JPH0387273A - Printing mode setting of printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve condition of services of the printer by a method wherein a specific amount of continuous paper is fed forward until a paper end sensor turns OFF when a start power source is ON and in the case where a mode is switched to a continuous paper printing mode, when the paper end sensor is of an ON state, the continuous paper is fed backward until the sensor turns OFF. CONSTITUTION:A release lever 5 is inclined to a cut paper 1 side by turning a start power source of a printer ON, and a specific amount of continuous paper is fed forward with an LF motor. Then, when a paper end sensor turns OFF, there is no residue of the cut paper near a printing part, and an initial arranging state of the cut paper is obtained. Thereafter, a cut form printing mode is established. Besides, in the case where a continuous paper printing mode is established, the start power source of the printer is turned ON to feed a specific amount. However, in the case of continuous paper P2, a residual state is always obtained, and the paper end sensor becomes of an ON state. Therefore, when backward feed is repetitively performed by reversing the LF motor until the paper end sensor becomes OFF, no continuous paper remains near the printing part and by feeding backward further a specific amount, the continuous paper is arranged at an initial state. Thereafter, the continuous paper printing mode is established.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION <Industrial Application Field> The present invention relates to a printer print mode setting method for arranging a print medium in an initial state corresponding to a cut paper mode or a continuous paper print mode.

<Prior art> In printers, there are cases where printing is carried out using a CSF device, when printing on continuous paper, and when printing on cut paper by manual feeding, etc., so it is necessary to switch to a mode that corresponds to each print medium. It is configured so that it can be printed.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the printer, and FIG. 7 is a side view showing the arrangement of cut paper P and continuous paper P2. That is, 1 is a print head, and this print head 1 is mounted on a carriage (not shown) that moves approximately parallel to a platen 2 rotated by a drive motor (not shown). 3 is a pinch roller that moves cut paper P1 to platen 2.
Push it to the side and run it. Furthermore, 4 is a pin camel for forward-feeding or back-feeding the continuous paper P2. That is, the drive shaft 4a is rotated by a drive motor (not shown), and feeds the continuous paper P2 forward toward the printing section or backfeeds it in the opposite direction. 5 is a release lever that opens and closes the pinch roller 3 and the drive shaft 4 of the bin tractor 4.
The driving force for a is intermittent. Further, 6 is a pail arm that rotates a pail lever 6b equipped with an appropriate number of pail rollers 6a. That is, with the tip of the continuous paper P2 meshing with the bin tractor 4, the pail arm 6
When the continuous paper P2 is rotated in a predetermined direction, the autoloading switch S1 is turned ON and the paper feed motor is automatically rotated to feed the leading edge of the continuous paper P2 to the printable position. 7 is a guide for sucking the cut paper P, 7a is an idle roller, 7b is a stacking roller, and this is the platen 2.
rotates synchronously. Furthermore, the hopping roller 8 is rotated by a hopping roller drive motor 8a and the same gear 8b provided in a cut seed feeder (hereinafter simply referred to as CSF) device, and sucks the cut sheets P1 in the hopper 9 one by one to the pinch roller 3. . Therefore, hopping roller 8
The outer peripheral surface of is coated with a material having a high coefficient of friction.

On the other hand, the medium printed between the print head 1 and the platen 2 is discharged via the sheet guide 10 between the idle roller 7a and the stacking roller 7b. If the print medium is cut paper P1, it is sequentially stored in the stacker 11.

In order to suck the cut paper P1 to the printing section in the above mechanism, the pinch roller 3 is moved through the guide 7 while being pressed against the platen 2 side. Further, in order to suck the continuous paper P2, the pinch roller 3 is separated from the platen 2 and is caused to travel from the bin tractor 4 via the suction guide 1z.

Next, the switching of the printing medium by the release lever 5 is controlled by the eighth
Provide a brief explanation of the drawing. That is, when a printing medium suction command is input to the printer from a host device, it is necessary to determine whether to suck paper PI or continuous paper P2. Therefore, if the release lever 5 is tilted toward the cut paper side as shown in FIG. 8(A), the actuator 5a will be activated by the detection switch
Turn on 2. When this detection switch S2 is turned on, the cut paper P1 from the CSF device is set to a printable state, that is, a state in which it can be processed in the cut print mode. On the other hand, if the release lever 5 is tilted to the opposite side as shown in FIG. 5B, the detection switch S2 is turned OFF, and in this case, the continuous paper printing mode is set to a processable state.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> In the printer configured as described above, switching between the single sheet printing mode and the continuous paper printing mode is performed using the release lever 5 as described above.
Detection switch S2 is turned on.

Must be OFF. However, if any print medium remains in the vicinity of the printing section, the printing process itself becomes impossible even with the above switching. Therefore, each time a print medium remains, the operator must manually remove the remaining print medium.

Therefore, even if the printer is turned on, printing operations cannot be started immediately, making the printer extremely inconvenient to use.

<Means for Solving the Problems> In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a method for setting the print mode to either single sheet or continuous paper. The initial state is completed when the starting power source is forward-fed by a certain amount using the ONL/LF motor and the paper end sensor is turned off, and the sheet printing mode can therefore be set. When switching to continuous paper printing mode, turn the power ON/OFF.
If the paper end sensor remains ON, the LF motor performs backfeed until the paper end sensor turns OFF, and then backfeeds a certain amount further when the paper end sensor turns OFF. If this is done, the initial state is completed and the continuous paper printing mode can be set.

<Function> First, turn ON/OFF the startup power of the printer and feed forward a certain amount with the LF motor to turn off the paper end sensor.
If so, the cut paper near the printing section has been discharged, and the next cut paper has been placed in the initial state. Thereby, the cut paper can be sandwiched between the pinch roller and the platen, sucked into a predetermined position of the print head, and printed. Also, when setting to continuous paper printing mode, if the paper end sensor is in the ON state even if the startup power of the printer is turned ON/ON and the LF motor is used to feed a certain amount of forward feed as described above, continuous paper is present in the printing section. It turns out.

Therefore, backfeed is performed by the LF motor until the paper end sensor turns OFF. If it is turned OFF, there is no continuous paper near the printing section, and by backfeeding the paper by a certain amount, the initial position of the continuous paper relative to the bin tractor is set, and as above, the continuous paper is printed at the printing section. The printing process can be started.

<Example> Next, the residual print medium discharge method of the present invention will be explained in detail based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a discharge method according to the present invention.

When setting to the cut sheet printing mode, turn on the printer's startup power source and tilt the release lever toward the cut sheet side (see FIGS. 6 and 8).

Then, the LF motor is used to forward a certain amount of feet.

In this example, the fixed amount means "length of cut paper + α". Then, when a paper end sensor (not shown) is turned off, no cut paper remains in the vicinity of the printing section, and therefore the cut paper is in its initial arrangement state.

After this, set to cut sheet printing mode.

On the other hand, when setting the continuous paper printing mode, the printer is turned on in the same manner as described above, and after tilting the release lever toward the continuous paper side, the LF motor feeds a certain amount. However, even if fed, in the case of continuous paper, there will always be a residual state near the printing section, and the paper end sensor will be in the ON state. Therefore, the LF motor is reversed to repeatedly backfeed until the paper end sensor is in the OFF state. If the paper end sensor is in the OFF state, no continuous paper remains in the vicinity of the printing section, and the continuous paper is placed in the initial state by further backfeeding a certain amount. After this, set to continuous paper printing mode. In the ticket printing mode, the autoloading mechanism does not need to operate by rotating the hopping roller motor 8a of the CSF device. On the other hand, in the continuous paper printing mode, the hopping roller motor 8a of the C3F device
Do not rotate. That is, if the operator rotates the pail arm 6 in such a state, the autoloading mechanism will be activated.

Next, a method for setting each print mode will be explained in more detail based on FIG.

The remaining state of the cut paper when setting the cut sheet printing mode is shown in FIGS. 2(A) and 2(B). Figure 2 (A)
In , cut paper P from a CSF device (not shown),
is pressed toward the platen 2 by the pinch roller 3 via the hopping roller 8. Further, a first cam 14 and a second cam 15 are provided near the printing section to turn on and off a paper end sensor (not shown). In other words, if the cut paper P□ remains near the printing section (Figure (A)), the third
As shown in the time chart in the figure, the paper end sensor is turned on by the first cam 14. On the other hand, as will be described later, the second cam 15 is configured to turn on the paper end sensor by this drive if the continuous paper P2 remains near the printing section. These first cam 14 and second cam 15 integrally turn on and off the paper end sensor, so when setting the cut sheet printing mode, the cut paper P is placed in the state shown in FIG. 2(A). If it remains near the printing area,
The paper end sensor is turned ON by the first cam 14, and the leading edge of the cut paper PI remains near the printing area as shown in the same figure (B), but if the first cam 14 is not driven, the paper end sensor is turned OFF. The state will be as follows.

In such a case, the release lever 5 (see FIG. 6) of the autoloading mechanism is tilted toward the cut paper side. Then, the cut paper P1 is fed forward by a certain amount using the LF motor. Here, the fixed amount is the length of the cut paper, for example 14
The distance α between the first cam 14 and the stacking roller 7b is in cm.
is added. Therefore, a certain amount (14c■+α)
If forward feeding is performed, the cut paper P1 is ejected without remaining near the print area in either case of FIGS. 2A and 2B, and as a result, the paper end sensor is turned OFF. With the above steps, the initial operation necessary for setting the cut print mode is completed.

On the other hand, the remaining state of the continuous paper may be as shown in Fig. 2 (C) and (D). In Fig. 2 (C), the continuous paper P2 is left in the vicinity of the printing section by the bin tractor 4. When the second cam 15 is driven, the mopaper end sensor is turned on. Also, in the same figure (D), continuous paper P2
Although the leading end of the paper remains near the printing section, the second cam 15 is not driven, and therefore the paper end sensor is in an OFF state. In either case, even if the release lever 5 is tilted toward the continuous paper side and the LF motor is used to feed a certain amount of forward feed, as shown in Fig. 3 (C).
In this case, the ON state of the paper end sensor continues as it is. In the case of (D), the second cam 15 is driven to turn on the paper end sensor and continue the process. Next, when the LF motor is back-fed, the continuous paper P2
The tip of the paper comes off the second cam 15, turning off the paper end sensor. A certain amount of backfeed is further performed from this OFF state. This constant amount is the distance β between the second cam 15 and the front end 4b of the bin tractor 4.

Therefore, when the paper end sensor is further back-feeded by a certain amount from the time when it is turned off, the leading edge position of the continuous paper P1 with respect to the bin tractor 4 is set, and the initial operation necessary for setting the printing mode is completed. Therefore, the continuous paper printing mode can be set. As described above, if each initial operation is completed in both the cut print mode setting and the continuous paper print mode setting, the initial position of the print medium will be set as soon as the startup power is turned on.

As shown in FIG. 4, the pail arm 6 also serves as the operating section of the autoloading mechanism, and is structured to be tilted toward the cut paper side (closed side X) and the continuous paper side (opened side y).

The operation of this pale arm 6 will be explained based on FIG. 5.

As shown in FIG.
b and the idle roller 7a sandwich the cut paper P□, so the pail arm 6 is always located on the open side y. On the other hand, when performing autoloading, C3
In device F, cut paper P is not fed, the control mode is continuous paper mode, the pale arm 6 is on the closing side X, and the paper end sensor is OFF. Therefore, when switching to the continuous paper P2 after printing with the C8F device, the pale arm 6 is moved once to the closing side X and then returned to the opening side y, as shown in Figure (m). The operation of the pale arm 6 is detected by the switch S, and the control mode is switched to the continuous paper mode, after which automatic loading is performed.

After this autoloading is completed, Pale Arm 6
When the continuous paper P2 is returned to the closing side X, the leading edge of the continuous paper P2 is sandwiched between the platen 2 and the pail roller 6a as shown in FIG. 1 (IV). Also, at this time, the paper end sensor is turned on, so communication between the printer and a host device such as a personal computer becomes standby, and preparations for printing on the continuous paper P2 are completed.

An operation panel 16 is attached to the front operation side of the printer device (see FIG. 6), and so-called auto-parking is performed by turning on a parking switch S3 provided on this operation panel 16. That is, the switch S3
When turned ON, the LF motor rotates in reverse, detects the OFF state of the paper end sensor, and then rotates in a fixed amount as described above to move the leading edge of the continuous paper P2 to the initial position, for example, the front end 4b of the bin tractor 4. can be placed.

Further, after the above-mentioned auto-parking is completed, the control mode is automatically set to cut paper mode.

<Effects of the Invention> As explained above, in the method of the present invention, by turning on the startup power of the printer and completing the initial operation, the desired printing mode can be set without any printing medium remaining near the printing section. . This eliminates the need for the printer to remove residual print media when starting printing, making it possible to provide a printer that is extremely easy to use. Also, since there is no need for a detection switch when switching modes,
It also becomes possible to achieve smaller size and lower cost.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a print mode setting method according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the remaining state of the print medium, FIG. 3 is a time chart for setting the print mode, FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the autoloading mechanism, and FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the autoloading operation. FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the printer, FIG. 7 is a side configuration diagram of the printer, and FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of the operation of the switching lever. l...print head, 2...platen. 3...Pinch roller, 4...Bin tractor. 5...-Release lever p2.・Continuous paper. P□...Cut paper, 14...1st cam. 15...Second cam.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] In a printer that detects the presence or absence of a print medium with a paper end sensor and prints by switching to either a single sheet printing mode or a continuous paper printing mode, the paper end sensor is turned off when a startup power source is turned on. The LF motor is forward-fed by a certain amount until The LF motor backfeeds the LF motor until it turns OFF.
A printing mode setting method for a printer characterized by further backfeeding by a certain amount in a state of FF.