JPH0259377A - Printer with space repeat function - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable a space repeat operation to be promptly started by providing a carriage space repeat movement controlling means for moving a carriage in a non-printing condition at an acceleration greater than that in a movement of the carriage for printing. CONSTITUTION:An instruction for a space repeat operation is generated when a space key 10 on a keyboard 2 is pressed continuedly for a predetermined short time, and a RAM 66 is provided with a self-repeat counter 82 for counting the time. A carriage 32 spaced by a one-character amount is spaced continuously as far as the space key 10 continues being pressed. For example, in the case of a two-character amount space repeat operation, the carriage 32 is moved in a pattern as follows. In a starting process (slew-up), O A B, upon the start of the space repeat operation, the carriage is accelerated in the same pattern as in a one-character amount spacing (a carriage movement at the time of normal printing), but after the point B, the carriage is accelerated, B H I, at an acceleration greater than that (B C) at the time of the normal printing.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] <Industrial Application Field> The present invention relates to a printing device equipped with a carriage that moves in units of bits of 1 x 11 lacs, and particularly relates to a printing device that is equipped with a carriage that moves in units of bits of 1 x 11 lacs. This invention relates to a printing device with a repeat 1N capability.

<Prior Art and Problems to be Solved> As a printing device as described above, there is, for example, a daisy-wheel type electronic typewriter. The daisy wheel is a type wheel with a large number of type characters engraved on the outer periphery of a disc with radial slits.The wheel motor rotates the daisy wheel to select characters, and the print hammer drives the print ribbon. Printing is performed on a printing medium such as printing paper via the printer.

[In the case of normal printing operation, the wheel motor that does not rotate the daisy wheel and the ribbon motor that winds up the printing ribbon operate while the carriage is moving.

This is to prevent the printing speed from being significantly slower than what can be achieved in practice if each motor operates sequentially (serially).

A more specific explanation of such an operation is as follows. When printing is finished at a certain position and the next print signal is input, the carriage moves toward the next print position.
During this movement, the ribbon motor winds up the printing ribbon, the ribbon lift device lifts the ribbon to the printing position, and the wheel motor selects characters almost simultaneously. When all the conditions are met, printing is performed by hammer blow.

In the case of such a normal printing operation, vibrations caused by the operation of each of the motors and movement of the center of gravity of the printer ridge due to the up and down movement of the print ribbon occur during movement of the carriage. Therefore, if the moving acceleration of the carriage during printing is too large, since pulse motors are generally used for each of the above-mentioned motors, disturbances such as the above-mentioned shooting or movement of the center of gravity may cause the carriage drive motor to step out of step. becomes more likely to occur. Therefore, the movement acceleration when starting the carriage is suppressed to a constant level.

By the way, the space repeat function allows the carriage to automatically and continuously perform space operations along the print line while a repeat command is input, for example while the space key is held down. During the movement of the key T/ridge, the wheel motor, ribbon motor, etc. do not operate. Therefore, the vibration of each motor and the
? Although the movement of the center of gravity of the ridge is extremely small,
In the past, the moving acceleration of the carriage was set to be the same for both normal printing operation and space repeat operation, and there was a problem that the rise of the carriage speed during space repeat was slow.

<Means for Solving the Problems> The printing device according to the present invention is a printing device having a space repeat function that performs a continuous space operation along a printing line, and is conceptually shown in FIG. , a carriage that supports the print head and is movable along the print line, a carriage drive means that drives the carriage in pitch units of one carriage, and a carriage that controls the movement of the carriage during printing. Printing movement & IJIII means, and carriage space repeat movement control means for moving the carriage in a non-printing state at an acceleration greater than the movement acceleration during printing based on a command from the space repeat command means. It is characterized by

Here, the carriage space repeat movement control means is
The carriage may be moved in space repeats at a speed higher than the moving speed during printing, or the key 11 ridge may be moved in space repeats at a speed lower than the moving speed during printing.

<Operations and Effects of the Invention> In the printing device according to the present invention, the movement of the carriage during printing is controlled by the printing movement control means, and the movement of the carriage during space repeat is controlled by the carriage space libby control means. During the space repeat movement,
The key 1ν ridge is moved by increasing the acceleration with a larger acceleration than the movement acceleration during printing.

During space repeat, unlike during normal printing operation, the KIt! The wheel knee and ribbon mounted on the ridge do not operate overnight, and the vibration of these motors and the movement of the carriage's Φ center position are extremely small. There is no fear that a tax adjustment or the like will occur in the carriage drive motor, and the increase in acceleration allows space repeat to be started more quickly than in normal printing operations.

In addition, if the acceleration during space repeat is increased and the movement speed is also higher than when printing, the user can quickly move the carriage to the target position.
In addition, co-pregnancy and chatter, which occur under relatively low constant speed conditions, are less likely to occur, and it is possible to suppress carriage transition noise.

Furthermore, in a mode in which the acceleration is made larger during space repeat than during printing, but the movement speed is made smaller, the rise of the carriage movement in space repeat is made faster, and Jl-17 is positioned more accurately at the end of space repeat movement. This makes it easy to stop the carriage.

<Embodiment> Hereinafter, an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to an electronic typewriter will be described based on the drawings.

The electronic typewriter shown in FIG. 2 includes a keyboard 2 and a printing mechanism 4, between which a liquid crystal display 6 having a predetermined number of lines is provided. The keyboard 2 includes character keys, numerals 4-1, code keys, etc., as well as clear keys 8, a space key 10, a backspace key 12. Many function keys, such as a return key 14, are provided.

The printing mechanism 4 includes a platen 30 that also serves as a paper feed roller, and a carriage 32 that moves along the platen 30. The carriage 32 includes a wheel cassette 36 that accommodates a type wheel (daisy wheel) 34, a print hammer, and a A solenoid 38 for driving it, a ribbon cassette 42 for storing the printing ribbon 40, and a well-known ribbon lift mechanism (not shown) are installed. The ribbon lift mechanism moves the portion of the printing ribbon 40 exposed from the ribbon cassette 42 between a printing position corresponding to a printing line on the platen 30 and a resting position downward from the printing position. 1? The holder 42 is mounted on a holder that is rotatable about an axis parallel to the platen 30, and the ribbon cassette 42 is generally rotated through the holder based on the operation of a ribbon lift cam.

Also, platen 30. Carriage 32. type wheel 3
4. In order to drive the ribbon lift cam, as shown in FIG. 4, drive units 106, 104, 100, 109 and a ribbon feed motor 108 for winding up the printing ribbon 40 are provided.

Next, the control circuit of this typewriter will be explained based on the block diagram of FIG.

The keyboard 2 is connected to a CPU 62 which is a central processing unit via a 4-board input circuit 60, and the key code corresponding to the key operated on the keyboard 2 is
62. In addition to the keyboard input circuit 60, the CPtJ62 has a ROM 64.

RAM 66, print drive circuit 681 display control circuit 70 and b
They are interconnected by a common path line 72.

The R,0M 64 is provided with a program memory 74 that stores various control programs for this typewriter.

The RAM 66 includes a key buffer 776 that temporarily stores key codes, etc. that are turned on on the keyboard 2 for each key 4-yang, and an input buffer memory (that temporarily stores data such as key codes transferred from the key buffer 776).
In addition to the input buffer (hereinafter simply referred to as input buffer) 78, there is also a repeat flag register 80 that represents instructions for continuous space processing and stores on/off data for a space repeat flag (hereinafter simply referred to as repeat flag). ing. The space repeat command is now generated by pressing and holding down the space key 10 on the keyboard 2 for a certain period of time (for example, 0.5 seconds), and the R
The AM 66 is provided with a self-repeat counter 82 that counts the time.

The print drive circuit 68 controls the carriage 32 and the type wheel 34 based on a carriage movement signal supplied from the CPU 62 and a character selection signal corresponding to the character to be printed.
, and the operation of the holder, etc. that supports the ribbon force set 42. More specifically, as shown in FIG. 4, the type wheel control circuit 90. Hammer control circuit 92. Carriage control circuit 941 Paper feed control circuit 96.
The ribbon feed fl, 11111 circuit 98 and the ribbon lift υJt11 circuit 99 constitute the above-described print drive circuit 68. These circuits form a type wheel drive motor (wheel motor) 10 that constitutes the drive system of the printing mechanism 4.
0. Hammer drive solenoid 38. Killerridge drive motor (carriage motor) 104. Platen drive motor (platen motor) 106. The operations of the ribbon feed motor (ribbon motor) 108 and the ribbon lift cam drive motor (lift motor) 109 are controlled respectively.

The display control circuit 70 is a unit for displaying characters, etc. on the liquid crystal display 6, and is equipped with a 4° character dot pattern generator that stores a large number of character dot patterns corresponding to character code data, and is connected to the liquid crystal display 6. has been done.

Next, the programs stored in the program memory 74 of the ROM 64 will be shown in flowcharts in FIGS. 5 and 6, mainly focusing on the parts that are particularly relevant to the present invention.

In FIG. 5, when the power is turned on, initial setting is performed in step S1 (hereinafter simply referred to as 81) (the same applies to other steps), and then a key scan routine in S2 is executed. This routine is shown in FIG.

In this embodiment, the space key 10 is pressed consecutively to 0,
When pressed for 5 seconds, a repeat-on signal, which is a space repeat command, is output, and when the pressed state of the space key 10 is released, a repeat-off signal, which is a space repeat end command, is output.

In S81 of the key scan routine, the intersection points of the matrix circuit are used as key switches, and by scanning the on/off states of the input terminals and output terminals, it is possible to determine whether there are any key input signals that are on or off. It will be decided whether

Now, if the I-AJ flat key of [Alphabella] is pressed, the process moves from SS1 to S84, where it is determined whether the input signal circuit is turned on two or more times in a row, but it is still the first time. Since it is an on signal, the process moves to S85, and further, in S87, the key code 1"A" is hit in the key buffer 776.

Then, the process moves to 83 in the main flow of FIG. 5, and it is determined whether or not there is a key person's power, in other words, whether or not there is data in the key buffer 76. Here 1゛A
" key code exists in the key buffer 776, so S
However, since the repeat on signal and the repeat off signal are not output at t5, the rAJ key code is stored in the input buffer 78 at S6. Furthermore, S8 is executed via S7, and the rAJ is printed. In other words,
Based on the command from CP jJ 62, the wheel motor 100 rotates the type wheel 34 to select I' A J, and the lift motor 109 rotates the print ribbon 4.
0 is lifted up to the printing position, and IAJ is printed on the printing paper by the hammer blow caused by the activation of the solenoid 38. After that, the carriage 32 moves by one character, and the ribbon motor 108 winds the printed ribbon 40. taken.

On the other hand, if the space key 10 is pressed, the space key input signal is turned on in S81 of FIG. 6, and the process moves to S84, but since this is the first input signal at this stage, the process moves to SS5. . , and in 886 I? The contents of the /ref repeat counter 82 are hit at 0.5 seconds, and the code of the space key is set in the 1--buffer 76 in S87. The process then moves to the main 70- in FIG. 5, and moves to S4 via S3. At this stage, the repeat on signal and repeat off signal have not yet been output, so the process moves to S6 via S5.
The space key code is stored in the input buffer 78. Furthermore, although the determination in S7 is YES, since the repeat flag is not yet set in S9, space processing is executed in S10. That is, the printing ribbon 40
The carriage 32 is moved by one character while the character is in the body Il: position, and a space is created. When the operator releases the space key 10 after processing the space for one character, the carriage 32 moves seven spaces for one sentence and then stops.

At this time, the carriage 32 moves in a pattern as shown in FIG. 7, for example. This graph has time (milliseconds) on the horizontal axis.
, and the vertical axis is Cali Tsujimo Furi (pulse motor) 10
Although it does not represent the moving speed of the kit ridge 32 itself, it can be said that it roughly corresponds to the number of output pulses per second (PPS). And in the case of moving one character by space,
The 4:1 cylinder 32 passes through the speed increasing process of 0-A→B→C and the constant speed process of C→D in FIG.
The process of deceleration is followed. The reason why there is still a constant pulse output at point G, which corresponds to the stopping point of the carriage 32, is to provide a holding torque to maintain the carriage 32 in a stopped state. Such space movement for one character is the same as the pattern of carriage movement associated with the printing process of r A J described above.

Now, if the space key 10 is still pressed after the space processing for one character is performed as described above,
In the key scan routine of FIG. 6, since the input signal of the space key is on as determined in S81, the process moves from SS4 to rss8. In this S88, it is determined whether the content of the self-repeat counter (0.5 second counter) 82 is 0 or not, but if the key scan is within a certain number of times, the determination result becomes NO and the process moves to S89. .5 seconds counter 82 counts down, and unless the content is determined to be 0 at 3810, the process moves to 83 of the main flow. And S3. After S11, the key-ski-yang routine S2 is repeated. That is, 881.88 in Figure 6
It transitions to 4.888, and after a countdown of S89, it reaches 3.
810, and the content of the 0.5 second counter 82 becomes 0.
If it is determined that the repeat on code has been reached, a repeat on code is set in the key buffer 776 in step 8811.

In the judgment at step 83 of the main routine, since the repeat-on code exists in the key buffer 76, S4
Then, the determination in S4 becomes YES and step 812 is executed, and a repeat flag is set in the repeat flag register 80. When S2 is executed again in that state,
The step is SS1.884. Transitioned to SS8 and 88
8 is YES and the process moves to S3, but since there is no new key code in the key buffer 776, the process moves to S11.
Since the repeat flag is on, the process moves to 813. At step 813, it is determined whether the key code stored in the input buffer 78 is a repeatable key code. Here, since the space key code is stored in the input buffer 78, the process moves to S9 via S7, and since the repeat flag is on, 814
The odor space repeat initiation process is executed. In other words, the carriage 32 that has moved one character space continues to move spaces as long as the space key 10 is held down.

An example of the movement pattern of the carriage 32 at this time is shown in FIG. This example shows a space repeat operation for two characters. In the startup process (through-up) at the start of space repeat, the speed is increased from 0 to A to B in the same pattern as the space movement for one character (carriage movement during normal printing), but after B, the speed is increased from B- +H-
II and the acceleration during normal printing (B-+C)
The speed can be increased with greater acceleration. Then, the carriage 32 moves at a constant speed from ■ to J, and then stops after going through the deceleration process (through-down) of J→→[ and →M. In other words, the carriage 32 is prevented from moving at a higher acceleration and speed than the carriage movement during normal printing operation.
Therefore, the operator can quickly move the carriage 32 to the target position. Furthermore, since the transition occurs at high speed as described above, the resonance and chatter noise that occur during relatively low constant velocity movement are eliminated, making it possible to suppress transition noise. .

Note that when the operator stops pressing the space key 10, the determination in S81 in FIG. S83 for setting in the buffer 76 is executed. by this,
The main flow in FIG. 6 moves from S3 to S4 and then to S5, and when the determination in S5 is YES, step 815 is executed to turn off the repeat flag. Therefore, the main flow draws a loop of 82, 83 and 811, and the space repeat movement of the carriage 32 is stopped.

As is clear from the above explanation, in this embodiment, key 1 shown in FIG. The ridge control circuit 94 and the carriage motor 104 constitute carriage driving means. In addition, the space key 10 of the keyboard 2 and the program memory 7
The storage area that stores steps 889°5S10.5S11 in the 6th ft4 of 4 and 812'# in FIG. 5 and the C P 'U 62 that executes those steps constitute a space repeat command means. I'm in the middle of the day. Also,
A storage area for storing steps 88, etc. in FIG. 5 in the program 74, and a CPU for executing this
U 62 constitutes a carriage printing movement control means,
8 in FIG. 5 on the back of the program memory 74.
The area that stores 14M steps and the CPU 62 that executes them constitute carriage space repeat movement control means.

In the embodiment described above, in the space repeat operation of the carriage, the acceleration is increased from the middle of the speed-up process compared to normal one-ridge movement. Lord! It is also possible to control through-up by increasing the acceleration compared to the ridge movement.

Furthermore, during space repeat movement, the acceleration at startup is greater than that of normal edge ridge movement, but on the other hand, the speed is controlled more than normal carriage movement.
& is capable of b01. In this way, the operator can more accurately stop the carriage at the end of the self-rebby movement.

It goes without saying that various other changes and improvements can be made based on the knowledge of those skilled in the art, such as changing the structure of the typewriter and changing the control 10 grams, without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a diagram conceptually showing the present invention, Fig. 2 is a perspective view (not showing the external appearance) of an electronic typewriter which is an embodiment of the present invention, and Fig. 3 is a block diagram showing the 1I111111 series of the typewriter. , FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the print drive circuit in more detail, and FIG. -1-1 Figure 6 is a flowchart showing the key scanning routine, and Figure 7 is a flowchart showing the key scan routine for the typewriter. 7 is a graph illustrating a comparison between a space movement for one character and a space repeat movement for two characters with respect to the movement pattern of a ridge. 2... Keyboard 4... Printing mechanism 10... Space key 32... Carriage 40... Printing ribbon Fig. 1

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) A printing device equipped with a space repeat function that performs a continuous space operation along a print line, which includes a carriage that supports a print head and is movable along the print line; a carriage drive means that drives the carriage in pitch units of , a carriage print movement control means that controls the movement of the carriage during printing, and a carriage print movement control means that controls the movement of the carriage during printing, based on a command from the space repeat command means, when the carriage is moved in a non-printing state during the printing. 1. A printing device having a space repeat function, comprising: a carriage space repeat movement control means for increasing the speed of the carriage at an acceleration greater than the movement acceleration. (2) The carriage space repeat movement control means increases the speed of the carriage at an acceleration greater than the movement acceleration during the printing, and causes the carriage to space repeat move at a speed greater than the movement speed during the printing. 1. The printing device according to 1. (3) The carriage space repeat movement and control means accelerates the carriage at an acceleration greater than the movement acceleration during the printing, and moves the carriage repeatedly in space at a speed lower than the movement speed during the printing. Item 1
Printing device as described.