JPH0322019A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To roughly judge a processing state in the internal part of a printer by external appearance by checking the state of data transferred by a transfer control part, for each fixed time and displaying the state. CONSTITUTION:A storing means 101 to temporarily store data and command transmitted from a host device, a processing means 102 to process the data and command, a data transfer means 103 to send the data to the processing means 102 when the data exist in the storing means 101 and to send dummy data to the processing means 102 when the data do not exist in the storing means 101 are provided. A transfer storing means 104 to store whether effective data are sent to the processing means 102 or not an interruption generating means 105 to generate interruption in the above mentioned transfer state storing means 104 for each fixed time, a display means 106 to display the processing state in the internal part of the printer based on the stored contents of the transfer state storing means are provided. Accordingly, during interruption processing, the state of the transfer state storing means 104 is judged and a judged result can be displayed in the display means 106. The internal processing state can be judged from an external part.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a printing device that analyzes and prints manually printed information, and particularly relates to a printing device that can display the processing status inside the device. It is.

There were times when Taruto Saiberator would determine that the printing device had hung up and would turn off the power. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and provide a printing device that can inform an operator of the processing status inside the printing device using a display means.

[Prior art] Conventionally, in devices that parse and print page description languages such as host scripts, there is an additional advantage of the language: processing based on one operator command (print control command). This requires a lot of processing time, and in some cases, it may take several tens of minutes to several hours to obtain one page's worth of printed output.

[Problem to be solved by the invention] In such a case, there is a period when it is not possible to judge from the appearance whether or not the printing device is operating even though the command is being executed. In order to achieve such an object, the present invention provides a storage means for temporarily storing data and commands sent from a host device, and a processing means for processing the data and commands. data transfer means that sends data to the IA embedding means when data exists in the storage means and sends dummy data to the processing means when no data exists in the storage means; and data transfer means that sends dummy data to the processing means when data does not exist in the storage means; a transfer state storage means for storing whether or not the transfer state storage means has been sent; an interrupt generation means for generating an interrupt in the transfer state storage means for each step time; (Function) The present invention includes a transfer control means for reading and transferring data one byte at a time from the reception buffer in response to a request from the print control section; It is provided with a section e that records the transfer status and stores whether or not the transferred data is valid data.

In addition, the state of the transfer state storage section is determined during interrupt processing by the timer interrupt generation section that generates an interrupt at regular intervals, and the result is displayed on the display device to judge the internal processing state from the outside. I can cheat.

(Example) Below, the tree invention will be explained in detail with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, the printing apparatus according to the present invention includes a storage unit 101 for temporarily storing data and commands sent from a host device, a processing stage 102 for processing data and commands, and a storage unit 101 for temporarily storing data and commands sent from a host device. data transfer means 103 that sends data to the processing means 102 when data exists in the storage stage 101 and sends dummy data to the processing means 102 when no data exists in the storage stage 101; a transfer state storage means 104 for storing whether or not valid data has been sent to the transfer state storage means 104; an interrupt generation means 105 for generating an interrupt to the transfer state storage means 104 at regular intervals; Transfer status record f.
The present invention is characterized by comprising display means 106 for displaying the processing status inside the printing apparatus based on the stored contents of the @ means.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a printing apparatus showing an embodiment of the present invention. Here, 1 is a host computer that generates print codes, commands, etc. Reference numeral 2 denotes a printer section which is the entire printing apparatus.

21 is a control unit that controls the printing apparatus, and CPtl
(Central Processing Unit) 21A, ROM (Read Only Memory) 21B, and RAM (Random Access Memory) 21c. ROM21B has the fourth
A control program according to the flowchart shown in FIG. 5 and FIG. 5 is stored. 22 is host computer 1
This is a receive buffer that temporarily stores data sent from.

23A is the reception buffer 22 according to a request from the print control section 24.
This is a transfer control unit that reads and transfers data one byte at a time. 23B is a transfer state storage unit, and transfer control unit 2
38 is set to ON when valid data is read from the receive buffer, and the data is stored in the receive buffer. is set to OFF if dummy data (Nul1 etc.) is transferred without it. A print control unit 24 receives data from the transfer control unit 23A and performs print control such as command interpretation.

25A is a display pattern INDEX storage section, which is set to O when the power is turned on or when a job is started, is incremented as necessary during timer interrupt processing, and is used as an index of the display pattern storage section. 25B is a display switch for blinking display, which is set to ON or OFF during timer interrupt processing to control blinking display.

25G is a display pattern storage unit that stores display patterns to be displayed on the display unit 27, which will be described later.

26 is a timer interrupt generating section that generates an interrupt at regular intervals. 27 is a display section that displays various patterns. A frame huffer 28 temporarily stores the print pattern generated by the print control section 24, and the print pattern stored here is printed as a permanent visible image on the paper by the dot printer section 29.

FIG. 3 shows display patterns stored in the display pattern storage section 25G. Here, PO to P3 are each 7×
It is a 5-dot pattern. Display pattern INDEX storage section 25 INDEXO~3 are each P
Corresponds to O to P3.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the processing of the transfer control section. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing processing during a timer interrupt.

FIG. 6 shows a pattern displayed on the display section 27 when the printing apparatus is interpreting data. The display is 61, 82
,63,64.65,66,67,68,61.52・
In order of...? The clock hands appear to be rotating clockwise.

FIG. 7 shows a pattern that is displayed when there is no valid print data in the reception buffer 22 and the printer is waiting to receive data.

One of the patterns 7l and the space pattern 72 shown in FIG. 6 are displayed alternately and blink.

The present invention will now be described in detail using flowcharts.

In FIG. 4, in response to a request from the print control section 24, the transfer control section 238 checks in step 541 whether or not valid data exists in the reception buffer 22. If there is, the process proceeds to step S44, and the transfer state storage section Turn on 23B. Then, the process advances to step S45 and the display switch is turned on. Thereafter, in step 546, the receive buffer 22
1 byte of data is read and transferred.

If it is determined in step 541 that there is no valid data in the reception buffer 22, step S42
Then, the transfer status storage section 23B is turned off. Then, in step 543, the DIIklMY data is transferred.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of processing performed by an interrupt generated by the timer interrupt generator 26.

First, go to step 551 to check the status of the transfer status storage unit 23B, and if it is set to ``ON'' indicating that valid data has been transferred, the process returns to step S.
If not, proceed to step 556.

In step S52, a pattern corresponding to the INDEX stored in the display pattern INDEX writing section 258 is selected from the display pattern storage section 25G, and the display section 27
Display to. Next, the process advances to step 553, and 1 is added to INDEX in order to display the pattern at the next interrupt.

In step S54, it is checked whether the value after addition of INDEX exceeds 3. If it does, the process proceeds to step S55 and INDEX is reset to the initial value "o". Otherwise, the place will end.

In step S51, the transfer state storage unit 23B or OF
If it is determined that the pattern is F, the currently displayed pattern and the space pattern are alternately displayed, and the process proceeds to step 556 to check the state of the display switch in order to perform a blinking display.

If it is "ON" indicating a lighting request in step 556, the process proceeds to step S57, and a pattern corresponding to INDEX indicated by display pattern INDEX storage section 25A is displayed on display section 27. Then, the process proceeds to step 54B, where the display switch 25B is set to "OFF" to turn off the light next time.

In step S56, if the display switch 25B is ゜'OFF'' indicating that the light is off, the process advances to step S59 and the display section 2
7 Display space pattern. And step 5
The process proceeds to step 60, and the display switch 25B is set to ゜'ON'' for the next lighting.

In the above-described embodiment, the processing status inside the printing apparatus is displayed by "degree rotation" and "blinking" of the pattern, but the present invention is not limited to this. In addition, if you generate an interrupt every fixed amount of transfer instead of every fixed time, and display the data consumption rate in the receive buffer as the "rotation speed" of the pattern, you can display the processing status inside the printing device in more detail. It is also possible to do so.

Further, the notification of the processing status is not limited to the pattern display, but may be performed by a message display, a plurality of LFDs, etc. Furthermore, the notification of the processing state may be performed by outputting a tone such as three tones instead of the display.

(Effects of the Invention) As explained above, in the present invention, the transfer control unit checks the status of the transferred data at regular intervals and displays it, so that the approximate processing status inside the printing device can be seen. It has the effect of being able to be judged based on appearance.

Moreover, this has the effect of preventing a device in operation from being mistakenly recognized as being hung up.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the basic configuration of a printing device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a display pattern of an embodiment of the present invention. Figures 4 and 5 are flowcharts showing the processing procedure of an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 6 is a diagram showing a display pattern during data interpretation of an example of a journey of the present invention, and Figure 7 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a display pattern when waiting for data reception according to an embodiment of the invention. 25B...Display switch, 25G...Display pattern storage section, 26...Timer interrupt generation section, 27...
Display section, 28... Frame buffer, 29... Dot printer section. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Host computer, 2... Printer part, 2l... Control part, 21A... CPU (central processing unit), 21B...
FROM (read only memory), 21C...RA
M (random access memory), 22... Reception buffer, 23A... Transfer control section, 23B... Transfer state control section, 24... Print control section, 25A... Display pattern INDEX storage section , i-
Basic lecture on the cultivation of fρ according to the invention. Figure 1. Display pattern of the first date and month of the present day and month. Figure 1: Display pattern and illustration during deta-dissolving of the laughing embodiment of the present invention
Mouth Figure 6

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1) Storage means for temporarily storing data and commands transmitted from a host device; processing means for processing the data and commands; and processing when data exists in the storage means. data transfer means for sending dummy data to the processing means when no data exists in the storage means; and storing whether or not valid data has been sent from the data transfer means to the processing means. transfer state storage means for generating an interrupt in the transfer state storage means at regular intervals; and interrupt generation means for generating an interrupt in the transfer state storage means at regular intervals; 1. A printing device comprising: display means for displaying processing status.