JPH041702B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention provides that when a printing command with a number of digits greater than the regular number of printing digits is received in a line dot printer, the number of digits to be printed plus the first digit is printed. The present invention relates to a space control method for a line dot printer that performs space control to perform printing.

[Technology background]

For example, if the print width specification of the printer is 136 digits, printing after the 137th digit is basically not possible.
However, if data of 137 digits or more is mistakenly transferred, the printer needs to detect that this is an abnormality. As a means of detection, it is determined whether there is data at the 137th digit. Then, when data arrives at the 137th digit, an alarm is raised and at the same time the data from the 138th digit onward is returned to the sending side.

When determining whether there is data in the 136th digit,
If exactly 136 digits of data are transferred, that is, even if the data is normal, an alarm will be sent out, which is undesirable. Therefore, it becomes necessary to monitor the 137th digit. 137
If more than 10 digits of data is transferred, up to the 136th digit can be normally printed, and after the 138th digit, the data is returned to the sending side and saved, so there is no problem.
Regarding the data in the 137th digit, it is only held on the printer side, but is deleted on the sending side. Therefore, in order to save the data at the 137th digit, it becomes necessary to print it. Of course, it is conceivable that the data could be deleted as a violation of specifications or an operational error, but if it were to be deleted, a problem would remain.

[Prior art and problems]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the operating range according to the conventional space control method. In FIG. 1, a printer with 136 digits per line is assumed. The printer is a multi-head type, with each print head having, for example, 24 print pins in one vertical row.
If four print heads are mounted on the carrier, each print head will print 34 digits for a line of 136 digits. 1st
As shown in the figure, when the spacing operation starts and the run-up section is passed, the spacing speed reaches a constant speed, the printing head enters the printing area, and printing is performed. In the conventional space control method, if there are N print heads for 136 digits per line, as shown in Figure 1, when a print command for 137 or more digits arrives, the print command for the 137th digit is executed. is controlled to perform a space operation of (137 digits/N) so that it is accepted and printed.
Therefore, in order to be able to print up to the 137th column, the space operation is always moved by one extra digit, and this one digit space operation is usually wasted, which is a factor that hinders throughput improvement. There is.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention solves the above problems, and aims to provide a space control method for line dot printers that eliminates wasted space operations, thereby improving throughput. .

[Structure of the invention]

To this end, the space control method for the line dot printer of the present invention includes a processing device that controls the entire printer, a means for converting printing pins and character codes into character fonts, a print data storage means for storing print data, and the print data. a printing control section having a printing pin drive control means for driving and controlling the printing pin based on the printing data stored in the storage means; a space having a space motor and a space motor control means for controlling the space motor; A space control method for a line dot printer comprising a control section, and a line feed control section having a line feed motor and a line feed control means for controlling the line feed motor, wherein the processing device includes the print data storage means. To,
The sent print data is stored line by line each time the print data storage area for one line becomes empty, and on the condition that the print data for one line is stored in the print data storage means, the above The space motor is activated and printing is performed by driving the printing pin based on the print data stored in the print data storage means, and the print data for one line stored in the print data storage means has the correct number of digits. On the condition that the data has a larger number of digits, space control and print control are performed to print up to the next print data that is larger than the normal number of print digits, and the print data continues after the print data of the next digit. The present invention is characterized in that it is configured to perform a process of returning excess print data to the sending side and sending out an alarm.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

Figure 2 is a diagram showing an example of the operation of the space control method of the present invention when a print command with more digits than the normal number of print digits is received, and Figure 3 is an example of the content written to the line buffer. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a printer control system to which the present invention is applied, and FIGS. 5 to 7 show processing by the processing device in the space control method of the line dot printer of the present invention. This is a float chart showing the flow. In Figure 4, 1 is
CPU (processing unit), 2 is LF (abbreviation for line feed) control circuit, 3 is LF motor, 4 is space motor control circuit, 5 is space motor, 6 is sensor, 7 is data reception control circuit, 8 is A line buffer control circuit, 9 a CG-ROM read control circuit, 10 an input selector, 11 a line buffer section, 12 a print pin drive control circuit, and 13 a print head.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the operation according to the space control method of the present invention when a print command of 137 digits or more is received. In the present invention, if the print command is 136 digits long, the space motor stops after printing up to 136 digits, and if the print command is 137 digits or more, a line feed (LF ), the space operation is repeated again (as shown in Figure 2), and the 137th column is printed.

Figure 3 shows an example of the content written to the line buffer. First, a command to convey the information content is stored at the beginning, then 136 digits of print data is stored, and then the 137th digit is stored. The print data from is stored, and finally LF or CR
(abbreviation for Carriage Return) Instructions are stored in order. Whether or not writing of print data to the line buffer has been completed is confirmed by this LF or CR command, and upon confirmation, the printing operation is started. Therefore, at the time of starting printing, it can be known in advance whether or not the 137th digit will be printed by looking at the area where the 137th digit print command is entered.

FIG. 4 shows the configuration of the printer control system. In Figure 4, from the sending side,
Various commands, addresses, print data, etc. are sent to the CPU (processing unit) 1, and control signals for receiving data are sent to the data reception control circuit 7. Print data is sometimes sent as an image and sometimes as a character code.
In the CPU 1, when print data is sent as an image, it is sent directly to the line through the selector 10.
Image data is stored in the buffer section 11, and when print data is sent in character code,
After converting the character code to image data by the CG-ROM read control circuit 9, the input selector 1
Image to line buffer section 11 through 0.
Performs control to store data. A write address for the line buffer unit 11 is given by a line buffer write control circuit 8, which is controlled by the data reception control circuit 7 and the CPU 1. The print data stored in the line buffer section 11 is sequentially read out and sent to the print pin drive control circuit 12. The CPU 1 controls the print pin drive circuit 12 to control the printing operation, and when the printing operation is finished, controls the LF control circuit 2 to control the line feed (LF) operation, and to control the space between the line feed operations.
The motor control circuit 4 is controlled to control the stop and restart of the space operation.

Next, referring to Fig. 5, the CPU (processing unit) 1
The following describes the processing flow. When the CPU 1 receives print information, it processes it in the following order.

Writes print data to line buffer A. Perform the following processing.

Check whether writing to line buffer A has been completed.

If the answer is No, the process returns to step 2, and if the answer is yes, the process returns to step .

Check whether line buffer B is empty.

If No, wait until Yes, and if Yes, perform the process.

Write print data to line buffer B. Perform the following processing.

Check whether writing to line buffer B is completed.

If the answer is No, the process returns to step 2, and if the answer is yes, the process returns to step .

Check whether line buffer A is empty.

If No, wait until Yes, and if Yes, return to processing.

Start the space motor 5. Perform the following processing.

Reads print data from the line buffer and performs printing. Perform the following processing.

Check whether there is a print command in column 137.

If No, process is performed, and if Yes, process is performed.

Check whether printing has finished.

If the answer is No, the process returns to step 2, and if the answer is yes, the process returns to step .

Starts line feed (LF) behavior. Perform the following processing.

Stop the space motor.

Check whether the line break has ended.

If No, wait until Yes, and if Yes, return to processing.

Sends an alarm and returns the print command from the 138th column onwards to the sending side. Note that if there is no print data after the 138th column, only an alarm is sent to the sending side. Along with the alarm, information indicating that there is no print data after the 138th column may be sent to the sending side. Next, process or.

Here, the subsequent processing is an example of performing the control described in FIG. 2, and the subsequent processing is another embodiment. In other words, up to 136 digits are printed. Perform the following processing.

Stop the space motor. Perform the following processing.

Drive the space motor and stop it at (136-N). Perform the following processing.

Activate the space motor. Perform the following processing.

Printing is performed only for the print command in the 137th column.
Next, perform the following processing.

Or, move the space motor to column 137,
Prints up to the 137th print command. Next, perform the following processing.

In addition, when printing is performed using the process explained above, whether or not the print command is in the 137th column is determined when writing to the line buffer is completed, as is clear from Figures 3 and 5. By looking at the area at the 137th column when checking (processing with) whether or not this is the case, it can be known in advance at the start of the printing operation.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As is clear from the above explanation, according to the present invention, normal space operations are performed within the range of the normal number of printing digits, and only when a printing command with a number of digits greater than the normal number of printing digits is received, the normal space operation is performed within the range of the normal number of printing digits. Since the space is controlled so that the number of printing digits plus the first digit is printed, the throughput during normal operation can be improved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the operating range according to the conventional space control method, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the operation according to the space control method of the present invention when a printing command with more digits than the normal number of printing digits is received. , FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the content written to the line buffer, FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a printer control system to which the present invention is applied, and FIGS. 5 to 7 are diagrams showing the configuration of the printer control system to which the present invention is applied. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the flow of processing by the processing device in the space control method of the line dot printer. 1...CPU (processing unit), 2...LF control circuit,
3...LF motor, 4...Space motor control circuit, 5...Space motor, 6...Sensor,
7...Data reception control circuit, 8...Line buffer control circuit, 9...CG-ROM read control circuit, 10...Input selector, 11...Line buffer section, 12...Print pin drive control circuit , 13...Print head.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A processing device that controls the entire printer, a printing pin, a means for converting a character code into a character font, a printing data storage means for storing printing data, and a processing device for controlling the printing data stored in the printing data storage means. a printing control unit having a printing pin drive control means for driving and controlling the printing pin based on the printing pin; a space control unit having a space motor and a space motor control means for controlling the space motor; and a line feed motor and A space control method for a line dot printer including a line feed control section having a line feed control means for controlling a line feed motor, wherein the processing device includes:
The sent print data is stored line by line each time the print data storage area for one line becomes empty, and on the condition that the print data for one line is stored in the print data storage means, the above The space motor is activated and printing is performed by driving the printing pin based on the print data stored in the print data storage means, and the print data for one line stored in the print data storage means has the correct number of digits. On the condition that it has a larger number of digits, space control and print control are performed to print up to the next print data that is greater than the normal number of print digits, and the print data continues after the print data of the next digit. A space control method for a line dot printer, characterized in that it is configured to return excess print data to the sending side and send out an alarm. 2. The processing device performs the following on the condition that the print data for one line stored in the print data storage means has a number of digits greater than the regular number of print digits,
It is configured to perform space control and print control so that the regular number of print digits is printed, the space motor is stopped, and then only the print data of the next digit of the regular number of print digits is printed. A space control method for a line dot printer according to claim 1. 3. The processing device performs the following on the condition that the print data for one line stored in the print data storage means has a number of digits greater than the regular number of print digits.
The line dot according to claim 1, wherein the line dot is configured to perform space control and print control so that print data of the next digit of the regular number of print digits is printed continuously. -Printer space control method.