JPH06115179A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a printer which does not perform printing when transmitted data can not be correctly printed. CONSTITUTION:When an error is generated during development processing or printing processing of data, ON is set in an error flag and whether the error flag is ON or not in S110 is judged. Since the error flag is ON (S110: YES), an error message is displayed in LCD and a key input for indication of cancel is waited for (S160 and S170: NO). If the key input for indication of cancel is done (S170: YES), a text buffer, a bit image buffer, a print buffer, etc., in RAM are initialized and all the data wherein errors are generated are erased.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing device for printing based on data transmitted from a connected external device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, it has been connected to a computer or the like,
2. Description of the Related Art A printing device that prints based on data transmitted from the printing device is known. Some printing devices include RAM
There was a device provided with a reception buffer composed of storage elements such as. This reception buffer temporarily stores the data transmitted from the host side on the printer side. In the printing apparatus provided with this reception buffer, the data to be transmitted can be received prior to printing, and the host side can be quickly released from the data transmission process.

Further, there is also a printer provided with a print buffer for expanding the transmitted data as a dot pattern for printing. In the printer equipped with this print buffer,
It was possible to expand multiple lines in the print buffer and print them all at once, or to expand and print characters of various sizes and typefaces.

[0004]

By the way, in the conventional printing apparatus, when the data itself to be transmitted includes error data, or when the data is destroyed by noise during transmission, etc. However, since the received data is printed as it is, the printing and operation may be different from what the sender intended.

Further, when there is a limit on the printing device side, such as the size of the set printing medium or the maximum number of characters that can be printed in a predetermined direction, data that does not conform to this limit is sent. was there. Even in this case, the correct printing result may not be obtained.

The result of printing in such a state is not useful, and wastes printed paper, ink and the like, which is a problem. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a printing device that does not print when transmitted data cannot be printed correctly.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has the following constitution as means for solving the problem. That is, receiving means for receiving character or symbol data, storage means for temporarily storing the data received by the receiving means, and data temporarily stored in the storage means are printed on a print medium according to a predetermined print instruction. And a storage unit for storing the data received by the reception unit when the determination unit determines that the data cannot be printed normally by the printing unit. That is, the configuration of the printing apparatus is characterized in that it is provided with an abnormal time control means for preventing the printing means from printing the temporarily stored data.

According to the printing apparatus of the present invention having the above-mentioned structure, the data received by the receiving means is temporarily stored in the storage means. Then, the determination means determines whether or not the temporarily stored data can be correctly printed by the printing means. When it is determined that the printing is impossible, the abnormal time control means does not allow the printing means to print the data.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In this embodiment, a large number of characters such as alphabetic characters and symbols are used for printing tape (printing medium) 5
This is a case where the present invention is applied to an English-only tape printer 1 capable of printing on.

As shown in FIG. 1, a keyboard 3 is arranged in the front part of the body frame 2 of the tape printer 1, and a printing mechanism PM is arranged in the body frame 2 behind the keyboard 3 and the keyboard 3 is provided. Behind 3 is provided a liquid crystal display (LCD) 22 capable of displaying characters and symbols. Further, a terminal 4 of an interface (RS232C) for receiving print data transmitted from an external device is provided on the right side surface of the main body frame 2. An external device such as a personal computer is connected to the terminal 4 via a cable.

On the keyboard 3, character input keys for inputting alphabets, numbers, symbols, etc., a cursor movement key 50, a return key 5 for line feed or decision.
1, interface key 5 to set the communication function
2 or format key 53 and power ON / OFF
A power key and the like for F are provided.

Next, the printing mechanism PM will be briefly described with reference to FIG. 2. A rectangular tape storage cassette CS is detachably attached to the printing mechanism PM, and the tape storage cassette CS is transparent. A tape spool 6 around which a printing tape 5 made of film and having a width of about 24 mm is wound.
And a ribbon supply spool 8 around which the ink ribbon 7 is wound.
And a take-up spool 9 for taking up the ink ribbon 7,
A supply spool 11 in which a double-sided tape 10 having the same width as the printing tape 5 is wound with a release paper outside and a joining roller 12 for joining the printing tape 5 and the double-sided tape 10 are rotatably provided. Has been.

A thermal head 13 is erected at a position where the printing tape 5 and the ink ribbon 7 overlap each other.
A platen roller 14 that presses the printing tape 5 and the double-sided tape 10 against the joining roller 12 are rotatably supported by a support 16. The thermal head 13 is provided with a heating element group consisting of 128 heating elements arranged in a vertical direction corresponding to the width of the printing tape 5 of about 24 mm.

Therefore, by driving the tape feed motor 24 (see FIG. 3) in the predetermined rotation direction, the joining roller 12 and the take-up spool 9 are driven in synchronization with each other in the predetermined rotation direction to form 128 heating element groups. When energized, characters are printed on the printing tape 5 by a plurality of dot rows almost completely in the tape width, and the printing tape 5 is fed in the tape feeding direction A with the double-sided tape 10 joined. To be done. For details of the printing mechanism PM, refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-106555.

A cassette discriminating member 17 for setting the type of the tape accommodating cassette CS, that is, the tape width of the accommodated printing tape 5 is attached to the bottom wall of the tape accommodating cassette CS. A cassette discrimination sensor 18 (see FIG. 3) including a photo interrupter for detecting a provided protruding piece (not shown) is attached to the main body frame 2. Therefore, the tape width can be detected based on the discrimination signal from the cassette discrimination sensor 18. Also, tape width is "6m
Various tape storage cassettes CS on which the printing tapes 5 of “m”, “9 mm”, “12 mm”, and “18 mm” are wound are prepared separately.

The tape storage cassette CS containing the printing tapes 5 having a width other than the width of 24 mm is mounted on the tape printer 1 in the same manner as the tape storage cassette CS containing the printing tape 5 having a width of 24 mm. . Then, by defining which heating element in the heating element group is to generate heat in accordance with the width of each printing tape 5, printing is performed on the mounted printing tape 5 to approximately the width of the tape. Is done.

Next, the control system of the tape printer 1 is shown in FIG.
The block diagram of FIG. A display R for outputting display data to the keyboard 3, the cassette discrimination sensor 18, and the liquid crystal display (LCD) 22.
Display controller (LCDC) 2 with AM
3, a communication interface 19 for receiving print data transmitted from an external device, and the thermal head 1.
The drive circuit 25 for driving the drive unit 3 and the drive circuit 26 for driving the tape feed motor 24 are connected to the input / output interface 27 of the controller C, respectively. The control device C includes a CPU 29, an input / output interface 27 connected to the CPU 29 via a bus 28 such as a data bus, a CGROM 30, ROMs 31 and 32, and an R.
It is composed of AM40.

CGROM (pattern data memory) 30
In FIG. 5, dot pattern data for display is stored in association with code data for each of a large number of characters. ROM (outline data memory) 31
In order to print the character, the outline data (outline data) that defines the outline of the character for each of a large number of characters is a typeface (Gothic typeface,
It is classified according to Mincho typeface, etc.) and stored in association with code data. Each of the large number of outline data stores the size of the print image in the vertical direction and the size of the print image in the horizontal direction.

The ROM 32 stores a program for operating the tape printer 1. RAM40
The text buffer 41 stores the code data of characters and symbols input from the keyboard 3 or received from an external device. The bit image buffer 43 stores bit image data received from an external device. The print buffer 47 stores the data of the print dot pattern that has been image-developed. RAM
40 is provided with a buffer for temporarily storing the calculation result calculated by the CPU 29, an area for a counter, a pointer, and the like.

Next, the operation of the tape printer 1 will be described. In this embodiment, this tape printer 1
Is used in interface mode. The interface mode is a mode in which print data transmitted from an external device connected to the terminal 4 is received and printing is performed based on the print data.

As shown in the flowchart of FIG. 4, first, an initial process for using the interface mode is performed (S100). In this initial processing, RA
Initialization of the text buffer 41, the bit image buffer 43, the print buffer 47, etc. of the M40, and a process of displaying a message on the LCD 22 indicating that it is in a standby state for receiving data are performed. Moreover, OFF is set as the initial value of the error flag. This error flag is set to ON when an error is detected in the process described later.

Next, the error flag is inspected (S11).
0). When the error flag is OFF, the process branches to S120, and when it is ON, the process branches to S160. Initially S100
Since the error flag is initialized to OFF in (1), it is checked whether or not there is transmitted data (S120). This process is repeatedly executed until the data is transmitted.

Next, when the data is transmitted, the data is acquired (S130). The transmitted data includes various data such as a code that represents a character or a symbol, a bit image that represents a dot pattern, or a control code that controls the operation of the printer. Therefore, the command is interpreted in order to perform appropriate printing that matches the type of the received data (S140). Then, the data is expanded and printed in the print buffer according to the command (S150). S
When 150 ends, the process returns to S110, and this series of processes is repeatedly executed.

Next, the data expansion / printing process of S150 will be described in detail. As shown in FIG. 5, first, it is inspected whether it is character data (S200). If it is character data (S200: YES), it is stored in the text buffer 41 (S210). The text buffer 41 can store data for 500 characters. By the way, since the character data in the text buffer 41 becomes unnecessary each time printing is completed, the next received data is stored overlappingly when it becomes unnecessary. An error occurs when you try to store the data in. So S
After 210, it is checked whether the character data has been stored correctly (S220). If the character data can be stored (S220: YES), the process returns to S110. When the character data cannot be stored (S220: NO), an error message is displayed on the LCD 22 (S230), the error flag is turned on (S240), and the process returns to S110.

If it is not character data in S200, it is inspected whether it is line feed data (S2).
50). If it is line feed data (S250: YE
S) and line feed processing is performed (S260). Next, it is inspected whether or not the printing conditions are satisfied (S270). The time when the print condition is satisfied is when a preset maximum number of printable lines in the width direction of the print tape 5 is reached, or when the end of received data is detected. If the printing conditions are satisfied (S270: YE
S) and print processing is performed (S280). If it is not the line feed data (S250: NO), other processing is performed (S290). Other processes include a process of storing bit image data in the bit image data buffer 43, a page break process, etc., but these processes are generally known and will not be described.

Next, the printing process of S280 will be described in more detail. As shown in FIG. 6, first, it is inspected whether printing is actually possible (S300). As a case where printing cannot be actually performed, there are cases where the number of lines of data stored in the text buffer 41 exceeds the maximum number of lines that can be printed on the printing tape 5. This maximum number of lines is determined by the width of the printing tape 5 and the size of characters to be printed. If printing is possible (S300: YE
S), the data in the text buffer 41 or the bit image buffer 43 is expanded in the print buffer 47 (S31).
0). Then, the contents of the print buffer 47 are printed on the printing tape 5 (S320). If it is determined that printing cannot be performed, an error message will be displayed on the LCD 22.
(S330), turn on the error flag (S330)
340), and returns to S110.

In this way, when an error occurs during the process, the error flag is set to ON (S240, S340) and the process returns to S110. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 4, the processing proceeds from S110 to S16.
Branch to 0. In S160, a state of waiting for a key input is entered. At this time, the operator can know the reason why printing is not started from the error message displayed on the LCD 22. Next, when a key input is made, it is checked whether or not the input is a cancel instruction (S1).
70). Since only a cancel instruction can be input in S160, if any other key is pressed, S
It returns to 160 and waits for a key input again.

If cancellation is instructed in S17O, the process returns to S100. As a result, as described above, the text buffer 41, the bit image buffer 43, the print buffer 47, etc. of the RAM 40 are initialized, and all print data in which an error has occurred is removed. Also,
The error message is erased from the LCD 22 and a message indicating that it is in a standby state for receiving data is displayed. Further, the error flag is also initialized and turned off.

As described above, the tape printer 1 to which the present invention is applied always displays the message and turns on the error flag when an error occurs.
Then, after these processes, the process always returns to S110.
Waiting for the cancel instruction, the control shifts to the abnormal condition and the printing process is not performed. As a result, it is possible to prevent unnecessary consumption of the printing tape and ink without outputting unnecessary printing results, which is extremely economical.

If the printing process is not performed due to an error, an error message is displayed on the LCD 22 and the operator waits for a cancel input, so that the operator notices an abnormality during this time and resets the printing device or changes the transmission data. It is easy to print again.

Although the embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to this, and various embodiments can be adopted without departing from the scope of the present invention. For example, as the condition for setting the error flag to ON, in addition to the condition shown in the embodiment, a parity bit may be provided in the transmission data and a parity check may be performed after the data is acquired, or an undefined command is received. You may inspect whether or not you have done so. In addition, there are various conditions such as the presence or absence of an error in the other processes of S290.

Further, in the embodiment, the method of removing all the data in the buffer by the cancel instruction has been described, but it is possible to select whether to remove the data or forcibly print. With such a configuration, for example,
If the error is such that the width of the printing tape 5 is unsuitable, it is possible to replace the printing tape 5 with an appropriate width and re-execute printing.

In addition, although the format of the error message has not been described in detail, if there is a data error in the middle of reception, if the error message is displayed along with the error message on the LCD 22, Furthermore, it is easy for the operator to deal with it.

[0034]

As described above, according to the printing apparatus of the present invention,
The judging means judges whether or not the printing means can correctly print the temporarily stored received data, and if printing is impossible,
Since the abnormal time control means does not cause the printing means to print the data, an unnecessary printing result is not output, and wasteful consumption of the print medium can be prevented, which is extremely economical.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a tape printer of an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a printing mechanism.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a control system of the tape printer.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing main processing in interface mode.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a data expansion / printing process.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a printing process.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... tape printer, 2 ... main body frame, 3 ...
..Keyboard, 4 ... Terminal, 5 ... Printing tape, 19 ... Communication interface, 22 ... Liquid crystal display, 41 ... Text buffer, 47 ...
..Print buffer

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A receiving means for receiving character or symbol data, a storage means for temporarily storing the data received by the receiving means, and a data for temporarily storing the data temporarily stored in the storage means for printing according to a predetermined print instruction. In a printing device comprising a printing unit for printing on a medium, the data received by the receiving unit, a determining unit for determining that the printing unit cannot normally print, and when the determining unit determines that normal printing is impossible, A printing apparatus, comprising: an abnormal condition control means for preventing the printing means from printing the data temporarily stored in the storage means.