JPS62179945A - Recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To rapidly and simply optimize a printing state by performing the preparatory driving of a printing head, by mounting a pulse width setting means, a pulse number setting means and a cycle setting means to a head controller. CONSTITUTION:A cycle T is set to the register 30 of a command register 2 and the width W of an emitting driving pulse 40 is set to a pulse width register 32. The number of output times of the emitting driving pulse 40 are set to a number-of-time counter 31 and a head driving start signal T0I is outputted to allow the command register 2 to drive a current supply controller to output signals 20, 21 in order to carry out preparatory emitting operation. Therefore, the load of MPU at the times of preparatory emission and preheating and the rising at the start time of printing becomes fast.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a recording apparatus equipped with a print head control circuit that controls the drive time of a print head.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, in a recording device (printer) that uses the inkjet recording method, an orifice (droplet discharge hole) provided at the tip of a nozzle through which recording liquid is discharged is constantly ejected regardless of whether or not the device is driven. It is often open to the outside air outside the device. Therefore, if no recording is performed for a long time, solvent components such as water and volatile organic solvents from the recording liquid that has accumulated in and around the orifice evaporate into the outside air, causing recording agent components and A solvent component that is difficult to volatilize remains in the recording liquid. Therefore, a phenomenon occurs in which the viscosity of the recording liquid staying in this portion increases, and as a result, the viscosity exceeds the range suitable for ejecting the recording liquid.

For this reason, immediately after resuming recording, droplet ejection failures such as droplets not being ejected are likely to occur even though the ejection signal is applied, and defects may occur in the initial printed area of the recorded image. There was a problem in that it caused

Additionally, some printers cap the ejection surface with an orifice when the device is not in use, such as when the power is off, but even with this type of capping, the orifice is completely isolated from the outside air. Since this is not the case, the above problem also occurs in such printers.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional examples, and provides a recording device that performs preliminary driving of a printing head and can quickly and easily optimize the printing state. The purpose is to

[Means for solving the problem] As a means for solving this problem, for example, the recording apparatus of the embodiment shown in FIG.
12, a head driver 113 is provided, and the head controller 112 includes pulse width setting means, pulse number setting means,
and cycle setting means.

[Operation] In the configuration shown in FIG.
Set the drive pulse period and drive pulse width to the clock (C).
), and the number of outputs of the drive pulses is also set. When the head controller 112 receives a drive start signal from MPUll0, it preliminarily drives the head 114 based on the set numerical value.

[Examples] Examples of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[Configuration of recording device (Figure 1)] FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of the recording apparatus of this embodiment.

The recording device 101 is connected to a post computer 100 such as an external computer through a data line, and performs printing based on signals from the host computer 100. Data from the host computer 1oo is manually input to an interface unit 111 that performs serial-to-parallel conversion, level conversion, protocol control, etc. of the manually input data, and the human input data is stored in the memory 115 by the MPUll0.

110 is an MPU such as a microprocessor, which includes a ROM that stores control programs and data, and a work area R.
It is equipped with AM, etc. and controls the entire device.

The head controller 112 converts the bit image data manually inputted from the memory 115 into drive data corresponding to the physical arrangement of the head 114 and drive energization time, and also converts these data into data set separately from the normal output pulse width. It has the function of outputting a pulse width for a certain period of time and also outputting a predetermined number of data.

The head 114 is driven by the output of the head controller 112 via the head driver 113. The output of the head controller 112 is sent to the head driver 113.
is converted to a voltage level sufficient to drive the head 114.

[Description of Head Controller (Fig. 2)] Fig. 2 is a block diagram of the head controller.

1 is a status controller that handles the write signal (WR), read signal (RD), chip select signal (C3), and 3 bits of the address bus (A00 to A0) from MPUll0.
2) etc. and outputs various control signals. Reference numeral 2 denotes a command register to be described later, which outputs a selection signal 23 for the bit shifter 3, a latch signal, etc. according to instructions from MPUll0.

3 is a bit shifter which inverts the bits vertically. A latch controller 4 outputs latch signals for the latch circuits 5 to 8 based on the data in the command register 2. 5～
8 is an 8-bit latch circuit, 9 is a current controller,
By controlling the output controllers 14 to 17, the latch circuit 5
Adjust the output timing to the head unit from steps 8 to 8.

Reference numerals 10 to 12 select and count the period of the clock CKI, and are time measurement inputs of the comparator 13. 14-17
is an output controller whose strobe timing is controlled by the status controller 1 and the energization controller 9, and can control a recording head such as a thermal head, an inkjet head, or a wire dot head composed of 32 (8x4) elements.

DO~7 are the data buses of the MPU 110, TOI is a signal for inputting the print start timing from the outside, PSO is a signal for selecting the clock input cycle of the selection circuit 11,
For example, when it is 1, the output of the 5-bit frequency divider 10 is input to the 5-bit counter 12, and when it is 0, the clock CKI is input to the 5-bit counter 12. Too is a signal that notifies MPUll0 of the end of recording.

[Description of Command Register (FIG. 3)] FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of the command register 2.

The register 30 is a register that receives and stores commands from the data bus 18 of the MPUll0, and the signal line 19 is a latch signal for the register 30, the number counter 31, and the pulse width register 32, which are output from the status controller 1, respectively.

31 is a number counter, which sets the number of times the head 114 is energized by the energization controller 9; 32 is a pulse width register that converts the energization pulse width of the head 114 into the period of the clock CKl; and its output 21 is a comparator. 13 and is compared with the output of the 5-bit counter 12. If they match, a match signal 22 is output and the output of the energization controller 9 is turned off.

Assume now that the drive cycle of the head 114 is set in the register 30 and is input to the comparator 34 through the output line 37. It is assumed that the number of times the energizing pulse is output at the period designated by the register 30 is set in the number counter 31, and the pulse width thereof is set in the pulse width register 32. The output 36 of the number counter 31 is a signal that becomes LOW level when the number counter 31 reaches 0.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the timing of the head drive pulse 40. The number of times is set in the number counter 31, and the energization controller 9 is driven by the TOI to energize the head (timing TI). Counter 33 is AND gate 35
A clock CKI is inputted through the register and counted up. At the same time, the value of the pulse width register 32 and the output of the 5-bit counter 12 are compared by the comparator 13. For example, when the pulse width becomes W, a match signal 22 is output, and the energization controller 9 turns off the energization pulse (timing T2
).

When the counter 33 mentioned above reaches a value corresponding to the period T, the comparator 34 outputs a signal 20 indicating a match, and the energization controller 9 is driven again (timing T3). At the same time, the counter 33 is cleared, and the number counter 31
is decremented by 1 and the output 36 of the number of times counter 31 becomes LOW, that is, the above-described operation is executed until the number of times counter 31 becomes 0.

This allows the command register 2 to drive the head any number of times with any cycle and any pulse width.

[Description of Bit Shifter (FIG. 5)] FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram of the bit shifter and a diagram showing the connection of the command register 2.

The bit shifter 3 includes selectors 50 to 57 and an inverter circuit 58, and the output signal 23 of the command register 2 is set to 1.
In this case, the AND circuit below each selector is opened, and the relationship between the human input signal and the output signal becomes Do~7-Do~7.

Conversely, when the output signal 23 is 0, the upper AN of each selector
The D circuit is opened and the relationship between the input signal and the output signal is DO~7
-D7-0.

As described above, the control microprocessor MPU11
When using recorded data in a format where 0 is upside down,
Alternatively, even if the host system uses a different data arrangement, it is possible to easily use control commands to form a print data string according to the configuration of the print head and form a bit image with the correct arrangement on the recording medium. It becomes possible.

In this case, the time required for conversion is only the time to latch the control command in command register 2, and since it can be sent simultaneously with the inversion command and other control commands related to time control, the conversion time is essentially 0, which is conventional It is extremely fast compared to software conversion.

[Explanation of Preliminary Ejection Operation (Figs. 3 and 4) (Fig. 6) Fig. 6 is a flowchart of the preliminary ejection operation stored in the ROM of MPUll0.

First, in step S1, register 30 of command register 2 is
Set the cycle T to
A width W of 0 is set in the pulse width register 32. By setting the number of outputs of the ejection drive pulse 40 in the number counter 31 in step S3 and outputting the head drive start signal TOI in step S4, the command register 2 drives the energization controller 9 to execute a preliminary ejection operation. output signals 20 and 21.

[Head Recording Operation (FIG. 7)] FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the reception of recording data stored in the ROM of the MPU 110 and the recording operation.

It waits for recording data to be input in step SIO, and when the data is received, the process advances to step SIT and the received data is taken into the memory 115. In step S12, it is checked whether a command to start printing (recording) (for example, a CR code, etc.) has been received, and the operations in steps SIO to S12 are repeated until the command to start printing is input manually.

When the print start command is input manually, the process advances to step S13.
A command is set in the command register 2 to determine the output of the signal line 23 to the bit shifter 3.

As shown in FIG. 5, when the signal 23 is 1, input data Do~7 is converted to Do~7, and when it is 0, Do~7 is converted to D7~0. It is determined depending on the configuration of the head, character font, type of print data, etc. In step S14, data is set in the command register 2. As mentioned in the description of the command register 2 in FIG. Then, the head drive pulse width is set in the pulse width register 32, respectively.

In step 515, print data is set in the latch circuits 5 to 8 by the command register 2 and latch controller 4 in correspondence with the heads. In step S16, a print start timing signal TOI is output to start driving the head.

In step S17, it is checked by TOO from the energization controller 39 whether or not the head driving has ended. When the head data HDOn to 3n are output in one print cycle, the process proceeds to step S18, and all the data received in step Stt are printed. Look at Taka. If all data has not been printed, the process returns to step S15 and the above-described operation is repeated again to print all data.

In this embodiment, the preliminary ejection of an inkjet head has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this, and it goes without saying that the present invention can also be applied to, for example, preliminary heating of a thermal head such as a thermal head.

As explained above, according to this embodiment, the head control circuit is provided with the function of outputting a predetermined number of head drive pulses and the function of continuing output for a certain period of time with a pulse width shorter than the normal output pulse. This has the effect of reducing the burden on the MPU during preliminary ejection and preheating, and speeding up the start-up at the start of printing.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, the present invention has the advantage that preliminary driving of the head can be easily performed.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of the recording capacity of an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a block diagram of the head controller, Fig. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the command register, and Fig. 4 is a head drive pulse waveform diagram. , FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the connection between the bit shifter and the command register, FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the preliminary ejection operation, and FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the recording operation. In the figure, 1... status controller, 2... command register, 3... bit shifter, 4... latch controller, 5-8... latch circuit, 9... energization controller, 10... 5-bit frequency divider, 11...
Selection circuit, 12... 5-bit counter, 13... Comparator, 14-17... Output controller, 30...
Register, 31...Number of times counter, 32...Pulse width register, 33...Counter, 34...Comparator,
100...Host computer, 11o...MPU
, 111... Interface unit, 112... Head controller, 113... Head driver, 114
. . . Head, 115 . . . Memory. Patent applicant Canon Co., Ltd.l-'-,'r1 Agent Patent attorney Yasunori Otsuka,', ,+-,
l... Figure 1

Claims (1)

[Claims] A recording device that inputs print data and performs recording by driving a print head based on the print data, comprising a drive unit that outputs a drive pulse for the print head and a width of the drive pulse. A pulse width setting means, a pulse number setting means for setting the number of the driving pulses, and a period setting means for setting the period of the driving pulses, and the printing head can be pre-driven for a predetermined period of time. Characteristic recording device.