JPS60126730A - Electronic typewriter - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make printing by inputted data surely by controlling to use an used part of text memory as an extended area of a buffer when print data from outside exceeds the capacity of the print buffer. CONSTITUTION:In the case of receiving mode, a controlling device 20 writes print data transferred from an external equipment in the print buffer 28. At the same time, after increasing a print buffer 19b, decides whether the input data arrives at fnal memory position of the buffer 28 or not basing on count value of the buffer 19b. When this decision is YES, the device 20 decides whether ther is unused part in the text memory 27 or not basing on count value of a pointer 19a. If there is unused part, the print buffer 28 is expanded by setting the pointer 19b to final memory position in which input data in the memory 27 are written, and finishes the procedure.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an electronic typewriter having a text creation mode in which a document is created by editing input data, and a reception mode in which printing is performed based on print data from an external device.

Conventionally, electronic typewriters of the above type sequentially write input data from an input device to an input buffer in the normal mode, print data based on the input data transferred from this manual buffer to a print buffer, and print text. In the creation mode, a document is created by writing input data from a human-powered device into a text memory and editing the input data written into the text memory as appropriate.

Furthermore, in the reception mode, print data from an external device is once written into a print buffer, and then printing is performed based on the print data accessed from this print buffer. However, if printing is performed using, for example, print data for print lines transferred from an external device, a print buffer with a small storage capacity can be used, but the external JA
For example, IJ3 printing, in which printing is performed using a portion of print data transferred from the printer, requires a print buffer with a large storage capacity. For this reason, in order to print reliably without being overwhelmed by the amount of print data transferred from an external device, a print buffer with a large storage capacity is required, resulting in a problem of increased cost of the device.

In particular, in electronic typewriters that share part of the text memory as a print buffer in order to reduce device costs, the storage capacity of the print buffer is limited to a small capacity, so data cannot be transferred from an external device. For example, it was not possible to store and print part of the print data.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an electronic typewriter that can reliably print data using simplified print data in view of the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks.

Example Hereinafter, embodiments will be described according to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, a frame 2 of an electronic typewriter 1 has a keyboard 3 as an input device and thermal paper type printing 4!1 4 integrated therein. The keyboard 3 has many character keys 5 and function keys 6.
A mode changeover switch 7, a text creation mode switch 8, etc. are arranged. This mode changeover switch 7 is used to change over the printing mode of the electronic typewriter 1 between a normal mode and a reception mode. Unless the text creation mode switch 8 is operated, the electronic typewriter 1 is switched to a text creation mode in which document creation is possible.A display device 9 is attached to the keyboard 3. It consists of a number of display digits, and the characters corresponding to the input data entered by keystrokes are sequentially displayed on the liquid crystal display.

A platen 10 is attached to the frame 2 of the printing mechanism 4. This platen 10 supports thermal paper 11 that is inserted as a support drum (16I, not shown) is connected to a paper feed motor. Further, a guide shaft 12 parallel to the platen 10 is attached to the frame 2, and a carriage 13 is supported on this kite shaft 12 for reciprocating movement T+7. A drive belt (none of which is shown) is attached, and the carriage 13 is reciprocated as the carriage drive motor rotates.

A thermal head 14 is attached to the carriage 13. This thermal head 14 has thermal paper 1
Thermal head 1
Characters are printed in dots by coloring the coloring layer of the thermal paper 11 to which 4 is pressed. still,
A connector section 15 to which a data care pull of an external device is connected is attached to the side surface of the frame 2.

In FIG. 2, when a character key 5 is pressed after the mode changeover switch 7 is switched to the normal mode, the keyboard 3 outputs human power data corresponding to the pressed character key 5 to the control device 20.

The control device 20 writes input data into a rewritable input buffer 21, and also accesses pattern data corresponding to the manual data written into the manual buffer 21 from the ROM 22 and outputs it to the display device 9. As a result, characters corresponding to the input data written in the manual buffer 21 are displayed on the display device 9 at 71.

Then, when the six-point data once stored in the manual buffer 21 is transferred to the print buffer 28 according to the key manual input, the control device 2o outputs a carriage drive signal to the carriage drive circuit 23 to move the carriage 13 along the print line for one character. While moving, pattern data corresponding to the manual data read from the print buffer 28 is outputted to the head drive circuit 24 to selectively cause the heat generating elements in the thermal head 14 to generate heat. This allows thermal paper 1
1, the coloring layer is colored according to the heating element that generates heat, and characters are printed in dots. Note that, except for the printing operation for one printing line being completed by the above operation, the control device 620 outputs a head release signal to the head release circuit 25 to separate the thermal paper 11 and the thermal head 14, and then starts the paper feeding drive. A paper transmission signal is output to the circuit 26 to feed the thermal paper 11 by one print line.

Next, when the text creation mode switch 8 is operated, the control device 20 writes the manually inputted data to the input buffer 21 in the same way as in the ml description operation, and also writes the input data to the input buffer 21.
Display device 9 displays characters corresponding to the manual data written in 1.
display on the LCD. Further, the input data once entered into the manual buffer 21 is written into a rewritable text memory 27 by the ILT control device 20 to create a written document. still,
Each time input data is written to text memory 27, controller 20 increments pointer 19a to store the final storage location of the input data in text memory 27.

When a print start code is input by a combination of the function key 6 and character key 5, the control device 20 sequentially transfers the input data from the text memory 27 to the print buffer 28, and also transfers the input data read from the print buffer 28. After accessing the pattern data from the ROM 22 based on the above, the thermal head 14 is moved along the print line in the same manner as in the above operation, and the heating elements are selectively heated in accordance with the pattern data to print characters in dots.

Next, when the mode selector switch 7 is switched to the reception mode, the control device 20 is switched to a line state with an external device (not shown). When print data equal to or less than the storage capacity of the print buffer 28 is input via the interface 29, the control device 20 sequentially writes this print data into the replaceable print buffer 28. When a predetermined amount of print data is written to the print buffer 28, the controller 20 interrupts the transfer of print data from the external device and performs RO processing based on the print data accessed from the print buffer 28.
Access pattern data from M22.

Then, the control device 20 moves the thermal head 14 along the print lines of the thermal paper 11 in the same way as in the above operation, and selectively causes the heating elements to generate heat based on the pattern data. As a result, the coloring layer of the thermal paper 11 is colored in accordance with the heating element that generates heat, and characters are printed in dots.

Note that the control device 20 increments the print buffer pointer 19b every time print data is input, and stores the final storage position of the print buffer 28 where the print data is written.

On the other hand, when print data on the storage capacity device of the print buffer 28 is manually input from an external device via the interface 29, the control device ai 20
After writing 8 print data into the normal area of the print buffer 28, the remaining print data is written into the unused portion of the text memory 27 as an extended area of the print buffer 28 based on the count value of the pointer 19a. When a predetermined amount of print data is manually input, the control device 20 moves the carriage 1 in the same manner as described above.
3 to the print line of the thermal paper 11 and outputs pattern data corresponding to the print data accessed from the print buffer 28 and text memory 27 to the head drive circuit 24 to print dots.

Next, the print buffer designation operation will be explained with reference to FIG.

First, when the power is turned on, the control device 20 is initialized by the block 30, and then the flock 31 determines whether various keys or switches arranged on the keyboard 3 have been operated. If this determination is NO, the control device 20 Move to. On the other hand, if the determination in block 31 is YES,
The control device 20 determines whether the mode changeover switch 7 has been switched to the normal mode or the reception mode in block 32, and if this determination is YES, the control device 20 executes block 33.
It is determined whether the printing mode of the electronic typewriter 1 is the normal mode or not. If f″I] is YES, the control device 20 uses the block 34 to transfer the area in which the print data is written to the print buffer 28.
Specify the normal area. On the other hand, if the OiJ block 33 determination is NO, the control device 20 uses block 35 to designate an unused portion of the text memory 27 as an extended area of the print buffer 28 based on the count value of the pointer 19a. After the specified operation by the blocks 34 and 35, the control device 20 performs the operations in block 36.
The flags for each mode selected by the mode changeover switch 7 are set, and the process moves to block 31.

On the other hand, if +liJ block 32 is NO,
Since a key or switch other than the mode selector switch 7 has been operated in block 37, the control device 20 executes processing for the operated key, etc., and then proceeds to block 31.

Next, the print buffer expansion operation will be explained according to FIG.

When the reception mode is selected by the mode changeover switch 7, the control device 20 writes the print data transferred from the external device into the print buffer 28 in block 40 and increments the print buffer pointer 19b, and then in block 41, the control device 20 writes the print data transferred from the external device into the print buffer 28. Print buffer 28 based on the count of pointer 19b
Determine whether the final storage location of has been reached. If this determination is YES, the control device 20 determines in block 42 whether or not there is an unused portion in the text memory 27 based on the count of the pointer 19a, and this determination is YES.
In the case of ES, the print buffer 28 is expanded by setting the print buffer pointer 19b in the text memory 27 to the storage location next to the last storage location where the manual data was written, and the process ends. On the other hand, if the lnJ write block 42 determination is NO, the control device 20 sets the print buffer pointer 19b to the first storage position in the print buffer 28 in block 44, and ends the process. Note that the determination in block 41 is N.
In the case of O, the control device 20 terminates.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the print buffer 28 is
Since the storage area of the text memory 27 can be expanded to an unused portion of the text memory 27, even if print data exceeding the storage capacity of the print buffer 28 is transferred from an external device, this print data can be reliably stored.
It is possible to print.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION As described above, the present invention includes an input buffer that temporarily stores input data from an input device, a print buffer that stores print data from an 1i11 input device or an external device, and a In an electronic typewriter having a text memory for storing input data from the input device, when the print data from the external device +141 exceeds the capacity of the print buffer 1111, the unused portion of the text memory m1 is printed. It can be accessed from an external device by a simple configuration including a control means for controlling use as an expansion area of the buffer.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the road body schematically showing an electronic typewriter, Figure 2 is an electronic block diagram of the electronic typewriter, Figure 3 is a flowchart showing the print buffer designation operation, and Figure 4 is an expansion of the print buffer. It is a flowchart showing the operation, and in the figure, 1 is an electronic typewriter, 3 is a keyboard as an input device, 20 is a control device as a control means,
21 is an input buffer, 27 is a text memory, and 28 is a print buffer. Patent applicant Brother Industries, Ltd. Agent Patent attorney Ken Ito

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A human-powered buffer that temporarily stores human-powered data from a human-powered device; a print buffer that stores print data from the 011 human-powered device or an external device; In an electronic typewriter having a text memory for storing input data, when the print data from an external device exceeds the capacity of the print buffer, the unused portion of the text memory is used as an expansion area of the print buffer. 6111. An electronic typewriter characterized in that the electronic typewriter is further equipped with a control means for controlling the typewriter to perform control.