JPH0930049A - Hammer driving signal forming method of dot line printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To inexprensively form a hammer driving signal forming circuit capable of performing double-density printing. SOLUTION: A full/half control circuit 160 sets a full signal to 1 when the DIR signal at the start time of printing is 1 and sets a half signal 1 when the value of a counter 130 becomes same to the value of a flip-flop 140 and sets the full signal to 0 when the value of the counter 130 becomes same to the value of a flip-flop 140 and sets the half signal to 0 when the value of the counter 130 becomes the sum value of the value of the flip-flop 140 and the value of the flip-flop 150. An AND circuit 70 transmits a full drive signal to a hammer driving circuit 190 when a full/half signal is 1. A selection circuit 180 allots the hammer driving signal of a third dot line to the hammer of a first dot line and allots the hammer driving signal of a fourth dot line to the hammer of a second dot line and allots the hammer driving signal of the first dot line to the hammer of the third dot line and allots the hammer driving signal of the second dot line to the hammer of the fourth dot line.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for generating a hammer drive signal for a dot line printer which prints by horizontally reciprocating a hammer bank having a plurality of printing hammers.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 2 shows a printing principle of a dot line printer.

In FIG. 2, a hammer bank 200 having a plurality of printing hammers (not shown) mounted thereon is connected to a shuttle driving device 210. Shuttle drive 210
Uses an eccentric cam or the like to horizontally reciprocate the hammer bank 200 with a predetermined stroke width. In the process of reciprocating the hammer bank 200, the printing hammer is driven by a printing control device (not shown), and printing is performed at a predetermined position on the printing paper 230 via the ink ribbon 220. When printing of one stroke of the hammer bank 200 is completed, the motor 2 for transporting the paper is fed until the hammer bank 200 reverses and moves to the next printing position.
The printing paper is transported by a predetermined amount by the paper transporting tractor 250 driven by 40, and printing of the next stroke is started. FIG. 3 shows an example of a hammer array of a dot line printer.

FIG. 3 shows an arrangement of hammers when viewed from the direction A of FIG. 2, in which the hammers 1 to 10 are arranged on a straight line in the horizontal direction at equal distances Lh, and the rows of hammers are arranged in the vertical direction. Are arranged in four rows at a distance of Lv, for a total of 40
A single hammer is mounted on the hammer bank 200.

Now, assuming that the distance Lh is converted to a print density of 180 dots / inch, 100 dots (that is, 100 /
180 inches), and the positions of 100 dots are horizontal positions 1 to 100 from the left. The distance Lv is 180 dp
Converted to the print density of i, 1 dot (ie 1/180
Inches).

Usually, the hammers are arranged so that all the hammers can be printed several times for the purpose of averaging power consumption and reducing noise. In the case of FIG. 3, all the hammers are arranged so as to be divided into four prints, and the horizontal distance between the hammer 1 of the first dot line and the hammer 11 of the second dot line is 1/180 inch with respect to the grid. 1/4 x 1/18
Similarly, the horizontal distance between the hammer 11 of the second dot line and the hammer 21 of the third dot line is 2/4 × 1/180 inches, and the hammer 21 of the third dot line is The horizontal distance of the hammer 31 of the 4-dot line is shifted to the left by 3/4 × 1/180 inch.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a hammer drive signal of a dot line printer.

In FIG. 4, a signal name DA is a first dot line hammer drive signal, a signal name DB is a second dot line hammer drive signal, a signal name DC is a third dot line hammer drive signal, and a signal name DD is. The hammer drive signal of the 4th dot line is shown.

When the hammer bank 200 moves from the left to the right, the first, second, and
Since the hammers are arranged in the order of the third and fourth dot lines on the printing position of the printing paper (on the 1/180 inch grid), the first, second, third and fourth dot lines are arranged as shown in FIG. Each hammer is driven in order. Therefore, the printing for one horizontal position is divided into four times of the first, second, third, and fourth dot lines.

When the hammer bank moves from right to left, the hammers are arranged in the order of the fourth, third, second, and first dot lines on the printing position of the printing paper (on a 1/180 inch grid). Therefore, the hammer is driven in the order of the fourth, third, second and first dot lines.

FIG. 6 shows a hammer drive signal generating method according to the prior art when double density printing is performed using the hammer of FIG.

In FIG. 6, 100 is a hammer position detection circuit, 120 is a full drive signal generation circuit, 190 is a hammer drive circuit, 300 is a half drive signal delay circuit, and 310 is a half drive signal generation circuit.

When the hammer bank 200 moves from left to right, the hammer position detecting circuit 100 detects that the hammer is 1/18.
A pulse (signal name P) is generated each time it moves by 0 inch.

The microprocessor 110 counts the pulses output from the hammer position detection circuit 100, and when the hammer reaches the position to start printing, issues a print start instruction (signal name S) to the full drive signal generation circuit 120. .

When the full drive signal generation circuit 120 receives the next pulse after receiving the print start instruction output from the microprocessor 110, the first to fourth groups are driven.
Hammer drive signal (hereinafter abbreviated as full drive signal) A,
B, C, and D are sequentially generated.

When the hammer drive circuit 190 receives the full drive signal, the hammer drive circuit 190 drives the hammer for the time required to operate the hammer, and prints on the 1/180 inch grid (full position).

In double density printing, printing must also be performed at an intermediate position (hereinafter abbreviated as a half position) of the 1/180 inch grid.

The half drive signal delay circuit 300 delays the pulse output from the hammer position detection circuit 100 by the time for the hammer bank 200 to move by 1/360 inch and outputs it to the half drive signal generation circuit 310. To do. As a result, the half drive signal generation circuit 310 sequentially outputs the hammer drive signals (hereinafter abbreviated as half drive signals) HA, HB, HC, and HD of the first to fourth groups for printing the half position. To generate.

When the hammer driving circuit 190 receives the half driving signal, the hammer driving circuit 190 drives the hammer for the time required to operate the hammer and prints at the half position.

Hereinafter, every time the hammer position detection circuit 100 outputs a pulse, a hammer drive signal is generated up to the horizontal position 100.

When the hammer bank 200 moves from right to left, conversely, the hammer drive signal is sequentially generated from the half drive signal at the horizontal position 100 of the fourth group.

[0022]

In the conventional hammer drive signal generation circuit, in order to perform double density printing, a full / half hammer drive signal is separately generated from the signal of the hammer position detection circuit. Therefore, two hammer drive signal generation circuits having a large circuit scale are required, which causes a problem of cost increase.

An object of the present invention is to provide a hammer drive signal generation circuit capable of double-density printing without increasing cost.

[0024]

In order to achieve the above object, in the hammer drive signal generating circuit of the present invention, a hardware
The print position is in the middle of the normal print position,
Since the hammer in the hammer bank is driven several times,
This can be achieved by utilizing the generation of a plurality of hammer drive signals for printing at one horizontal position and using a part of the normal hammer drive signals for print density as the half drive signals.

[0025]

According to the present invention, since the full drive signal of the hammers displaced by 1/2 × 1/180 is used as the half drive signal, the half drive signal generation circuit is not required, and therefore the circuit is eliminated. It is possible to generate a hammer drive signal for double density without increasing the scale.

[0026]

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment according to the present invention, and FIG. 5 is an operation explanatory diagram of FIG. The case of performing double-density printing using the hammer shown in FIG. 3 will be described below.

In FIG. 1, 100 is a hammer position detecting circuit, 110 is a microprocessor, 120 is a full drive signal generating circuit, 130 is a counter, and 140 and 150 are D.
Flip-flop, 160 is a full / half control circuit, 1
70 is an AND circuit, 180 is a selection circuit, and 190 is a hammer drive circuit.

When the hammer bank 200 moves from left to right, the hammer position detection circuit 100 operates the hammer bank 20.
A signal (signal name DIR) indicating the moving direction of 0 is set to 1.
A pulse (signal name P) is generated every time the hammer bank 200 moves 1/180 inch.

The microprocessor 110 sets the flip-flop 140 to 2 and the flip-flop 1 before starting the printing.
Write 400 to 50. Also, the hammer position detection circuit 10
When the pulse output by 0 is counted and the start of printing is detected,
A print start instruction (signal name S) is output to the full hammer drive signal generation circuit 120.

When the full drive signal generation circuit 120 receives the next pulse after receiving the print start instruction, the hammer drive signals of the first to fourth groups (signal names A, B, C, D). Are generated in order.

The full / half control circuit 160 outputs a full signal (signal name F) when the DIR signal is 1 at the start of printing.
1 ".

The counter-130 counts all the first to fourth full drive signals generated by the full drive signal generation circuit 120. Full / Half control circuit is counter-1
After the value of 30 becomes the same value as the D flip-flop 140, the half signal (signal name H) is set to "1".

When the full or half signal is 1, the AND circuit 170 transmits the corresponding hammer drive signal to the hammer drive circuit 190.

As shown in FIG. 5, the selection circuit 180 assigns the hammer drive signal of the third dot line to the hammer of the first dot line (assigns C to HA) and the fourth dot to the hammer of the second dot line. Allocating the hammer drive signal of the line (D is assigned to HB) and the hammer drive signal of the first dot line to the hammer of the third dot line (HC
To A), and the hammer drive signal of the second dot line is assigned to the hammer of the fourth dot line (B is assigned to HD).

As a result, in addition to the drive signal for the full position, the first dot line is 1/2 × 1/180 inch = 1/3.
A drive signal can be obtained even at 60 inches (half position), and double-density printing can be performed.

Accordingly, when the hammer drive circuit 190 receives the full drive signal, the hammer drive circuit 190 drives the hammer for the time required to operate the hammer, prints on the 1/180 inch grid (full position), and outputs the harf. When the drive signal is received, printing is similarly performed at the half position.

The full-hammer drive signal generation circuit 120 further generates one half-horizontal position (horizontal position) in order to generate the half-drive signal for the horizontal position 100 even after generating the pulse hammer drive signal for printing at the horizontal position 100. The 101st position), the full hammer drive signal is output.

The full / half control circuit 160 sets the full signal to 0 when the value of the counter 130 reaches the same value as the D flip-flop 150.

The full hammer drive signal at the horizontal position 101 is not transmitted to the hammer drive circuit 190 by the AND circuit 170 because the full signal is 0.

Further, in the full / half control circuit 160, the value of the counter 130 is equal to that of the D flip-flops 140 and D.
After the value added with the flip-flop 150, the
Since the drive signal is set to 0, the full drive signals C and D at the horizontal position 101 which are not necessary for generating the half drive signal are ANDed.
Circuit 170 does not communicate to hammer drive circuit 190.

As described above, according to the present invention, attention is paid to the generation of a plurality of driving signals by shifting the driving signals when dividing and driving at least two or more arranged hammer groups. In order to generate the drive signal corresponding to the double-density print position (half position) of one group, the drive signals of the same timing among the drive signals of the other groups (drive signals of the full position) are used.

When the hammer bank 200 moves from the right to the left, the hammer position detection circuit 100 sets the DIR signal to 0, and the full signal generation circuit 120, on the contrary, starts the half drive of the fourth group. Are generated in sequence.

[0044]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention,
By using the full drive signal of the hammers shifted by 1/2 × 1/180 as the half drive signal, double density printing can be performed without increasing the circuit scale.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of a dot line printer.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a hammer arrangement.

FIG. 4 is a timing chart showing an example of a hammer drive signal.

FIG. 5 is a timing chart showing the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a conventional hammer drive signal generation circuit.

[Explanation of symbols]

100 is a hammer position detection circuit, 110 is a microprocessor, 120 is a full drive signal generation circuit, 130 is a counter, 140 and 150 are D flip-flops, 160 is a full / half control circuit, 170 is an AND circuit, and 180 is A selection circuit, 190 is a hammer drive circuit, 200 is a hammer bank, 210 is a shuttle drive device, 220 is an ink ribbon, 230 is printing paper, 240 is a paper transport motor, and 2
Reference numeral 50 is a paper transport tractor, 300 is a half delay circuit, and 310 is a half drive signal generation circuit.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A hammer bank provided with one or more rows of hammers having two or more printing hammers on a straight line in the horizontal direction is reciprocally moved in the horizontal direction to perform printing. Divide into two or more groups and have a hammer drive signal corresponding to the hammer group of each group,
In a dot line printer capable of printing at a density double the normal printing density, a dot line printer characterized by generating a double density hammer drive signal from a part of the normal print density hammer drive signal Hammer drive signal generation method. 2. In the dot line printer, a hammer driving signal having a normal printing density is generated by one printing position in excess of the number of hammer driving signals required for printing at a normal printing density, thereby generating a hammer bank. A method for generating a hammer drive signal for a dot line printer, characterized in that a hammer drive signal for double density of the last print position in the movement of the print head is generated from a hammer drive signal for normal print density.