JPH06242894A - Data transmission system for printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the number of transmission data and to speed up the printing processing by counting consecutive blank numbers, comparing them with a standard number, and moving the printing position by the consecutive blank numbers in a lump. CONSTITUTION:A CPU1 sends data at every character to a printer 13 and secures a counter area to update and store a number (n) of the consecutive blank character data on a RAM4, setting '0' as an initial value. Whether the data to be sent to the printer 3 are blank character data or not, is judged, and when the content of a counter (n) is more than the reference number '3', three characters of control data are sent to the printer 13 by shifting the printing position of the printer 13 by the character (n) to the right side in a lump. Accordingly, the data amount to be sent to the printer 13 is reduced as compared with the conventional system which sends the blank character data one by one. Thus, the printer 13 can speed the printing processing and the efficiency of the entire system is improved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data transmission system in a printer (printing device) equipped with a POS (point-of-sale information management) terminal, an electronic cash register or the like for printing on receipts, journals or slips. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, when printing a receipt 20 as shown in FIG. 4 at a POS terminal,
The print data as shown in FIG. 5 is output. A carriage return (CR) and a line feed (LF) are output at the end of the data column of each row. These are called "control characters". The carriage return (CR) has a function of moving the print position (print head) to the left end of the line, and the line feed (LF) moves the print position to the next position. It has a function to lower the line.
Characters each having a width corresponding to two characters, such as "Sell", "Up", "Go", and "Total", are designed to transmit data of two characters.

However, this may not be the case depending on the printer.

Regarding the blank, one blank character data is transmitted for each blank character. The blank character data has a function of moving the print position (print head) to the right by one character without printing anything.
If the blank continues, the above operation is repeated.

In FIG. 5, one blank character data is also 1
Count as character data. The number of data is 17 in the first line, 2
The second and tenth lines are two, and the other lines are all 24. When the receipt 20 of FIG. 4 is printed, a total of 261 character data is transmitted to the printer.

[0006]

In the prior art, the blank character data in which nothing is printed is also
It sends each character as it is to the printer. For example, in the case of the data on the third line in FIG. 5, out of the data of 24 characters to be transmitted to the printer, 15 characters (60% or more) are occupied by blank character data. Each of the 15 blank character data is sequentially transmitted. Looking at the whole of FIG. 5, of the 261 transmitted data, 125 characters, which is almost half, is blank character data.

However, even if a considerable part of the data to be transmitted to the printer is occupied by blank character data that does not print anything, the CPU (Central Processing Unit) does not It is necessary to sequentially transmit the data for the total number including the data, one character at a time, which causes a decrease in print processing speed.

The present invention was devised in view of such circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to reduce the number of transmitted data and speed up the printing process by rationalizing the handling of blank character data. To do.

[0009]

A data transmission system for a printer according to the present invention includes a means for counting the number of consecutive blank character data in the print data to be transmitted to the printer, and the number of consecutive blanks. A means for comparing with a predetermined reference number, a means for transmitting blank character data as it is when the number of consecutive blanks is less than the reference number, and a means for transmitting all the consecutive blank character data when the number of consecutive blanks is more than the reference number. And a means for transmitting control data for collectively moving the printing positions of the printer by a corresponding amount.

[0010]

[Function] The number of consecutive blanks is counted and compared with the reference number. When the number of consecutive blanks is greater than the reference number, the blank character data is not transmitted one by one, but the print position (print head) is counted by the number of consecutive blanks. Just move all at once. The control data for that is smaller than the total amount of continuous blank character data.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a printer data transmission system according to the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. This embodiment is applied to a POS terminal. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an electrical schematic configuration of a POS terminal.

A CPU (Central Processing Unit) 1 which controls the entire system and a ROM via a bus line 2
(Read-only memory) 3, RAM (random access memory) 4, display control circuit 5, disk control circuit 6,
A keyboard control circuit 7, a printer control circuit 8 and a clock circuit 9 are connected. The ROM 3 stores a system program, and the RAM 4 functions as a working memory. CR that displays the contents and results of various processes
A display 10 such as a T or LCD is connected to the display control circuit 5 and is drive-controlled. The disc control circuit 6 controls the drive of the disc driver 11 to write and read various data such as a product code and an amount of money. The keyboard control circuit 7
The input data from the keyboard 12 is processed and sent to the CPU 1. The printer control circuit 8 is C
It mediates control of data exchange between the PU 1 and the printer 13. That is, the CPU 1 sends print data to the printer 13 via the printer control circuit 8, and the printer 13 prints based on the sent print data. The clock circuit 9
Count time and update current date and time.

The printer 13 carries out special processing for special data called control characters. Of the various control characters (control data), the following three are directly related to the present invention. CR (return) and LF
(Line feed) and MV (position shift). Return (CR)
Has a function of moving the print position (print head) to the left end of the same line, and line feed (LF) has a function of moving the print position downward by one line. The position movement (MV) is a main element of the present invention, and when the number of consecutive blank character data is equal to or larger than a predetermined reference number, the printing positions (print heads) are batched to the right by the number of consecutive blanks. It has the function of moving. Return (C
Both R) and line feed (LF) are data for one character, but for position movement (MV), it is necessary to send 2-digit numerical data in succession in order to specify the movement amount. Three
It becomes a data string for characters. An example of control data for position movement is as follows: MV05 …… Move the print position to the right by 5 characters at a time MV08 …… Move the print position to the right by 8 characters at a time MV13 …… Move the print position to the right by 13 characters For example, move them all at once. In addition, "sell", "up", "go",
A character having a width equivalent to two characters (see FIGS. 3 and 4) such as “total” is assumed to transmit data for two characters.

Next, the operation will be described. The CPU 1 transmits data to the printer 13 character by character according to the flowchart of FIG. R is a counter area for updating and storing the number of consecutive blank character data (the number of consecutive blanks) n
It is secured on AM4 and "0" is set as an initial value.

In step S1, it is determined whether the data for one character to be transmitted to the printer 13 is blank character data. If it is blank character data, the process proceeds to step S2 and the counter n for the number of continuous blanks is incremented. At this time, the character data is not transmitted, and the process proceeds to the next data processing cycle for one character.

If it is determined in step S1 that the character data is not blank character data, the flow advances to step S3 to determine whether the content of the counter n for the number of consecutive blanks is "0". When it is "0", the process skips to step S7 and the data for one character (non-blank character data) is transmitted to the printer 13. Then, step S8
After that, the process proceeds to the data processing cycle for the next one character.

If the content of the counter n for the number of consecutive blanks is not "0" in the determination of step S3, the process proceeds to step S4 to determine whether the content of the counter n is the reference number "3" or more. When n = 1 or n = 2, the process proceeds to step S5, n blank character data is transmitted to the printer 13, and then at step S7, one character data at that time (non-blank character data). Is transmitted to the printer 13, the contents of the counter n are cleared in step S8, and then the next 1
Proceed to the character data processing cycle.

If the content of the counter n for the number of consecutive blanks is equal to or larger than the reference number "3" in the determination in step S4, the process proceeds to step S6, and the printer 13 for n characters.
The control data "MV ○○" (for 3 characters) for moving the print position (print head) of the above to the right all at once is transmitted to the printer 13, and then at step S7, the data for 1 character at that time (non-blank character data) ) Is sent to the printer 13, the contents of the counter n are cleared in step S8, and then
Proceed to the character data processing cycle.

As a result of the above processing, in the case of continuous blank character data of three characters or more, the process proceeds to steps S1 → S3 → S4 → S6, and all control data strings for position movement (for three characters) ), The amount of data to be transmitted to the printer 13 is reduced as compared with the conventional method in which blank character data is transmitted one by one.

Further, when the continuous blank character data is one or two characters, the blank character data is transmitted as it is (S5), so that the transmission data amount does not increase.

When the receipt 20 shown in FIG. 4 is printed according to this embodiment, the data string transmitted to the printer 13 is as shown in FIG. For example, in the third line, since the number of continuous blanks is 15, "MV15" (3 characters. "MV") is used as control data for batch printing position movement.
1 character) is transmitted, and the total number of transmission data is 12, which is 12 less than that of the conventional example 24. According to the calculation formula, 15-3 = 12. In the case of the 4th line, since the number of consecutive blanks is 13, the control data "MV1
3 "(3 characters) is transmitted, and the total number of transmitted data is 1
4, which is 10 less than that of the conventional example 24. That is, 13-3 = 10. In the case of the 7th line,
Since the number of consecutive blanks is 8, "MV0
8 "(for 3 characters) is transmitted, and the total number of transmitted data is 1
The number is 9, which is 5 less than that of the conventional example 24. That is, 8-3 = 5.

When the receipt 20 shown in FIG. 4 is printed, the conventional example sends a total of 261 character data as shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, a total of 168 pieces were required, and the amount of data transmitted to the printer 13 could be reduced by about 35%. Generally speaking, the more blank spaces there are and the longer the continuous blank character strings are, the greater the reduction rate of the amount of data to be transmitted becomes.

As described above, when the blank character data are continuous, the control data for three characters in total, that is, the data for one character for instructing the position movement (MV) and the data for two characters indicating the number of continuous blanks are used. Since the number of characters of the control data is smaller than the total amount of continuous blank character data, the transmission data amount is reduced as compared with the conventional example.
As a result, the printer 13 can increase the speed of the printing process, and the CPU 1 can quickly shift to another process, which improves the efficiency of the entire system.

In the above embodiment, the threshold value (reference number) of n, which is the number of consecutive blanks, is set to "3", but this is because the control data for position movement in this embodiment is "MV15" or "MV".
It is because it is three characters such as "08". If the control data string for position movement is x characters, n is the number of consecutive blanks.
The threshold value (reference number) may be set to “x”.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention, when the number of continuous blanks is equal to or larger than the reference number, control data for collectively moving the printing position (print head) by the amount of continuous blank character data is transmitted. Therefore, the number of data to be transmitted is reduced and the printing process can be speeded up as compared with the case where blank character data is transmitted character by character.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of a POS terminal to which a printer data transmission system according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the printer data transmission system according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram of transmission data when transmitting the print information of the receipt of FIG. 4 according to the method of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a receipt printed out at a POS terminal.

5 is a conceptual diagram of transmission data when the print information of the receipt of FIG. 4 is transmitted by the conventional method.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... CPU 3 ... ROM 4 ... RAM 8 ... Printer control circuit 13 ... Printer 20 ... Receipt n ... Counter for continuous blank number

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A means for counting the number of consecutive blank character data in print data to be transmitted to a printer, a means for comparing the number of consecutive blank characters with a predetermined reference number, and a reference for the number of consecutive blank characters. When the number of blank characters is less than the number of blank characters, the method to send the blank character data as it is, and when the number of consecutive blank characters is more than the reference number, the control data to collectively move the printing position of the printer by the amount corresponding to all the consecutive blank characters data is provided. A data transmission system in a printer, comprising: a means for transmitting.