JPS59228477A - Image information recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a simple, inexpensive control circuit for a printer by transferring video information directly from the video memory for a CRT display device to the storage part such as a shift register of a recording part such as a thermal head during a vertical blanking period. CONSTITUTION:A main control circuit 1 inputs and processes atext signal successively to write image information in the video memory 3. Then, the circuit is connected to the memory 3 through a bus switch 4 only during a vertical blanking period. A synchronizing signal generating circuit 2 is connected to the memory 3 through the switch 4 during an image display period to generate an address signal to the memory 3 which outputs image information onto a CRT display device 6, and the image information stored therein is read and converted by a converting circuit 5 into a video signal. A subcontrol circuit 7 which controls the printer P outputs one-line information which is transferred directly from the circuit 1 and stored during the vertical blanking period on the basis of the signal from the main control circuit 1 to the thermal head 8.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an image information recording device, specifically, a character multiplexing device that is transmitted in the form of a digital signal superimposed on television broadcast waves and displayed on a CRT display device of a television receiver. The present invention relates to an image information recording device that records image information from broadcasting or the like on recording paper as a hard copy using a printer such as a thermal printer.

Generally, this type of image information recording device is equipped with a large image memory for a CRT display device and an image memory for hard copy, and the circuit configuration on the printer side is relatively large and expensive. Mono de attu fc.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and is configured to directly transfer image information from an image memory for a CRT display device to a storage unit such as a shift register of a recording unit such as a thermal head during a vertical blanking period, This is a simple and inexpensive printer control circuit that controls printer operations.

The details of the present invention are shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 and will be explained below using an example of -fc1.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a main control circuit, which sequentially processes input character multiplexed signals (not shown) and writes image information to the image memory 3. Only during the vertical blanking period, the bus It is connected to the image memory 3 via the switch 4 and accesses the image memory 3'f. Reference numeral 2 denotes a synchronization signal generation circuit which generates horizontal and vertical synchronization signals and horizontal and vertical blanking signals in the television signal, and is connected to the image memory 3 via the bus switch 4 during the image display period. This is controlled by the address signal to the image memory 3 to output the image information on the CR7 display device 6, and the large image information stored in the image memory 3 is extracted and converted into a video signal by the conversion circuit 5. The 1a CRT display device 6 is excited based on the horizontal and vertical synchronizing signals, and an image is output on the CR7 display device 6.

A sub-control circuit 7 controls the operation of the printer P, and controls the thermal head (recording section) 8, paper feed mechanism 9, etc. For example, a 4-bit macrocomputer is used as the sub-control circuit 7, and based on the signal from the main control circuit 7, the signal is directly transferred from the main control circuit 1 to the thermal head 8 during the vertical blanking period and is activated by the thermal head 8. A signal is generated to cause the thermal head 8 to output one line of image information stored in the shift register of the large image memory 3 as a hard copy.

FIG. 2 shows details of the thermal head 8, which in this embodiment has a configuration of 248 dots per line. In the figure, 10-1 to 10-248 are six heating resistors each having one end connected to the voltage supply terminal 13, each of which forms a pixel for one bit on recording paper such as thermal paper.

11-1 to 11--248 are the heating resistors 10-1 to 11-248;
The output terminals are connected to the other ends of 10-248, respectively, and are large gate drivers, and one input terminal thereof is connected to an enable selection terminal 14 which receives a signal from the sub-control circuit 7. 12 is a 248-bit shift register, with large output terminals 12-1 to 12-2 corresponding to each stage.
48 is connected to the other input terminal of the gate driver 11-1-11-248. 15 is a clock terminal through which a clock signal from the sub-control circuit 7 is inputted to the shift register 12; 16 is a data input terminal to the shift register 12, to which one line of image information from the main control circuit 1 is input in series as a 248-bit digital signal.

In the above configuration, when an image print command is given to the main control circuit 1 through an input device such as a keyboard, the main control circuit 1 waits for the generation of the vertical blanking signal from the synchronization signal generation circuit 2, and waits for the generation of the vertical blanking signal from the synchronization signal generation circuit 2, bus controlled by
The main control circuit 1, which is connected to the image memory 3 by the switch 4, accesses the image memory 3 and transfers the image information corresponding to 6l lines stored in the image memory 3 to the image memory 3.
from the shift register 12 of the thermal head 8.
clock terminal 1 and serially to the data input terminal 16 of
One line of image information (248-bit digital signal) is transferred to the shift register 12 by the clock pulse from 5.
The data is transferred and stored at each stage of the process. On the other hand, the sub control circuit 7
waits for the transfer of one line of image information to the shift register 12 to be completed, receives this completion signal from the main control circuit 1, applies a pulse to the enable selection terminal 14 of the thermal head 8, and controls the gate driver 11-. 1-11-248
Based on the image information stored in each stage of the shift register 12, the gate is opened and outputs at the J" or St□" level depending on the contents of each stage.
Among the heat generating resistors 10-1 to 10-248 connected to the driver 11-1-11-248, the heat generating resistor 10 corresponding to the six gate drivers 11-1 to 11-248 has an output level of "1". -1-10-248 energizes Issai.
Heat is generated and one line of recording dots is output onto recording paper. Immediately after the recording of one line is completed, the sub-control circuit 7 applies a drive pulse to the paper transport motor of the paper transport mechanism 9 to transport the recording paper at a predetermined pitch. Then, by repeating the same operation as above and outputting 204 lines worth of image information onto the recording paper, one screen worth of recorded image data can be obtained on the recording paper.

As described above, according to the present invention, since image information is input directly from the main control circuit to the recording unit (thermal head) of the printer, there is no need to provide storage means such as a line buffer in the sub-control circuit, and the sub-control circuit The circuit can be realized using an inexpensive microcomputer with a small number of bits, and the circuit configuration of the printer can be simply and easily configured using inexpensive elements. In addition, since the image memory is accessed during the vertical blanking period, there is no effect of noise on the CRT image output, and the transfer frequency (30Hz) is lower than the operating frequency of the main control circuit (approximately 1 to 2MHz). By keeping it low enough, there is plenty of time for timing and high reliability.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings all relate to an image information recording device according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is an overall block diagram, FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram of a thermal head (recording section), and FIG. 3 is a timing chart. . ■... Control circuit, 2... Synchronous signal generation circuit, 3... Image memory, 4... Bus switch, 5... Conversion circuit, 6...
CTR display device, 7...Sub control circuit, 8...
... Thermal head (recording section), 9 ... Paper feeding] mechanism, 10-1 to 10-248 ... Heat generating resistor, 11-1 to 11-248 ... ...Gate fist driver, 12...Shift register, 13...
...Voltage supply terminal, 14...Enable selection terminal, 15...Clock terminal, 16...
Data input terminal, P...Printer. Figure 1 i-tl ya

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) An image information recording device that records image information transmitted in the form of a digital signal superimposed on television broadcast waves on recording paper, includes an image memory that stores the image information, and displays the image information in the image memory on a CRT. a sixth synchronization signal generation circuit for displaying on the device; a main control circuit for writing and reading image information into the image memory; and the image memo IJ.
A bus switch that selectively connects to an i-sync signal generation circuit or a main control circuit, and a sub-control circuit that controls the printer, and during a vertical blanking period, the main control circuit connects the bus switch to the bus switch. When recording the image information as a hard copy by writing the image information to the image memory connected to the printer, the main control circuit reads out the large image information previously written to the image memory during the vertical blanking period and outputs it to the printer. An image information recording apparatus characterized in that the image information is transferred to a storage section, and after the transfer of the image information is completed, the sub-control circuit records 1247 minutes of image information. (2. The image information recording apparatus according to claim (1), wherein the storage section of the printer to which the image information is transferred is a shift register of a recording section.