JPS59146883A - printer - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a printer that prints by moving a carriage equipped with a print head in the row direction.

In general, printers used in word processors, personal computers, etc.
It is desirable to be able to print composite characters such as "°n" because it eliminates the need to change the operating system (OS) on the host system side.

By the way, in conventional printers that print by moving a carriage equipped with a print head in the row direction, such as a dc wheel type serial impact printer, the movement range of the carriage is set between the physical home position and the right margin position. I'm trying to regulate it.

However, when printing the composite character [ln], for example, first rn] is printed, and then the carriage is moved by backspace and ``°'' is printed.

Therefore, in this case, if the carriage is at the home position, it cannot move further to the left, so if "1" is printed after r n J is printed, the printed character becomes "^".

For example, when printing the composite character "n゛", if the carriage is at the right margin position, it cannot move further to the right, so if "n" is printed and then "゛" is printed,
The printed character will be r flJ, or ["J will appear at the beginning of the next line, which is an inconvenience.

This invention has been made in view of the above points, and it is an object of the present invention to enable composite characters to be printed even when the carriage is in the 11 position or the right margin position in a printer such as a duplex. purpose.

Monument------or Hereinafter, the configuration of the present invention will be explained based on one embodiment.

1 and 2 are a perspective view of the external appearance of a printer embodying the present invention and an exploded perspective view of its outer casing.

In both figures, the outer casing of this printer is composed of a main body case 1 that houses a printing mechanism section and a printing control section, a cover 2, and a bottom cutout 3.

3 and 4 are a plan view and an enlarged cross-sectional view taken along line IV-IV of this printer, respectively.

In both figures, a platen 11 for winding and feeding paper to be printed is rotatably attached to the main body case 1.

This platen 11 is connected to a gear train 1 by a paper feed motor (line feed motor) 12 fixed to the main body case 1.
3 to automatically feed paper.

Further, the platen 11 has knobs 14 and 15 fixed to both ends, and can be manually rotated by turning the knobs 14 and 15 when loading or removing paper.

Note that rotatable rollers 1G and 17 are brought into pressure contact with this platen 11 in order to push the paper onto the surface thereof.

Then, the two rondos 18.1 fixed to the main body case 1
A gear ridge 21 is mounted on the platen 11 so as to be movable in parallel with the platen 11 in the axial direction.
Physical home position stopper 22 and physical right margin position stopper 2 regulating the movement range of 1
3 are fixed to the main body case 1, respectively.

This carriage 21 has a pulley 25 mounted below it.
(4th figure), the pulleys 26, 27, 28, and 29 attached to both sides of the main body case 1, and the shirt h 30 of the drive motor (space motor) 30 attached to the main body case 1.
It is moved by a space motor 30 via a boo IJ 31 fixed to the tip of a and a wire 32 stretched across these pulleys 25 to 2S and 31.

A slit disk 33 having a position detecting ring 1- and an origin detecting ring 1 is fixed to the rear end of the shaft 30a of the space motor 30.
The first to
A space sensor 34 consisting of a sensor is arranged.

The rotation amount detection signal from the space sensor 34 is used to control the drive of the space motor 30, that is, to control the drive of the carriage 21, and is also used to detect the operating state of the carriage 21.

In addition, the carriage 21, as shown in detail in FIG.
A hammer assembly comprising a drive motor (selection motor) '57 having a type wheel 36 formed with a large number of type characters 65 attached to the tip of a shaft 37a, a hammer 3B that hits the type 35 of the type wheel 36, and a hammer magnet (not shown). A drive motor (ribbon feed motor) is interposed between the platen 11 and the type wheel 3.
The printer includes a ribbon carriage 41 loaded with an ink ribbon 41 that is run by a ribbon 40 (FIG. 3).

The print head is composed of a type wheel 3, a hammer '58, etc.

The type wheel 36, as shown in FIG. A reinforcing ring 45 made of rubber or the like is fixedly attached to the shaft 37a.

Selection motor 3 equipped with this type wheel 36
Also at the rear end of the shirt l-37a of No. 7 is a slit disk 4 having a position detection sulin 1- and an origin detection sulin I~.
A selection sensor 47 consisting of a first sensor having a light-emitting element and a light-receiving element facing each other with the slit disk 4 in between is arranged.

The rotation amount detection signal from this selection sensor 47 is
It is used for driving control of the selection motor 37, that is, for controlling the selection of desired characters on the type wheel 36.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an example of the control section of this embodiment.

In the figure, a printer control circuit 51 is a circuit that also serves as a carriage control means that controls the entire printer, and includes a CPU (central processing unit), a program memory (ROM), a data memory (RAM), and a T10 (input/output It consists of a microcomputer consisting of devices such as

Various types of data such as print character data, space data, line feed data, etc. are transferred to this printer control circuit 51 via a printer interface circuit 52 from a host I to a system such as a computer or word processor.

Based on the processing results of each input data, this printer control circuit 51 first uses movement amount data indicating the movement amount of the carriage 21 (FIG. 3) in terms of the number of steps of the space motor 30 in order to specify the printing position. DA...
Movement direction data DS indicating the movement direction and movement start timing signal ST1 are output to the space motor control circuit 53.

The space motor control circuit 53 outputs a drive signal DSP to the driver 54 based on each input data from the roll circuit 51 to the printer controller 1 and the step pulse PA from the space sensor 34 to control the space motor 30.
is driven and controlled to move the carriage 21 in a predetermined direction by a required amount.

7- In addition, the printer control circuit 51 generates rotation amount data DA indicating the amount of rotation of the type wheel 56 (FIG. 4) in terms of the number of steps of the selection motor 37 for type selection.
2. Selection motor control circuit 55 selects rotation direction data DS2 indicating the rotation direction and rotation timing signal ST2.
Output to.

The selection motor control circuit 55 controls the selection motor 37 by outputting a drive signal DSL to the driver 56 based on each input data from the printer controller 1 to the roll circuit 51 and the step pulse PR from the selection sensor 47. , the type wheel is rotated the required amount in a predetermined direction.

Further, the printer controller 1-roll circuit 51 outputs a drive signal DH to the driver 57 for printing, drives and controls the hammer magnet 58, and causes the hammer 38 to strike the type 35 of the type wheel 36.

Furthermore, the drive signal D L is sent to the driver 5 for line feed.
In order to move the ink ribbon 41, a drive signal DR is output to the driver 60 to drive and control the ribbon feed motor 40.

The position designation switch 61 is used to designate the Baum position and right margin position that determine the movement range of the carriage 21, and is used, for example, to designate a printer.
Alternatively, it may be provided alone or integrally with other keys on the keyboard on the host 1-system side.

In this position designation switch 61, when the physical home position and right margin position are designated, the designation signal PS becomes high level "■1", and when the logical home position and right margin position are designated, the designation signal PS becomes high level. The low level becomes ``L''.

The operation of this position designation switch 61 specifies the physical home position and right margin position when not printing composite characters, and the logical home position when printing composite characters (hereinafter referred to as "composition mode"). and specify the right margin position.

In this embodiment, the physical home position and the right margin position are the positions where the carriage 21 abuts the stopper 22 and the stopper 23 shown in FIG. The position is, for example, r6 from the physical home position.
The position is preset to the right by /120"J and to the left by, for example, r6/120" from the physical right margin position.

Further, the logical home position and right margin position do not refer to the left margin amount and right margin amount that can be freely cleared from the cellar 1 to the host 1 system side.

Then, the roll circuit 51 to the printer controller 1 controls the movement of the carriage 21 with reference to the home position and right margin position designated by the designation signal PS from the position designation switch 61.

Next, the operation of the embodiment configured as described above will be explained with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram showing an overview of the printer control operation executed by the printer control circuit 51 of FIG. 6.

In the figure, referring also to FIG. 8, the printer control circuit 51 initially sets the physical home position l-I P + to the internal home position counter for determining the movement range of the gear ridge 21. For example, set "0" (reset the counter from 1), and set the number of steps of the step motor 30 corresponding to the physical right margin position RP, for example "lIl/120", in the right margin position counter. .

Then, a designation signal P from the position designation switch 61
S is read and it is determined whether the mode is combination mode or not.

As a result of this judgment 5111, if it is not the synthesis mode, the necessary data is output to the space motor control circuit 53, and the listener 1 to move operations for positioning the carriage 21 at the physical home position 1 (P) are executed.

After that, the normal left margin amount and right margin amount when not in composite mode, e.g. r1632/120''
Set J to the internal left margin and right margin counters.

On the other hand, if the determination result is the combination mode, after executing the list 1 to 1 operations in the same manner as described above, the necessary data is output to the space motor control circuit 53, and the carriage 21 is moved to the logical home position. HP2, the internal home position counter is set to the step number corresponding to the logical home position HP2, for example r6/120''J, and the right margin position counter is set to the logical right margin position RP2, for example r( m
6) Set the number of steps corresponding to /120″j.

Thereafter, the normal left margin amount and right margin amount in the composition mode, for example r1620/12o''J, are set in the internal counters for the left margin and right margin.

After that, the input data from the host system is processed, and based on the processing results, necessary operations 12- such as printing operation, space operation, type selection operation are executed, and after the operation is completed, the lamp is turned on and the host system is turned on. 1- Perform processing such as outputting a processing end signal to the system side.

At this time, the carriage 21 controls the movement range based on the set values of the counters for the left margin and the right margin, with the set values of the counter for the home position and the counter for the right margin position as a reference.

Next, regarding printing of composite characters in composite mode,
This will be explained using the composite characters "°n" and "no" as examples.

First, for the composite character "°n", as described above, after printing [nj, backsplash character is used to print """.

At this time, if the carriage 21 is at the logical home position HP2, this logical home position HP2 is to the right of the physical home position HP, and the carriage 21 can actually be moved to the left from this position. After printing "n", backspace and write "lJ can be printed, so the composite character r'nJ can be printed.

Further, when printing the composite character "n", "°" is printed after "n" is printed with a mo space.

At this time, if the carriage 21 is at the logical right margin position R, P2, this logical right margin position RP2 is the physical right margin position RP.
, and in reality, the carriage 21 can be moved to the right from this point, so the composite character "n" can be printed by printing "" with a slight space after printing rnJ.

In this way, composite characters with backspaces or spaces can be printed.

As described above, according to the present invention, composite characters with backspaces or spaces can be printed even when the carriage is at the home position or the right margin position.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 and 2 are an external view and an exploded view of the outer casing of an example of a printer embodying the present invention, and FIGS. 3 and 4 are plan views showing an example of the printing mechanism thereof. 5 is a plan view showing an example of the type wheel, and 6 is a sectional view taken along the line IV-IV.
7 is a block diagram showing an example of the control section of this embodiment. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an overview of the printer control operation executed by the printer control circuit of FIG. 6. FIG. It is an explanatory diagram provided for explanation. 11...Platen 12...Line feed motor 21...Carriage 30...Space motor 37...Selection motor 51...Printer control circuit 53...Space motor control circuit 55...Selection motor control Circuit 6 position designation switch Fig. 6 Fig. 7 Fig. 8

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 In a printer that prints by moving a carriage equipped with a print head in the line direction, a physical home position and a physical right margin position that determine the movable range of the carriage, and a position to the right of the physical home position and a right margin. position designation means for designating either a logical home position or a logical right margin position, each preset to the left of the position;
A printer comprising carriage control means for controlling movement of the carriage within a range determined by the physical or logical home position and right margin position specified by the position specifying means.