JPS61209185A - Control of serial printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the control of the planning or manufacturing of ROM and to reduce cost when ROM is converted to mask ROM, by discriminating the number of printing figures with respect to one line to store the same in a memory element and controlling printer difference in the number of printing figures by the same control program. CONSTITUTION:A printing head 4 is moved from one end of a movable range to the other end thereof when the power source of a printer is closed and the sensor pulse generated from the sensor of a position detection means with the movement of said printing head 4 is counted by a counter to measure the moving distance of the printing head. The number of printing figures with respect to one line are discriminated on the basis of the measure result and the discriminated result is stored in a memory element to control two kinds of printers different in the number of printing figures by the same control program. By this method, in a stage before printing is performed, it is discriminated whether a printer is a narrow or wide type and printing processing is performed according to a control program corresponding to discrimination. Therefore, the same ROM can be used even in printers different in the number of printing figures.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a method of controlling a serial printer having a print head that reciprocates over a platen and means for detecting the position of the print head.

[Conventional technology]

Conventional serial printers, which use a print head that moves back and forth along a platen to print desired characters on paper set on a platen, are mainly narrow type printers for individuals used in personal computers, etc., and printers for forms, etc. Wide type printers for business use are commonly used for printing.

Of these two types of printers, the former narrow type printer prints 10 characters/inch (pica pitch) of 80 characters per line, and the latter wide type printer prints 13 degrees per line. Print.

In this way, the two general types of conventional printers differ in the number of digits printed per line, so there are also two types of control programs for the microprocessor built into the printers.
As memories for storing these two types of control programs, a ROM for the narrow type printer and a ROM for the wide type printer were required.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, when preparing two types of ROM to store control programs for two types of printers, it is necessary to manage the design and manufacturing of each separately, and it is also necessary to change the ROM to a mask ROM. In this case, the mask manufacturing cost is 2
There is a problem in that it is expensive because it requires different types.

The present invention was made in order to solve such problems, and uses a position detection means to detect the position of the print head, and uses a single type of ROM to print two types, a wide type and a wide type.
We have realized a control program that can control different types of printers using the same control program, thereby reducing the management of ROM design and manufacturing, and also converting the ROM into a mask ROM.
The purpose is to reduce costs when

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention moves the print head from one end of its movable range to the other end when the printer is powered on, and changes its position as it moves at this time. The moving distance of the print head is measured by counting sensor pulses generated from the sensor of the detection means with a counter.

Then, the number of printed digits for the 91 lines of this measurement result is determined, the determined result is stored in a storage element, and two types of printers having different numbers of printed digits are controlled by the same control program.

[Effect]

According to the above-described means, before printing, it is determined whether the printer is a narrow type or a wide type, and the printing process is performed according to the control program accordingly.

Therefore, according to this, it is possible to use the same ROM even in printers having different numbers of printing digits.

〔Example〕

Examples will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of a control program for determining the number of printed digits to explain an embodiment of the method for controlling a serial printer according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of a serial printer to which the present invention is applied. be.

First, to explain the serial printer shown in Fig. 2, 1 is a platen, both ends of the central axis of the platen 1 are rotatably supported by left and right side plates 2a and 2b, and the central axis of the bracket is It is connected to a step motor (not shown) for line feed, and when the platen 1 is rotated by this motor, printing paper (not shown), which is set and wound around the platen 1, is fed.

A shaft 3 has both ends fixed to the side plates 2a and 2b, and the shaft 3 is arranged parallel to the platen 1. A carriage is movably provided on this shaft 3, and a print head 4 is mounted on the carriage.

Further, a space motor (not shown) is connected to the carriage via wires, belts, and gears (also not shown). Is it fast and dry? - The print head 4 is moved together with the carriage on the shaft 3 along the platen 1 by the rotation of the space motor 1, and prints on the print paper set on the platen 1.

Although not shown, as a position detecting means for detecting the position of the print head 4, a disk having a slit is connected to the rotating shaft of a space motor in a gear-down manner, and the disk rotates as the print head 4 moves. The print head 4 is detected by detecting the slit with a photo sensor, magnetic sensor, etc.
There have been used devices that detect the position of the print head 4, and devices that detect the position of the power print head 4 by mounting the disk on a carriage and similarly detecting the slit with a sensor.

Next, a method of controlling the serial printer having the above-described configuration will be explained based on FIG.

First, when the power is turned on to the printer, the initial setting program resets the driver circuit and interface circuit and sets the initial state, and then the origin positioning operation of the carriage carrying the print head 4 (usually the first character When the print head 4 is moved to the printing start position of the second position, the control program for determining the number of printing digits shown in FIG. 1 is executed.

In step 1 of FIG. 1, the print head 4 is moved to the right in FIG. 2 by the rotation of the space motor, and the aforementioned disk rotates, its slit is detected by the sensor, and a sensor pulse is generated. While the sensor pulse is being generated, the print head 4 moves to the right, and when the print head 4 reaches one end of the movable range, that is, it hits the side gray (2a) on the right side of the print head 4 and stops. , the space motor will no longer be able to rotate. Therefore, the rotation of the disc is also stopped and no sensor pulses are generated.

The control program for determining the number of printed digits then proceeds to step 2.

In step 2, the space motor rotates in the opposite direction to move the print head 4 to the left, and the slit in the disk is detected by the sensor in the same manner as described above, and a sensor pulse is generated. The sensor pulses at this time are sequentially counted by a counter, and when the print head 4 reaches the other end of the movable range, that is, the left side plate 2
When it hits point b and stops, the sensor pulse is no longer generated and the control program for determining the number of printed digits moves to the next step 3.
Proceed to.

In step 3, the distance traveled by the print head 4 from one end of its movable range to the other is calculated from the number of sensor pulses counted in step 2, and the number of digits printed per line of the printer is determined based on the result. conduct.

For example, in this embodiment, it is assumed that the sensor pulse generated by the slit in the disk generates one pulse when the printing spatula) moves 475E1/480 inches, and that the distance between the left and right side plates 2a and 2b corresponds to the print head 4. There are 8 printers that print the movable range with 80 digits per line.
．． If a 5-inch, 136-digit printer is 14.5 inches, the former printer has 8.5 x 480 = 4
080 sensor pulses are counted, and in the latter printer, 14,5×480=6960 sensor pulses are counted.

The number of printed digits is determined by 4200, taking into account variations in the mechanism, etc.
Printer that prints 80 digits less than pulse, 13 digits more
It is a 6-digit printer.

The result of this determination is the bit FLA for determining the number of printing digits assigned to the storage element RAM by the control program.
It is set to G. For example, if it is determined that it is 80 digits, the FLAG will set logic 10', and if it is 136 digits, F
LAG sets logic 11'.

Thereafter, the print head 4 is moved to the printing start position of the first character, and the control program for determining the number of printing digits is ended.

Thereafter, in the printer control program, the status of the FLAG is checked by the print digit management program, and
A lot of processing is done depending on the distinction between the digits and the number of printed digits, 136 digits.

In addition, in this embodiment, the number of printing digits per line is 80 digits and 1
Although the discrimination in the case of 36 digits has been described, the present invention is not limited to this, and it is also possible to discriminate other differences in the number of printed digits.

Furthermore, if the moving speed of the print head 4 and carriage when determining the number of printing digits mentioned above is controlled to be lower than the normal printing speed, the print head 4 will collide with the left and right side grays) 2a and 2b. This can virtually eliminate the impact of the accident.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention moves the print head from one end of its movable range to the other end when the power of the printer is turned on, and measures the moving distance of the print head using the position detection means, thereby printing one line. The number of digits to be printed is determined and the determined result is stored in a memory element to print two different numbers of digits.
Since different types of printers can be controlled by the same control program, the number of ROMs that store the control programs that were previously manufactured for two types of printers with different numbers of printing digits can now be reduced to one type. 0 Therefore, management of ROM design, manufacturing, sales, maintenance, etc. can be reduced by half compared to conventional methods, and ROM
Even when a mask ROM is used as a mask, the cost for manufacturing the mask can be reduced by half.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a control program for determining the number of printed digits to explain an embodiment of the printer control method according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a serial printer to which the present invention is applied. FIG.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A method for controlling a serial printer having a print head that reciprocates along a platen, and a position detection means for detecting the position of the print head, wherein the print head can be moved when the power is turned on. Move the print head from one end of the range to the other end, measure the moving distance of the print head at this time with the position detection means, determine the number of printing digits for one line based on the measurement result, and calculate the determined number of printing digits. A method for controlling a serial printer, characterized in that the results are stored in a storage element and printers with different numbers of printing digits are controlled by the same control program.