JPH1148567A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To adequately printing even when a carriage is moved by an incorrect operation. SOLUTION: This printer comprises a platen 4, a carriage 3 moving in parallel to an axis direction of the platen, a printing head 2 mounted on the carriage 3 and a printing control device 11 for controlling the above components. It further comprises a home position detecting means 13 for detecting the carriage 3 when it is on the home position and a driving signal generating means 9 that generates a driving signal for moving the carriage to a side of the home position. As a result of the structure, the carriage 3 is returned to the home position before starting the printing and the position thereof can be confirmed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus for preventing malfunctions and destruction of the apparatus caused by improper use by a user and improving safety.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, in an apparatus such as an electronic typewriter which performs printing processing simultaneously with character input, a margin set has been used for specifying a printing position. As the designation method, for example, JP-A-59-145178, JP-A-59-1
As described in JP-A-59378, the printer carriage is moved to a position to be margined by using a space key or the like, a margin set key or the like is input at that position, and the information is stored in the internal memory as information on the margin position. Was.

[0003] In a Japanese word processor and the like, which has become very popular in recent years, unlike the electronic typewriter, document creation and document printing are usually performed independently. For this reason, the above-described margin set is not used as a print position designation method, but is realized by storing it as left margin value or space character in document data. For example, in the Japanese word processor Word Pal 800 manufactured by Hitachi, Ltd., the margin value setting method is the same as the third method described in “Hitachi Japanese Word Processor Word Pal 800 Operation Manual <Utilization>” (Hitachi 60.5.1) issued by Hitachi, Ltd. The top, bottom, left and right margins are set to m in the formatting mode as described on the page.
It is specified by the m value. In addition, as a method of margin setting in a Japanese word processor, there is a method in which a carriage is moved immediately before printing according to an input from a keyboard such as a carriage left movement key or a carriage right movement key.

As described above, the conventional electronic typewriter,
Printing devices such as a Japanese word processor employ a printing position designation method suitable for each printing device.

[0005]

The above prior art is used in electronic typewriters, Japanese word processors, and the like, and these products are frequently used by specialists such as operators. However, portable Japanese word processors, which have become very popular in recent years, are often used by general users. Nevertheless, the above-described conventional technique is employed as a margin set method.

For this reason, as shown in FIG. 2, the general user has misused the operation when setting the margin of the printer, and the carriage has been frequently misused by manually moving the carriage.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 1 denotes paper, 2 denotes a print head, 3 denotes a carriage, and 4 denotes a platen.

That is, for example, if the carriage 3 is improperly moved from the point A to the point B in FIG. 2, a malfunction such as the oblique line portion not being printed or the destruction of the printer occurs. There was something to do.

However, the above prior art has not been considered at all for these problems.

An object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus which does not cause an accident such as a malfunction or destruction of a printer even in the case of the above-mentioned improper use.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, a carriage position storage means for storing a current position of a carriage, and whether or not the carriage is located at a reference point. And a value stored in the carriage position storage means, and a value stored in the carriage position storage means, and a value stored in the carriage position storage means and a result of recognition by the reference position recognition means. And a carriage position determining means for determining whether the values are equal to each other and notifying the print control device.

[0012]

According to the present invention, for example, before printing, the carriage position determining means moves the carriage toward the reference position of the carriage based on the current carriage position stored in the carriage position storage means. I do. On this occasion,
The carriage position determining means determines that the carriage has been moved improperly based on whether or not the reference position checking means has confirmed that the carriage has reached the reference position.
This makes it possible to check whether the carriage has been moved improperly before printing, thereby preventing the malfunction and destruction of the printer.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a printing apparatus as one embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 7 denotes a mechanism of the printing apparatus. 1 is a paper, 2 is a print head, 3 is a carriage, 4 is a platen, 5 is a motor for rotating the platen, and 6 is a motor for moving the carriage. These mechanism parts 7 are controlled by control parts described below.

Reference numeral 8 denotes a platen driving unit, 9 denotes a print head driving unit, 10 denotes a carriage driving unit, 11 denotes a printing control device, and a carriage position storage unit 1 which is a feature of the present invention.
2, reference position recognition means 13, carriage position determination means 1
4.

In the printing apparatus of the present invention, the operation of the mechanism section 7 and the control section for controlling the mechanism section 7 will be described together. Here, in this embodiment, the motor 5 for rotating the platen and the motor 6 for moving the carriage are step motors. Further, the printing control device 11 includes a platen driving unit 8,
It controls the print head driving unit 9 and the carriage driving unit 10.

Prior to the start of printing, the user sets a margin by inputting from a keyboard or the like. In response to this keyboard input, the print control device 11 sends a pulse to the carriage driving unit 10 to drive the carriage moving motor 6 to move the carriage 3 left and right. As described above, since the carriage moving motor 6 is a stepping motor, the moving distance of the carriage 3 can be managed by the number of pulses that the print control device 11 sends to the carriage driving unit 10.
Therefore, the carriage position storage unit 12 may count and store the number of pulses sent by the print control device 11 to the carriage drive unit 10. That is, it can be constituted by a general-purpose n-bit up / down counter. in this way,
The position of the carriage 3 can be known from the number of pulses sent from the print control device 11 to the carriage drive unit 10.

However, when setting the margin, if the carriage 3 is moved due to improper use of the user's hand or the like,
The actual carriage position differs from the value stored in the carriage position storage means 12.

Therefore, at the start of printing, the carriage position determining means 14 stores the actual position of the carriage 3 in the carriage position storing means 12 based on the values stored in the carriage position storing means 12 and the reference position recognizing means 13. It is determined whether or not the value is equal to the described value (that is, whether or not the carriage 3 has been moved improperly), and the result is notified to the print control device 11 to prompt the corresponding process.

Here, the reference position recognizing means 13 recognizes that the carriage 3 has reached the reference position, and may specifically be a micro switch or the like. When the carriage 3 reaches the reference position, the carriage 3
Turns on the micro switch, and notifies the carriage position determination means 14.

Next, the carriage position determining means 14, which is the most characteristic of the present invention, will be described in detail.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a specific example of the carriage position judging means 14. In the same thing as FIG.
The same numbers are given. The carriage position determination unit 14 includes a reference position register 15, a subtraction unit 16, an n-pulse generator 1,
7. It is composed of the determination unit 22. In this embodiment using a step motor as the carriage moving motor 6,
The carriage driving unit 10 is constituted by a step motor driving unit 18.

Next, the operation will be described. The reference position register 15 stores the position of the reference position recognition means 13 (ie,
The reference position is stored as a constant. Generally, the reference position is the home position of the printing device (ie,
φ). At the start of printing, the subtraction unit 16 subtracts the contents of the carriage position storage unit 12 and the contents of the reference position register 15 to determine the distance between the reference position recognition unit 13 (that is, the reference position) and the current carriage position. calculate.
The calculation result is the pulse number n. Subtraction unit 16
Is input to the n-pulse generator 17 so that the n-pulse generator 17
For n, n pulses for moving the carriage 3 in the direction of the reference position recognition means 13 (that is, the reference position) are generated.
As a result, the carriage 3 moves a distance corresponding to n pulses in the direction of the reference position recognition means 13. Also, at this time,
The determination unit 22 receives an n-th pulse (final pulse) from the n-pulse generator 17 and a notification from the reference position recognition unit 13 that the carriage 3 has reached the reference position.

If the carriage 3 is at a normal position, the determination unit 22 determines that the carriage 3 is based on the input timing of the n-th pulse (final pulse) from the n-pulse generator 17. Since the notification that the position has been reached is received, it can be determined that the carriage 3 is at the normal position, and the print control device 11 can be notified. Also,
If the carriage 3 has been improperly moved for some reason, the carriage 3 may reach the reference position during the pulse generation from the n-pulse generator 17 or the n-pulse generator 17 may generate n pulses. Since the carriage 3 does not reach the reference position even after the completion, the determination unit 22 determines that the n-th pulse from the n-pulse generator 17 and the carriage 3 from the reference position recognition unit 13
When only one of the two is input, it is determined that the carriage 3 has been improperly moved, and the print control device 11 can be notified.

In the carriage position determination means 14 of this embodiment, a reference position register 15 and a subtraction unit 16 are provided so that the position of the carriage 3 can be set at any position. However, as described above, since the reference position is generally the home position, that is, “φ”, in this case, the reference position register 15 and the subtractor 16 can be omitted.

Next, another specific example of the carriage position judging means 14 is shown in FIG. 1 and 3 are denoted by the same reference numerals. 20 is a pulse counter and 21 is a comparator.

At the start of printing, the n-pulse generator 17 generates pulses until the carriage 3 reaches the reference position recognition means 13 (ie, the reference position), and moves the carriage 3 in the direction of the reference position recognition means 13. Pulse counter 20
Counts the number of pulses generated by the n-pulse generator 17. That is, the actual carriage position immediately before the start of printing is stored in the pulse counter 20. And the comparator 21
Compares the value of the pulse counter 20 with the value of the carriage position storage means 12 to determine whether the carriage 3 is at a normal position, and notifies the print control device 11 of the result.

As described above, in this embodiment, the carriage position determining means 14 determines whether or not the carriage 3 has been moved by an unjust means at the time of margin setting of the printing apparatus, for example, immediately before the start of printing. Since the determination is made by using the position storage unit 12 and the reference position recognition unit 13 and the print control unit 11 is notified, even if the carriage 3 is moved by an illegal unit, the printing device does not malfunction or break down. This has the effect of improving safety.

In the present embodiment, the description has been made by using hardware, but it is also possible to realize by software. FIGS. 5 and 6 show flowcharts as a software realizing method. FIG. 5 corresponds to the embodiment of FIG. 3, and FIG. 6 corresponds to FIG.

[0030]

According to the present invention, in a printing apparatus used not only by specialists but also by general users, such as an electronic typewriter and a Japanese word processor, even if the printer carriage is moved by improper means,
Since the position of the printer carriage is checked before starting printing, malfunction and destruction of the printer can be prevented beforehand, which is effective in improving the safety of the printing apparatus. Moreover,
This can be achieved with a simple configuration.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a problem of the related art.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a specific example of a carriage position determining unit in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing another specific example of the carriage position determination unit of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing processing operations when the present invention is realized by software.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing processing operations when the present invention is realized by software.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Print Head 3 Carriage 4 Platen 11 Print Control Device 12 Carriage Position Storage Means 13 Reference Position Recognition Means 14 Carriage Position Determination Means

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A printing apparatus comprising: a platen; a carriage that moves in parallel in the axial direction of the platen; a print head mounted on the carriage; and a print control device that controls the print head. And a home position detecting means for detecting that the carriage is at the home position. Based on a print command, prior to the start of printing, the carriage is moved to the home position until the home position detecting means detects the carriage. And a drive signal generating means for generating the drive signal of (1). 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: a carriage position storage unit that stores a position of the carriage specified by a drive signal of the carriage output from the print control unit; A carriage position determining unit that checks a carriage position stored in the carriage position storage unit when the carriage moves to the home position and determines whether the carriage position is correct. A printing device characterized by the above-mentioned. 3. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the home position is located at one end of the platen.