JPH01171967A - Sheet discharge controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To achieve highly efficient sheet discharge operation, by switching the sheet discharge operation mode to an inherent sheet discharge operation mode when an automatic sheet feeder(ASF) is mounted or not mounted and executing discharge operation of printed sheets. CONSTITUTION:Upon finish of print onto a sheet, CPU10 reads in the content of an ASF mounting state indicating bit F from a print control register 18a arranged in an interface 18, and when the CPU10 judges that the ASF20 is mounted on the printer 19, the printed sheet discharge operation is set to an inherent sheet discharge operation mode, thus discharging a sheet from the printer 19 with a predetermined feed length equal or longer than the length in the carrying direction and carrying the sheet into a stacker in ASF20. When CPU10 judges that ASF is not mounted, the printed sheet discharge operation is set to another inherent operation mode, and the sheet except a part is discharged from the printer 19 with a predetermined feed length shorter than the length in the carrying direction.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Object of the Invention (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to an automatic paper feeder (ASF; Auto 5
The present invention relates to a paper ejection control device used in a printer to which a sheet feeder can be attached.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, in printers with removable automatic paper feeders (hereinafter referred to as ASF), it has been determined whether or not an ASF is installed as a paper ejection control means for ejecting the paper after printing on the paper. A paper ejection control means that always performs the same ejection operation regardless of the paper output, and a mode (ASF loading mode/AS
There is a paper ejection control means that switches the paper ejection operation according to the F non-installation mode).

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) Among the above-mentioned paper ejection control means, the paper ejection control means that always performs the same paper ejection operation regardless of whether or not the ASF is installed is the AS
Either when the ASF is installed or when the ASF is not installed, wasteful operations such as extra paper feeding are involved, resulting in a problem that the processing speed of the entire printing process is slowed down. Furthermore, the paper ejection control means that switches the paper ejection operation according to the mode specified by the user before printing may malfunction if the ASF installation state is different from the user's specification when actually ejecting the paper. A problem arises.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and provides a printer in which an ASF can be installed and removed, without requiring the same amount of operational burden on the user, and eliminating waste when the ASF is installed or not. An object of the present invention is to provide a paper ejection control device that can perform an efficient paper ejection operation without any problems.

[Configuration of the Invention (Means for Solving Problems)] The present invention provides a system including a printer in which an ASF can be attached and detached, and in which the ASF is turned on and off as the ASF is attached and detached from the printer. A means for generating ASF installation/non-installation information to be switched; a means for determining whether or not an ASF is installed by referring to the ASF installation/non-installation information when discharging paper after printing; The ejection operation mode is set to the paper ejection operation mode specific to when the ASF is installed.
Or, switch to a unique paper ejection operation mode when not installed,
and means for executing a process for discharging printed paper according to the mode.

(Function) When paper is ejected after printing, information on whether or not the ASF is installed is read into the CPU via the printer interface, and the AS
It is determined whether or not F is attached. Here ASF
When the ASF is installed, the ejection operation mode for the printed paper is set to a paper ejection operation mode specific to when the ASF is installed, and the paper is ejected with a predetermined feed amount in the length of the conveyance direction. Also, when ASF is not installed,
The ejection operation mode of the printed paper is set to a unique paper ejection operation mode when the ASF is not installed, and the paper is ejected with a predetermined feed amount within the length in the conveyance direction.

By having a paper ejection processing means that follows the attachment/non-attachment status of the ASF, wasteful ejection operations such as unnecessary paper feeding can be eliminated, and the user's specified operations associated with attachment and detachment of the ASF are not required. Paper ejection processing can be performed smoothly and efficiently.

(Example) An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the basic configuration of the document creation device according to the above embodiment. In FIG. 1, 10 is a microprocessor (CPU).
, 11 is a RAM accessed by the same microprocessor IO, and 12 is a ROM.

The microprocessor (hereinafter referred to as CPU) 10 controls the entire device, and the RAM 11 and RO
By accessing M12 and starting a program according to input instructions, document input, editing processing, and print control processing, including paper ejection processing as shown in FIG. 2, are executed. RAMI
I is the document work area (work buffer), line image area (printing), external character registration area, word registration area,
It has a control information area, etc. The ROM12 includes a document input/edit processing program processed by the CPU10,
A program area where various programs are stored, such as a printing control processing program including the paper ejection process shown in Figure 2, a character pattern area where character patterns used for display and printing are stored, and a character pattern area where characters input in kana or Roman characters are stored. It has a dictionary area where various dictionaries for converting "yomi" to kanji are registered.

13 is a keyboard interface (KB-1'F) that receives and passes key manual codes associated with key operations to CPU10;
14 is a keyboard (KB) having character keys, function keys, etc. 15 is.

A display controller (display CNT) that displays a document on the display 1B under the display drive control of the CPU 10;
1 is a display driven by the display controller 15, and 17 is a display RA in which document information to be displayed is stored.
It is M. 18 is a printer 19 under the control of CPU10.
Printer interface (PRT) that controls the drive
-IF), 19 is a printer that prints a document on paper under the control of the printer interface 18, and 20 is an ASF (automatic paper feeder) that can be attached to and detached from the printer 19.

18a and 18b are print control registers provided within the printer interface 18, respectively. Of these print control registers 18a and 18b, the print control register 18a stores various status information (CP
This is used to store print status information sent to the UIO, and here, an ASF attachment status display bit film indicating whether or not the ASF 20 is attached is stored in the same register 18a. This ASF
The attachment status display bit film ASF 20 is attached to the printer 19, and when the printer 19 and ASF 20 are connected to the connector and the ASF 20 becomes operational, it becomes a specific level status (for example, "1" level status). , for example, are connected in a circuit as shown in FIG. The print control register 18b stores various print control data including parameters for print output control. Here, the print control register 18b stores various print control data including parameters for print output control. Drive step number data (STP)
is set.

Reference numeral 21 denotes an FDD interface (FDD-IF) for read/write control of the floppy disk drive 22 under the control of the CPU 10, and 22 a floppy disk drive (FDD) for read/write control by the FDD interface 21.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the flow of paper ejection processing when printing processing is executed in the above embodiment, and is executed under the control of CPU10 upon completion of printing on paper.

FIG. 3 is a simplified diagram of the ASF mounting state display bit film control circuit in the above embodiment.
F20 is attached to printer 19, and printer 19 and AS
When the F20 is connected to the circuit by the connectors 19c and 20C and the ASF 20 becomes operational, the signal line becomes a specific level state (for example, "1" level state) indicating the attachment state of the ASF 20. This signal line The status of the ASF mounting state display bit in the print control register 18a is checked and read into the CPU10.

FIGS. 4(a) to 4(c) are diagrams for explaining the operation of the above embodiment, respectively. In the figures, P indicates a printed sheet to be ejected, and 41 indicates an arrow mark when feeding the paper. 42 is a paper detection mechanism for detecting paper, and 43 is a print head.

The operation of one embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4. Here, a case is taken as an example in which paper feed motors are provided independently in each of the printer 19 and the ASF 20, and detection of the presence or absence of paper is performed only on the printer 19 side.

In the print mode, the CPU 10 transfers the print image developed in the row image area (print buffer) of RAMII to the printer 19 via the printer interface 18, and prints it out on paper. When printing on the paper is completed, CPU10 executes the paper ejection process shown in FIG. 2. In this paper ejection process, first, the CPU 10 stores the ASF in the print control register 18a provided in the interface 18.
The attachment/attachment state display bit film is read and it is determined whether the ASF 20 is attached to the printer 19 (steps SL and S2 in FIG. 2).

At this time, the ASF installation installation state display bit film capacity is "1" if the ASF 20 is installed in the printer 19.
”, and if it is not installed, it is “0”.

Here, when the CPU10 determines that the ASF 20 is installed in the printer 19 (F-"1"), the CPU 10 sets the printed paper ejection operation mode to the paper ejection operation mode unique to when the ASF is installed, and transports the paper. The AS is ejected from the printer 19 with a predetermined feed amount on the length in the direction.
Transfer to the F20 stacker (Steps 83 to 5 in Figure 2)
10). Also, ASF is not installed (F-“0”)
If this is determined, the ejection operation mode for the printed paper is set to the paper ejection operation mode specific to when the ASF is not installed, and the paper is fed a predetermined amount within the length in the conveyance direction (in a state where it can be pulled out by hand). ) and leave a part of the printer 1.
The paper is ejected from step 9 (step 5ll-817 in FIG. 2).

That is, in the process of discharging printed paper, CPUl0
When determining that the ASF 20 is installed in the printer 19 (step S2 in FIG. 2), first the printer 19 is installed.
After driving each paper feed motor of the printer 19 and the ASF 20 until the output signal of the paper detection mechanism in the printer detects that there is no paper (that is, until the bottom edge of the paper passes the detection position of the paper detection mechanism) (steps 83 to 2 in FIG. S5), a driving step of a predetermined feed amount equal to or more than the length of the paper in the transport direction in order to drive each paper feed motor of the printer 19 and ASF2G until the same paper is further carried into the stacker of the ASF20 using this as the reference position. Number data (S T P 1)
is set in the print control register 18b and a paper feed command is issued (step S2 in FIG. 2). Figure 4(a) shows an example of the paper conveyance state up to the paper out detection position (reference position) at this time.
It is shown in This allows the above drive step number data (
The paper feed motors of the printer 19 and the ASF 20 are driven and controlled using the feed amount given by S T P 1), and the printed paper is transported over a predetermined length of the paper in the transport direction as shown in FIG. 4(b). After being carried out from the printer 19 with the feed amount, they are stacked on the stacker of the ASF 20 (steps 87 to S10 in FIG. 2).

In addition, in the process of discharging the printed paper, when the CPU 10 determines that the printer 191: ASF 20 is not attached (step S2 in FIG. 2),
First, the paper is fed through the printer 19 until the output signal of the paper detection mechanism 42 in the printer 19 detects that there is no paper (that is, until the bottom edge of the paper passes the detection position of the paper detection mechanism 42 as shown in FIG. 4(a)). After driving the motor (platen driving) (steps SL1 to 513 in FIG. 2), the paper feed motor of the printer 19 is continued using this as the reference position until the paper is carried out from the paper outlet of the Brylta 19, leaving a part of the paper. Drive step number data (S T P 2
) is set in the print control register 18b and a paper feed command is issued (step 514 in FIG. 2). As a result, the paper feed motor of the printer 19 is driven and controlled with the feed amount given by the drive step number data (S T P 2), and the length of the printed paper in the paper transport direction is increased as shown in FIG. 4(c). (in a state where it can be pulled out by hand, leaving a part of the lower end with the specified feed amount within 1 minute)
It is carried out from the printer 19 (step S15 in FIG. 2).
S17).

In this way, when the ASF 20 is installed in the printer 19, the paper feed motors of the printer 19 and the ASF 20 are driven and controlled so that the paper after printing is ASF 20.
Feed the paper until it falls into the stacker. When the ASF 20 is not installed in the printer 9, the paper feed motor of the printer 19 is driven and controlled to feed the paper until the printed paper can be manually pulled out of the printer 19.

By having such a paper ejection processing function, it is possible to
It is possible to avoid wasteful operations such as extra paper feeding in the paper ejection process when the same paper ejection operation is performed regardless of whether or not the ASF is installed, and efficient printing processing can be performed. Furthermore, since the user does not need to designate the ASF mounting mode at all, operability can be improved and malfunctions that conventionally occur when there is a difference between the user's mode designation and the actual ASF mounting state can be avoided.

In the above-described embodiment, the status signal (ASF tube installation status display pin) F) indicating whether or not the ASF 20 is installed is sent to the printer 1.
The configuration is obtained by connecting the connectors (19C, 20C) of 9 and ASF2G, but the configuration is not limited to this.
Any configuration is sufficient as long as the CPU 10 can recognize whether the ASF 20 is attached or not, and for example, an ASF attachment state detection mechanism using a microswitch or another configuration using a photosensor or the like may be used.

[Effects of the Invention] As detailed above, according to the paper ejection control device of the present invention, in a printer that can be equipped with an automatic paper feeder, it is possible to determine whether or not the automatic paper feeder is mounted on the printer. and a means for determining the installation state of the automatic paper feeder, and when the automatic paper feeder is installed, the automatic paper feeder ejects the paper after printing with a predetermined feed amount equal to or more than the length in the conveying direction. The configuration includes a paper ejection control means that ejects the paper after printing with a predetermined feed amount within the length in the conveyance direction when the paper is not installed, thereby reducing the user's operational burden by the same amount. Therefore, it is possible to provide a paper ejection control device that can perform an efficient paper ejection operation with no waste whether an automatic paper feeder is installed or not.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the paper ejection processing flow of the above embodiment, and FIG. 3 is an ASF installation state display bit F in the above embodiment.
FIG. 4 is a circuit block diagram showing a simplified example of the signal input circuit of FIG. 10...CPU, 11...RAM, 12...RO
M, 13...Keyboard interface (KB-I
F), 14...Keyboard (KB), 15...Display controller (display CNT), 1B...Display device, ■7
...RAM for display. 18...Printer interface (PRT-IP)
, 18a, 18b...print control register, 19.
...Printer (PRT), 20...ASF (automatic paper feeder), 21...FDD interface (FDD
-IF), 22... Floppy disk drive (FDD), 19C. 20C... Connector, 41... Platen, 42...
-Paper detection mechanism, 43...Print head, P...Paper, F...ASF installation state display bit. Applicant's agent Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue Figure 1

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a printer that can be equipped with an automatic paper feeder, there is provided an installation state determination means for the automatic paper feeder for determining whether or not the automatic paper feeder is installed in the printer; When it is determined that the paper is loaded, the first paper discharge control means discharges the paper after printing with a first feed amount equal to or more than the length in the conveying direction, and the attachment state determination means automatically feeds the paper. and a second paper ejection control means for ejecting the paper after printing with a second feed amount within the length in the conveyance direction when it is determined that the paper device is not installed. A paper ejection control device featuring: