JPH01218865A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To automatically judge skewing of charged paper, by using a printing head feed mechanism as the mechanism of an image sensor. CONSTITUTION:For example, an amorphous silicon image sensor 3 is mounted to a carriage 1 moving in direction X1, X2 latelally in a line in close vicinity to the printing head 2 provided to the inner side surface of said carriage 1. The left-hand end part of paper 16 is read by the image sensor 3. Whereupon, since the part of a platen 9 is black, data is sent to a CPU as '0' and, since the part of the paper 16 is white, the data is sent to the CPU as '1'. When the paper 16 is parallel to the image sensor 3, image data becomes, for example, FF in a modulo-16 number system at the left-hand end part of the paper and, when the paper 16 is obliquiely charged, the image data takes a value other than FF. When the image data is FF, printing is executed and, when said data is other than FF, an alarm lamp is made to light.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer, and more particularly to a printer that allows an operator to easily recognize when the operator has loaded paper that is not loaded correctly.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Conventionally, when paper is loaded into a printer, an operator can determine whether the paper is loaded straight or diagonally by visually observing the degree of curvature of the paper or by feeding the paper to a certain extent and determining whether the paper is loaded straight or diagonally. The judgment was based on the deviation of the end.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention As mentioned above, in the past, it was up to the operator to determine whether or not the paper loaded into the printer was loaded straight, and this had to be checked every time the paper was loaded. There are drawbacks.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to focus on the print head feeding mechanism of a conventional printer, and to use this print head feeding mechanism as a feeding mechanism of an image sensor to automatically adjust the inclination of loaded paper using the image sensor. To provide a printer in which an operator can easily recognize the loading state of paper by determining whether the paper is loaded diagonally and turning on a warning light provided on an operation panel when the paper is loaded diagonally.

Means for Solving the Problem Therefore, in order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a print head and its vicinity for printing output data from an information processing device such as a personal computer on a predetermined paper as necessary. A printer comprising at least a carriage having an image sensor disposed in the printer, a print head transport mechanism and a paper transport mechanism for moving the carriage and printing by the print head, in which the print head moves the carriage to perform printing by the print head. The apparatus is provided with means for detecting a pattern in a state in which the paper is not loaded at a predetermined position by reading the output from the image sensor.

According to the printer of the present invention, first, after loading paper into the printer, the state of the paper is read by an image sensor,
As mentioned above, it is automatically determined whether the paper is skewed, and if the paper is skewed, a warning light installed on the operation panel lights up, making it easier for the operator to check if the paper is not loaded correctly. It has the function of recognizing the loaded state of paper.

Embodiment Hereinafter, a printer of the present invention will be explained based on an illustrated embodiment.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the printer of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view of essential parts of the printer, FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the printer, and FIG. 4 is an operation of the printer. It is a flowchart figure which shows.

The difference between this embodiment and the conventional example is that, as shown in FIG. 1.2, a carriage 1 that moves left and right in the X1 and X2 directions is placed on the front side of the top surface of the box-shaped printer 10.
An image sensor 3 made of, for example, amorphous silicon is attached adjacent to a horizontal line of a print head 2 having a thermal element provided on the back side of the print head.

The carriage 1 is slidably attached to two guide rails 4a and 4b arranged in parallel, and the carriage 1 is attached to the left end side of these guide rails 4a and 4b.
A carriage motor 5 for moving the motor left and right is provided, and a first pulley 7 is attached to the output shaft of the carriage motor 5. On the other hand, a second pulley 8 is rotatably attached to the right end side of the guide rails 4a, 4b, and a timing belt 6 is hung between the first pulley 7 and the second pulley 8. The carriage 1 is attached to the timing belt 6, and the carriage 1 is rotated to the left (X1 direction in the figure) or to the left (X1 direction in the figure) by forward or reverse rotation of the carriage motor 5.
It is configured to move in the X2 direction (in the figure). In front of the print head 2 and image sensor 3,
A black cylindrical platen 9 is arranged parallel to the moving direction of the carriage 1, and this platen 9 is rotated by a line feed motor 11 to feed the paper 16 line by line.

Further, on the right side of the front surface of the printer 10 described above, there is a warning light 13 consisting of various control keys and a display diode.
A paper feed knob 14 for manually feeding the loaded paper is attached to the left side.

Furthermore, a paper guide plate 15 is attached to the back of the printer 10 and faces diagonally upward, and the paper is sequentially rolled up along this paper guide plate 15.

Next, according to the block diagram of FIG.
The control system of 0 will be explained.

As shown in the figure, the operation panel 12 and the warning light 13 are connected to a CPU 18 consisting of a microcomputer or the like,
Furthermore, an interface 17 for connecting to an external device such as a personal computer and inputting data is connected. This CPU 18 is connected via a pass line to a RAM 19 that temporarily stores the above data and data read by the image sensor 3, which will be described next, and a program that controls the printer 10 and print characters that are printed in a dot pattern. It is connected to the ROM 20 where the data is stored in the format. Here, the image sensor 3 made of the above-mentioned amorphous silicon
I will explain in detail.

The light emitted from the emitting section of the image sensor 3 has different reflected light depending on the density of the object, and this reflected light is received and taken by the emitting section. At this time, if the color of the object is "black", the amount of accumulated charge is small as shown in Figure 5, and conversely, if the color of the object is "white", the amount of accumulated charge is large, and this amount of accumulated charge is expressed as analog data. The signal is supplied to the A/D converter 21. At this time, the amount of accumulated charge is, for example, an output of 2'=64 gradations, but since this analog signal is an extremely low level signal, it is easily influenced by surrounding noise. Therefore, four gradations as indicated by the symbol Y in FIG. 4 are regarded as one block. In this way, the total is 64/4
= 16 gradations, which makes it less susceptible to noise. Note that 166 gradations are too many for the human eye to judge density, and there is no problem in practical use.

Further, in the CPU 18, a signal determining the energization time according to the print pattern is sent to the print head driver 22, and from this driver 22 is applied as a pulsed current to the print head 2 having a thermal element.

Further, in the CPU 18, a signal for motor drive is supplied to a motor driver 23, and this motor driver 23 drives the carriage motor 5 and line feed motor 1.
1 and 2 are supplied as currents for rotationally driving each of them.

The operation of the printer configured as described above will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 4 and the relationship between the inclination of the paper and the image data read by the image sensor shown in FIGS. 6 and 7.

First, the left edge of the paper 16 is read by the image sensor 3 attached horizontally adjacent to the print head 2 (step 1).The image of the read left edge of the paper 16 is transferred to the A/D. Through the converter 21,
Since the portion of the platen 9 is black, the data is sent as 10', and since the portion of the paper 16 is white, the data is sent as 111 to the CPU 18 and stored in the RAM 19. When the paper 16 is loaded parallel to the image sensor 3 as shown in FIG. 6, the image data becomes 1FF' in hexadecimal notation at the left end of the paper 16, and If the paper 16 is loaded diagonally with respect to 3, the image data will have a value other than 'FF', for example 101'. In this way, the inclination of the paper 16 is detected by the image sensor 3 (step 2), and if the paper 16 is loaded straight, printing of the data input via the interface 17 is executed (step 3). If the paper 16 is loaded, the warning light is turned on to inform the operator that the paper 16 is loaded diagonally (step 4). Next, the operation when used as a general printer will be described. Print data processed by a personal computer or the like (not shown) is temporarily stored in the RAM 19 via the interface 17 and the CPU 18. In this state, when a print command (for example, a "carriage return" command) is input from the personal computer or the like, the CPU 18 rotates the carriage motor 5 and moves the carriage 1 to the "print start position". After this, the carriage motor 5 is rotated and the carriage 1 is
When a pulsed current is applied to the thermal element of the print head 2 in accordance with the data stored in the RAM 19 while moving it in the direction, printing is performed on the paper 16.

In this way, the print head 2 prints the first line as the carriage 1 moves in the X1 direction, and when the final printing of the first line is completed, the platen 9 is rotated by the rotation of the line feed motor 11. As soon as the data for the next line is set, carriage 1 returns to the beginning of the second line.

In this state, printing of the second line is performed, and thereafter, necessary printing is performed sequentially.

Effects of the Invention As described above, the printer of the present invention can not only be used as a general printer, but also determine the inclination of the paper by reading the loading status of the paper loaded by the operator, which can be easily recognized by the operator. can be done.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing one embodiment of the printer of the present invention, and FIG.
3 is a diagram showing the block configuration of the printer of the invention, FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the printer of the invention, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the characteristics of the image sensor. 6 and 7 are diagrams showing an example of the relationship between the inclination of the paper and the image data read by the image sensor. 1-m-carriage, 2-m-print head, 3-
m-image sensor, 10-m-printer, 16--
Paper, 18---CPU, 19---RAM
(Memory part), 1.3.18--Means for detecting.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A carriage having a print head and an image sensor disposed near the print head for printing output data from an information processing device such as a personal computer on a predetermined paper as necessary; In a printer comprising at least a print head feeding mechanism and a paper feeding mechanism that move the print head to print, the printer reads the output from the image sensor before the print head starts a printing operation to move the paper to a predetermined position. A printer characterized in that it is provided with means for detecting a pattern that is not loaded in a position.