JPH06202765A - Recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a recorder facilitating a remote control by receiving data from an outside device, and automatically enabling a recording operation. CONSTITUTION:Data receiving parts 100 two data receiving parts exist in this example receive data from an outside host device. A reception recognizing part 200 identifies whether or not the data are transmitted to the two data receiving parts 100, and when the transmission of the data is identified, a sub- power source is turned on by a sub-power source switching part 300, and the recorder is turned into a recording operation validating state. And also, the reception identifying part 200 transmits which data receiving part 100 is selected to a reception selecting part 400, and the sub-power source is turned off by the sub-power source switching part 300 when the data are not transmitted to the selected data receiving part 100 even after the lapse of a prescribed time.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording apparatus, and more particularly to a recording apparatus having power saving control or automatic selection control of receiving means.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a recording apparatus such as a printer and a copying machine which has only one power source, the power source is turned on by a specific key switch, and the power source is consumed even in an unrecorded state. Further, a recording device such as a printer or a copying machine having a main power supply and a sub power supply has a key switch for turning on the sub power supply. By pressing this key switch, the sub power supply is turned on and off. Was there. In addition, the power saving control is performed so that the receiving unit that receives the data from the host device is set to the receivable state or the unreceivable state by depressing the key switch so that the print recording is not performed.

Further, printers and copiers having a plurality of receiving means as a connecting means with a computer as a host device have been increasing in number, but an operator operates a plurality of receiving means by a key switch or the like. Among them, the desired receiving means was selected.

[0004]

Conventionally, in a recording apparatus which has only a main power source, even if it is in a non-recording state or other non-operating state, it is often left unattended because the power source is left on. Was consuming a lot of power. In addition, in a recording device having a main power supply and a sub power supply, it was possible to cut off the sub power supply and power consumption by pressing the key switch in the unused state. You have to press the switch. For this reason, in the case of recording devices connected to the network, which has been increasing in number recently, it may be possible to perform remote control of the recording device, and the key switch provided in the recording device must be pressed every time recording is performed. However, it was very troublesome for the operator.

Similarly, in a recording device having a plurality of receiving means, the receiving means to which the host device in use is connected must be selected by a key switch or the like, which further complicates the operation. There is.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and by receiving data from an external device, power supply is automatically started to enable a recording operation, and power supply by remote control is performed. A first object is to provide a recording device that facilitates control.

A second object of the present invention is to provide a recording apparatus having a plurality of receiving sections, which eliminates the need for selecting the data receiving section.

[0008]

A recording apparatus according to the present invention for achieving the above first object has the following structure. That is, a recording device for recording on a recording medium based on data received from an external device, the receiving device receiving data from the external device, and a predetermined part when the receiving device identifies that the data has been received. Power supply means for starting power supply to the predetermined portion, and power cutoff means for cutting off power supply to the predetermined portion when a state in which no data is received by the receiving means exceeds a predetermined time.

Further, a recording apparatus of the present invention for achieving the above second object has the following constitution. That is, in the recording apparatus having the above-described configuration, the receiving unit has a plurality of receiving units for receiving data from an external device, and a selection is made to select the receiving unit that received the data first among the plurality of receiving units. Means are further provided.

[0010]

With the above configuration, when data is received by the receiving means for receiving data from the external device, power supply to a predetermined portion is started. Further, when the internal state of data reception continues for a predetermined time or longer, the power supply to the predetermined portion is cut off. The power supply / interruption to the above-mentioned predetermined part is executed by turning on / off the sub power supply,
While data is not being received, turning off the sub power supply puts it in a standby state to prevent power consumption. In addition, by sending data from an external device, the sub power supply is automatically turned on to enable recording, which facilitates remote operation.

Further, according to another configuration, in the recording apparatus having a plurality of data receiving units, the data receiving unit is automatically selected, so that the operation of selecting the data receiving unit becomes unnecessary, and the remote operation is performed. Operability is improved.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a conceptual control configuration of the recording apparatus of this embodiment. In the figure, reference numeral 100 denotes a data receiving unit that receives data from an external host device. The data receiving unit 100 corresponds to various interfaces conforming to Centronics or RS232C. In the present embodiment, an example in which there are two data receiving units 100 is shown, but the number of data receiving units 100 may be any number.

The reception recognition section 200 identifies whether or not data has been transmitted to the above-mentioned two data reception sections 100. Here, when it is identified that the data is transmitted to the data receiving unit 100, the sub power supply switching unit 300
A signal to turn on the sub power supply is output to. Further, the reception identifying section 200 notifies the reception selecting section 400 of the data receiving section to be selected from the plurality of data receiving means. Further, the reception identifying unit 200 is configured to select the data receiving unit 100 selected.
On the other hand, if no data is transmitted after a predetermined time has passed, a signal for turning off the sub power supply is output to the sub power supply switching unit 300, and the selection of the data receiving unit 100 in the reception selecting unit 400 is canceled. To do.

The sub power supply switching unit 300 includes a reception identifying unit 2
The signal from 00 turns on or off the switch of the sub power supply. By turning on this sub power supply, it becomes possible to supply power to the display section of the recording apparatus, the conveying section for recording paper, and the like. The reception selection unit 400 is
According to a command from the reception identifying unit 200, one of the plurality of data receiving units 100 is selected so that data from the host device can be received. Further, similarly to a normal recording apparatus, it has a command identifying section 500 for identifying received data as a command or print data, and further has a print recording section 600 for actually recording a visible image on a recording medium. There is.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the control arrangement of the recording apparatus of this embodiment. In FIG. 2, 10 is the first embodiment.
Represents a printer which is a recording device of the. 1 is a CPU,
For example, it is constituted by a microprocessor or the like and controls the entire apparatus according to the processing means of the control program stored in the program ROM 2. 2 is the program RO
M, which will be described later with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
It stores one control program and various data. Reference numeral 3 denotes a RAM, a work area 3a used by the CPU 1 in the process of processing, a reception buffer area 3b for storing received data, a text buffer area 3c used as an area for storing conversion data from the received data, and It includes a text buffer and a print buffer 3d used for expanding pattern data read from the character generator ROM 12.

The host devices 5a and 5b send various character codes and control codes to the printer 10 to instruct a recording operation. The data from the host devices 5a and 5b are received by the data receiving units 4a and 4b. Further, the reception identifying unit 200 of the present embodiment can identify the recording data receiving unit that has received the data from the host device, identify and select the recording data receiving unit that has received the data, and store it in the reception buffer 3b. To The data from the host devices 5a and 5b include, as control data, commands specific to the print recording device, such as a normal character / high-quality character designation command and a print recording start command. The data receiving unit 100 shown in FIG. 1 is mainly the above-mentioned part.

The CGROM 12 outputs character patterns corresponding to various character codes, and stores character patterns and information data. Head controller 13
Print data is input under the control of the CPU 1 and is output to the head driver 14. The head driver 14 corresponds to the print data and print head 15
Is driven to print out on a recording medium such as recording paper.

The timer 16 sends a timing signal based on the time setting from the CPU 1 to the head controller 13 and the CPU.
Output to 1, the drive time of the recording head 15 that controls the head controller 13 is determined, and the operation timing of the CPU 1 is controlled.

The information signal input section 20 is for inputting a control signal to the printer 10 through the input port 21, and is constituted by, for example, a keyboard or the like. It is possible to specify on or off, and to specify printing of high-quality characters. The drive unit 23 is controlled by the CPU 1 via the output port 22 and has a motor for driving a carriage (not shown) on which the recording head 15 is mounted, a conveyance unit (not shown) that conveys recording paper, and the like.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart for explaining the automatic sub power on / off and data receiving section selecting functions of the first embodiment. In this flowchart, when the recording data receiving units 4a and 4b described above receive data from one of the host devices 5a and 5b, the recording data receiving unit to be used is selected, the sub power source is turned on, and further selection is made. This is a control for turning off the sub power supply when the specified time data is not sent to the data receiving unit.

First, when the main power source is turned on, step S
1, the recording data receiving units 4a and 4b, the timer 1
6, RAM 3, output port 22, head controller 1
Initialize 3rd and so on. Next, in step S2, it is determined whether or not the recording data receiving unit 4a has received the data,
If it has been received, the process proceeds to step S4, and if it has not been received, the process proceeds to step S3. In step S3,
The other recording data receiving unit 4b judges whether or not the data is received, and if it is received, the step S
Go to 5. If no data is received in step S3, the process returns to s2 and the above process is repeated.

The recording data receiving section 4a is selected in step S4, and the recording data receiving section 4b is selected in step S5. The steps S4 and S5 correspond to the reception selection unit 400 shown in FIG. In step S6,
The sub power supply is turned on to supply electric power to the head driver 14 and the drive unit 23 shown in FIG. In step S7, it is determined whether or not the data is received, and if it is received, the process proceeds to step S9. If the data is not received in step S7, the process proceeds to step S8 and the timer 16
It is determined whether or not the prescribed time has elapsed, and if so, the process proceeds to step S10. Step S
In 10, the sub power supply is turned off, and the process returns to step S2. The timer 16 described above measures the elapsed time after the data is no longer received.

When the process proceeds to step S9, the received data is analyzed in the same manner as in a normal recording device to distinguish between a command and recording data, and recording data is generated. If print recording is started in step S11 after the process of step S9, the process proceeds to step S12 to start print recording. If not, the process returns to step S7. Step S1
In step 2, the print recording process is started, and thereafter, the process returns to step S7 and the above process is repeated.

As described above, according to the first embodiment, power consumption is prevented by turning off the sub power supply when the recording data receiving unit has stopped receiving data from the host device and putting it in a standby state. In addition, by sending data from the host device, the sub power supply is automatically turned on to enable recording, which has the effect of facilitating remote operation. Further, since the recording data receiving unit that first receives the data is automatically selected, the conventional selection operation of the recording data receiving unit is unnecessary, and the operability is further improved.

<Second Embodiment> Next, a second embodiment will be described.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the second embodiment when the automatic sub power on / off function is executed by the received command, and FIG. 5 is a flow chart when the automatic sub power on / off function of the second embodiment is executed. is there.

First, the difference between FIG. 1 and FIG. 4 is that in FIG. 1, the reception selection section 400 and the command identification section 500 are separately provided, whereas in FIG. 4, the reception selection section with command identification section 401 is provided. That is the point.

Next, the flowchart of FIG. 5 differs from that of FIG. 3 in that step S2-1 and step S3-1 are added. That is, step S2 and step S3
When the recording data receiving unit receives the data in step S2-1, the process proceeds to step S2-1 and step S3-1, and the reception identifying unit 200 identifies whether the received data is the auxiliary power-on command. If the sub power-on command has not been received, the recording process is not executed and the process returns to step S2.

As described above, according to each of the above-described embodiments, the troublesomeness of the operator to turn on and off the sub power source as in the conventional case is eliminated, and the sub power source is received only when the data for printing and recording is received. Is turned on, and the data receiving means can be automatically selected. Furthermore, when the data reception is interrupted for a specified time, the sub power supply is automatically turned off, so that it is possible to prevent unnecessary power consumption.

The present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of a single device. Further, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to the case where it is achieved by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus.

[0032]

As described above, according to the recording apparatus of the present invention, when data is received from the external device, the power supply is automatically started to enable the recording operation.
Power control by remote control becomes easy. Further, in a recording device having a plurality of receiving units, the operation of selecting the data receiving unit is not required, and remote operation becomes easier.

[0033]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a print recording apparatus in the above embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing processing of automatic selection and automatic power on / off functions in the above embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration in a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing processing of automatic selection and automatic power on / off functions in the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 100 data receiving unit 200 reception identifying unit 300 sub power supply switching unit 400 reception selecting unit

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A recording device for recording on a recording medium based on data received from an external device, the receiving device receiving the data from the external device, and the data being identified by the receiving device. A power supply means for starting power supply to a predetermined portion, and a power cutoff means for cutting off the power supply to the predetermined portion when a state in which no data is received by the receiving means exceeds a predetermined time. A recording device characterized by. 2. The receiving unit has a plurality of receiving units for receiving data from an external device, and further comprises a selecting unit for selecting the receiving unit receiving the earliest data from the plurality of receiving units. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: