JPH05221099A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a printer which performs printing in accordance with print data from a computer, with the function to detect the low stock level of sheets in a sheet storage device and shows it on the display of the computer. CONSTITUTION:The subject printer is equipped with a remaining sheet quantity detection device 15 which detects the stock level of sheets remaining unused below a specified consumption level in a sheet storage device. This device 15 enters the detected output into CPU 13 through I/O 14, and causes CPU 13 to a low stock level of remaining sheets on a display of the computer system 17 of a host computer system through I/O 14 and I/F 16. Thus it is possible to prevent the printer from becoming unusable during its printing operation due to the depletion of the sheet in the sheet storage device, and thereby realize an efficient use of the printer.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention visualizes an electrostatic latent image on a photoconductor formed by a charging device and an optical device by a toner in a developing device according to print data of a computer of a host system to obtain a visible toner image. The present invention relates to a printer that performs printing by transferring and fixing paper to a sheet conveyed from a sheet storage device, and particularly relates to optimization of sheets stored in the sheet storage device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram of a printer to which the present invention is applied. In the figure, 1 is a printer main body, and an optical device 2 has its surface uniformly charged by a charging device 3. The photoconductor 4 is irradiated with light according to the print data from the computer to form an electrostatic latent image on the photoconductor 4. The electrostatic latent image formed on the photoconductor 4 is converted into a toner image by the developing device 5, and the toner image is transferred to the paper P conveyed by the paper storage device 7 by the transfer device 6. The toner image transferred onto the paper is fixed on the paper by the fixing device 11, printing is performed according to the print data from the computer, and the printed paper P is discharged to the paper discharge tray 12.

The sheet P from the sheet storage device 7 is fed to the developing device 5 by a pickup roller 8, a paper feed roller 9 and a separation roller 10.

The conventional printer described above also includes a device for detecting the presence / absence of paper in the paper storage device 7. When it detects that there is no paper in the paper storage device, the printer stops the printing operation and stores the paper. The fact that there is no paper in the device has been displayed on the display of the computer of the host system connected to the printer.

[0005]

However, in the above-described conventional configuration, for example, if the printer runs out of paper in the paper storage device according to print data for a plurality of pages from the computer, the printer will not operate. The next page and subsequent pages are not printed until the paper is replenished in the paper storage device.

In this case, when only one computer is connected to one printer, no inconvenience due to the above situation occurs, but in a network environment, a plurality of computers are connected to one printer. In this case, a print command from another computer is not accepted, that is, the printer cannot be used for a period of time after the sheets in the sheet storage device are used up until the sheets are replenished.

An object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned inconvenience and improve the usage efficiency of the printer.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is provided with a remaining paper amount detecting device for detecting that the remaining amount of paper contained in a paper accommodation device is below a certain amount. It is characterized by displaying that the remaining amount of paper is low on the display of the computer of the host system by the detection output of.

Then, the number of sheets that can be stored in the above-mentioned sheet storage device is set to the number of remaining sheets which is detected by the sheet remaining amount detecting device which detects that the remaining amount of sheets is below a certain value. Or more.

[0010]

According to the present invention, the user can confirm on the display of the computer that the remaining amount of paper in the paper storage device of the printer is low. For example, while the user is working on the computer, when the user recognizes on the display that the remaining amount of paper in the paper storage device of the printer is low, the paper is immediately replenished, so that the paper in the paper storage device always retains the paper remaining amount of the present invention. There is more than the remaining amount detected by the amount detection device.

That is, in the paper storage device having the paper remaining amount detecting device of the present invention, the printer does not stop during the printing operation due to the exhaustion of the remaining paper.

Further, when a plurality of computers are connected to one printer in a network environment, there is no printer stop time from when there is no more paper in the paper storage device until paper is replenished. Can improve the usage efficiency of the printer. Also, by setting the number of sheets that can be stored in the sheet storage device to be equal to or greater than the number of remaining sheets detected by the remaining sheet amount detection device plus the number of unit packaging sheets, the user can display the number of sheets in the sheet storage device on the computer display. When recognizing that the number of sheets of paper has decreased, the packed paper can be completely replenished in the paper storage device, so that a place for storing the remaining unopened paper becomes unnecessary.

[0013]

1 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 13
Is a central processing unit (hereinafter CPU) that controls the entire system.
A paper remaining amount detecting device 15 is connected to an input port PIA of the CPU 13 via an input control unit (hereinafter abbreviated as I / O) 14, and C
The output port PIB of the PU 13 is connected to a system 17 in the computer via an I / O 14 and an interface 16 (hereinafter abbreviated as I / F).

Reference numeral 18 denotes a storage device (hereinafter abbreviated as ROM) in which a program for operating the CPU is built.

2 and 3 show the configuration diagram and the operation state diagram of the remaining paper amount detecting device 15 shown in FIG. 1. In both of the drawings, the paper storage device 7 has a support shaft 7A as a fulcrum. A rotatable (AA 'arrow) sheet push-up plate 7B is supported, and a light-shielding member 7C for the photosensor 19 is fixed to the sheet feed side of the sheet push-up plate 7B (opposite to the support shaft 7A). The paper remaining amount detection output of the photo sensor 19 is output to the CPU 13 via the I / O 14 of FIG.

The operation of the printer configured as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3.

The sheet storage device 7 picks up the sheet P stored and placed by a motor (not shown).
The sheets are conveyed by the mutual frictional force. As shown in FIG. 2, when there is a sufficient amount of paper in the paper storage device 7, the light blocking member 7C fixed to the paper push-up plate 7B blocks light from the photo sensor 19 fixed to the printer body or the paper storage device 7. I / O14 without
Logic level “0” via CPU 13 input port PI
Enter in A. Next, as shown in FIG. 3, when the remaining amount of paper in the paper storage device 7 is below a certain amount, the light shielding member 7C shields the photosensor 19 from light and the logic level "1" is output via the I / O 14. Is input to the input port PIA of the CPU 13.

According to the program stored in the ROM 18, the CPU 13 inputs a logic level "0" to the input port PIA of the CPU 13 and a logic level "1" to the output port PIB. The logic level "1" is output to each output port PIB. And CP
When the logic level "1" is output to the output port PIB of U13, the logic level "1" is input to the input port of the CPU (not shown) of the system 17 in the computer via the I / O14 and I / F16. By the processing of the system 17 in the computer, the fact that the remaining amount of paper in the paper storage device 7 of the printer is small is displayed on the display of the computer (not shown).

The details will be described below with reference to FIG. In FIG.
F1 of step S1 is a flag in the printer showing whether the amount of remaining paper in the paper storage device 7 is sufficient or the amount of remaining paper is below a certain amount. Is set to "0", and if the remaining amount of paper is below a certain amount, "1" is set. F2 in step S2
Is a flag in the computer indicating whether the amount of remaining paper in the paper storage device 7 is sufficient or the amount of remaining paper is less than a certain amount, and is “0” when the amount of paper is sufficient. If the remaining amount of paper is below a certain amount, "1" is set.

When the CPU 13 is initially reset, the program is executed from the start. When starting from the start, when F1 is set to "0" in step S1 and F2 is set to "0" in step S2, the program sequentially executes steps S3 → S1 → S2 forming a loop. That is, the normal printing sequence is controlled in step S3. At this time, nothing is displayed on the computer display.

When F2 is set to "1" in step S2, the process proceeds to step S5, and when F2 is set to "0", the process proceeds to step S3 to control the normal print sequence as described above. At this time, nothing is displayed on the computer display. When the remaining amount of paper in the paper storage device 7 falls below a certain amount and F1 is set to "1" in step S1, the process proceeds to step S4 and F2 is set to "1". Then, the process proceeds to step S3 to control the normal printing sequence.
At this time, the fact that the remaining amount of paper in the paper storage device 7 of the printer is small is displayed on the display of the computer.

As described above, the printer according to the present invention is provided with the remaining paper amount detecting device for detecting that the remaining amount of paper in the paper storage device of the printer is small. When it detects that the remaining amount of paper is low, it displays it on the computer display so that the user can easily confirm on the computer display that the remaining amount of paper in the printer's paper storage device is low, and the printer is printing. In addition, it is possible to prevent the printer from becoming unusable due to running out of paper in the paper storage device of the printer, so that the printer can be used efficiently.

[0023]

As described above, according to the printer of the present invention, the user can easily confirm on the display of the computer that the remaining amount of the paper in the paper storage device of the printer is small, especially in a network environment. When more than one computer is connected to one printer, it is possible to prevent the printer from becoming unusable due to running out of paper in the printer's paper storage device during printing by the printer. Can be used.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2A and 2B are a diagram and an operation state diagram of a remaining paper amount detection device incorporated in a printer according to the present invention.

3A and 3B are a diagram and an operation state diagram of a remaining paper amount detection device incorporated in a printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a remaining paper amount detection program of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram of a printer in which the present invention is implemented.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Printer main body, 2 ... Optical device, 3 ... Charging device,
4 ... Photoconductor, 5 ... Developing device, 6 ... Transfer device, 7
... Paper storage device, 7A ... Spindle, 7B ... Paper push-up plate, 7C ... Light blocking member, 8 ... Pickup roller,
9 ... Paper feeding roller, 10 ... Separation roller, 11 ... Fixing device,
12 ... Paper ejection tray, 13 ... Central processing unit (CPU), 14 ...
Input / output control section (I / O), 15 ... Paper remaining amount detecting device, 16 ... Interface (I / F), 17 ... Computer system, 18 ... Storage device, 19 ... Photo sensor.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A paper remaining amount detection device for detecting that the remaining amount of paper stored in the paper storage device is below a certain amount, and a detection output of the paper remaining amount detection device enables the host system A printer characterized by displaying that the remaining amount of paper is low on the display of a computer. 2. The number of sheets that can be stored in the sheet storage device is
2. The number of remaining sheets detected by a remaining sheet amount detecting device for detecting that the remaining amount of sheets is below a certain value is equal to or more than the number of unit packing sheets.
The listed printer.