JPH0986016A - Electronic machinery - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To visually confirm the setting position of recording paper certainly in a dark place or in a case generating reflected light by together using a recording paper indicator showing the insertion position of recording paper and a function indicator displaying respective function states. SOLUTION: When an operator determines the form of a document when the document is formed, an LED indicator group 1 coinciding with the width of recording paper of the form begins to light continuously. For example, when a form of A4 is selected and the formation of the document is started, an LED indicator 1c lights continuously. The LED indicator 1c is changed from continuous lighting to flashing when FDD begins to operate and, when FDD is stopped, the LED indicator 1c is again changed to continuous lighting. As a means letting the operator to know that the ink of a printer is exhausted, an LED indicator 1d is turned ON and OFF.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic device such as a word processor or a personal computer, and more particularly to an electronic device equipped with a recording device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an electronic device of this type is constructed as shown in FIG. 7, for example.

That is, the main body of the electronic equipment is composed of a printer, a keyboard 8 and an upper case 3 and a lower case 6 for accommodating electronic parts and the like, which are not shown. The display 5 is rotatably attached to the main body by a hinge mechanism or the like. The operator creates a document or the like by using the keyboard 8 while looking at the display device 5.

The printer installed in this electronic apparatus is of a recording type that is conveyed parallel to the floor surface, and the operator follows the indicator 3a stamped or printed on the upper case 3 or along the indicator. The recording paper is inserted into the printer and the print start button is pressed to print the document created on the screen of the display 5 on the recording paper.

[0005]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, since the indicator 3a for notifying the operator of the setting position of the recording paper is formed by engraving or printing, when used in a dark place or when the illumination light is reflected. Doing so may make it difficult to see.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an electronic apparatus which can surely visually recognize the setting position of recording paper even in a dark place or when reflected light is generated.

[0007]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention combines a recording paper indicator for displaying the insertion position of the recording paper and a function indicator for displaying the status of each function of an electronic device. In addition, the indicator is capable of emitting light and lighting.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION A first embodiment of an electronic device according to the present invention is an electronic device equipped with a recording device,
It is characterized in that the recording paper indicator showing the insertion position of the recording paper is also used as the function indicator showing the state of each function. A second embodiment of the electronic apparatus according to the present invention is characterized in that, in the first embodiment, the indicator lights up corresponding to a format edited on the screen.

According to the first and second embodiments, by turning on the light-emitting body of the portion corresponding to the format setting, there is an effect of an indicator showing the insertion position of the recording paper to the operator, and the light-emitting body is used. By making the blinking speed of the variable, it is possible to notify the operating state of the FDD, the presence / absence of ink in the printer, the presence / absence of postcards in the postcard feeder, and the error message with a very simple configuration.

A third embodiment of the electronic apparatus according to the present invention is characterized in that, in the first embodiment, the recording apparatus has an ink jet recording head.

A fourth embodiment of an electronic apparatus according to the present invention is the same as the third embodiment, wherein the ink jet recording head is an ejection energy generating element for generating energy used for ejecting ink. And the element is composed of an electrothermal converter that generates thermal energy that causes film boiling in the ink.

According to the third and fourth embodiments, especially the fourth embodiment, it is possible to save the space of the present electronic device without sacrificing the recording quality.

[0013]

EXAMPLES The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to examples, but the present invention is not limited to the following examples.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an electronic device embodying the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of an internal structure of the electronic device embodying the present invention. In these figures, 1 is an LED indicator group, 2 is an upper case, 4 is a paper insertion slot, 5 is an indicator, 6 is a lower case, 7 is a printer,
8 is a keyboard, 9 is a main board, 10 is a power supply, 11 is a printer cover, 12 is a CSF door,
Reference numeral 15 is another component for rotatably holding and fixing the CSF door 12 to the upper case 2.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the printer 7 mounted on the electronic equipment embodying the present invention is an ink jet recording system, preferably a bubble jet recording system, which conveys recording paper horizontally to the floor surface. Ink is ejected from the recording head (not shown) downward in the drawing. The printer 7 is fixed to the lower case 6 with screws or the like. Main board 9, power supply 10 and other parts are included in upper case 2
And it is fixed to the lower case 6 with screws or the like. A CSF door 12 is rotatably held and fixed at a predetermined position on the upper case via a separate component 15 above the sheet insertion slot 4. This covers an insertion port for inserting a postcard feeder (not shown) described later into the main body. In the upper case 2, there is a reference surface 2a on the left side of the concave portion 2b which is a passage through which the recording paper is conveyed to the printer 7, and the reference surface 2a for abutting the left end of the recording paper coincides with the paper reference position of the printer 7. . That is, when the operator prints the recording paper against the reference surface 2a and inserts the recording paper into the paper insertion opening 4, the recording paper is inevitably conveyed to the print reference (start) position of the printer 7, and printing is performed. Be started. Further, in the electronic device embodying the present invention, a postcard feeder (not shown) storing a plurality of postcards or the like is inserted from the CSF door 12 through the CSF door 12 and mounted on the main body to continuously print the postcards one by one. It is also possible to do.

On the other hand, a plurality of LED indicator groups 1 are fixed to a substrate or the like so that the LED indicator group 1 is exposed from the upper case 2 at an appropriate position where it does not hinder the conveyance of recording paper. , Is fixed to the upper case 2 by screwing or the like. When the LED indicator group 1 is exposed from the upper case 2, the LED indicator group 1 is arranged so as to match the various recording paper sizes and widths of the printer 7. For example,
The LED indicator group 1 is arranged at a position (distance) that matches the width of the postcard, B5, A4, etc. from the reference surface 2a.

The position of the LED indicator group 1 will be described in more detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 3 is a perspective view of printing on recording paper with an electronic device embodying the present invention. 4 is an enlarged plan view of the X portion in FIG. 3, which is a detailed view when the recording paper (B4 size in the drawing) is aligned with the LED indicator group 1. The hatched portion in FIG. 4 indicates the light emitting portion of the LED indicator group 1. For example, when the operator wants to print on the recording paper of B4, the left end of the recording paper is brought into contact with the reference surface 2a, and the right end of the recording paper is set so as to substantially coincide with the left end of the light emitting portion of the LED indicator 1d. However, the dimensions / positional accuracy of the holes for exposing the LED indicator group 1 formed on the upper case 2 with the recording paper set must be taken into consideration. Therefore, in the present invention, the position of the LED indicator group 1 is defined as shown in FIG. That is, as shown in FIG. 4B, even if the width dimension of the recording paper is slightly large, or the recording paper becomes the LED indicator group 1 due to the positional deviation of the LED indicator group 1 due to the above-mentioned factors.
LED indicator group 1 even if it covers the light emitting part of
The width dimension of the light emitting part is set so that the light emitting part can be visually recognized by the operator. Each LED indicator 1a-d
Receives an electric signal from the main board 9 and lights up according to various situations.

In the above construction, when the operator creates a document or the like, when the format of the document or the like to be created is determined, the LED indicator corresponding to the width of the recording paper of the format starts to continuously light up. For example, if the A4 format is selected and the document creation is started, the LED indicator 1c is continuously turned on. When the FDD starts to operate, the LED indicator 1c changes from continuous lighting to blinking, and when the FDD stops, the LED indicator 1c changes to continuous lighting again. If FDD and HD
LED indicator 1 when both are mounted on the main body
The blinking rate (form) of c is changed to inform the operator which device is operating. For example, FDD is set for slow blinking, and HDD is set for fast blinking. That is, L corresponding to the type (number) of devices
It is only necessary to set the blinking speed (form) of the ED indicator 1c.

By the way, in the electronic equipment of this kind, it is very rare to create or print a document during the operation of the FDD. Therefore, the LED indicator 1c always selects the effect of either the printing index or the device index. Can be emitted.

Further, in the present invention, the ink in the printer 7 is exhausted regardless of the format of the document being created,
Alternatively, the LED indicator 1d is made to blink as means for informing the operator that the postcards stored in the postcard feeder have run out. According to the above configuration, the position of the LED indicator 1d is set to the printer 7
Since it is an indicator of the maximum printable recording paper width (B4 vertical) of the above, for the reason described above, when printing is performed by the electric device embodying the present invention, the LED indicator 1d is displayed by the recording paper.
Light is not blocked. Also, when printing on a postcard stored in the postcard feeder, the light of the LED indicator 1d is not blocked by the postcard feeder.
Further, in the present invention, for example, when the operator is notified of an error message such as when the recording paper is stuck in the printer 7 or when some trouble occurs in the electronic device body, all the LED indicators 1a to 1d are continuously turned on. It is also possible to make them busy.

As described above, in the present invention,
Various information can be notified to the operator by providing LED lamps on the main body in an array corresponding to the size of the recording paper and using them as indexes and changing the blinking form of the LEDs.

FIG. 5 is a schematic block diagram of an electronic device embodying the present invention. A main board 9 having a CPU and the like mounted therein is provided in a main body case composed of upper and lower cases, which is supplied with power from a power supply 10 and is temporarily connected to a RAM for storing a memory. The main board 9 receives an electric signal from the keyboard 8 and controls the printer 7, the display 5 rotatably attached to the main body case by a hinge or the like, and the blinking and blinking modes of the LED indicators described above in accordance with the electrical signals. Further, in an electronic device embodying the present invention, an FDD (floppy disk drive) and an HDD (hard disk drive) are mounted as storage devices.

(Embodiment 2) In the above embodiment, an LED is used as a light emitting source to notify the operator of the insertion position of the recording paper, the operating state of various devices, various messages and the like. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the same effect can be obtained by using, for example, an incandescent lamp or liquid crystal as the light emitting source. This embodiment is the LE of the first embodiment.
The feature is that an incandescent bulb or a liquid crystal indicator with a backlight is used instead of D. The rest of the configuration and the operation as an indicator are the same as those in the first embodiment, and their explanations are omitted.

(Embodiment 3) FIG. 6 shows a third embodiment of the present invention and is a simplified diagram of the internal structure of an electronic apparatus according to the present embodiment. In the figure, 13 is an incandescent bulb, and 14 is a condenser lens. In the first embodiment, the LED indicator group 1 is exposed from the recess 2b formed in the upper case 2 to cause the LED indicator group 1 to emit light to notify the operator of various information.

In the third embodiment, an incandescent bulb and a condenser lens are provided at a place different from the first embodiment, for example, on the front surface of the printer cover 11 at intervals corresponding to the width of the recording paper to emit light. is there. The light emitted from the incandescent bulb 13 is applied to the concave portion 2b of the upper case 2 in which the recording paper is conveyed, for example, in a rectangular shape or a round shape using the condenser lens 14. With this configuration, if the incandescent bulb is caused to emit light under the same control as in the first embodiment, the operator can be informed of various information and the like, as in the first embodiment.

(Embodiment 4) In addition, even if the light is guided to the same position as in the first embodiment by means such as an optical fiber so as to perform continuous lighting or blinking, it is not possible to use the first embodiment. As well
It is possible to notify the operator of various information. The present embodiment is characterized in that the LED of the first embodiment is replaced with an optical fiber. The rest of the configuration and the operation as an indicator are the same as those in the first embodiment, and their explanations are omitted.

(Others) The present invention is provided with a means (for example, an electrothermal converter or a laser beam) for generating thermal energy as energy used for ejecting ink, particularly in the ink jet recording system. An excellent effect is brought about by using the recording head and the recording apparatus of the type in which the state of ink is changed by the thermal energy. According to this method, the recording density is increased,
This is because high definition and space saving can be achieved.

Regarding the typical structure and principle thereof, see, for example, US Pat. No. 4,723,129 and US Pat. No. 4,740.
What is done using the basic principles disclosed in 796 is preferred. This method is a so-called on-demand type,
Although it can be applied to any type of continuous type, in particular, in the case of the on-demand type, it can be applied to a sheet holding liquid (ink) or an electrothermal converter arranged corresponding to the liquid path. By applying at least one drive signal corresponding to the recorded information and giving a rapid temperature rise exceeding the nucleate boiling, heat energy is generated in the electrothermal transducer, and film boiling occurs on the heat acting surface of the recording head. Liquid (ink) corresponding to this drive signal on a one-to-one basis.
It is effective because bubbles can be formed inside. The liquid (ink) is ejected through the ejection opening by the growth and contraction of the bubble to form at least one droplet. It is more preferable to make this drive signal into a pulse shape because bubbles can be immediately and appropriately grown and contracted, so that liquid (ink) ejection with excellent responsiveness can be achieved. As the pulse-shaped drive signal, those described in US Pat. Nos. 4,463,359 and 4,345,262 are suitable. If the conditions described in US Pat. No. 4,313,124 of the invention relating to the rate of temperature rise on the heat acting surface are adopted, more excellent recording can be performed.

As the structure of the recording head, in addition to the combination structure of the discharge port, the liquid passage, and the electrothermal converter (the straight liquid passage or the right-angled liquid passage) as disclosed in the above-mentioned specifications, US Pat. No. 4,558,333, US Pat. No. 4,558,333, which discloses a configuration in which a heat acting portion is arranged in a bending region.
The structure using the specification of No. 59600 is also included in the present invention. In addition, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 59-123670 discloses a configuration in which a common slit is used as a discharge portion of the electrothermal converter for a plurality of electrothermal converters, and an opening for absorbing a pressure wave of thermal energy is provided. The effect of the present invention is effective even if the configuration corresponding to the ejection portion is disclosed in JP-A-59-138461.

Further, the present invention can be effectively applied to a full-line type recording head having a length corresponding to the maximum width of a recording medium which can be recorded by the recording apparatus. Such a recording head may have a configuration that satisfies the length by a combination of a plurality of recording heads or a configuration as one recording head integrally formed.

In addition, even in the case of the serial type as in the above example, the recording head fixed to the main body of the apparatus or the electrical connection to the main body of the apparatus or the ink from the main body of the apparatus by being attached to the main body of the apparatus. The present invention is also effective when a replaceable chip-type recording head that can be supplied or a cartridge-type recording head in which an ink tank is integrally provided in the recording head itself is used.

Further, as the constitution of the recording apparatus used in the present invention, it is preferable to add ejection recovery means for the recording head, preliminary auxiliary means and the like because the effects of the present invention can be further stabilized. If these are specifically mentioned, capping means for the recording head, cleaning means,
Examples include a pressurizing or suction means, an electrothermal converter, a heating element other than this, or a preheating means for heating using a combination thereof, and a predischarge means for discharging other than recording. it can.

Regarding the type or number of recording heads to be mounted, for example, only one is provided corresponding to a single color ink, or a plurality of inks having different recording colors and densities are supported. A plurality of pieces may be provided. That is, for example, the recording mode of the recording apparatus is not limited to the recording mode of only the mainstream color such as black, but it may be either the recording head is integrally formed or a plurality of combinations may be used. The present invention is also extremely effective for an apparatus provided with at least one of full-color recording modes by color mixing.

In addition, in the embodiments of the present invention described above, the ink is described as a liquid, but an ink that solidifies at room temperature or lower and that softens or liquefies at room temperature may be used. Or, in the inkjet system, it is common to control the temperature of the ink itself within the range of 30 ° C. or higher and 70 ° C. or lower to control the temperature so that the viscosity of the ink is within the stable ejection range. Sometimes, a liquid ink may be used. In addition, the temperature rise due to thermal energy is positively prevented by using it as the energy of the state change from the solid state of the ink to the liquid state, or in order to prevent the evaporation of the ink, it is solidified and heated in the standing state. You may use the ink liquefied by. In any case, by applying heat energy such as ink that is liquefied by applying heat energy according to the recording signal and liquid ink is ejected or that begins to solidify when it reaches the recording medium. The present invention can be applied to the case where an ink having a property of being liquefied for the first time is used. In this case, the ink is
JP-A-54-56847 or JP-A-60-7
As described in Japanese Patent No. 1260, it may be configured to face the electrothermal converter in a state of being held as a liquid or a solid in the concave portion or the through hole of the porous sheet. In the present invention, the most effective one for each of the above-mentioned inks is to execute the above-mentioned film boiling method.

In addition, as a form of an electronic apparatus using the ink jet recording apparatus of the present invention, in addition to one used as an image output terminal of an information processing apparatus such as a computer, a copying apparatus combined with a reader or the like, and further a transmission / reception function It may be in the form of a facsimile machine having the above.

[0036]

As described above, according to the configuration of the present invention, the indicator of the insertion position of the recording paper is provided to the operator by turning on the light-emitting body of the portion corresponding to the format setting. By making the flashing speed of the light emitter variable, it is possible to notify the operating state of the FDD, the presence / absence of ink in the printer, the presence / absence of postcards in the postcard feeder, and the error message with a very simple configuration.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of the present invention and is a perspective view of an electronic device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic internal structural diagram of an electronic device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view when printing on a recording sheet in an electronic device embodying the present invention.

4 (a) and (b) are X in FIG. 3, respectively.
It is a part enlarged view.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an electronic device embodying the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic internal structural diagram of an electronic device according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a conventional electronic device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 LED indicator group 2, 3 Upper case 4 Paper insertion slot 5 Display 6 Lower case 7 Printer 8 Keyboard 9 Main board 10 Power supply 11 Printer cover 12 CSF door 13 Incandescent bulb 14 Condensing lens

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An electronic device equipped with a recording device,
An electronic device characterized in that a recording paper indicator showing the insertion position of the recording paper is also used as a function indicator showing the status of each function. 2. The indicator lights up in correspondence with the format being edited on the screen.
Electronic device described in. 3. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the recording device has an inkjet recording head. 4. The ink jet recording head has an ejection energy generating element for generating energy used for ejecting ink, and the element generates thermal energy for causing film boiling in the ink. It is comprised from the electrothermal converter, It is characterized by the above-mentioned.
Electronic device described in.