JPS60229040A - Recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform desired test printing operation without fail by searching for a paper feeding means which contains paper among plural paper feeding means and performing the test printing operation. CONSTITUTION:When a test print switch 21 is pressed, the signal of the switch is sent to a control part 22, which detects the output signal of the paper empty sensor 33 of a paper feeding means 4. When there is a signal indicating paper presence, the paper feeding means selection flag 23 for the paper feeding means 4 is set to ''1'' and a paper feeding instruction signal 25 is set to ''1'' to start test printing operation by an electrophotographic method. When the output signal of the paper empty sensor 33 indicates paper absence, the control part 22 detects the output signal of the paper empty sensor 34 of a paper feeding means 5 and when the signal indicates the presence of paper, the paper feeding means selection flag 27 for the paper feeding means 5 is set to ''1'' to feed paper from the paper feeding means 5 as mentioned above. If there is no paper in the paper feeding means 5, the output signal of the paper empty sensor 35 of a paper feeding means 6 is detected and when there is paper, paper is fed from the paper feeding means 6 to perform test printing operation.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field] The present invention relates to a recording device that prints characters, symbols, etc., and images and video patterns such as graphs and drawings, and in particular has a plurality of paper feeding means and is tested. The present invention relates to a recording device having a printing function.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, in this type of device, even if it is equipped with a plurality of paper feeding means, the paper to be test printed is selected from a predetermined specific paper in response to a test print command sent from a test switch or an external controller. Therefore, if there is no paper in that particular paper feeding means, test printing cannot be performed.

[Objective] In order to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks, an object of the present invention is to select the feeder in which paper is set among a plurality of paper feeders in response to a test print command during test printing for inspecting internal functions. To provide a recording device which detects paper means, selects one of the paper feeding means in which the detected paper is set, and executes a test print.

[Implementation example] Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a schematic internal configuration of a recording apparatus of the present invention. The apparatus of this example is an electrophotographic laser beam printer equipped with three paper feeding means, in which 1 is a photosensitive drum that transfers a latent image produced by a laser beam onto paper via toner;
is a fixing roller that heats and presses the toner on the paper to fix it.
3 is an output tray for storing printed paper; 4, 5 and 6 are paper feeding means such as cassettes for storing paper; 7.8 and 8 are respective paper feeding rollers; 10 is a laser unit for emitting a laser beam; 11 is a laser driver that drives the laser section and modulates the laser beam; 12 is an OR circuit that ORs two signals; and 13 is an internal pattern generator that generates a character pattern in response to an input signal.

In the above configuration, when the paper feeding means 4 is selected by a control system having a paper feeding means selection function according to the present invention, which will be described later, during test printing, the paper feeding roller 7 is rotated by a print command, and the paper feeding means The paper is fed by descending onto the paper in 4, and the photosensitive drum l is irradiated with a laser beam.
The latent image formed thereon is developed by a known electrophotographic method, such as the NP process method, transferred onto a sheet of paper, fixed by a fixing roller 2, and the recorded sheet is discharged into an output tray 3. The same applies when the other paper feeding means 5 or 6 is selected.

On the other hand, the exposure of the photosensitive drum 1 is performed by on/phi/off modulating the laser light emitted from the laser section 10 by the laser driver 11. Recording information is sent from an external controller (not shown) or from an internal pattern generator 13 through an OR circuit 12 to the laser driver 1.
1 and turns the laser unit 10 on and off.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the structure of the paper feeding means selection circuit of the apparatus shown in FIG. Here, 21 is a test print switch that instructs test printing, 22 is a control unit that performs overall control according to the control procedure shown in FIG. 3, and 23.2? , 30 is a paper feeding means selection flag that is set by the control unit in response to the detection of the presence or absence of paper, and indicates the paper feeding means used for test printing;
25 is a paper feed command signal issued from the control unit 22; 24, 2;
8.31 is an AND circuit that gates the paper feed command signal 25 using flags 23 and 27.30 as gate signals;
2B, 29.32 are paper feed roller drive circuits that are activated by the output signals of the AND circuits 24, 28, and 31 to drive the paper feed rollers 7, 8, and 9; 33 is a paper feed roller drive circuit that detects the presence or absence of paper in the paper feed means 4; 34 is a paper out sensor that detects the presence or absence of paper in the paper feeding means 5; and 35 is a paper out sensor that detects the presence or absence of paper in the paper feeding means 6.

If a microprocessor is used as the above-mentioned control unit 22, the input ports of the microprocessor 22 include the paper out sensor 33 of the paper feeding means 4, the paper out sensor 34 of the paper feeding means 5, and the out of paper sensor 34 of the paper feeding means 6. The sensor 35 and the test print switch 21 are connected, and the output port is connected to the l±, 逼合M-Kakusho-Tatsumi flags 23, 27, 3.
0, the paper feed command signal line and the internal pattern generator 13 are connected.

In the above-described configuration, when the test print switch 21 is pressed, a signal from the switch is sent to the control section 22. When the control unit 22 receives this test print signal, it detects the output signal of the paper out sensor 33 of the paper feeding means 4, and if the signal indicates that there is paper, it sets the paper feeding means selection flag for the paper feeding means 4. 23 is set to °°l'', and the paper feed command signal 25 is set to "°1°" to start test printing using the electrophotographic method described above.

That is, at this time, if the paper feed command signal 25 is set to 1" and sent to the AND circuits 24, 28, 31, only the output of the AND circuit 24 to which the 1 of the paper feed means selection flag 23 is input will be 1". 1°, and this output°1°' is input to the paper feed roller drive circuit 26. This paper feed roller drive circuit 28 generates a drive signal based on the output of the AND circuit 24, and is connected to a drive mechanism (not shown) for the paper feed roller 7 for the paper feed means 4 in FIG. In response to a drive signal from the drive circuit 26, the paper feed roller 7 rotates and descends to feed paper from the paper feed means 4, and test printing is performed.

However, if the output signal of the out-of-paper sensor 33 is a signal indicating that there is no paper in the paper feeding means 4, the control section 22 then detects the output signal of the out-of-paper sensor 34 of the paper feeding means 5.

If the signal indicates that there is paper, set the paper feeding means selection flag 27 for the paper feeding means 5 to l'°, and select the paper feeding means 5 in the same way as described above.
Execute a test print on paper fed from .

If there is no paper in the paper feed means 5, then the output signal of the paper out sensor 35 of the paper feed means 6 is detected, and if there is paper, paper is fed from the paper feed means 6 and a test print is performed.

On the other hand, at the same time as the test print sequence control described above is started, a start signal is sent to the internal pattern generator 13 from the control section 2.
2, the output signal of the internal pattern generator 13 is sent to the laser driver 11 through the OR circuit 12 shown in FIG. .

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of control operation when the control section 22 shown in FIG. 2 is configured with a microprocessor.

The microprocessor 22 performs sequence control of the entire recording device using a main program stored in advance in an internal program memory, and a part of the main program includes a sense command based on a signal input from the test switch 21. If has been pressed, a test print sequence operation according to the procedure shown in FIG. 3 is started (step S1).

First, the output of the paper out sensor 33 of the paper feeding means 4 is checked, and when this output is °°0', that is, when there is no paper (step 52), the paper out sensor 33 of the paper feeding means 5 is checked.
Check the output of The output of this sensor 34 is 0'°
When this happens (step S3), the output of the paper out sensor 35 of the paper feeding means 6 is checked, and when this output is "0", the process returns to the main routine (step S4). That is, all the paper feeding means 4 to If there is no paper at 6, the process returns to the main routine without performing a test print.

On the other hand, when there is paper in the paper feed means 4, the output of the paper out sensor 33 of the paper feed means 4 is °°1°', so when this output is detected, the paper feed means flag 23 is set to °1°. In step S5), the print sequence operation using the electrophotographic method described above is started.

At the same time, the internal pattern generator 13 is turned on and output as an image signal (step S8), and the paper feed command 25 is set to +11.
II and output (step S8). Next, it is checked whether printing of one sheet has been completed, and if it has been completed (step 5ro), the paper feeding means selection flags 23, 27 and 30 are reset (step Sl+), and then the internal pattern generator is 13 is turned off (step 512), and the process returns to the main routine.

On the other hand, when there is no paper in the paper feeder 4 and there is paper in the paper feeder 5, the output of the paper out sensor 34 of the paper feeder 5 is
1'', so the paper feed means selection flag 27 should be set to °°1°" (step s8), and then the above-mentioned step S
Proceeding to step 8, a print shift operation using the electrophotographic method is performed in the same manner as described above, and a test print is executed.

Similarly, when there is no paper in the paper feed means 4 and 5 and there is paper only in the paper feed means 6, the output of the paper out sensor 35 of the paper feed means 6 becomes "1". In this case, set the paper feeding means selection flag 3o to °°l'.

step S7), and step S7) as described above.
Proceeding to step 8, a print sequence operation using electrophotography is performed and a test print is executed.

As described above, if a microprocessor is used for the control section 22, a simple configuration can be achieved.

[Effects] As explained above, according to the present invention, the paper feeding means containing paper is searched for among the plurality of paper feeding means and a test print is executed. The effect of being able to perform test printing is obtained.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic internal configuration diagram showing an example of an electrophotographic recording apparatus of the present invention having three paper feeding means, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a paper feeding means selection circuit of the apparatus shown in FIG. , FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of control operation when the control section 22 shown in FIG. 2 is configured by a microprocessor. l...Photosensitive drum, 4.5.8...Paper feeding means, ? , 8.9...Main paper roller, 13...Internal pattern generator, 22...Control unit (microprocessor), 23.27
．． 30... Paper feeding means selection flag, 25... Paper feeding command signal, 26.29.32... Paper feeding roller drive circuit. Patent applicant Canon Co., Ltd. Representative Patent attorney Yoshi Tani - Figure 1

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A recording apparatus including a plurality of paper feeding means for storing recording paper and feeding the paper to the recording side, comprising: a paper detection means for detecting the presence or absence of paper in each of the paper feeding means; Control means for checking the detection output of the paper detection means in response to a test print instruction, selecting one of the paper feeding means having paper according to the detection output, causing the main paper feeding to be performed, and performing predetermined recording. A recording device comprising: (Hereafter, margin)