JPS59160231A - Off-line recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To execute recording of plural sheets with regard to the same data by calculating a reset time of a recording device, constituting a titled device so that a stand-by mode and a wait mode can be selected most suitably, and resetting a device to the head of a data after recording of once is ended. CONSTITUTION:When a transfer of one block BLK is ended, a CPU506 reads an end address stored in a memory address counter 512, calculates a difference to the head address, and stores it in a block register 509. Subsequently, a block counter 507 is driven by +1, and it is repeated until readout of data is ended. In this way, a magnetic tape device 51 sends out information in the last block of one page and ends a transfer of the data. This procedure is repeated until the last page. In case when the CPU506 decides the end of the data, and executes recording of plural sheets with regard to the same data, a rewinding time of a tape is calculated, and a device is shifted to a printing mode.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a recording device, and more particularly to an offline recording device.

According to the conventional technology, in an offline recording device, a storage medium, for example, a magnetic tape, for storing a series of data for one sheet of recording paper to be printed (hereinafter simply referred to as data) is set in the offline recording device. The recorded data is sequentially read out from the magnetic tape and recorded. If recording spans multiple copies, the magnetic tape is rewound to return to the beginning of the print data, and the same operation is repeated.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a schematic configuration of such an offline recording apparatus, where 101 is a magnetic tape device, 102 is a controller section, 103 is a printer section, and 104 is a sorter section.

The magnetic tape device 101 reads print data stored on the magnetic tape and sends it to the controller I/roller section 102. The controller unit 102 converts the print data into a print signal and supplies it to the printer unit 103, causing the printer unit 103 to record on a recording medium such as paper. Furthermore, the recorded recording medium is conveyed to the sorter section 104 and collated.

FIG. 2 shows, as an example of the printer section 103 shown in FIG. 1, a configuration example of a printer section installed in a laser beam printer which is an off-line recording device using an electrophotographic method.

Here, 201 is a laser generator that emits laser light, and 203 is an acousto-optic element that converts the laser light into an on/off optical signal in response to an electric signal supplied from the controller +02. , 2051 a rotating polygon mirror that changes the optical path of the laser beam, 207 a photosensitive drum irradiated with the laser beam, 208A, 209B, 20 [: and 2
08D is a lens. 211 is the photosensitive drum 207''-
213 is a developing device; 215 is a charger for forming an electrostatic latent image on
217 is a transfer charger that charges the paper; 217 is a cleaner that cleans the photosensitive drum 207 after transfer; and 219 is a fixing device.

221 and 223 are a main paper feed tray and a sub paper feed tray, respectively.

Conventionally, such electrophotographic recording apparatuses have been controlled by sequentially changing between seven modes, as shown in FIG. Here, (1) Warming up mode (step 530
1): When the recording apparatus is powered on, it is set to this mode and waits for a period of time until the fixing device 218 reaches the fixing set temperature.

(2) Preparation rotation mode (step 5302):
The photosensitive drum 207 is rotated, electrostatic charge is applied to the photosensitive plate, and the operation of each function of the printer section 103 is checked.

(3) Wait mode (step 5303):
While the rotation of the photosensitive drum 207 is stopped, a recording start signal is waited for.

(4) Pre-rotation mode (step 5304): Adjust the potential to a predetermined state.

(5) Print mode (step 5305):
This is a normal recording mode in which the developing device 213 rotates, the transfer charger is turned on, and potential control is always performed.

(6) Standby mode (step 9308):
This is a standby mode so that the next recording can be performed immediately after one recording is completed, and the photosensitive drum 207 is rotating.

(7) Post-rotation mode (step S30?): After recording is completed, the rotation of the photosensitive drum 207 is stopped by one rotation, and at the same time the charger 211 is stopped, so that no electrostatic latent image is left on the photosensitive drum. Wait mode (step 5303)
to return to.

That is, such a conventional offline recording device waits for a command to start recording in wait mode (step 5303), and when that command is received, it goes through pre-rotation mode (step 5304) and then enters print mode (step 5305). ) was controlled to reach.

However, since the pre-rotation mode requires a certain amount of time, in conventional offline recording devices, when the same data is further recorded after one recording, the throughput decreases. There was a problem. In particular, when there is little data to be printed, the time required for the pre-rotation mode is longer than the time required for the print mode, resulting in a significant drop in throughput.

In contrast, standby mode (step 930[1
) to wait for a command to start printing, and upon receiving the command, immediately shift to print mode (step 5305) and print, improving throughput.
There is a conventional broken bamboo that is made to hang.

However, in standby mode, the photosensitive drum 2
07 to quickly shift to print mode, it is necessary to rotate the photosensitive drum 207 and operate other mechanisms even when printing is not performed, which consumes a large amount of power. There was a problem. Furthermore, since the cleaner 217 such as a blade comes into contact with the rotating photosensitive drum 207, a problem arises in that the life of the photosensitive drum 207 is shortened.

Purpose The present invention has been made in view of such conventional problems.
The purpose is to return to the beginning of the data after one recording is completed, and when recording multiple copies of the same data, by calculating the return time, the standby mode and wait mode can be optimally selected. An object of the present invention is to provide an appropriately configured offline recording device.

Example Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

In this embodiment, when a magnetic tape is used as a data storage medium, the return time is ? a Calculation of the magnetic tape rewind time is performed by calculating the length of the magnetic tape on which data is stored.

FIG. 4 shows data written on magnetic tape 401.

During recording, data is divided into several blocks from the beginning of the magnetic tape 401 and written with predetermined intervals between each block.

That is, the series of data on the magnetic tape 401 is
As shown in the figure, block BL as a part of data
A non-recorded part where no data is written between K and each block BLK! It consists of RG. Here, the block BLK consists of a series of unit data, and its size has an upper limit, and the size can be freely set up to the upper limit.

Further, the physical lengths of the non-recorded portion IRG and the block BLK depend on the magnetic recording density when writing data to the magnetic tape 401. The magnetic recording density is the number of 111 bits per inch of magnetic tape 4'01 BPI
Expressed as 800 BPI.

There are 1600BPI, 13250BPI, etc.

In order to calculate the rewinding time, it is preferable that the above-mentioned physical length can be determined according to the physical length of the block BLK and the non-recorded portion IRG and the density of the magnetic tape 401 in the data recording device.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the configuration of a magnetic tape device 51 and a controller unit 52 included in the offline recording apparatus of the present invention. Here, 501 is a tape density register of the magnetic tape device 51, and 503 and 505 are magnetic tape interface circuits (magnetic tape I/F circuits) disposed in the magnetic tape device 51 and the controller unit 52, respectively.

506 is a CPU that controls each part of the controller I/roller section 52 according to the control procedure shown in FIGS. 16 and 7; 507;
508 is a block counter that counts the number of blocks BLK transferred from the magnetic tape device m51 to the controller unit 52, and a block 1/shifter 508 that stores information on the size of the block BLK. 511 is a DMA controller that DMA transfers data transferred from the magnetic tape device 51 to the magnetic tape I/F circuit 505 to the page memory 513; 512 is a memory that instructs the DMA controller 511 to store the data in the page memory 513; It is an address counter.

The page memory 513 stores the transferred data as information for one page of printing paper, and the character generator 515 converts the data stored in the page memory 513 into a print signal. The print signal is sent to the printer section 53 via a printer interface circuit (printer I/F circuit) 517, and is recorded.

The procedure of the rewinding time calculation process of the apparatus of the present invention will be explained using FIG. 6 and FIG. 7. FIG. 6 shows an example of a procedure for reproducing data and a procedure for determining parameters required for calculating rewinding time, in which the magnetic tape device 51
1 is run and stored in the data. Then step 56
At step 01, the start address TOPAD of the page memory 513 for storing data is stored in the memory address counter 512, and the process proceeds to step 5602, where the CPo 50fi sends a read command signal 5N to the DMA controller 511.
Send 12.

The DMA controller 511 receives the read command signal 5N12.
In response to this, data is transferred from the magnetic tape controller 501 of the magnetic tape device 51 via the magnetic tape I/F circuits 503 and 505 to the address of the page memory 513 stored in the memory address counter 512 in step S[103. Intermediate data in one block BLK 5N15
are sequentially DMA transferred. Next, in step 5604, the memory address counter 512 is set to 4 for the unit data.
step forward The procedure of steps 5603 and 5604 is repeated until the magnetic tape controller 501 detects the non-recorded portion IRG in step 5605 and no longer sends unit data of 1 block BLK.

When the transfer for l block BLK is completed.

CPU 50f (is the end address ENDA stored in the memory address counter 512 in step 5eoe)
D is read and the end address ENDA is read in step 5607.
The difference between D and the top address TOPAD is calculated, and the difference is stored in the block register 509 as the size of one block BLK, BLKVAL. Then step 860
At step 8, the block counter 507 is incremented by +1, and the above procedure is repeated at step 5608 until all data is read out. That is, every time one block BLK is read, the block register 509 stores the block size BLKVAL.
is stored, and the block count number BLKC is stored in the block counter 507. In addition, 1 block BLK
Regarding the size of , it is also possible to perform processing such that only one block is stored. In this way, the magnetic tape device 51 sends the information in the last block BLK of one page to the controller unit 52, the data transfer is completed, and the controller unit 52 sends the information in the last block BLK of one page to the controller unit 52. When the print information is supplied to the printer unit 53 via the character generator 515, the printer unit 53 performs recording in print mode (step 53Q5).

Repeat the above steps until the last page and print out CPO50Ei.
determines that the data has ended in step 5609, and when recording multiple copies of the same data after printing of that page is completed, the CPO 50B determines that the 180th
08PT case and 8250BPI case are shown.

For the case of 1800 BPI and the case of 8250 BPI, the length I RGL of the non-recorded portion IRG is 0.6 inch and 0.4 inch, respectively, on average.

First, step S? Magnetic tape density register 18 at 01
If it is 00BPI, the process advances to step 5703, and the length IRGL of the non-recorded portion g IRG is set to 008 inches.

On the other hand, if it is 8250BPI, the length IRGL is set to 0.4 inches in step 5704. Next, in step 5705, the block size BLKVAL is read from the block register 509, and in step 8708, the length BLKL (in inches) of one block BLK is calculated using the following equation (1).

BLKL= BLKVAL/l:INs'
(1) Next, in step 5707, block counter 50? The number of blocks BLKC is read from BLKC, and the rewinding time TIME is calculated according to the following equation (2).

T IME = (IRG 1BLKL)X BLKG
/5PEED (2) That is, T
The length of the data (in inches) is calculated by multiplying RG+BLKL by the total number of blocks BLKC, and the data rewind time TIME is obtained by dividing the length by the rewind speed 5 PEED specific to the magnetic tape device 51. It will be done.

In step 5709, the rewinding time TIME obtained in step 3708 is compared with a predetermined setting value, and if the rewinding time TIME is larger than the setting value, step S
? The process proceeds to step 10, and if it is less than the set value, the process proceeds to step 5711. That is, if there is a large amount of data recorded on the magnetic tape 401, the rewinding time TIME will inevitably become long, so in this case, in step 5710, the printer section 53 is set to the wait mode via the post-rotation mode,
Reduce power consumption. On the other hand, if there is little data and the rewind time TIME is short, the printer section 53 is kept in standby mode in step 5ell so that it can immediately shift to print mode.

When the process of step 5710 or 5ell is completed, the process advances to step 5712, and the magnetic tape 401 is rewound.

Effects As explained above, according to the present invention, when returning to the beginning of the data after one recording and repeatedly recording the same data, the time for the return is calculated,
Since the offline recording device is configured to appropriately select the standby mode and wait mode depending on the time, it is possible to achieve the effects of improving recording throughput and reducing power consumption. Furthermore, if the present invention is applied to an electrophotographic off-line recording device using a photosensitive drum, shortening of the life of the photosensitive drum can be prevented.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the schematic configuration of a general off-line recording device, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of the printer section, FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the transition of its control mode, and FIG. FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the main parts of the off-line recording device of the present invention, and FIGS. 6 and 7 are diagrams showing the magnetic tape on which recording data is written. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the procedure of calculating rewinding time. 101... Magnetic tape device, +02... Controller section, 103... Printer section, 104... Sorter section, 201... Laser generator, 203... Acousto-optic element, 205... Rotation Polygon mirror, 207... Photosensitive drum, 209A-2090... Lens, 211... Charger, 213... Developer, 215... Transfer charger, 217... Cleaner, 218... Fuser, 221.223. ...Paper feed tray, 401...Magnetic tape, 51...Magnetic tape device, 52...Controller unit. 53...Printer section. 501...Magnetic tape controller, 502...Magnetic tape density register, 503.505...Magnetic tape interface circuit (magnetic tape I/F circuit),' 506...CPU, 507...Block counter. 509...Block register, 511...DMA controller, 512...Memory address counter, 513...Page memory, 517...Printer interface circuit (Printer I
/F circuit), BLK-Men Nanatsuk, Patent applicant: Canon Co., Ltd. (19) Figure 1

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] l) Reproducing means for reading print data stored in a storage medium; a first standby mode for waiting for command No. 1 to start printing and recording in response to the command signal; recording means for monitoring the second standby mode; and calculating means for calculating the length of the read recorded data. mode selection means for selecting either the first standby mode or the second standby mode based on a calculation result by the calculation means when the command signal is input to the recording means; An off-line recording device characterized by: 2. In the off-line recording device according to claim 1, the recording means in the first standby mode:
An offline recording device characterized in that it performs recording adjustment according to the command signal. 3) In the off-line recording device according to claim 1 or 2, the recording means has a recording mode in which recorded data read by the reproducing means is recorded, and the recording device is in the second standby mode. Off-line recording breaking, characterized in that the recording means immediately returns to the recording mode in response to the command signal. 4) In the off-line recording device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, when recording a plurality of copies of the record data, the mode selection means determines the length of the record data. The offline recording apparatus is characterized in that the first standby mode is selected when the value exceeds a predetermined value, and the 82 standby mode is selected when the value does not exceed the predetermined value. 5) An offline recording device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the storage medium is in the form of a magnetic tape. 6) The offline recording device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the recording means is in the form of an electrophotographic printer.