, the head address of the selected pattern portion is read and stored at the head of the head address memory 25a (S14). Next, it is determined whether or not a selection end command has been input from the selection end key 9a of the operation panel 9 (S15). If the selection end command has not been input, the process returns to S12 and repeats S12 to S15. In this manner, one or a plurality of pattern portions to be sewn are selected in the order of the sewing order, and when the selection is completed, the selection end key 9a is operated.
In step S15, the determination is Yes, the process proceeds to step S16, and the address Ad of the memory 25a is set in the pointer P. Then, it is determined whether a start command is input from the start / stop switch 12 (S17). Is input, the sewing machine motor 17 is driven (S18).

Next, the head address stored at the position indicated by the pointer P is set to the pointer I indicating the address of the embroidery data (S19), and the embroidery data indicated by the pointer I is read (S20). Next, the embroidery frame is moved and controlled by controlling the first and second stepping motors 32 and 33 based on the read embroidery data to execute embroidery sewing (S21), and then the pointer I is incremented by one (step S21). S22) Then, it is determined whether or not the stop code is the last stop code of the pattern portion (S23). If the stop code is not the stop code, S20 to S22 are repeated. If the pattern portion is embroidered and the stop code is read, the process proceeds to S2.
The determination at 3 is Yes and the process proceeds to S24, where the sewing machine motor 17 is stopped. During execution of the embroidery stitching, the display of the plurality of pattern portions on the display 10 is scrolled every time the embroidery sewing of the pattern portion is completed so that the pattern portion being sewn is positioned on the leftmost side.

Next, the pointer P is incremented by one (S25). Next, it is determined whether or not there is data of the head address at the position indicated by the pointer P in the memory 25a (S26). S in some cases
The process proceeds to S18, and when the operator inputs a start command after changing the color of the thread as necessary, S18 to S26 are performed in the same manner as described above.
Is executed, and when the embroidery sewing for all the selected pattern portions is completed, the result of the determination in S26 becomes No and the control ends. Assuming that the embroidery data of the selected embroidery pattern is as shown in FIG. 6 and the sewing order of the pattern portion is set as described with reference to FIG. 5, the memory 25a
As shown in FIG. 7, the start addresses AD2, AD3,
AD4, AD1, and AD5 are stored in order, and the pointer P is first set to the address Ad, and then is incremented by one. Therefore, the sewing order of the five pattern portions of the selected embroidery pattern is the second pattern portion, The third pattern portion, the fourth pattern portion, the first pattern portion, and the fifth pattern portion are in this order.

In the embroidery setting control described above, after selecting an embroidery pattern, a plurality of pattern portions (same color pattern portions) of the embroidery pattern are displayed. Since the presence or absence of embroidery sewing can be selected and set, the sewing order can be set so as to minimize the thread color change. Therefore, the number of thread color changes can be reduced and the embroidery sewing work efficiency can be improved. . Further, since only the pattern portion to be embroidered can be selected, embroidery sewing can be efficiently performed when only a part of the embroidery pattern is embroidered.

In the above embodiment, the case where the embroidery data of the embroidery pattern is stored in the ROM card has been described as an example. However, the embroidery data may be stored in the ROM 24 of the control device C or another ROM instead of the ROM card. Further, after the sewing order of the plurality of pattern portions is set, if the display arrangement is changed so that the display of FIG. 5 is arranged in order of the sewing order, the sewing order can be visually grasped. Becomes possible. Further, it is also possible to configure the display 10 by a color display, set the color of each pattern portion, and display the pattern portion in the color. The embroidery setting control according to the embodiment is only an example,
It goes without saying that various modifications can be made without departing from the technical idea of the present invention.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of an electronically controlled embroidery sewing machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a control system of the embroidery sewing machine.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a display example when an embroidery pattern is selected.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a display example of a plurality of pattern portions of a selected embroidery pattern.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a display example when a sewing order and the presence or absence of sewing are set.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a data structure of embroidery data of a ROM card.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a head address memory of a RAM.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of an embroidery setting control routine.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of a pattern portion of an embroidery pattern according to the related art.

[Explanation of symbols]

 M Electronically controlled embroidery sewing machine C Control device 9 Operation panel 10 Display 11 Touch key 12 Start / stop switch 27 ROM card 30 Embroidery device 32 First stepping motor 33 Second stepping motor

Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-2-11195 (JP, A) JP-A-2-31789 (JP, A) JP-A-3-41993 (JP, A) JP-A-1-139855 (JP) JP-A-2-45087 (JP, A) JP-A-3-75084 (JP, A) JP-A-63-255093 (JP, A) Patent 3009754 (JP, B2) Patent 2838228 (JP, B2) (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) D05B 19/00-21/00

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] A stitch forming means including a sewing needle driven up and down and a needle thread catcher cooperating with the sewing needle, and embroidery data of a plurality of embroidery patterns each including a plurality of pattern portions is embroidered. In the electronically controlled embroidery sewing machine for performing embroidery on cloth by operating based on information stored in the embroidery data storage means stored in a predetermined order for each pattern and each pattern portion, the plurality of embroidery patterns can be displayed. A display unit including a display, a touch panel provided with a plurality of touch keys provided at least partially on a display area of the display, and a pattern selection unit capable of selecting an embroidery pattern to be sewn via the display and the touch panel A plurality of pattern portions of the embroidery pattern selected by the pattern selecting means
In a state of displaying on the display, electronically controlled sewing machine, characterized in that one or more pattern portions to be sewn with a selectable pattern portion selection means via the operation of the touch panel, the. 2. The display device according to claim 1, wherein when displaying a plurality of pattern parts of the embroidery pattern on a display, the display means displays a number corresponding to the pattern part together with the pattern part. Electronically controlled embroidery sewing machine. 3. The electronically controlled embroidery sewing machine according to claim 1, wherein said pattern portion selecting means specifies a pattern portion to be sewn via a numeral corresponding to the pattern portion. 4. The display means identifies a pattern part being sewn.
The electronically controlled embroidery sewing machine according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the embroidery sewing machine is displayed as possible . 5. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the display unit has a color display capable of displaying a plurality of colors, and displays the pattern in a color set for each pattern. An electronically controlled embroidery sewing machine according to item 1.