JPH06135103A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To detect an abnormality of printing data per page and conduct an abnormality processing. CONSTITUTION:A printer 2 is composed of a printing control part 3 processing printing data received from a host device 1 and a printing mechanism part 4 receiving a command with a parameter representing printing information transmitted from the printing control part 3, requesting the printing control part 3 to transmit printing data, informing it of the completion of reception upon completion of reception of printing data for one page and, thereafter, informing it of the completion of printing upon completion of printing of the printing data for one page, and waiting a reception of a next command. In the printing control part 3, a means 5 is provided for adding a page number of printing data and a printing start number to a parameter. In the printing mechanism part 4, a means 6 is provided for checking whether the page numbers of the printing data successively received to be printed are in a normal order. In this construction, the order of page numbers of the printing data can be checked.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus for processing print data in page units, and more particularly to a printing apparatus capable of detecting abnormality in print data in page units and performing abnormality processing.

In recent years, printing apparatuses have come to process print data page by page, like page printers using cut sheets. However, the conventional printing apparatus does not check for the case where print data is missing or misaligned in page units.

By the way, in the case of single-sided printing, even if the print data is missing page by page, it may be possible to print the missing page later, but in the case of a double-sided printing apparatus, the front-side printing and the back-side printing are combined. There is a need. That is, the data to be printed on the back side after the front side printing must be continuous in the order in which they were edited, but if the print data is missing or misaligned in page units, the front side printing and the back side printing will not match and printing will not be performed. It needs to be redone, which is a big problem.

Therefore, it is desired to detect the abnormality of the print data page by page and guarantee the print data.

[0005]

2. Description of the Related Art As a print data guarantee in a conventional printing apparatus, print data is guaranteed by dividing a character code unit and video data into blocks, adding a parity check bit in each block, and performing a parity check. Came over.

Therefore, with respect to the garbled data in character units, the check function works and there is an effect of preventing erroneous printing.
By the way, as described above, recently, the print output unit has been processed from the character or line unit to the page unit. That is, the print output unit is the character unit in the serial printer device and the line unit in the line printer device, but recently, in order to print the image data, it is processed in the page unit. Therefore, the control of the apparatus becomes complicated, and a problem occurs in which print data is omitted in page units or the order of data in page units is shifted.

However, the conventional method of checking the erroneous printing by adding the parity check bit cannot detect the omission of print data or the deviation of the order of data which occurs in page units.

[0008]

As described above, in the related art, no check is made in the case where the print data is missing in page units or the order of data in page units is out of order. There is a problem that if a missing or misalignment occurs, and if this is not noticed, a defective printed matter will be provided.

In view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to detect an abnormality in print data page by page and report an abnormality.

[0010]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining the principle of the present invention. The printing device 2 prints one page with a print control unit 3 that performs a process for printing the print data received from the higher-level device 1 in page units, and a parameter indicating print information sent by the print control unit 3. When a command for instructing is sent to request transmission of print data for one page and the print data for one page has been received,
After the completion of the reception is reported, when the printing of the print data for one page is completed, the completion of the printing is reported, and the printing mechanism unit 4 waits for the next command reception.

Then, the print control section 3 is provided with an addition means 5 for adding a page number of print data to be printed and a print start page number to the parameter, and the print mechanism section 4 is provided with the parameter. A check unit 6 is provided for checking whether or not the order of page numbers of print data to be sequentially received is normal, based on the print start page added to the.

Each time the command is received, the order of page numbers of print data to be printed is checked.

[0013]

With the above configuration, in the printing device 2 for printing the print data given from the higher-level device 1 in page units, the print data to be printed added by the adding means 5 of the print control unit 3 to the parameter of the command. If there is an abnormality in the order of the page numbers of the print data based on the page number of No. and the page number to start printing, the check unit 6
By this, since this abnormality can be detected, it is possible to stop the printing of the printing mechanism unit 4 and report the abnormality, and it is possible to prevent the defective printed matter from being provided.

[0014]

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a circuit showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining an example of parameters, and FIG.
Is a sequence for explaining the operation of FIG.

In FIG. 2, print data is input to the data input unit 7 of the print control unit 3 from a host device (not shown), is temporarily stored, is then converted from a serial signal to a parallel signal, and is sent to the data processing unit 8. To be done.

The data processing unit 8 analyzes the command contained in the print data and performs preprocessing for printing. Then, in order to start printing, the data processing unit 8 first sends the print data to the print data control unit 10.

When the print data control unit 10 extracts the print code from the print data, the print data control unit 10 reads out a character pattern corresponding to this character code from the character generation unit 13 and sequentially writes it in the bit map memory 11.

When writing a character pattern in the bitmap memory 11, the print data control unit 10 prints one page of paper from the print data based on the paper size, resolution, etc. specified by the parameters accompanying the command shown in FIG. Correspondingly,
A character pattern is developed on the bitmap memory 11 so that it is the same as the state printed on one page of paper.

When the development of the character pattern for one page on the bitmap memory 11 is completed, the print data control unit 10 instructs the print start control unit 9 via the data processing unit 8 to send a start signal.

The print activation control section 9 instructed to send the start signal sends the start signal to the processor 15 via the interface circuit 14 of the printing mechanism section 4. The processor 15 that receives the start signal causes the paper conveyance control unit 19, the fixing control unit 20, the print density control unit 2
1 and the exposure control unit 22 are controlled to complete the print preparation.

When the print start control section 9 is notified from the processor 15 via the interface circuit 14 that the print mechanism section 4 is in the printable state, the processor 15 as shown in the print control section of FIG. In response, a command PSTRT with parameters as shown in FIG. 3 is sent.

That is, a command for instructing printing of one page and parameters associated with this command PSTRT,
That is, a paper size for instructing the size of paper, a resolution for instructing the number of dots per inch, a print density for instructing toner density, a single-sided / double-sided for instructing single-sided printing or double-sided printing, and a hopper for supplying the paper. A paper feed hopper for instructing, a paper discharge stacker for instructing a discharge destination of printed paper, a page number for instructing a page number of print data, and a start page number for instructing a print start page number are transmitted.

The processor 15 receiving this command PSTRT stores the page number designated by the parameter in the register 16 and the print start page number in the register 17. When the page number is equal to the print start page number, the print start page number is stored in the counter 18.

Then, the processor 15 sends the signal VREQ for requesting the sending of the video signal to the print start control unit 9 as shown in the print mechanism unit of FIG. The print start control unit 9 requested to send the video signal controls the video output unit 12 to cause the video output unit 12 to perform raster scanning of the bitmap memory 11, and as shown in page 1 of the video data of FIG. , The data of page number 1 is sent to the exposure controller 22 for one page.

At this time, the paper transport control unit 19 selects the paper feed hopper designated by the parameters, confirms the paper size, controls the paper feed, and selects the paper discharge stacker for storing the printed paper.

The fixing control section 20 controls the temperature at which the toner transferred onto the sheet is fixed on the sheet, and the print density control section 21 controls the voltage control of various chargers and the toner replenishment. , Control to keep the toner density at the specified density.

The exposure controller 22 controls the laser power and the rotation of the polygon mirror motor. That is, the laser power modulation according to the video data and the rotation control of the polygon mirror motor for each resolution are performed.

When the processor 15 receives one page of video data as shown in page 1 of the video data of FIG. 4, the processor 15 sends a page end signal PEND to the print start control section 9 as shown in the print mechanism section of FIG. Send to.

When printing of one page is completed,
The processor 15 sends a print end signal DREQ to the print start control unit 9 as shown in the print mechanism unit of FIG. 4, and waits for a print instruction for the next page.

Print start control unit 9 which receives the DREQ signal
When the next page is printed, similarly to the above, the command PSTRT is sent to the processor 15 as indicated by'in the print control unit of FIG.

The processor 15 receiving this command PSTRT stores the page number designated by the parameter in the register 16 and the print start page number in the register 17. In this case, since the page number and the print start page number are not equal, the counter 18 is incremented. That is, the value of the counter 18 is incremented by 1.

When the page number stored in the register 16 and the value of the counter 18 are the same, the processor 15 requests the print start control unit 9 to send out a video signal as indicated by'in the printing mechanism unit of FIG. Signal VREQ for sending.

Print start control unit 9 which received the VREQ signal
Controls the video output unit 12 to send the data of page number 2 to the exposure control unit 22 for one page as shown in page 2 of the video data of FIG.

Therefore, when the processor 15 receives one page of video data as shown in page 2 of the video data in FIG. 4, as shown in the print mechanism section of FIG.
A page end signal PEND is sent to the print start control unit 9,
When the printing of one page is completed, the print end signal DREQ is sent to the print start control unit 9 as shown by'in the print mechanism unit of FIG. 4, and the print instruction of the next page is waited.

Print start control unit 9 which receives the DREQ signal
When the next page is printed, similarly to the above, the command PSTRT is sent to the processor 15 as indicated by "" in the print control unit of FIG.

Upon receiving this command PSTRT, the processor 15 stores the page number designated by the parameter in the register 16 and the print start page number in the register 17. In this case, since the page number and the print start page number are not equal, the counter 18 is incremented. That is, the value of the counter 18 is incremented by 1.

When the page number stored in the register 16 and the value of the counter 18 are the same, the processor 15 requests the print start control unit 9 to output a video signal as indicated by "" in the print mechanism unit of FIG. Signal VREQ for sending.

Print start control unit 9 which received the VREQ signal
Controls the video output section 12 to send the data of page number 3 to the exposure control section 22 for one page as shown in page 3 of the video data of FIG.

When the processor 15 receives one page of video data as shown in page 3 of the video data in FIG. 4, the processor 15 sends a page end signal PEND to the print start control section as indicated by "" in the print mechanism section in FIG. When the printing of one page is completed, the print end signal DREQ is sent to the print start control unit 9 to wait for the print instruction of the next page when the printing of one page is completed.

Print start control unit 9 which received the DREQ signal
When the print data is completed and the next page is not printed, the print end signal P is output as shown in the print control section of FIG.
STOP is sent to instruct the end of printing.

When the page number stored in the register 16 and the value of the counter 18 are equal when printing the next page as described above, the sequential printing operation is executed as described above, but the page stored in the register 16 is executed. Number and counter 18
If the values are not equal, the processor 15 sends an error signal notifying the occurrence of an abnormality instead of the VREQ signal sent to the print activation control unit 9 in FIG. Stop and stop the printing operation.

Therefore, the print start control unit 9 notifies the upper device of the abnormality occurrence through the data processing unit 8 and the data input unit 7. FIG. 5 is a flowchart explaining the operation of FIG.

When the processor 15 receives the start signal as described above, in step (1) the paper transport controller 19,
Fixing controller 20, print density controller 21, and exposure controller 2
The state of No. 2 is checked, waiting for the printable state, and when the printable state is obtained, it is checked in step (2) whether the command PSTRT is received.

If the command is not received in step (2),
The termination process is performed in step (3), and the process returns to step (1). If the command is received in step (2), the page number is stored in the register 16 and the starting page number is stored in the register 17. Then, in step (5), check whether the page number is equal to the start page number, and if they are equal, step
At (8), the starting page number is set in the counter 18, and the process proceeds to step (9).

If not equal in step (5), step
The counter 18 is incremented in (6), and step (7)
Check whether the page number stored in the register 16 is equal to the value of the counter 18.

If the page number stored in the register 16 and the value of the counter 18 are not equal to each other in step (7), abnormal processing is performed in step (13). That is, the printing operation is stopped and an abnormality is reported to the print start control unit 9.

If the page number stored in the register 16 and the value of the counter 18 are equal in step (7), step
At (9), the VREQ signal is sent to the print start control unit 9 as described above.

Then, when the printing process for one page is executed in step (10), in step (11), as described above, P
Send the END signal to the print start control unit 9, and step (12)
To send a DREQ signal to the print start control unit 9,
Return to processing of (1).

[0049]

As described above, when printing in page units, the present invention can prevent data loss and page shift in page units.

Further, in the case of double-sided printing, it is possible to prevent the print data of front printing and back printing from being deviated. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the provision of defective printed matter.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the principle of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a circuit showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of parameters.

FIG. 4 is a sequence for explaining the operation of FIG.

5 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Upper device 2 Printing device 3 Printing control unit 4 Printing mechanism unit 5 Adding unit 6 Checking unit 7 Data input unit 8 Data processing unit 9 Printing start control unit 10 Printing data control unit 11 Bit map memory 12 Video output unit 13 Character generation unit 14 Interface circuit 15 Processor 16, 17 Register 18 Counter 19 Paper transport controller 20 Fixing controller 21 Print density controller 22 Exposure controller

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A print control unit (3) for performing processing for printing print data received from a higher-level device (1) in page units.
Then, a command for instructing printing of one page is received together with a parameter indicating the print information sent by the print control unit (3), and a request to send the print data for one page is made. When the print data has been received, the print completion is reported, and when the printing of the print data for one page is completed, the print completion is reported and the print mechanism unit (4) waits for the next command reception. A printing device (2) configured, wherein the print control unit (3) is provided with an adding unit (5) for adding a page number of print data to be printed and a print start page number to the parameter. The printing mechanism unit (4) has a check unit (4) for checking whether or not the order of page numbers of print data to be sequentially received is normal, based on the print start page added to the parameter. 6) is provided to receive the command A printing apparatus that checks the order of page numbers of print data to be printed each time.