JPH06270489A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten a printing time by providing sensing means for sensing mounting of a ribbon cassette at a carriage, controlling a moving speed of the carriage in response to a sensed result, and moving the carriage at a relatively high speed at the time of nonmounting of the cassette. CONSTITUTION:A printer has a ribbon cassette 5 capable of mounting at a carriage 1 reciprocated by a rotation of a timing belt 6 by a carriage motor 4, and comprises a cassette switch 2 for detecting a mounting state of the cassette 5. An entrance speed of the motor 4 is varied according to presence/ absence of mounting of the cassette 5 at the carriage 1. That is, if the cassette 5 is not mounted in the case of printing a heat-sensitive sheet, drive of the motor 4 is so controlled as to drive the carriage 1 at a faster speed than when the cassette 5 is mounted. Thus, a total printing time is shortened.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a printer, and more particularly to a printer which has a mechanism for detecting the presence or absence of a ribbon cassette and which controls the operation of a stepping motor which regulates the printing speed depending on the presence or absence of the cassette. Pertain.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a printer has not been equipped with a cassette switch for detecting the presence or absence of a ribbon cassette for printing. Therefore, a motor for defining a driving speed (printing speed) of a carriage on which the ribbon cassette is mounted is specified. Was controlled according to a predetermined set of acceleration / deceleration criteria.
That is, the rotation speed of the motor is controlled by the motor timing table for acceleration and the motor timing table for deceleration regardless of the presence or absence of the cassette, and the printer has a desired printing speed. Was.

Therefore, the printing time was the same regardless of the presence or absence of the ribbon cassette.

[0004]

In recent years, as the speed of printers has increased, there has been an increasing demand for improving the throughput in thermal paper printing used as confirmation printing.

However, since there is no means for detecting the presence / absence of the ribbon cassette in view of cost increase, the speed of the carriage driving motor cannot be varied according to the presence / absence of the ribbon cassette. It was

It is an object of the present invention to provide a printer capable of changing the printing time according to the presence / absence of a ribbon cassette.

[0007]

A carriage which can mount a ribbon cassette and is movable in the printing direction, a driving means which drives the carriage, a detecting means which detects whether the ribbon cassette is mounted on the carriage, and a detecting means. Moves the carriage at a first speed when the mounting of the ribbon cassette on the carriage is detected, and at a second speed that is faster than the first speed when the detecting unit does not detect the mounting of the ribbon cassette on the carriage. And control means for controlling the operation of the drive means so as to move.

[0008]

The control means moves the carriage at the first speed when the detecting means detects the mounting of the ribbon cassette on the carriage, and the first speed when the detecting means does not detect the mounting of the ribbon cassette on the carriage. Since the operation of the driving means is controlled so as to move the carriage at a higher second speed, the running time for the movement of the carriage can be shortened by changing the moving speed of the carriage by the driving means according to the presence or absence of the ribbon cassette. You can change
The total printing time can be shortened, and printing can be performed efficiently.

[0009]

1 is a schematic perspective view of an embodiment of a printer of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a view for explaining a circuit for controlling the operation of this embodiment.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a carriage, 2 is a cassette switch as a detecting means for detecting whether or not a ribbon cassette 5 is mounted on the carriage 1, and 3 is a servo.
A round head, 4 is a carriage motor for driving the carriage 1, and 6 is a belt for transmitting the driving of the carriage motor to the carriage 1. The carriage 1 is movable in the direction of arrow R or F in FIG. When the ribbon cassette 5 is mounted on the carriage 1, it is detected by the cassette switch 2. When the cassette switch 2 detects the presence of the ribbon cassette 5, the approach distance of the carriage motor 4 can be made variable. That is, when the ribbon cassette 5 is mounted on the carriage 1, the weight of the ribbon cassette 5 increases the load of the motor 4, but if it is not mounted, the load becomes lighter and the carriage motor 4 is accelerated and decelerated rapidly. It becomes possible.

In FIG. 2, 11 is a carriage motor 4.
A motor driver circuit which also constitutes a driving means and drives the carriage motor 4, and a CPU 12 which controls the operation of the motor driver circuit according to the detection state of the cassette switch 2 to rotate the carriage motor. Reference numeral 13 is a ROM which stores a printer operating program and a motor timing table which will be described later, and 14 is a RAM which is used to temporarily save operating data when the printer is operating.
U, ROM and RAM constitute the control means.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart for explaining the driving of the carriage motor 4 in the embodiment of the printer.
Table 1 is a motor acceleration timing table 1 showing the motor acceleration timing 1, Table 2 is a motor deceleration timing table 1 showing the motor deceleration timing 1, and Table 3 is a motor acceleration timing. 2 is a motor acceleration timing table 2 and Table 4 is a motor deceleration timing table 2 showing a motor deceleration timing 2.

[0013]

[Table 1]

[0014]

[Table 2]

[0015]

[Table 3]

[0016]

[Table 4]

In FIG. 3, the cassette switch 2 detects the presence / absence of the ribbon cassette 5 (3-1), and when the ribbon cassette 5 is present, the number of approach pulses for accelerating the carriage 1 during acceleration is large. When the motor acceleration timing table 1 (Table 1) is decelerated (3-2, 3-6), when decelerating, the motor deceleration timing table with many running pulses is used.
Bull 1 (Table 2) is used (3-2, 3-3). When the ribbon cassette 5 does not exist, when accelerating, the motor 1 which accelerates the carriage 1 has a small number of run-up pulses (Table 3) (3-4, 3-7), when decelerating Uses the motor deceleration timing table 2 (Table 4) (3-4, 3-5) with a small number of run-up pulses, and selects a table for gradual acceleration and deceleration.

After selecting the timing table in this way, the desired carriage motor control can be performed by switching the motor phase (3-8).

FIG. 4 shows a pulse motor as a carriage motor.
Diagram for explaining the rotation of the pulse motor when the motor is used,
FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining how to use the motor acceleration timing table 1.

A method of using the timing table will be described with reference to the motor acceleration timing table 1 (Table 1), FIG. 4 and FIG.

As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the pulse motor rotates one step by changing from the A and B on states to the B and A bar on states. The pulse motor is rotated by sequentially switching the phases and turning them on.

The timing table is used to define the time for this phase switching. Initially, A and B are kept in the ON state (t0), and 3.333 milliseconds after t0, the B and A bars are turned on by the interrupt processing of the software to perform the phase switching (t1). Table pointer-1
Up and set the next interrupt time 2.899 ms. By this operation, the phase switching and the next value of the table are set (t2) after 2.899 milliseconds (t2).
(In) acceleration operation can be performed. Desired control can be performed by successively setting the values in this manner. Table 5 shows the run-up pulse and the total run-up time in each table.

[0023]

[Table 5]

In Table 5, it is clear that the total run time is different due to the difference in the run pulses.

From the above, the effect of speed-up is as follows. That is, (acceleration with ribbon cassette,
Deceleration time)-(acceleration and deceleration time without ribbon cassette) = 35.717 ms / 1 line.

If there are 50 lines per page, a speed-up effect of about 1.8 seconds / page is expected. The speedup of 1.8 seconds / page is specifically about 31 seconds for printing one page, and the time required for printing one page is about 29.2 seconds. PPM (Page Per Minite) It can be said that this effect is extremely large because the display shows 2 PPM.

[0027]

The control means moves the carriage at the first speed when the detecting means detects the mounting of the ribbon cassette on the carriage, and the first means when the detecting means does not detect the mounting of the ribbon cassette on the carriage. Since the operation of the drive means is controlled so as to move the carriage at a second speed that is faster than the above speed, the run-up time relating to the movement of the carriage is made variable by changing the movement speed of the carriage by the drive means according to the presence or absence of the ribbon cassette. Can be changed, the total printing time can be shortened, and printing can be performed efficiently.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view of an embodiment of a printer of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a circuit that controls the operation of an embodiment of the printer of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining driving of a carriage motor.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the rotation of a pulse motor.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a method of using the motor acceleration timing table 1.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Carriage 2 Cassette Switch 3 Thermal Head 4 Carriage Motor 5 Ribbon Cassette 6 Timing Belt 12 CPU 13 ROM 14 RAM

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A carriage that is capable of mounting a ribbon cassette and is movable in the printing direction, drive means for driving the carriage, detection means for detecting whether or not the ribbon cassette is mounted on the carriage, and the detection means. When the mounting of the ribbon cassette on the carriage is detected, the first
The driving means is operated so as to move the carriage at a speed of 2 and move the carriage at a second speed higher than the first speed when the detection means does not detect the mounting of the ribbon cassette on the carriage. And a control means for controlling the printer.