JPH091823A - Ink residual amount detection circuit of printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To accurately display the residual amt. of ink by an objective number by simple constitution. CONSTITUTION: An image memory 13 stores recording data transmitted from a host device. The recording data stored in the image memory 13 is transmitted to a recording part 2 through a black pixel counter part 12 by the control of a main control part 11. The black pixel counter part 12 counts only the number of black pixels among the recording data transmitted from the image memory 13 to the recording part 2. A main control part 11 renews the cumulated number of black pixels up to the previous time of an RAM 14 on the basis of the count value of the black pixel count part 12 when the recording data corresponding to one page is transmitted to the recording part 12 and calculates the percentage of the residual amt. of ink from the ratio of the cumulated number of black pixels stored in the RAM 14 with the number of printable black pixels preliminarily stored in the RAM 14 to display the residual amt. of ink on a display part 15 by percentage.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink remaining amount detecting circuit of a printing device, and more particularly to an ink remaining amount detecting circuit of an ink jet type printing device which prints data such as characters and image information by ejecting ink onto recording paper. Regarding

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in this type of ink jet printer, there is a method of notifying that there is no ink when the remaining amount of ink is below a certain value. However, with this method, an alarm indicating that there is no ink is suddenly notified, so there is the inconvenience of having to prepare the ink cartridge and the like in advance.

In order to solve this problem, a conductive contact is attached to the ink bag in the ink cartridge, and the contact is constantly brought into contact with the inner surface of the ink cartridge to detect the height of the ink bag to detect the ink residue. There is a method in which the amount of ink is detected and the remaining amount of ink is displayed by the number of printable characters, the number of characters printed, or the number of pages printed. For this method,
This is described in detail in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-195049.

That is, a contact is attached to the ink bag, and a slidable ink sensor whose contact is always in contact with the inner surface of the ink cartridge is attached. In this ink sensor, the resistance value changes according to the height between the terminals, and the height of the contact can be detected by the change in the resistance value.

In addition to the configuration described above, a counter for counting the number of dots during printing, a counter for counting the number of characters during printing, and a counter for counting the number of pages during printing are provided, and a printing command from the control circuit is provided. Are configured to perform counting respectively.

In the above structure, when the ink remaining amount is detected by the voltage change due to the change of the resistance value of the ink sensor,
The ink remaining amount is displayed by the printable number, the print character number, or the number of printed pages calculated from the ink remaining amount, the dot count value, the character count value, and the page count value.

[0007]

In the above-mentioned conventional ink remaining amount detecting method, since the ink remaining amount is detected based on the voltage value which changes according to the weight of the ink, the ink remaining amount is extremely small. It is difficult to detect minute changes with high accuracy.

Further, in the above method, the remaining ink amount is displayed by the printable number, print character number, or print page number calculated from the dot count value, the character count value, and the page count value. Therefore, in addition to the sensor for detecting the remaining amount of ink, a counter for counting the number of dots, the number of characters, and the number of pages is required, which complicates the circuit configuration.

Further, since the display of the ink remaining amount is based on the dot duty and the character duty, when the dot duty and the character duty in the image information to be printed greatly vary from page to page, the ink remaining amount is accurately displayed. Therefore, the display of the ink remaining amount is only a reference for the operator.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and to provide an ink remaining amount detecting circuit having a simple structure and capable of displaying an ink remaining amount accurately and in an objective number. .

[0011]

The ink remaining amount detection circuit of a printing device according to the present invention is a remaining amount detection circuit of a printing device in which a predetermined amount of ink is used for each print dot to be printed. Based on an accumulating means for accumulating the number of the print dots in the transfer data from the device, the accumulation result of the accumulating means and the number of dots printable with the ink amount previously supplied to the printing device. It has a calculating means for calculating the percentage of the remaining ink amount and a means for displaying the calculation result of the previous calculating means.

In addition to the above configuration, an ink remaining amount detecting circuit of another printing apparatus according to the present invention comprises storage means for storing transfer data from the host apparatus, and the transfer means stored in the storage means. The number of print dots in the data is accumulated by the accumulating means.

An ink remaining amount detecting circuit of another printing apparatus according to the present invention is an ink remaining amount detecting circuit of an ink jet type printing apparatus in which a predetermined amount of ink is used for each black dot to be printed, Means for accumulating the number of the black dots in the transfer data from, and a black dot which can be printed with the accumulation result of the accumulating means and the ink amount of the ink cartridge mounted in the ink jet type printer. A calculation unit that calculates the percentage of the remaining ink amount based on the number and a unit that displays the calculation result of the previous calculation unit are provided.

In addition to the above configuration, the ink remaining amount detecting circuit of still another printing apparatus according to the present invention comprises storage means for storing transfer data from the higher-order apparatus, and the storage means stores the data. The number of print dots in the transfer data is accumulated by the accumulating means.

[0015]

By utilizing the fact that the consumption amount of ink is proportional to the number of black pixels of the transfer data to be printed, the number of black pixels of the transfer data to be printed is counted by the black pixel counter unit, and the counted value is stored in advance in the RAM. The percentage of the remaining ink amount calculated based on the stored number of printable black pixels is displayed on the display unit.

As a result, since the ink remaining amount can be detected only by the black pixel counter section, it is possible to display the percentage of the ink remaining amount with a simple structure, and the ink remaining amount can be displayed as an objective numerical value by the operator. Can be notified. Therefore, it is possible to accurately and objectively display the remaining amount of ink with a simple configuration.

[0017]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of one embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, an ink remaining amount detection circuit 1 includes a main control unit 11, a black pixel counter unit 12, and an image memory 1.
3, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 14, and a display unit 15, and is connected to a recording unit 2 including an inkjet recording head (not shown).

The print data transferred from a higher-level device (not shown) and stored in the image memory 13 is transferred to the print unit 2 through the black pixel counter unit 12 under the control of the main control unit 11, and the print unit 2 uses the ink jet print head. Is recorded on a recording paper (not shown). At this time, the black pixel counter unit 12 counts only the number of black pixels in the recording data transferred from the image memory 13 to the recording unit 2.

When the recording data for one page is transferred from the image memory 13 to the recording unit 2, the main control unit 11 reads the count value from the black pixel counter unit 12, and the RAM 14
The cumulative number of black pixels in the RAM 14 is updated by adding the count value to the previous cumulative number of black pixels stored in the RAM 14 and storing it in the RAM 14. At this time, the main control unit 11 resets the black pixel counter unit 12 and sets the count value to 0.
Initialize to

The main control unit 11 obtains a percentage of the ink remaining amount from the ratio of the cumulative black pixel number stored in the RAM 14 and the printable black pixel number stored in the RAM 14 in advance, and the display unit 15 displays the ink remaining amount. Is displayed as a percentage. here,
The RAM 14 is backed up by a power source (not shown), but a writable non-volatile memory may be used instead of the RAM 14.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of one embodiment of the present invention. An operation of displaying the remaining ink amount according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

The recording data transferred from the host device and accumulated in the image memory 13 is transferred to the recording unit 2 through the black pixel counter unit 12, and the recording unit 2 starts recording on the recording paper by the ink jet recording head. Then, the black pixel counter unit 12 counts only the number of black pixels in the recording data transferred from the image memory 13 to the recording unit 2 (step S1 in FIG. 2).

The main controller 11 determines whether or not one page of recording data has been transferred from the image memory 13 to the recording unit 2 (step S2 in FIG. 2). When the main control unit 11 determines that the recording data for one page has been transferred to the recording unit 2, the count value is read from the black pixel counter unit 12 (see FIG. 2).
In step S3), the black pixel counter unit 12 is reset and its count value is initialized to 0 (step S in FIG. 2).
4).

At the same time, the main controller 11 updates the cumulative number of black pixels in the RAM 14 by adding the count value to the previous cumulative number of black pixels stored in the RAM 14 and storing it in the RAM 14 (step in FIG. 2). S5).

The main controller 11 prints with the cumulative number of black pixels stored in the RAM 14 and the number of printable black pixels stored in the RAM 14 in advance [the amount of ink in the ink cartridge (not shown) supplied to the recording unit 2]. [The number of black pixels that can be generated]] and the percentage of the remaining amount of ink is calculated (step S in FIG. 2).
6) The remaining ink amount is displayed on the display unit 15 as a percentage (step S7 in FIG. 2).

In this case, if the cumulative black pixel number stored in the RAM 14 is a and the printable black pixel number stored in the RAM 14 in advance is A, the ink remaining amount Q is Q = [(A-a) / A] × 100, for example, “ink remaining amount 90
% ”Is displayed.

The above example relates to a printer device or a facsimile device using an ink jet recording head, but it is also applicable to a printer device or a facsimile device using a color ink jet recording head. In that case, instead of counting the black pixels, it is sufficient to count for each of the R, G, B dyes of the transfer data from the higher-level device and for each of those dots.
It is possible to display the ink remaining amount for each of the dyes.

By utilizing the fact that the ink consumption is proportional to the number of black pixels of the transfer data to be printed in this way, the number of black pixels of the transfer data to be printed is counted by the black pixel counter section 12, and the total is calculated. By displaying the percentage of the ink remaining amount calculated based on the numerical value and the number of printable black pixels stored in the RAM 14 in advance on the display unit 15, it is possible to detect the ink remaining amount only by the black pixel counter unit 12. Therefore, the percentage of the remaining ink amount can be displayed with a simple configuration.
In that case, since the remaining ink amount is displayed in percentage, the remaining ink amount can be notified to the operator as an objective numerical value. Therefore, it is possible to accurately and objectively display the remaining ink amount with a simple configuration.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention, in a printing device in which a predetermined amount of ink is used for each printing dot to be printed, the number of the printing dots in the transfer data from the upper device is accumulated. By calculating and displaying the percentage of the ink remaining amount based on the accumulated result and the number of dots that can be printed with the ink amount supplied in advance to the printing device,
With a simple configuration, there is an effect that the remaining ink amount can be accurately displayed in an objective number.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of one embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Ink Remaining Amount Detection Circuit 2 Recording Section 11 Main Control Section 12 Black Pixel Counter Section 13 Image Memory 14 RAM 15 Display Section

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A remaining ink amount detection circuit of a printing device, wherein a predetermined amount of ink is used for each print dot to be printed, and is a cumulative total for accumulating the number of the print dots in the transfer data from a higher-level device. Calculation means, calculation means for calculating the percentage of the remaining ink amount based on the accumulation result of the accumulation means and the number of dots that can be printed with the ink amount previously supplied to the printing device, and calculation of the pre-calculation means And a means for displaying a result. 2. A storage means for storing transfer data from the higher-level device is included, and the print dot number in the transfer data stored in the storage means is accumulated by the accumulating means. The ink remaining amount detection circuit according to claim 1, wherein 3. An ink remaining amount detection circuit of an ink jet type printing apparatus, wherein a predetermined amount of ink is used for each black dot to be printed, and the number of said black dots in transfer data from a host device is accumulated. The percentage of the remaining ink amount is calculated based on the accumulating unit that calculates the sum, the accumulation result of the accumulating unit, and the number of black dots that can be printed with the ink amount of the ink cartridge mounted in the ink jet type printing apparatus. An ink remaining amount detection circuit having a calculating means and a means for displaying the calculation result of the previous calculating means. 4. A storage unit for storing transfer data from the higher-level device is included, and the print dot number in the transfer data stored in the storage unit is accumulated by the accumulating unit. The ink remaining amount detecting circuit according to claim 3,