JPH0238055A - Dot matrix printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To uniformize the use frequency between dot printing parts such as wire pins by providing a counting processing part counting the respective operations of a plurality of dot printing parts constituting a printing head one at a time and integrating the number of times of the respective operations to apply the integrated data. CONSTITUTION:When the one dot row data of a line buffer are latched tree times by one dot by a dot row data latch 4, a printer control CPU 1 supplies printing data to 24 pin corresponding impact counters 7 of a printing head impact number-of-time measuring part 6 while divides the same into three bites. At this time, each pin corresponding impact number-of-time counter 7 renews its own count value by +1 when printing data are printing execution data. By this method, the printing head impact number-of-time measuring port 6 executes the above mentioned processing from one dot row immediately before a printing head 5 starts printing to one dot row immediately before the finish of printing.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to printer devices used in various computer systems, and in particular, systems such as workstations that often create various lists (tables). The present invention relates to a dot matrix printing device suitable for.

[Prior Art] In various systems using computers, such as workstations and word processors, various printers are used as interfaces for outputting data processed therein, and one type of printer is the dot matrix.
There are printers, a typical example of which is a wire dot printer.

By the way, in this dot matrix printer, the print head consists of a plurality of dot printing sections, so when printing special data such as tabular print data that includes horizontal ruled lines, Among the plurality of dot printing sections, the frequency of use of a particular dot printing section is significant, but in conventional devices, as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 117668/1980, it is difficult to use a certain dot printing section. hand,
Print data was supplied as is.

On the other hand, apart from such conventional technology, in a type of word processor, when printing the above-mentioned horizontal ruled lines, as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 55-123786, the first one of the 24 wire pins is A device is known in which the case where the pin and the 13th pin are used and the case where the second pin and the 14th pin are used are alternately switched.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The above-mentioned prior art does not take into consideration the variation in the frequency of use of the dot printing section of the print head in a dot matrix printing device, and does not take into account the effective use of the print head. There was a problem. That is, if the frequency of use of the dot printing section varies, the wear of the wire pins forming the dot printing section will not be uniform, and only specific wire pins will wear out significantly. However, the print head is
If even one of the multiple wire pins wears beyond its limit, printing quality will deteriorate at that point.
Their lifespan must be considered to have expired, and therefore, even if the remaining wire pins are fully usable, the print head as a whole must be replaced, making it ineffective. In particular, in recent years, as more and more tables are created on workstations, the frequency of printing horizontal ruled lines increases, and the above-mentioned problem becomes an extremely serious problem.

An object of the present invention is to easily equalize the frequency of use among dot printing parts such as wire pins that constitute a printing head, and to
It is an object of the present invention to provide a dot matrix printing device that can significantly extend the life of the head as a result.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The above object is to provide a counting processing unit that counts each operation of a plurality of dot printing units constituting a print head once and provides data obtained by integrating the number of each operation. established,
This is achieved by making it possible to manage the usage frequency of each printing unit for each drum 1 of the head.

[Function] Since the integrated value of the number of operations for each dot printing unit is known, data processing such as changing the distribution of dot printing that should be allocated to printing data with high operation frequency such as horizontal ruled lines can be performed based on this. This allows the frequency of use to be averaged out, prevents wear on the wire pins in a particular dot printing area, and allows all wire pins to wear out in the same way, extending the lifespan of the head. You will get it.

[Example] Hereinafter, a dot matrix printing apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to an illustrated example.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention in which a print head consisting of 24 wire pins is used.
I, print data editing control section 2, these printer control CP
1 created by the UL and print data editing control unit 2
It includes a row buffer 3 that stores print dot data for a row, and a dot row data latch 4 that takes in the print dot row data stored in the row buffer 3 one dot row at a time during a printing operation. The one-dot row data taken in by the driver 12 is amplified with current and then supplied to the print head 5.

On the other hand, 6 is the number of times the print head is hit;
a counter selector 8 for selecting one of the 24 counters in order to refer to the data values of these counters 7; It is comprised of a counter upper latch 9 and a counter lower latch 10 that take in data from the counter selected by the selector 8.

In addition, the above-mentioned hitting number counter 7 is configured to 16 bits 1,
In addition, it is equipped with a backup memory, and each time printing for one line is completed, the data of the first line is written to the corresponding memory area, and when the power is turned on, the data of this corresponding memory area is transferred to the counter 7. It has become so.

Further, 11 represents a host computer, 13 represents an internal bus, and 14 represents an interface cable.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained.

The printer control CPUI receives data through an interface with the host computer 11, accesses the print data editing control unit 2, and stores print dot data created in line units in the line buffer 3. Next, the carrier (not shown) on which the print head 5 is mounted is moved in the printing direction, and the dot row data (print data) stored in the row buffer 3 is transferred immediately before the start of printing (one dot row first). One dot row is taken out from the carrier (1) and transferred to the dot row data latch 4 each time the carrier advances one dot row. Then, triggered by the print data impact timing, the print dot data is supplied to the print head 5 via the print head driver 12 to execute printing, but one dot column data in the one row buffer 3 is transferred to the dot column data latch 4. to 1
When latching each dot three times, the printer control CPUI also divides the impact counters 7 corresponding to each pin of the printing spatula 1 - the number of impressions counting unit 6 into 3 bytes, and assigns one to each of the 24 counters 7.
Supply print data bit by bit. At this time, if the print data is print execution data (High level), the number of hits counter 7 corresponding to each pin increases its own count value by +1.
Update. In this way, the print head impact count measuring section 6 executes the above process from one dot row before the print head 5 starts printing to one dot row before the end of printing.

Therefore, by repeating the above, the number of hits of each assigned wire pin is accumulated in the number of hits counter 7 (each of 24) corresponding to each pin of the print head.

Next, among the contents of the counter 7, a command to refer to the value of the n-th pin corresponding striking counter is sent to the printer control CPU.
I, the counter selector 8 is accessed and the data of the number of hits counter for the nth pin is set to 41 in total.
This data is output to the internal bus 13 of the g section, and taken into the counter upper latch 9 and the counter lower latch 10.

If the count value reference command at this time is from the host computer 11, this data is transferred from the latches 9 and 10 to the reprinter control CPU.
The data will be transferred one by one to the host computer 11 via the bidirectional interface cable 14 via I, and on the other hand, if the count value reference command is an instruction from the operation panel, the printer control CPUI will be transferred by KEY operation. In accordance with the format, the contents of the striking number counter corresponding to each pin are latched into counter upper/lower latches 9 and 10 in the same way as the host instructions, and then saved to the memory tape that stores the number of strikes, and after performing the necessary processing, It is output to the outside.

Therefore, according to the above embodiment, the number of times each wire pin of the print head 4 is used is individually given as an integrated value, and as a result, the frequency of use of each wire pin of the print head is averaged based on this integrated value. For this purpose, a list containing the wire pin usage status of the print head is output, and this list is useful for maintenance management of the print head. , explained below.

In this embodiment, the printer itself prints and outputs the above-mentioned list in response to instructions from the operation panel of the printer (printing device).

In the printer according to this embodiment, the printer is operated by an instruction operation, such as a key operation, performed from power-on to online transition, and the printer control CPUI controls the print head 5.
The hit counter 7 corresponding to each pin is accessed. and,
After saving the counter values from the 1st pin to the 24th pin in the RAM table, the following calculation is performed for each wire pin.

α. = (cumulative number of blows of wire pin n)/(number of blows withstand) The value (α) calculated in this way is saved in the RAM table for -1 minutes and then printed out as a list in the format shown in Fig. 2. However, in this case, process as follows.

■ Edit and print text and tables (vertical ruled lines, horizontal ruled lines) separately.

■ Characters, calculated values, counter values, etc. are developed into dot data using Kanji CG (Character Vienerator).

■ The table is based on the contents described later with reference to FIG.
α2. Divide the line into a pattern consisting of each line of α and β,
α1 α2 α 1-row image composition basic pattern 19, and β
The basic line configuration pattern 18 is prepared as image data, and data editing and printing are performed by combining these patterns. At this time, the table (vertical ruled line) (1
・・１・・１・・１・・１）For “ruled line printing +
Carry out the CR Jumonjumonji printing line feed procedure. Note that CR is an abbreviation for carrier return.

■ Among the blank spaces in the table, in the column "Number of blows", the value of the blow counter corresponding to each pin of the print head, which is saved in the RAM table, is printed, and in the column "(Number of blows)/(Number of blows withstand)" Print the above calculated value α0. In the "Remarks" column, the calculated value α is displayed. is 1 or more, prints the message "The print head has reached the end of its lifespan. Replacement is required."

Therefore, according to this embodiment, it is possible to easily determine whether or not the print head is due for replacement just by looking at the list, making maintenance and management easy and allowing appropriate head replacement.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

In this embodiment, the host computer refers to the number of times the print head is struck, thereby improving print head utilization efficiency.
As a result, the life of the print head can be extended, and at the same time, the table 16 shown in FIG. 4 is also printed out. Here, as an example, horizontal ruled lines are printed using two adjacent wire pins (the pin arrangement is in one row in the print head).

The host computer 11 (FIG. 1) issues a control command ``command to reference the number of strikes counter corresponding to each pin of the print head'' to the printer when the power is turned on or when the support menu is selected and started.

On the other hand, when the printer receives this control command, the printer control CPUI accesses the 24 hit count counters 7 corresponding to each pin, and records each count value one byte at a time via the bidirectional interface cable 14. and transfer it to the host computer 11.

In this way, when the host computer 11 receives the number of strikes of all the wire pins of the print head 4, it enters into execution of process 28 in FIG. It is determined whether or not a specific wire pin of the print head 4 will be frequently used for printing horizontal ruled lines, etc., and if it is predicted, heavy-duty printing of the print head specific wire pin is performed in this process 28. Execute processing to avoid
If this cannot be predicted, the process shifts to normal host processing.

When the process 28 continues, ■ When the host computer 11 transfers the print data to the printer in order to print Table 16 in FIG. The line is divided into a line β consisting of .

Here, the β line is created by a combination of the β line basic configuration pattern 18 shown in FIG. Transfer in the order of code data) + (line feed).

On the other hand, among the α rows, the α2 row is configured by the combination shown in the α2 row basic configuration pattern 17 in FIG.

All data is transferred to the printer as image data or as code data with registered external characters.

On the other hand, the printer receives these data and proceeds with data editing and printing line by line. Here, the horizontal ruled line of line α2 is connected to a specific wire pin (2) of the print head 4 from the beginning to the end of the line. Since this is repeated every other line, only the number of strikes of this particular wire pin increases. Therefore, the above-described heavy duty avoidance process is executed for the data in the α2 row.

(2) The host computer 11 sorts the pin numbers in descending order of the number of hits, based on the number of hits data for each pin received from the printer, and creates a "print head wire pin highest number of hits table" 26.

Pair pins are then searched for based on the Rad pair pin definition 25 for printing, starting with the wire pins that have been struck less frequently, and the first pin found is determined as the wire pin for horizontal ruled line printing. At this time, the pair pins do not need to be adjacent to each other in the table 26 in order of the number of hits of the print head wire pins.

■ In the flowchart in Fig. 3, in the process of item (■), when starting up the soft menu selection, up until now wire pins 12 and 13 of the print head have been used most often as a pair, and It can be immediately seen from the table 26 in order of the number of hits of the print head wire pins that the eighth and ninth wire pins were used the least.

Therefore, in order to perform ruled line printing using these eighth and ninth pairs of pins, a basic printing pattern for line α2 is searched from the line division printing pattern table 27 for line α2. The result is shown in the right-hand diagram of FIG. 5 as line division after launching the support software menu. That is, before this process, the host computer 11 has sent the printer
(α2 line ruled line print data) + (14/120int
h line feed) + (β line ruled line print data) + (CR) + (
β line print data) ” (14/120inth line feed) +
Data is transferred in the order of ((!2-line ruled line print data) +... As a result, as shown on the left side of the same figure, all horizontal ruled lines are created by the pair of pins 12 and 13. There was a risk that the wear on these pins would be particularly high.

However, after this process, (α2' line ruled line print data) + (12/120in
ch line feed) + (β line ruled line print data) + (CR) +
(β line character data) + (16/120 inch line feed) + (α2' line ruled line print data) + (12/120
In order to transfer the data in the order of (inch line feed) + .

■ After performing the B-duty printing avoidance process on the specific pin as described above, the host computer 11 returns to normal processing, and thereafter creates a table by interacting with the display and performs the settings as described above. Transfer the printed data to the printer and print it out.

Therefore, according to this embodiment, the wire pins, which are frequently used for printing horizontal ruled lines and are under heavy duty, are automatically replaced, and the operation of each wire pin is equalized, so that the print head has a long lifespan. can be extended.

By the way, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the host computer 11 executes the heavy duty printing avoidance process on a specific pin, but instead of this, the printer itself executes this specific pin heavy duty printing avoidance process. An embodiment of the present invention in which the following steps are executed will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. In this example, to simplify the explanation, the line feed pitch between lines in front printing is all set to the standard 24/180 inch.
As in the above embodiment, the printer shown in FIG. 1 is used, and two adjacent wire pins (a pair of pins) are used to print horizontal ruled lines.

Now, if the table 30 shown in FIG. 7 is to be printed, the printer first prints the characters according to the character code data, and the table (ruled lines) according to the ruled line printing line division basic pattern 31 shown in FIG. , the ruled lines are divided into 11 types of basic pattern combinations, and each font is registered as a private character code.

Next, when the process shown in FIG. 6 starts, first.

Waiting for the printer to receive the 1-table definition command from the host computer 11 (process 60), and load the values of the number of hits counters corresponding to each pin in the print head number of hits measuring section 6 (process 61).

Next, the wire pins are sorted in descending order of frequency of use (process 62), and a table 26 (FIG. 6) in order of the number of times the print head wire pins are struck is created. Then, in this table, the least frequently used pair of wire pins is selected (63), α2 line divided printing pattern table (2) 2
9 (FIG. 8), the α2-line configuration pattern font created for this ruled line printing pin and the line feed pitch between each line are loaded and stored in the work memory (process 64).

Next, based on the connection specifications (interface specifications) with the printer, the host computer 11 divides the table ruled lines in the printing and line feed directions, and generates patterned basic font image data 31 and a modified pattern 29 for printing ruled lines.
is registered in the printer in advance as a single external character.

On the other hand, after creating print data, the host computer 11 follows the procedure below when transferring the print data to the printer.

i If the future print data is table ruled lines, issue a "table definition command" to the printer.

Line pattern command at the beginning of the i line (this line is α in the ruled line printing line division basic pattern 31).

α2. α1. (command indicating which line of β it is) is issued.

The format for transferring one line of data from the host computer 11 to the printer is as follows.

αn corruption: line pattern αn) + (combination of external character code data) + (
LF code) line β: (line pattern β) + (combination of vertical ruled lines of external character code data [1l 1 l]) + (CR code) + (combined character code data) + (LF code) line β ( However, when printing a character in the middle position of two β lines): (Line pattern 2β) + (Combination of vertical ruled line of custom character code data [1l 11) + (CR code) + (Combination of vertical ruled line of custom character code data Combination) + (LF code) Next, when the printer receives data from the host computer 11, if it has already received the ``1 table definition command'' and receives the ``row pattern command'' at the beginning of the line, it will receive this command. Follow the instructions below depending on the content.

a, “row pattern command” = α0. In the case of α3 line, for one line of received data, from the external character code data,
Registered external character font data as is in line buffer 3
After receiving all one row, 24/180in
Performs a line break for ch.

b. When "line pattern command" = β line Regarding the received data for one line, first store the registered custom character font data from the custom character code data in the line buffer 3 as it is, print one prize, and then The auxiliary line feed pitch (P 2
/240inch). Next, the character code data is received, the dot data is taken out from the printer's built-in CG (character generator), stored in the line buffer 3, the entire line is printed, α2 lines, and line division printing pattern table (2). According to the line feed pitch stored in the work memory 32 from 29 to Perform a line break.

c, "Row pattern command J = 2β line For one line of received data, first, write the first private character code data,
Print in the same manner as in item 1 above, and then perform a line feed of [24/180 inch] [β line character printing auxiliary line feed pitch (P2/240 inch). After that, the character code data is also printed in the same manner as in item 9 above, and further.

[β line character printing auxiliary line break pitch (P 2/240in
ch)] and print β one last time, then change the line feed pitch from [β line to α2 line (P, /240 inc.
h) Perform a line break.

d. When "line pattern command" = α2 lines For one line of received data, from the external character code data, align it with the horizontal line printing pin, and use the α2 line and line division printing pattern table (2) 29 to write it into the work memory. The font data stored in is transferred as is to the line buffer 3, and one line's worth of printing is performed.

[Line break pitch from α2 line to β line (P 1/240 inc.
h) Perform a 1-minute line break.

In this way, by executing the process shown in FIG. 6, in this embodiment, the be duty printing avoidance process is performed on a specific pin, and the frequency of use of each wire pin of the print head is averaged, resulting in a longer life. It will be planned.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, the number of operations of each wire pin of the print head for dot printing is counted individually, and the cumulative value is given. The usage status of the print head can be grasped instantly, and various management and processing necessary to average the usage status of a plurality of dot printing units can be performed, and the life of the print head can be easily extended.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the wire dot impact
By applying it to a printer, the following effects can be obtained. That is, when the number of times a specific wire pin of the print head is used reaches a predetermined number of times, or when it is determined that the number of hits is greater than other wire pins, or when the specific wire pin is used intensively for horizontal ruled line printing, etc. If this is expected, the life of the print head as a whole can be extended by having the host computer or the printer itself perform processing to avoid heavy duty on a specific wire pin by printing on other wire pins instead. (5 to 6 times more than conventional printers that only print tables). Furthermore, since the lifespan of the print head can be easily checked, maintenance becomes easier.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a dot matrix printing apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a table obtained by an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. Flowchart explaining the operation, FIGS. 4 and 5 are illustrations of line breaks when creating a table, FIG. 6 is a flowchart explaining the operation of another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 7 is a diagram of the custom character pattern The explanatory diagram, FIG. 8, is an explanatory diagram of the print pattern Q and PULL. 1...Printer control CPU, 2...Print data editing control unit, 3...Line buffer, 4...
. . . Dot row data latch, 5 . . . Print head, 6 . . . Hit number counter control unit, 7.
...Blow number counter for each bottle, 8...
・Counter selector, 9... Counter upper latch, 10... Counter lower latch, 11...
... Host computer, 12 ... Print head drive driver, 13 ... Measurement unit internal bus,
14...Two-way interface cable, 1
6...Table (with vertical and horizontal ruled lines printed), 17...
・α2 line basic configuration pattern, 18...β line basic configuration pattern, 19...α, α2α1 line image configuration basic pattern, 20...image data clear, 21... ...Character dot data area, 2
2...α2 line basic composition pattern, 23...
・・α2′ row basic configuration pattern, 24・・・・β row basic configuration pattern, 25・・・・Rad pair pin definition to print, 26・・・・Print head wire pin driving I
I! Maximum order table, 27...α2 lines/line division printing pattern table, 28...B duty printing avoidance process for specific pins, 29...α2 lines/
Line division printing pattern table (2), 3o...
Ruled line, 31... Ruled line printing line division basic pattern, 32... Work memory. Figure 4 Figure 7 H + + 〒 → Shido ± North'' Figure 8

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A dot matrix printing device that uses a printing head in which a plurality of dot printing sections are arranged in one column in a column direction and sequentially prints on a line by line basis. A counting processing section is provided to count the number of printing operations for each of the dot printing sections and provide cumulative operation number data for each of the dot printing sections, and to calculate the plurality of accumulations obtained corresponding to each of the plurality of dot printing sections. A dot matrix printing apparatus characterized in that the dot matrix printing apparatus is configured such that frequency of use of the plurality of dot printing units is managed based on operation frequency data. 2. In a dot matrix printing device that uses a printing head in which a plurality of dot printing sections are arranged in one row in the column direction and sequentially performs one printing process in line units, each of the plurality of dot printing sections A counting processing unit that counts the number of printing operations for each printing operation and provides data on the cumulative number of printing operations for each, and a data processing unit that tabulates the cumulative number of printing operations data in a predetermined format. 1. A dot matrix printing device characterized in that the usage frequency data for each dot printing section is displayed in a table format. 3. The dot matrix printing device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the printing head is a printing head for a wire impact printer, and the dot printing section is a wire pin. 4. In claim 1, the usage frequency management for the plurality of dot printing units includes the management of the usage frequency of the plurality of dot printing units by moving the print data between the plurality of dot printing units by moving the data to be printed in the line direction. A dot matrix printing device characterized in that it is configured to be performed by transfer. 5. The dot matrix according to claim 4, wherein a control processing means for managing frequency of use of the plurality of dot printing units is provided on the host side that provides data to be printed. Printing device. 6. The dot matrix printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a control processing means for managing the frequency of use of the plurality of dot printing units is provided in the printing apparatus itself. 7. The dot matrix printing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising an interface means for referencing the counting processing section from the outside.