JPS6124954B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention utilizes numerical control data for sewing embroidery patterns stored in the memory of a set of computers.
The present invention relates to a control device for automatic embroidery sewing machines that independently controls a large number of automatic embroidery sewing machines.

Most of the technology used in so-called multi-head embroidery sewing machine systems is such that all the machine heads operate simultaneously, seemingly as one unit, and the embroidery frame provided on each machine also operates at the same time. It was a movement synchronized with the Therefore, with this type of sewing machine, in order to stop operation in the event of thread breakage in one of the sewing machine heads or other various troubles, the operation of the entire system must be stopped. , and at one time each machine head could sew only one type of the same embroidery pattern.

The present invention aims to solve this problem, and uses a set of data distribution means that stores various pattern sewing control data to enable a large number of mechanically independent sewing machines to select a desired sewing machine. In pattern sewing operation,
The aim is to provide a technical means for asynchronously controlling parallel operations.

To explain an embodiment with reference to the figure, the processing of storing and distributing data by the main computer 1 which distributes requested data groups from among various numerical control data for pattern sewing according to requests. The operating elements are a so-called microcomputer (hereinafter referred to as a microcomputer) constructed by combining various chips of a large-scale integrated circuit, and the memory 1 of this microcomputer
a, a data reader 2 for storing various numerical control data for pattern sewing (hereinafter referred to as pattern data), and selecting from among the pattern data,
A pattern set board 3a assigns pattern data of each desired embroidery pattern to the drive control unit 4 of each sewing machine, and the pattern data assigned by the pattern set board 3a is fed to the drive control unit 4. It is equipped with an I/O port 23 which is a data sending means. When storing pattern data in the memory 1a, the pattern selection setting means 2 is used as a data processing program during operation of this microcomputer so that the starting address of each embroidery pattern can be determined.
0, and pattern set board 3
In step a, when a pattern selection operation is performed for each sewing machine based on the index code or number determined in advance for each embroidery pattern, the starting address of the selected pattern data is stored in the appropriate register inside this microcomputer. An address table representing the amount of data, etc. is created and stored,
Thereafter, the address is advanced each time a data block is fed, and the advanced address is held while data feeding is paused in preparation for the next data feeding request. In order to read data from the memory 1a in response to a request for sending pattern data, all data for one embroidery pattern is divided into a plurality of data blocks, and the data is read out several blocks (described later) or one block for each request. It is a feature of the present invention that the data of the sewing machines are continuously read out all at once and applied to each drive control unit 4. This makes it possible to continuously read out the data of several sewing machines without having to limit the operating speed of each sewing machine to a particularly low speed. This allows ten or more sewing machines to be operated simultaneously and asynchronously. The pattern data for each embroidery pattern is organized as embroidery control data for each step in order to obtain a plane movement movement of the embroidery frame 6 as the sewing machine 5 is operated. It consists of numerical data representing the amount and various other information during the process of stitching, such as control data such as temporary stop, thread change, temporary stop of the needle bar, and end of the pattern. It is assumed that one pattern data program is assembled by concatenating stitches and various data for one pattern. The drive control unit 4 provided correspondingly to each of the many sewing machines 5 includes an individual support computer 7 and a servo motor that controls the drive of the servo motor 8 and the sewing machine motor 9 in accordance with control signals provided by the computer 7. It includes a drive circuit 10 and a sewing machine motor control circuit 11. The control provided by the supporting computer 7 includes:
In addition, a device is used that provides a signal for temporarily stopping the needle bar and controls the engagement and disengagement of the clutch mechanism 15 in the diagonal bar drive system on the side of the sewing machine 5, but the details thereof will be omitted. Each sewing machine 5 is provided with an embroidery frame support drive mechanism that transmits the movement of the servo motor 8 for operating two components of the x-axis coordinate component to the embroidery frame 6.
Although not shown in the figure, the details of the mechanism of the planar movement of the embroidery frame 6 under the control of two servo motors are disclosed in, for example, Utility Model Application No. 53-168770 and Utility Model Application No. 54-54447. It's like being seen. If the servo motor 8 has an open-loop automatic control circuit configuration as shown in the figure, a pulse motor can be used.
If a DC servo motor is used, a similar function can be obtained between it and the drive circuit 10 by providing a D/A conversion and an encoder on the servo motor side to create a closed loop circuit configuration. be able to. Although each sewing machine motor 9 is operated independently, the sewing machine main shaft 5a moves at substantially the same speed.
to drive. The rotation of the sewing machine main shaft 5a provides a data output timing, ie, a servo motor start timing signal, to the supporting computer 7 from a rotation signal generator 12 provided therein. Drive control means 21 based on memory, I/O port and calculation unit CPU
The main computer 1 includes a main computer 1, a memory 7a, and a memory control means 22.
Sewing machine operation panel 1, which is also composed of a microcomputer chip, performs operations such as starting, stopping, and correcting each sewing machine, and is also equipped with elements to display its status.
It is accompanied by 3. In the microcomputer configuration of the supporting computer 7, the data capacity of the memory 7a is large enough to store a plurality of data blocks obtained by dividing the pattern data as described above. Thereby, the drive control means 21 reads data for each stitch from the memory 7a in response to a timing signal from the rotation signal generator 12 that the needle 5a of the sewing machine passes over the embroidery frame 6, and according to the content of the data. The servo motor drive circuit 10
The operation of the sewing machine main shaft 5a and the movement of the embroidery frame 6 are controlled via the sewing machine motor drive circuit 11. Assuming that the data block organization of the memory 7a is, for example, three blocks, when reading of sewing machine control data progresses and only one block remains, the memory control means 22 is connected to the main computer 1 as described later. Instructing a data replenishment request, one block of data subsequent to the remaining data is fed and stored in the memory of the block that was read out first. By dividing the memory into three parts and replenishing it for one block each time, even if corrections due to problems during embroidery operation occur across block boundaries, the data can be read out without any problem both forward and backward. be able to. And also, the size of the data block,
For example, one block is 80 steps (described later).
240 bytes, the data storage capacity of one set of support computers 7 can be set to be relatively small at about 3/4K, and the data storage capacity of the drive control unit 4 itself can be set to a relatively small data storage capacity of about 3/4K. To,
The main computer 1 and a large number of subcomputers 7 are operated so that the main computer 1 can be supplemented with the next data while leaving at least one block of embroidery progress data without interrupting the operation. It is a feature of the present invention that these functions are linked. The sewing machine operation panel 13 includes an embroidery operation start/stop operation button 13a, a display 13b for displaying the number of stitches or cumulative control steps since the start of pattern sewing, a reset button 13c, and a correction operation button 1.
3d, a control status indicator light 13e, an alarm buzzer 13f, and the like. However, to supplement this,
The control steps correspond to the progress of reading data from the memory 7a, and do not necessarily correspond to the accumulation of stitches. In other words, at a certain step, the control data commands a temporary stop such as system change, or as mentioned above, when feeding a long traverse of cloth, only the needle bar temporarily pauses and the embroidery frame 6 is moved several steps. This is because the pattern data contains various information, and the display 13b may display either the control step or the number of stitches. And when the displayed value is corrected,
When performing a return operation using the correction operation button 13d,
The count is also operated on the return side. In addition, the support computer 7 includes the rotation signal generator 12
The instruction means includes a counter (not shown) that adds or subtracts the address in accordance with a timing signal from the memory 7a, and reads out data from the memory 7a, and displays the counted value on the display 13b, so that the progress of the embroidery can be known. However, depending on the circumstances, this display 13b may be omitted. In the following explanation of this embodiment, the data for one step is 3 BYT in total, including 1 BYT of the control data indicating the end of the various information and pattern data mentioned above, and 1 BYT each of the numerical data of both the X and Y components. The control sequence shall be activated in minutes. Correction operation button 13
d, if the thread breaks while the sewing machine 5 is running and the blank stitching is completed until it stops, the memory address is returned step by step by the operation and the sewing machine is The embroidery frame 6 is moved to a required position at a given cycle, and the embroidery frame 6 is provided with advance and return buttons so that correction operations can be performed on the forward side as well. However, in the case of return, the embroidery frame movement data read in accordance with the return address provides both the X-axis and Y-axis component amounts to the servo motor drive circuit 10 with their direction signs inverted.

The present invention has the above-mentioned configuration, and to summarize it once again, the main computer 1 makes settings for feeding desired pattern data to the drive control unit 4 of each sewing machine from among a large number of pattern data. This embodiment has a function to send data for three blocks only the first time, and for one data block thereafter, each time there is a request for data feeding from each unit. The support computer 7 transfers the received data to the sewing machine main shaft 5a.
It reads out each control step in synchronization with the rotation of the sewing machine motor 9, controls the movement of the embroidery frame 6, displays the thread change time, and performs other control functions. An example of the sequence operation of the above-mentioned action will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 2. First, in FIG. , the data reader 2 is operated to read various pattern data and store it in the memory 1a. In the process, information indicating the address range of each pattern is also appropriately stored as a type of data.

When reading from the reader is completed, preparations are made to send desired pattern data to a large number of supporting computers 7, respectively. Assuming that the selection operation of the embroidery pattern to be executed by each sewing machine 5 is set on the pattern set board 3a on the main microcomputer operation panel 3, the embroidery pattern selection operation is selected for each sewing machine according to the setting state. The addresses of the pattern data set are tabulated in the memory inside the microcomputer so that they can be indexed by the pattern setting means 20. That is, from now on, when a data feed request from each sewing machine interrupts the master's main routine, the start address of the data to be fed is determined by this address table.
Therefore, the master side waits for a request from the slave side of the supporting computer 7, or responds to the interrupt if a request has already been received by that stage, but in the meantime there are requests from multiple slaves. In this case, the initial set of the main routine and the interrupt-disabled program memorize the order in which requests arrive, so that when the first one responds to an interrupt, the other ones block the interrupt and start the next request. Move up the service order. After this, in this service routine, first, the request contents from the slave side are read. The slave request is the number of blocks of pattern data, and if the memory 7a on the slave side is divided into three blocks as described above, the first request will be for all three blocks, and the second and subsequent requests will be for one block. Therefore, the master side sends the required block of pattern data to the slave side via the data feeding means 23 based on the address table, and when the requested data feeding is completed, the process returns to waiting for an interrupt in the main routine. During operation of the entire control system of the present invention, the main computer 1 responds to the data feeding of each request one after another as each sewing machine 5 progresses in sewing.

Next, an example of the control sequence on the drive control unit 4 side will be explained with reference to FIG. First, in the initial data reception routine at the left end of the figure, the slave memory 7a is
Then, the pattern data for those three blocks is stored. As shown in the figure, the cooperative operation with the master service routine in this routine is a so-called shake hand method for data transfer and delivery. During this initial data acquisition, even if the start operation has been set on the slave operation panel (sewing machine operation panel 13), the start-up waits until three blocks of data have been received. When this initial data storage is completed, the process moves to automatic embroidery machine control shown in the center of the figure. In this area, examples of systems that read out control data stored in the memory of a microcomputer in synchronization with the operation of the sewing machine and execute automatic operation one after another through sequence control are already known. There are some examples from the present applicant, such as the example in Japanese Patent Application No. 144899/1989 in which a direct current servo motor is used as the servo motor 8 for numerical control, and the example in which the movement of the needle bar is temporarily stopped when feeding cloth in a long traverse. However, prior art such as Japanese Patent Application No. 75062/1987 has been disclosed in which only several steps of cloth feeding are performed continuously during that time, and in the numerical control of such embroidery sewing machines,
The actions of individual functional elements and how many such functional elements are included are not the gist of the present invention, so detailed illustrations are omitted. To explain the control of this flowchart part, first, start operation button 13a is turned ON on sewing machine operation panel 13.
It is checked to see if it is being operated, and then it is also checked to see if the correction operation button 13d is being operated.
When there is a correction operation, if it is a correction to the return side, as described above, the addresses are sequentially returned from the memory 7a, the data for one step is read out, and the amount of embroidery frame movement in that data is calculated. The direction signs of the provided X-axis component and Y-axis component data are inverted.
If there is no correction, then the presence or absence of a detection signal from the thread breakage sensor 14 (see FIG. 1) of the sewing machine is detected, and if there is no detection signal, data reading is continued. Therefore, as shown in block 16 of the flowchart of the figure, the timing signal from the sewing machine rotation signal generator 12 is waited for, and the content of the read data is determined. As mentioned above, the read data for one step consists of 3 BYTs, and by using the first BYT as control information, the command can be used to change the thread or temporarily pause the needle bar during a long traversal stitch (in this flowchart in this figure). If the numerical data is simply an embroidery stitch, the numerical data, which is the servo motor control amount for both the The signal is output to the motor drive circuit 10 to control the movement of the embroidery frame 6. When the drive control means 21 finishes reading data for one step and processing it, it is determined each time whether the remaining memory in the memory 7a is one block, and when the determination is affirmative, this If there is no information indicating the end of pattern data in the data of the remaining block, as shown at the right end of this flowchart, a data feed request is made to interrupt the aforementioned master service routine. (Memory control means 22) In this data replenishment routine, first, the data is output to the clutch mechanism 15 of the needle bar, taking into account that the master side may have to wait for interrupts from multiple slaves at the same time. Pause for a while. Next, a request is made for data replenishment for one block, and the replenishment is received in the same manner as the initial pattern data reception. Since this second data acceptance is for one block,
One used block of data is still in memory 7.
The address remains in the file ``a'', and even if some trouble occurs there and the address needs to be returned and corrected, the address can be returned without any problem. In this data replenishment routine,
If pattern data end information arrives while one block of data has not yet arrived, a signal indicating that the store of that data block includes pattern data end information is sent as appropriate, as shown in block 18 of this flowchart. is stored as an index in the register. Then, as in the case of completion of data replenishment for one block, the needle bar temporary pause effect is canceled and embroidery control is resumed. The indicator that the end information of the pattern data has been stored is determined by the control sequence when the reading of the stored data from the memory 7a is shifted to that in the remaining last block in decision block 19 of this flowchart. This is not used for the data replenishment routine, but for determining whether to repeat the embroidery control routine. In this way, each slave receives data from the master and executes numerical control of automatic embroidery stitching, and when the end of pattern data is detected at judgment block 20 in this flowchart, the sewing machine motor is driven. A stop signal is output to the circuit 11, and the indicator light group 1
In addition to the stop display operation in step 3c, an operation signal for the buzzer 13f is output.

Regarding the above, the above-mentioned data replenishment during the embroidery sewing operation is carried out in a short period of time, which can be said to be practically instantaneous, and is negligible compared to the cycle of the needle up and down movement of the sewing machine 5. If the operating speed of the sewing machine is relatively low and the number of sewing machines operating at the same time is small, the needle bar drive clutch mechanism 15 is not necessarily required.

As described above, in the present invention, as shown in FIG. 4, the movement of each of a large number of sewing machines is controlled by driving two servo motors of the sewing machine motors that drive each of the sewing machines. an embroidery frame support drive mechanism, and a memory capable of storing at least three blocks of pattern sewing data for controlling the sewing machine motor and the embroidery frame support drive mechanism by dividing it into data blocks; A drive control means reads the pattern sewing data and applies it to the sewing machine motor and the embroidery frame support drive mechanism, and at the first time, requests the main computer to feed the data for the plurality of data blocks, and from the next time on, A plurality of drive control units are provided, each having a subcomputer comprising a memory control means that requests the main computer to send data for one block when it is determined that there is one block of memory remaining in the main computer. a memory for storing pattern sewing data constituting each of the embroidery patterns; pattern selection setting means for creating an address table of pattern sewing data in the memory corresponding to each of the plurality of sewing machines; Data feeding means for feeding the requested number of data feeding blocks of each of the correspondingly selected pattern sewing data to the supporting computer according to the address table in response to a data feeding request from each computer. Since the main computer stores automatic embroidery machine control data for many types of embroidery patterns, each branch computer on the drive control unit side of a large number of sewing machines can sew desired patterns. It is possible to supply data for each machine to operate automatic embroidery sewing independently, and by providing each support computer with a memory, for example, it is possible to control multiple control units from the memory of one computer. It is easier to synchronize the operation of the sewing machine and the readout of the embroidery frame movement data than the system that supplies data for one step each time. sewing machines can be operated at the same time. In addition, only one set of large-capacity memory is needed on the main computer side to store many types of pattern data, and each branch computer only needs to have a relatively small-capacity memory, making it economical. and since each sewing machine can sew its own embroidery pattern independently of the others,
Even when one of the sewing machines is stopped, the remaining sewing machines can continue to operate, and it is also convenient because a wide variety of processed products can be efficiently produced at the same time. In addition, the memory of the subcomputer is designed to be able to store at least three blocks of data obtained by dividing the pattern sewing data, and the subcomputer requests the feeding of several blocks of pattern sewing data for the first time. Store multiple sets of data blocks. When the reading of the pattern sewing data progresses and one block of data remains, the main computer is requested to send one block of pattern sewing data. In this way, the memory of the supporting computer is divided into a plurality of groups, and each time one block's worth of pattern sewing data is stored in the memory of the block that has been read out first. Therefore, one block of data from which data is to be read and at least one block of data which has already been read are always secured in the memory. As a result, even if a problem occurs during embroidery operation and correction is required across blocks, the previous data is stored, so it is possible to go back and read the previous data.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
The figure is a flowchart of a control program for explaining the operation of a part of the main part, FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the control program of another main part,
The figure is a block diagram depicting the gist of the present invention. 1...Main computer, 1a...Memory, 2...
...Data reader, 3...Main microcomputer operation panel, 3a
...Pattern set board, 4...Drive control unit, 5...Sewing machine, 5a...Main shaft, 6...Embroidery frame, 7...Support computer, 7a...Memory, 8
... Servo motor, 9 ... Sewing machine motor, 10 ...
... Servo motor drive circuit, 11 ... Sewing machine motor drive circuit, 12 ... Rotation signal generator, 13 ... Sewing machine operation panel, 13a ... Start/stop operation button, 13d
...Modification operation button, 20...Pattern selection setting means, 2
1... Drive control means, 22... Memory control means,
23...Data feeding means.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. For each of a large number of sewing machines, a sewing machine motor that drives each of the sewing machines, and an embroidery frame support drive mechanism whose movement is controlled by driving two servo motors;
and a memory capable of storing at least three blocks of pattern sewing data for controlling the sewing machine motor and the embroidery frame support drive mechanism by dividing the pattern sewing data into data blocks, and reading out the pattern sewing data from the memory in synchronization with the operation of the sewing machine. At the first time, the main computer is requested to send data for the plurality of data blocks, and from the next time, the remaining memory in the memory is Each drive control unit is provided with a support computer consisting of a memory control means that requests the main computer to send data for one block when it is determined that the embroidery pattern is one block, and the main computer is provided with a plurality of embroidery patterns in each configuration. a memory for storing pattern sewing data for each of the plurality of sewing machines; a pattern selection setting means for creating an address table of pattern sewing data in the memory corresponding to each of the plurality of sewing machines; and data feeding means for feeding the requested number of data feeding blocks of each of the correspondingly selected pattern sewing data to the supporting computer according to the address table in response to a data feeding request. An automatic sewing machine control device featuring: