JPS62242565A - Recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enhance the speed of a carriage return over a long returning distance and enhance the throughput of a serial printer, by setting a moving distance through calculating the distance between the current position of a recording head and the first printing position in the next recording line, and varying the velocity of the recording head according to the distance thus set. CONSTITUTION:The first printing position in a one-line amount of data inputted is detected. The value of the first printing position in the next line is subtracted from the value of the current position of a carriage to obtain a returning distance for the carriage. The returning distance is divided by the pitch of a stepping motor 9 to obtain the number of moving steps necessary for moving the carriage the returning distance. Then, it is discriminated after the number of moving steps is greater than a number of steps for throughup. When the returning distance is longer than a critical value, control is performed. After the throughup control is finished, carriage return is performed at high speed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a recording device such as a serial printer, and particularly to a technique that is effective when applied to a printing technique means of a serial printer.

11 The printing mechanism of a recording device such as a wire dot serial printer, a thermal serial printer, or an impact serial printer includes a recording head 1, a carriage 4° shaft 5. It consists of a belt 6, a first pulley 7, a second pulley 8, a step motor 9, a platen 10, etc. The recording head 1 includes a plurality of thin dot wires 2 and a plurality of thick dot wires 3.
, and is mounted on the carriage 4.

By driving a belt 6 attached to the carriage 4 by a step motor 9, the carriage 4 can slide in the inward direction on a shaft 5 during the recording operation of the recording head 1, and can move along the recording line currently being recorded. When this is completed, it is configured such that it can slide on the shaft S in the direction B and return to the recording start position of the next recording line.

Note that hereinafter, the distance from the recording end position of the current recording line to the recording start position of the next recording line will be referred to as the return distance, and the operation of returning the recording head l by that return distance will be referred to as the carriage return. .

In recording devices such as conventional serial printer devices.

Since the moving speed of the carriage 4 in the six directions during the recording operation and the moving speed of the carriage 4 in the B direction during the carriage return are always constant, as shown in FIG. The line is recording paper 11
When the distance to the start position 1iD of the next recording line is short, such as when the end position of the current recording line ends at the edge of the recording paper, the time required for carriage return is short. When the distance to the start position of the next recording line [D is long, as when reaching E, there is a problem that the time required for carriage return becomes longer.

(2) An object of the present invention is to provide a technique that can improve the throughput of a serial printer by performing carriage return with a long return distance at a high speed.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a recording apparatus in which a recording head is moved by a step motor, and includes a recording head position detection means for detecting the current position of the recording head, and a recording head position detecting means for detecting the current position of the recording head, and a recording head position detecting means for detecting the first print data of the first recording line. A moving distance is set by calculating the distance between the current position of the recording head and the first printing position of the next recording line based on the data detection means to be detected and the information obtained by the detection of each of the above-mentioned means. The apparatus includes a moving distance setting means and a moving speed setting means for changing the moving speed of the recording head according to the set distance.

The configuration of the present invention will be explained below along with examples.

In addition, in all the figures for explaining the embodiment, parts having the same functions are given the same reference numerals, and repeated explanations thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of carriage speed control in a serial printer according to an example of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a flowchart of through-up control of the carriage. FIG. 3 is a torque characteristic diagram of a step motor.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram schematically showing the system configuration of the serial printer device.

As shown in FIG. 4, the recording system of the serial printer device of this embodiment includes a print head 1, a step motor 9. Host computer 12, interface 13, central processing unit! (CPU)14. RAM (Randos Access Me) is a buffer memory.
mory) consists of 15.

One line of recorded data is sent from the host computer 12 to the interface 13 to the CPU 14.
The data is input to the RAM 15 which is a buffer memory. Recording is performed by the CPU 14 controlling the operations of the print head 1 and the step motor 9 based on the data input into the RAM 15.

The serial printer device of this embodiment detects the end position of the next recording line and the current recording line by controlling the hardware shown in FIG. 4 based on the software described below. However, the carriage return speed is changed depending on whether the return distance between them is long or short. This refers to a case where the number of steps of the step motor 9 is larger than the number of steps required for the moving speed of the carriage 4 to become constant at the start of data recording, that is, the number of through-up steps. On the other hand, when the carriage 4 can be moved to a predetermined position in less than the number of through-up steps, the return distance is said to be short.

Next, software for controlling the return speed of the carriage 4 will be explained using FIGS. 1 and 2.

At START in FIG. 1, a routine for controlling the return speed of the carriage 4 begins.

Next, in (1), the buffer memory R shown in FIG.
It is determined whether or not to input data to AM15. YE
If it is S, the process moves to (2) and one line of data is input into the RAM 15 shown in FIG. After this one line of data has been input, it is determined again in step (1) whether or not to input data. The data input judgment in (1) is No.
If so, the process moves to (3) and a decision is made as to whether or not to perform printout. If NO, the process returns to (1). If YES, the process moves to (4) and detects the writing start position of the input data for one line.

Next, in step (5), the return distance of the carriage 4 is determined by subtracting the writing start position of the next line from the current position of the carriage 4.

Next, in (6), divide the return distance of the carriage 4 found in (5) by the pitch of the step motor 9, that is, the distance that the carriage 4 moves with one pulse.
The number of movement steps required for the carriage 4 to move the return distance is determined.

Next, in step (7), it is determined whether the number of movement steps determined in step (6) is greater than the number of through-up steps. If the judgment here is NOl, that is, the return distance is short, move to (8) and move the carriage 4 to the writing start position of the next recording line at a low speed (at the same speed as the printing speed).
But, Nao.

The low speed here is approximately 300 pulses/5ee (hereinafter referred to as pulses/5ect PPS), which is approximately the same speed as the moving speed of the carriage 4 when recording data on recording paper. The torque characteristic of the step motor 9 in the low speed return is the curve FULL IN in FIG. 3.

In the low-speed carriage return of this embodiment, the carriage 4 is moved an additional distance including the through-up characteristic before starting printing of the primary line.

If the determination in (7) is YES, that is, the return distance is long, the process moves to (9), where through-up control is performed.

Here, through-up control for returning the carriage 4 at high speed will be explained using FIG. 2.

In FIG. 2, the through-up control routine begins at 5TART.

Next, in (13), the excitation phase for driving the step motor 9 is switched from 3001)PS to 480PPS.Then, in (14), 1 is subtracted from the number of movement steps of the carriage return.

Next, move to (15) and judge whether or not through-up is in progress. If NO, move to (16); if YES, (
17). In the case of moving to (16), the current speed is input to the timer, the timer (provided in the CPU) is started, and the through-up control routine is completed.

In the case of moving to (17), the speed is determined from the number of through-up steps, a timer is started, and the through-up control routine ends.

After the through-up control is completed, (10
), and a carriage return is made at high speed. The term "high speed" here refers to a speed faster than the moving speed (printing speed) of the carriage 4 during recording. The torque characteristics of the step motor 9 when performing a carriage return at high speed are shown in FIG.
UT).

In the high-speed carriage return, the carriage 4 is moved by an additional amount including the through-up curve before the start of recording of the primary recording line.

After (10), the process moves to (11), where it is determined whether the movement step has been completed. N.

If so, the output and input of (11) can be circulated until the number of movement steps is completed. If the determination in (11) is YES, the process moves to the next step (12), and control of the timer of the step motor 9 ends.

As described above, when the return distance of the carriage 4 is long, the carriage 4 is moved at a faster speed than the moving speed when recording.

As described above, according to the present invention, when the return distance is long,
Carriage return is performed at high speed, and if it is short, it is performed at the same recording speed, which reduces the time required for carriage return, which reduces the recording time for printing etc. of the recording device. be able to.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 is a flowchart for explaining a routine for controlling carriage return in a serial printer according to an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a flowchart for through-up control of the carriage; and FIG. Characteristic diagram of step motor torque for moving . FIG. 4 is a block diagram schematically showing the system configuration of the serial printer device. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining problems with conventional serial printer devices. In the figure, l: recording head, 2.3: dot wire. 4... Carriage, 5... Shaft, 6... Belt, 7° 8... Pulley, 9... Step motor, 10
. . . platen, 11 . . . recording paper, 12 . . . host computer, 13 .
...CI'''U, 15...RAM.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) In a serial printer device in which the recording head is moved by a step motor, the recording head position detection means detects the current position of the recording head, the data detection means detects the first print data of the next recording line, and the A moving distance setting means for setting a moving distance by calculating the distance between the current recording head position and the first printing position of the next recording line from information obtained by detection by each means, and the setting thereof. 1. A recording apparatus comprising a moving speed control means for changing the moving speed of a recording head depending on the distance.