JPH04279369A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a printer capable of selecting properly between Chinese character function and non-Chinese character function using a common circuit substrate structure and a firmware structure. CONSTITUTION:A printer is equipped with a control part 2 for controlling a printing part 1 in accordance with print code entered and prints a print pattern. This control part is equipped with an interface 8 which can be connected to an additional Chinese character generator for conversion of Chinese character code to a Chinese character pattern. It is interpreted whether the Chinese character generator 7 is actually connected through the interface 8. If the Chinese character generator 7 is connected, an internal command for processing entered Chinese character code becomes valid. On the other hand, if the Chinese character generator 7 is not connected, said command remains invalid.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer used as an output terminal for a personal computer, and more particularly to a printer having a control system capable of printing a corresponding kanji pattern according to a kanji code input from a personal computer.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art Printers have conventionally been used as output terminals for various information devices, measuring devices, medical devices, and the like. In general, there are two types of printers: a kanji compatible type that can print kanji characters and a non-kanji compatible type that cannot print kanji characters. These two types of printers had different circuit board configurations and separate firmware or software built into the printer. Kanji-compatible printers have a built-in Kanji character generator that converts Kanji codes into Kanji patterns. Therefore, the presence or absence of a Kanji character generator is not normally checked. Commands for processing Kanji codes are always enabled. On the other hand, non-kanji compatible printers do not have a built-in kanji character generator. Therefore, the presence or absence of a Kanji character generator is not checked, and commands related to Kanji are always invalid.

Furthermore, commercially available printers include those that support Japanese and those that support English. Conventionally, these two types of printers have had different circuit board configurations and have been controlled according to separate firmware. Japanese-compatible printers naturally have a Kanji character generator added, and do not check whether the Kanji character generator is present or not. Commands related to Kanji are always valid. And it only has a command system compatible with Japanese. On the other hand, English-compatible printers naturally do not have a Kanji character generator. Therefore, the presence or absence of a Kanji character generator is not checked. Instead of having commands related to kanji, it only has a command system for English. Here, if we compare the command system for Japanese and the command system for English, most parts of both are made up of common commands. However, although some commands are the same, there are some that command different actions. For example, in an English-compatible command system, the same commands related to kanji characters in a Japanese-compatible command system may be used as commands to perform different operations.

0004

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] Conventionally, although the circuit board configurations and firmware of kanji-compatible and non-kanji-compatible printers are extremely similar,
We had no choice but to prepare different versions depending on whether or not there were commands related to kanji. In other words, there was no compatibility in circuit boards and firmware between Kanji-compatible printers and non-Kanji-compatible printers. This point also applies to Japanese-compatible printers and English-compatible printers.

[0005] Generally, a one-chip CPU for control is incorporated inside a printer. If Kanji printing is required depending on the purpose of use of the printer, a Kanji character generator consisting of a ROM chip is added. If Kanji printing is not required, a Kanji character generator may not be incorporated in order to reduce the manufacturing cost of the printer. Therefore, if the validity of commands related to kanji is fixed without checking whether a kanji character generator is installed in each printer as in the past, then the There is a problem in that a one-chip CPU with firmware must be prepared. If the validity of commands related to kanji is fixed, if a kanji character generator is not added to a valid command by mistake, an undefined pattern will be printed because the input of kanji code cannot be handled. On the other hand, even if a Kanji character generator is added to a character that has been fixed as invalid in advance, it will naturally not be possible to respond to Kanji code input.

[0006] As mentioned above, in the past, the content of processing was actually very different between printers that supported kanji and those that did not support kanji, and between printers that supported Japanese and those that supported English. Although they were the same, separate circuit boards and firmware had to be prepared. For this reason, there were problems in that it required a lot of development time, manufacturing was inefficient, and a large amount of inventory had to be prepared.

[0007]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In view of the above-mentioned problems of the conventional technology, the present invention provides a method for connecting a printer that supports kanji and a printer that does not support kanji, or between a printer that supports Japanese and a printer that supports English. The purpose is to standardize the circuit board configuration and firmware between the two. For this reason, the printer according to the present invention generally requires a control unit (for example, one-chip C
PU) and prints a print pattern. Its characteristic part is that the control unit has an interface that can be connected to an additional Kanji character generator for converting Kanji codes into Kanji patterns, and whether or not the Kanji character generator is actually connected via the interface. and, if a Kanji character generator is connected, means for validating an internal command for processing the input Kanji code.

According to one aspect of the present invention, the control unit includes a Japanese-compatible command system and an English-compatible command system in one firmware, and when it is determined that a Kanji character generator is connected, , the Japanese-compatible command system is selected.

[0009]

[Operation] As described above, according to the present invention, the control unit consisting of a one-chip CPU is equipped with an interface for connecting to a kanji character generator, and is also equipped with firmware that includes commands to support kanji input. It is. In each printer to which a Kanji character generator is actually connected, this command is enabled and it becomes possible to respond to Kanji input. On the other hand, this command is invalid for individual printers to which a Kanji character generator is not connected. Therefore, the same firmware itself can be incorporated into the one-chip CPU regardless of whether or not a Kanji character generator is connected. The same applies to circuit boards.

0010

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing the basic circuit configuration of a printer according to the present invention. As shown in the figure, the printer has a printing section 1 and a control section 2 composed of a one-chip CPU and the like. A printer having such a configuration is connected to, for example, a personal computer 3 and used as an output terminal for data and the like. The printing section 1 can be constructed from, for example, a line thermal head, but is of course not limited to this. The line thermal head has a register 4 for storing print pattern data supplied from the CPU, and a heating element array 5 for printing the print pattern line by line. A buffer/driver 6 is connected between the register 4 and the heat generating element array 5, and drives the heat generating element array 5 according to the stored print pattern data.

The control section 2 controls and drives the printing section 1 according to a printing code inputted from a personal computer 3 or the like. The control section 2 includes an interface 8 connectable to an external Kanji character generator 7 or Kanji C/G. The kanji character generator 7 is used to convert kanji codes among printing codes into corresponding kanji patterns. This interface 8 has addressing terminals A0 to An. This address designation terminal is partially connected to address decoder 9.
are connected to the address input terminals A0 to Am of the kanji character generator 7 via. The interface 8 further has data receiving terminals D0 to D7 consisting of 8 bits. These data acceptance terminals are the corresponding data output terminals Q0 of the Kanji character generator 7.
It is possible to connect to Q7. Note that when the Kanji character generator 7 is not connected, these data receiving terminals D0 to D7 are pulled up to a potential of +5V, for example. Kanji character generator 7 is RO
It consists of an M chip, and when it receives an address designation corresponding to a specific Kanji code via the interface 8, it transfers the corresponding Kanji pattern data to the data receiving terminals D0 to D7 of the interface 8. Data transfer is executed when the signal CE output from the address decoder 9 becomes high level. This kanji character generator 7
is selectively added as appropriate depending on the purpose of use of each printer. The control unit 2 further includes means for determining whether the Kanji character generator 7 is actually connected via the interface 8, and for processing the input Kanji code if the Kanji character generator 7 is connected. and means for enabling internal commands of the . The control unit 2 consists of a one-chip CPU incorporating general-purpose firmware. This firmware includes commands related to kanji in advance. The command is enabled only when the Kanji character generator 7 is connected to the one-chip CPU.

According to one aspect of the present invention, the control unit 2 has a Japanese-compatible command system and an English-compatible command system. When the Kanji character generator 7 is connected, means for selecting a Japanese-compatible command system is provided. That is, regardless of whether the CPU is Japanese compatible or English compatible, general-purpose firmware is built into the one-chip CPU. If Japanese language support is required, a Kanji character generator is added and a Japanese language support command system included in the firmware is selected. On the other hand, if English support is required, the Kanji character generator 7 is not added and an English command system is selected.

Next, the operation of the printer shown in FIG. 1 will be explained in detail with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3. First, FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a procedure for determining whether or not a Kanji character generator is connected. This determination procedure is performed at the time of initial setting of each printer. First, in step S1, the kanji C/G presence/absence flag is cleared. This flag can use, for example, one bit of the RAM area of a one-chip CPU. In step S2, the calculation register Areg is set to 0. In step S3, the given index n is set to zero.

[0014] Next, in step S4, an attempt is made to convert the kanji code (2121H), which means a double-width space. Kanji character generators always have a built-in printing pattern that represents double-byte spaces. This full-width space pattern has, for example, a 24×24 font,
Consists of 72 bytes of data. Since it is a full-width space, all byte data is 0. Each byte data is called from the Kanji character generator by sequential addressing. In step S4, the byte data stored at the address obtained by adding the index n to the start address (KNJ) of the full-width space pattern data is called. The logical OR of this called byte data and the contents of the calculation register Areg is performed. If the Kanji character generator is actually connected, the called byte data is all 0. On the other hand, when the Kanji character generator 7 is not connected, the data receiving terminals D0 to D7 of the interface 8 are pulled up as described above, so the called byte data has the numerical value FFH. Next, in step S5, the index n is updated and incremented by one. Furthermore, in step S6, it is determined whether the index n has reached the numerical value 72 or not. If the index n is less than 72, processing of 72 bytes of data has not yet been completed, so the process jumps to step S4. On the other hand, when the index n becomes equal to the number 72, 72 constitutes a full-width space pattern.
Since processing of all bytes of data has been completed, proceed to step S.
Proceed to step 7. Here, it is determined whether the calculation register Areg is 0 or not. In fact, when the Kanji character generator is connected to the CPU, the data representing the double-byte space pattern is called, and all of these byte data are 0, so the calculation register Ar
The final content of eg is 0. Therefore, the process proceeds to step S8, and the Kanji character generator presence/absence flag is set. On the other hand, in step S7, the calculation register Areg
If it is determined that the content of is not 0, the process returns without setting the Kanji C/G presence/absence flag. The above-described procedure makes it possible to determine whether a Kanji character generator is actually connected at the time of initial setup of the printer.

Next, referring to FIG. 3, the printing operation of the printer shown in FIG. 1 will be briefly described. The flowchart shown in FIG. 3 shows the kanji command processing routine. After jumping to this kanji command processing routine, step S1
It is determined whether the kanji C/G presence/absence flag is set. If set, step S
Proceed to step 2 to execute kanji processing. That is, the address of the Kanji character generator is specified according to the input Kanji code, and the corresponding Kanji pattern data is read. The printing unit is driven according to the read kanji pattern data to actually print the kanji pattern. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S1 that the kanji C/G presence/absence flag is not set, the process returns without performing kanji processing. That is, even if a kanji code is input, no processing is performed, so there is no risk that an irregular pattern or the like will be printed.

Finally, with reference to FIG. 4, the operation of a printer in which a Japanese-compatible command system and an English-compatible command system are incorporated will be briefly explained. First, after receiving a command, it is determined in step S1 whether the kanji C/G presence/absence flag is set. If it has been set, the process advances to step S2 and a command processing routine corresponding to Japanese is executed. That is, since the Kanji character generator is actually connected, it is possible to execute processing for Japanese including Kanji. On the other hand, if it is determined that the flag is not set, the process proceeds to step S3, and an English-compatible command processing routine is executed.

[0017]

As described above, according to the present invention, a kanji character generator can be added to a printer depending on the user's purpose of use. On the other hand, if kanji character processing is not required, the kanji character generator may not be added in order to reduce costs. In addition, one-chip CP incorporating common firmware
It becomes possible to use U for both domestic use and overseas use (English version, etc.). In such cases, by adopting a control system that switches commands depending on the presence or absence of a kanji character generator, different specifications can be realized with the same chip CPU, resulting in shortened development time, cost benefits due to mass production, and reduced inventory. effect can be obtained.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing the basic electrical structure of a printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart used to explain a procedure for determining the presence or absence of a Kanji character generator in the printer shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining a kanji processing operation when a kanji character generator is connected to the printer shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining a processing procedure when the printer shown in FIG. 1 has a Japanese-compatible command system and an English-compatible command system.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Printing section 2 Control section 3 Personal computer 7 Kanji character generator 8 Interface

Claims (2)

[Claims] Claim 1: A printer that prints a print pattern and includes a control section for driving a printing section according to an input printing code, wherein the control section includes an additional kanji character generator for converting a kanji code into a kanji pattern. an interface connectable to a kanji character generator, a means for determining whether a kanji character generator is actually connected via the interface, and a means for processing input kanji codes if a kanji character generator is connected. A printer characterized in that it has means for enabling internal commands. [Claim 2] The control unit has a Japanese-compatible command system and an English-compatible command system, and includes means for selecting the Japanese-compatible command system when a Kanji character generator is connected. 2. The printer according to claim 1, further comprising a printer.