JPH05229236A - Paper delivery controlling system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To contrive to enhance the reliability of a printing equipment by a method wherein the completion of paper delivery is confirmed and, at the same time, the occurrence of abnormality at the confirmation is re-detected, when the error does not affect the paper under printing at the occurrence of the abnormality of the printing equipment, and the error is detected immediately when the error is one giving influence to the paper under printing. CONSTITUTION:In the paper delivery controlling system for detecting the error of a printing equipment 5 during its printing of paper, an error table 14, which sets the absence and presence of the confirmation of paper delivery, is provided in response to the error content of the printing equipment 5. And, the system concerned is so constituted that, at the occurrence of abnormality under printing in the printing equipment 5, when the abnormality is judged so as to give no influence to the paper under printing in reference with the error table 14, the paper delivery is confirmed and, at the same time, the state of the occurrence of the abnormality is re-detected and, on the other hand, when the abnormality is judged so as to give influence to the paper under printing, the error is detected.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a paper ejection control system for detecting an error in a printing device during printing of paper.

When an error occurs during printing in a printing apparatus, if the error does not affect the sheet currently being printed, the printing is continued until the sheet is normally printed and ejected. It is desired to improve reliability.

[0003]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when a printing apparatus recognizes a state in which printing cannot be continued during printing, an error is detected by recognizing the printing state of the printing apparatus, and an error is displayed on a display. The operation of the conventional configuration will be briefly described below with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 5, S21 gives an instruction to print. In this case, the host gives a printing instruction to the printing apparatus. S2
2 determines whether an abnormality has occurred. If YES, S23
Proceed to. If NO, the process ends.

In S23, since the abnormality has occurred, the printing state of the printing apparatus is recognized. For example, it will be described later that the paper cassette of the printing apparatus of FIG. S24 detects an error. In response to the abnormality detection in S23, this abnormality is immediately detected as an error and an error is displayed on the display.

[0006] As described above, conventionally, when an abnormality such as no paper occurs in the printing apparatus, the abnormality is detected as it is and displayed on the display to end the series of abnormality detection.

[0007]

As described above, conventionally, when the printing apparatus recognizes the print continuation impossible state during printing (for example, when the paper cassette is removed as shown in FIG. 6B), printing is performed. Since an error was detected regardless of whether or not the paper being printed is affected, an error that affects the paper being printed (for example, paper jam) occurs after an error that does not affect the paper being printed (for example, no paper) is detected. At that time, an error (paper jam) that affects the paper being printed cannot be detected, and it is unclear whether or not the paper is normally output.

The present invention solves these problems by
When an error that does not affect the paper being printed when an error occurs in the printing device, confirm that the paper has been ejected and re-detect the error occurrence at this point to recover the error that does not affect the paper being printed and Detects errors that affect you,
The purpose is to improve reliability.

[0009]

[Means for Solving the Problems] Means for solving the problems will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 1, the print control unit 13 controls the printing of the printing device 5.

The error table 14 is a table in which the presence / absence of paper discharge confirmation is preset in association with the error content of the printer 5. The printing device 5 prints on paper.

[0011]

According to the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, when an abnormality occurs during printing in the printer 5, it is confirmed that the sheet is ejected when it is determined that the abnormality does not affect the sheet being printed. At the same time, it is detected whether an abnormal state has occurred, and on the other hand, an error is detected when it is determined that the sheet being printed is affected.

Further, an error table 14 is provided, and when an abnormality occurs during printing in the printer 5, the error table 14 is referred to and when it is determined that the abnormality does not affect the sheet being printed, While confirming the discharge, it is detected whether or not there is an abnormality, and when it is determined that the paper being printed is affected, an error is detected.

Further, when it is determined that the abnormality does not affect the sheet being printed, the sheet discharge is confirmed, and it is detected whether an abnormality has occurred. At this time, when the printing is completed, an error is not detected. ing.

Therefore, when an error that does not affect the sheet being printed when the abnormality of the printing device 5 occurs, the completion of sheet ejection is confirmed, and the abnormality occurring at this point is detected again to affect the sheet being printed. It is possible to recover an error that does not occur, and it is possible to detect an error that has an influence, and it is possible to improve the reliability of the printing apparatus.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, the construction and operation of an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.
In FIG. 1, the print control processor 1 controls printing, and includes a data input / output unit 11, a data expansion unit 12, a print control unit 13, a hardware control unit 15, and the like.

The data input / output unit 11 controls the input / output of data, and takes in print data from the memory 6 and notifies the MPU 8 when an error is detected.

The data development unit 12 develops print data (character data, image data, graphic data, etc.), and instructs the hardware control unit 15 and the drawing hardware 2 to form a dot pattern on the frame buffer 3. It will be deployed.

The print controller 13 controls printing, controls the printer controller (PRC) 4,
The dot pattern developed on the frame buffer 3 is printed by the printer 5. At this time, as shown in FIG. 2 to FIG. 4 to be described later, when an abnormality occurs during printing, it is determined by referring to the internal error table 14 whether the abnormality affects the sheet being printed, and the sheet is affected. If the error does not occur (for example, the paper runs out), check whether the paper is ejected, and detect whether the paper is in an abnormal state during this ejection. On the other hand, the error that affects the paper being printed (for example, paper jam) In case of, an error is detected.

The error table 14 is a table in which the presence / absence of paper discharge confirmation is preset in association with the error content of the printing device 5 (see FIG. 4). The drawing hardware 2 is hardware for drawing a designated figure, line, etc. on the frame buffer 3 at high speed.

The frame buffer 3 develops a dot pattern to be printed. The printer controller (PRC) 4 supplies the dot pattern extracted from the frame buffer 3 to the printing device 5 to control printing.

The printing device 5 prints the dot pattern developed in the frame buffer 3 on paper. The memory 6 stores print data (character data,
It stores image data, graphic data, etc.).

The display 7 displays various information. MPU8 is a microprocessor,
In order to control the whole as a whole, here, in response to the error detection notified from the print control processor 1,
The error is displayed on the display 7 (for example, a paper jam occurs).

Next, the operation of the configuration of FIG. 1 will be described in detail in the order shown in the flowchart of FIG. In FIG. 2, printing is instructed. This is, for example, the MP of FIG.
U8 stores print data in the memory 6 and instructs the print control processor 1 to print.

[0025] determines whether an abnormality has occurred. This is because the print control processor 1 which received the instruction expands the print data, writes the print data in the frame buffer 3, and causes the printing apparatus 5 to print the print data. Etc.) has occurred. Y
In the case of ES (when an abnormality occurs), proceed to. N
If O, then end.

As for YES, since an abnormality has occurred,
Recognize the printing status of the device. This recognizes the content of the abnormality that has occurred, for example, the printing state such as a paper break or paper jam.

[0027] determines whether the error affects the paper. This is to determine whether or not the abnormality recognized in step 1 is an error that affects the paper being printed by referring to the error table 14 in FIG. In the case of YES, it is determined that the error affects the sheet being printed, for example, it is determined that printing cannot be performed due to a paper jam. Therefore, the error is detected by MPU8.
To display an error on the display 7. On the other hand, in the case of NO, it is determined that the error does not affect the sheet being printed, for example, it is determined that the error is a run-out of the sheet and does not affect the sheet currently being printed.

[0028] determines whether the paper discharge is completed. this is,
In response to the fact that the error that does not affect the sheet being printed is found to be NO, the process waits until the sheet being printed is completely printed and discharged, and it is determined whether the sheet is discharged. Y
In the case of ES, it has been confirmed that the printed paper has been ejected, so the procedure advances to. In the case of NO, since the paper is being printed, the process returns to and is repeated.

As described above, when an error that affects the paper being printed occurs, it is checked until the paper is printed and completely ejected, and the error is eliminated during this time (for example, in response to a paper runout error, It is possible to prevent an error when a cassette containing paper is inserted and the error is resolved. After the paper is completely discharged, the confirmation will be performed again because it will be described later. On the other hand, when an error that affects the paper being printed occurs, for example, when a paper jam occurs, printing is no longer possible. Immediately, an error is detected and the MPU 8 is notified, and an error message is displayed on the display 7. To do.

Recognizes the printing state of the printing apparatus.
Determines whether an error has occurred. This is YES and it has been confirmed that the printed paper has been completely ejected. After this confirmation, it is again determined whether an error has occurred. In the case of YES, an error is detected and the MPU 8 is notified, and an error is displayed on the display 7. On the other hand, in the case of NO, when the error is eliminated, for example, the paper is run out when YES, and when the cassette containing the paper is mounted and the error is eliminated by YES, the process ends without error detection. At this time, even if a paper error is detected with YES, for example, Y
When printing is completed for all the print instructions received during ES, error detection is not performed even if the paper runout is not eliminated.

As described above, when an error occurs during printing, if this error does not affect the paper being printed, it is checked until the printed paper is ejected, and when the paper is ejected. Then, it is determined again whether an error has occurred. If all the print instructions have been completed at this time, no error is detected. If it is necessary to print the next sheet, an error is detected. On the other hand, if the error affects the paper being printed, the error is immediately detected and displayed on the display 7.
As a result, when an error occurs, the error is detected immediately if it affects the paper being printed.On the other hand, if the error does not affect the paper being printed, the printer waits until the printed paper is ejected. It is possible to improve the reliability of the printing apparatus by detecting an error only when it is inconvenient to perform the next printing after ejecting the paper.

FIG. 3 shows an example in which the printing cannot be continued according to the present invention. FIG. 3A shows that the paper is currently being printed. In this state, the paper cassette is attached to the printer (printing device 5), and the paper is already taken inside from this paper cassette and printing is in progress.

FIG. 3B shows a state in which an error (no paper) has occurred in response to the removal of the paper cassette during the printing of FIG. 3A. FIG. 3C shows a case in which the operation is performed while confirming the discharge of the sheet in a state where the sheet cassette is pulled out during printing and the sheet is empty in FIG. 3B. Where case1, case2, case
Since three cases of 3 may occur, they will be sequentially described below by dividing into cases.

Case 1: This is a case in which the paper cassette is removed during printing and the paper is empty, and the paper cassette remains ejected as shown in the figure after the paper discharge is completed, and it is detected that there is no paper. In this case, when all the prints that have received the print instruction are completed, the next print is not affected, and therefore no error is detected. However, if all the prints that have received the print instruction are not completed, the next print is affected, so an error is detected.

Case 2: This is because the paper cassette is removed during printing and the paper runs out, and a paper jam has occurred during confirmation of paper discharge, so printing is no longer possible, so an error is immediately detected (paper jam) is detected.

Case 3: This is a case in which the paper cassette is pulled out during printing and the paper is empty, and the paper cassette is returned to the original position as shown in the figure by the end of paper discharge, and no paper is detected. In this case, no error is detected.

As described above, when the paper cassette is removed during printing, the paper cassette is removed (paper out)
Is an event that does not affect the paper being printed, so continue printing and check the end of printing, but during this time, another event that affects the paper being printed (for example, a paper jam) occurred. At that time, printing cannot be performed anymore, so an error is immediately detected (case 2).

If the paper cassette is returned when printing is finished, no error is detected (case
3). -If the paper cassette is not returned at the end of printing and all printing is finished, no error is detected. However, if printing is not finished yet, the next printing needs to be performed, so an error is detected. ..

FIG. 4 shows an example of the error table of the present invention. Here, the error content indicates the error content that has occurred in the printer 5, and whether or not there is a paper ejection confirmation whether or not there is a paper ejection confirmation corresponding to the error content (0: no paper ejection confirmation, 1: paper ejection confirmation) Confirmed). For example, if the error content is a paper jam, the presence / absence of paper discharge confirmation is “0”. Therefore, the error is detected immediately without checking the paper.

When the error content is no paper, the presence / absence of paper ejection confirmation is "1". Therefore, the paper is confirmed and the above-described case1, case2, csae of FIG.
Perform any one of the processes of No. 3.

[0041]

As described above, according to the present invention,
When an error that does not affect the paper being printed when an error occurs in the printing device 5, confirms the completion of paper ejection and redetects the error occurrence at this point, or immediately detects an error that affects the paper being printed. By adopting such a configuration, it is possible to recover an error that does not affect the paper being printed, and immediately detect an error that affects the paper being printed to improve the reliability of the printing device. Can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an example of a state where printing cannot be continued during printing according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an example of an error table of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of conventional processing.

FIG. 6 is an example of a problem of conventional processing.

[Description of Codes] 1: Print control processor 11: Data input / output unit 12: Data expansion unit 13: Print control unit 14: Error table 15: Hardware control unit 2: Drawing hardware 3: Frame buffer 4: Printer controller 5: Printing device 6: Memory 7: Display 8: MPU

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. In a paper ejection control method for detecting an error in a printing device during printing of paper, when an error occurs during printing in the printing device, it has been found that this error does not affect the paper being printed. At the same time, check whether the paper is ejected and detect whether there is an abnormality,
A paper ejection control method characterized by being configured to detect an error when it is determined that the paper being printed is affected. 2. A paper ejection control method for detecting an error of a printing device during paper printing, comprising an error table (14) for presetting whether or not to confirm the paper ejection in association with the error content of the printing device. When an error occurs during printing, refer to the error table (14) above, and if it is determined that this error does not affect the paper being printed, check the paper ejection and check if the error occurs. A paper ejection control method, which is configured to detect an error and detect an error when it is found to affect the paper being printed. 3. When it is determined that the abnormality does not affect the sheet being printed, the ejection of the sheet is confirmed, and it is detected whether an abnormality has occurred. At this time, when printing is completed, no error is detected. 3. The paper discharge control method according to claim 1, wherein the paper discharge control method is configured as described in claim 1.