JPH0461784B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a printer control method for detecting various errors that occur in a printer and controlling the operation of the printer, and in particular, a printer control method formed in a control section of the printer, The present invention relates to a printer control method for controlling printer operations by detecting various errors related to print image information sent to a print unit of a printer.

[Prior art]

As one of the output devices of the computer, alphabetic characters,
Numbers, kanji, figures, etc. (hereinafter simply referred to as characters)
A laser printer is a device that prints a large amount of information at high speed. A laser printer is an output device that writes print image information corresponding to printed characters sent from a control device onto a photoconductor using a laser beam, and obtains a printed image using an electrophotographic method. High-speed printing is possible.

The control device converts the input character information into print image information using the font image information stored in the font memory of the control device and outputs it to the laser printer, and also monitors the status (state) occurring in the laser printer. and perform appropriate operation control. The status of such a laser printer includes a registration error where a printed image is not formed at a predetermined position on the paper, a feed error where there is an abnormality in the running of the paper, a paper jam where the paper is jammed, a paper end where the paper runs out, etc. Error status Mechanical systems such as timing errors that cause the rotation of the photoconductor drum on which the photoconductor that writes image information to go out of sync, scanner errors that cause out of sync when writing image information, laser power errors that cause the laser power to drop, etc. There is an error status of

For each of the above-mentioned error statuses, the control device performs recovery processing for recoverable error statuses, stops the operation of the laser printer for unrecoverable error statuses, and notifies the operator of the occurrence of the error status. That's what I was doing.

By the way, printers have errors related to print image information in addition to the above-mentioned errors related to paper running.

For example, if the print image information to be created is complex or a wide variety of image information exists, the creation of the print image information performed by the control device may not be able to keep up with the printing speed of a laser printer that prints at a certain high speed. be. In this case, a print image information creation error occurs in which part of the printed paper is blank.Also, when character information is input from an external device,
Font image information for converting this character information into print image information may not exist in the storage section of the control section. In this case, a font error occurs in which the character information cannot be converted into print image information.

Additionally, if the number of sheets of paper actually ejected from the print section is greater than the number of pages of print image information sent from the control section to the print section, in this case, blank pages may be included in the paper ejected from the print section. A print image information sending error occurs.

However, conventional printers do not detect any errors related to print image information such as print image information creation errors, font errors, print image information sending errors, etc. There was no notification processing for the operator at all.

[Purpose of the invention]

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a printer control method that can appropriately deal with such errors related to print image information.

[Structure of the invention]

In order to achieve the above object, a first aspect of the present invention has a storage means for storing font image information corresponding to character information, and stores the font image information in the storage means corresponding to the character information input from an external device. A method for controlling a printer comprising: a control unit that creates print image information using the font image information created by the storage unit; and a print unit that prints the print image information created by the storage unit on paper; Searching the font image information stored in the storage means in response to input character information, creating print image information in the control section using the retrieved font image information, and creating print image information in the control section. The print image information for one page of the paper is sent from the control unit to the print unit within a predetermined time set corresponding to the printing speed of the print unit. If the sending is not completed, it is detected as a print image information creation error.

Further, a second invention of the present invention has a storage means for storing font image information corresponding to character information, and the font image stored in the storage means corresponds to the character information input from an external device. In a method for controlling a printer, the printer includes a control unit that creates print image information using information, and a print unit that prints the print image information created by the control unit on paper, wherein character information input from the external device is provided. The font image information stored in the storage means is searched in response to the search, and if the font image information corresponding to the character information input from the external device is not stored in the storage means, a font error occurs. It is characterized by detecting as follows.

Further, a third aspect of the present invention is a storage means for storing font image information corresponding to character information, and the font image stored in the storage means in correspondence with character information input from an external device. In a method for controlling a printer, the printer includes a control unit that creates print image information using information, and a print unit that prints the print image information created by the control unit on paper, wherein character information input from the external device is provided. searching the font image information stored in the storage means in response to the above, and creating print image information in the control unit using the searched font image information;
The print image information created by the control unit is transmitted to the print unit, information indicating the end of each page of the print image information created by the control unit is counted, and the number of sheets of paper discharged from the printer unit is counted. If the count value of the information indicating the end of each page does not match the count value of the number of sheets ejected in the printer section, it is detected as a print image information sending error.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a laser printer 100 to which the printer control method according to the present invention is applied, and this printer 10.
2 is a block configuration diagram of a control device 200 that detects a zero error and controls the printer 100. FIG.

When character information output from an output device (not shown) is input via the interface 201 and stored in the memory 202, the central processing unit (hereinafter referred to as
(abbreviated as CPU) 203 is the control device 20
0, the font image information corresponding to the input character information is transferred to the memory 202 via the interface 201, and font information including print information and font image information is created. . This font image information is a dot matrix pattern of m rows and n columns determined corresponding to character information, and is composed of a binary code that takes either "1" or "0". FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing print information created in the memory 202. This printing information indicates, for each piece of character information, the font name that is the name of the character information, the print position on the paper where the character information is to be printed, and the position on the memory 202 where the font image information corresponding to the font name is stored. Furthermore, page delimiter information is added to the end of each print information for one page of paper to be printed, and image end information is added to the end of all print information (Figure 2 a).
reference). For example, “L”, “A”, “S”, “E”, “R”
”
When character information corresponding to
”,
Print position is lo1 to lo5, font address is AL,
AA, AS, AE, AR (see Figure 2b). In creating this print information, when there is no font image information corresponding to character information, that is, when a font error is detected, the CPU 203 displays the font error on the console display 301. Further, FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing font information created in the memory 202. This font information is composed of a font name, an image length indicating the length of font image information corresponding to the font name, and font image information for each character information (see FIG. 3a). For example, “L”,
When the print information corresponding to “A”, “S”, “E”, and “R” is created (see Figure 2 b), the font information will be created with the font name “L”, “A”, “S”. , “E”, “R”
,
The image length is the product of the number of dots m in the row and the number n of dots in the column, and the font image information becomes a dot matrix pattern corresponding to the character information (Fig. 3b).
reference). The font image information is expressed in units of bit strings L1, L2, Lm, A1, . . . for each row for the sake of explanation.

The control device 200 monitors the status of the laser printer 100, controls the operation of the laser printer 100, expands the font image information in the memory 202 into line memories LM1 to LMm, and sends the laser printer 100 as print image information. do.

That is, the font image information on the memory 202 is first accessed sequentially by referring to the print information, and then the bit strings of each row of each font image information are accessed from the corresponding line memories LM1 to LM1.
The information is sequentially transferred to LMm to become print image information, and further sent to the laser printer 100 for each line memory LM1 to LMm. for example,
When font image information corresponding to “L”, “A”, “S”, “E”, and “R” is stored in the memory 202, as shown in FIG.
The bit string L1, A1, ..., R1 is stored in the line memory.
Bit strings L2, A2, . . . , R2 are transferred to LM2, and bit strings Lm, Am, . . . , Rm are transferred to line memory LMm.

Furthermore, the control device 200 displays the error status that has occurred in the laser printer 100 on the console display 301 as necessary, and provides instructions to the operator.

The print image information sent from the control device 200 is sent from the line memories LM1 to LMm to the interface 201 and the interface 1.
When the information is input to the buffer memory 102 via the print image information 01, the print unit 103 forms a print image based on the print image information under the control of the control device 200.

Specifically, the printing unit 103 is as shown in the perspective view shown in FIG. 5, and when the photosensitive drum 104 rotates under the operation control of the control device 200,
A charger 105 applies a charge to the surface of the photoconductor drum 104 on which a photoconductor is adhered, and then laser light 107 sent out from a laser light source 106 is transmitted from the control device 200 by a light modulator 108. The light is modulated by the output image information, and then enters the photoreceptor drum 104 via the rotating polygon mirror 109 and the F-θ lens 110.
Rotation of 09 in F1 direction and photosensitive drum 104
As a result of the rotation in the F2 direction, an electrostatic latent image corresponding to image information is formed on the surface of the photoreceptor drum 104. Then, this electrostatic latent image is visualized by a developing device 111, and the resulting toner image is transferred by a transfer device 112 onto a sheet 113 which has been charged in advance and is fed in the F3 direction. After that,
The residual toner on the surface of the photosensitive drum 104 is removed by a cleaning device 114, and the toner image transferred to the paper 113 is fixed by a fixing device 115, and the paper 113 is ejected from the laser printer 100. This is detected every time, and the control device 200
notifies you of paper detection. The control device 200 adds 1 to the ejection counter each time the ejection of the paper 113 is notified.
The number of ejected sheets of paper 113, that is, the number of recorded sheets is counted.

The laser printer 100 has a recording density of 12 pixels/mm, a scanning line density of 12 lines/mm, and a maximum print width of 364, which corresponds to the Japanese Industrial Standard (JIS) B column No. 4 size.
mm, the effective scanning rate of the laser beam, that is, the ratio of the maximum printing width to the effective scanning length, is 0.7, the paper feeding speed, that is, the sub-scanning speed, is 50 mm/sec, and the printing scanning frequency is 12 x 12 x 364 x 50/0,7. = 3.744MHz.
Also, the laser beam 1 sent out from the laser light source 106
07 contains helium ion, helium cadmium, argon,
An appropriate laser is selected from a gas laser such as an ion laser or a semiconductor laser. In addition, the photoreceptor drum 1
As the photoconductor to be deposited on 04, selenium, cadmium sulfide, or an organic photoconductive material is used.

Furthermore, the determination unit 116 determines whether the laser printer 100
the required number of sensors 117 provided at predetermined positions within the
Based on the detection result, the status of the printer 100 is determined, and this is communicated to the control device 200 to cause the control device 200 to detect the status of the printer 100. The status determined by the determination unit 116 includes select/day select indicating whether or not the laser printer 100 is capable of printing, as well as registration error, feed error, paper jam, paper end, timing error, There are error statuses such as scanner error and laser power error.

Next, the detection of the status detected by the laser printer 100 and performed by the control device 200 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

The CPU 203 constantly monitors the status transmitted from the laser printer 100, and when a status other than the select/day select is transmitted (step 501), the CPU 203 discharges the paper 113 from the laser printer 100 depending on the type of status. If the paper 113 is to be ejected, 1 is added to the ejection counter that counts the number of ejected sheets of paper 113, and the laser printer 100 is commanded to eject the paper 113 (step 503). . Furthermore, the laser printer 100
When it is determined that the status is an error status that requires recovery processing (step 504), recovery processing is performed (step 600).
As shown in the flowchart shown in FIG. 7, this recovery process depends on the type of status, and when operator intervention is required, a message to that effect is displayed on the console display 301 (step 601). After the recovery process is completed (step 602), the process immediately returns to the process of monitoring the status of the laser printer 100 (see FIG. 5).

Next, regarding error status detection regarding image information detected on the control device 200 side, the eighth section
This will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in the figure.

(1) Steps 701 to 703 When the CPU 203 finishes creating the font information (see FIGS. 2 and 3) on the memory 202 (step 701), the CPU 203 stores the font information by 1 each time it detects the ejection counter and page delimiter information. The delimiter counter to be added is cleared to zero (step 702), and a print start command is sent to the laser printer 100 (step 703).

(2) Steps 704 to 706 The laser printer 100 that has received the printing start command starts operation, and when the paper 113 reaches a predetermined position near the transfer device 112, a page synchronization signal is sent to the control device 2.
Send to 00. When the CPU 203 detects the input of the page synchronization signal (step 704), it starts the built-in timer to start measuring time (step 704).
705), the image information in the font information stored in the memory 202 is sent to the laser printer 100 via the line memories LM1 to LMm (step 706).

(3) Step 707 After a certain period of time has elapsed, that is, after the required time determined by the printing speed of the laser printer 100 and the size of the paper 113, the CPU 203
It is determined whether or not page delimiter information has been detected. If page delimiter information is detected, the process proceeds to step 708; if not, the process proceeds to step 610.

(4) Steps 708 to 709 Add 1 to the delimiter counter (Step 708),
Furthermore, it is determined whether image end information has been detected (step 709). If the image end information is not detected, the process advances to step 703, and steps 703 to 708 are repeatedly executed until the image end information is detected. Further, when image end information is detected, the process advances to step 710.

(5) Step 710 The value of the delimiter counter is compared with the value of the above-mentioned discharge counter. If the comparison results match, the error status detection process ends; if they do not match, the process advances to step 620.

(6) Step 610 The CPU 203 is the console display 301
In step 701, it is displayed that a white spot has occurred on the paper 113, that is, a white paper has occurred.
move on.

(7) Step 620 The CPU 203 is the console display 301
Paper 11 ejected from the laser printer 100 in
3 includes a blank page, and after sending all the image information, print information and font information are re-created and the laser printer 1 is sent again.
Send image information to 00.

Note that in this embodiment, the laser printer 100
Error status determination and control device 20
Detection of the error status at 0 is performed at the same time.

Further, although the printer of this embodiment is a laser printer, the present invention is not limited to this, and status detection can be applied to printers using other methods as long as a status related to image information is generated.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, it is possible to reliably detect errors related to print image information such as print image information creation errors, font errors, print image information sending errors, etc. Since appropriate recovery processing for errors can be executed, the reliability of the printer can be significantly improved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a laser printer and its control device to which the printer control method according to the present invention is applied, and Figs. 2 and 3 show print information created in the memory of the control device shown in Fig. 1. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of image information stored in the line memory, FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the printing section of the laser printer shown in FIG. 1, and FIGS. 6 to 8 are 2 is a flowchart of a process for detecting an error status of the laser printer shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 100... Laser printer, 101, 201...
...Interface, 102...Buffer memory, 103...Print section, 104...Photosensitive drum, 105...Charger, 106...Laser light source, 107...Laser light, 108...Light modulator,
109...Rotating polygon mirror, 110...F-θ lens, 111...Developer, 112...Transfer device, 11
3... Paper, 114... Cleaner, 115... Fixing device, 116... Judgment unit, 117... Sensor, 20
0...control device, 202...memory, 203...
Central processing unit (CPU), 300...magnetic disk, 301...console display.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A storage device that stores font image information corresponding to character information, and uses the font image information stored in the storage device in correspondence with character information input from an external device. In a method for controlling a printer, the printer includes a control unit that creates print image information, and a print unit that prints the print image information created by the control unit on paper, the method comprising: searching the font image information stored in the storage means, creating print image information in the control section using the retrieved font image information, and transmitting the print image information created in the control section to the printing section. and if transmission of the print image information for one page of the paper from the control unit to the printer unit is not completed within a predetermined time set corresponding to the printing speed of the print unit, the print image information is transmitted. A printer control method characterized by detecting a creation error. 2. It has a storage means for storing font image information corresponding to character information, and creates print image information using the font image information stored in the storage means corresponding to character information input from an external device. In a method for controlling a printer comprising a control unit and a print unit that prints print image information created by the control unit on paper, text information is stored in the storage unit in correspondence with character information input from the external device. the font image information input from the external device; and if the font image information corresponding to the character information input from the external device is not stored in the storage means, it is detected as a font error. Control method. 3. It has a storage means for storing font image information corresponding to character information, and creates print image information using the font image information stored in the storage means corresponding to character information input from an external device. In a method for controlling a printer comprising a control unit and a print unit that prints print image information created by the control unit on paper, text information is stored in the storage unit in correspondence with character information input from the external device. searching the searched font image information; creating the control unit print image information using the searched font image information; transmitting the print image information created by the control unit to the print unit; Count information indicating the end of each page of the created print image information, count the number of sheets of paper ejected in the printer section, and calculate the counted value of the information indicating the end of each page and the counted value of the number of sheets of paper ejected in the printer section. A method for controlling a printer, characterized in that if the numbers do not match, it is detected as a print image information transmission error.