JPS6227150A - Printer using type wheel - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make the checking as to whether a desired type wheel has been installed or not possible, by detecting the home position mark attached to a type wheel and the mark for discriminating the type wheel located at a fixed angle alpha from said mark with a non-contact type sensor. CONSTITUTION:A home position mark 34 and a type wheel discriminating mark 36 are installed at the middle part of a type wheel 10, and a sensor 32 is attached to a support material 33. The rotation angle alpha between the home position mark 34 and the type wheel discriminating mark 36 is varied according to the class of type wheel. The type wheel 10 is attached to an attaching plate 24. When the type wheel 10 is attached to a mounting plate 24 and the class of type wheel is input by operating a key board, because a printer recognizes the rotation angle alpha, the number of pulses necessary for rotating the angle alphais generated after the home position mark 34 has been detected with the sensor 32 and a pulse motor 26 is rotated at a low speed. Then, by cheking the output of the sensor 32,whether it is a specific type wheel or no can be judged.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a printer in which it is possible to check whether an attached type wheel is the expected one.

[Conventional technology]

There is a format in which a type wheel is provided, and the desired type is selected by rotating the wheel, and then printed by hitting it with a hammer. FIG. 6 shows an example of this, in which the type wheel 10 is shaped like a knob, two rows of type characters 12 are attached to the outer periphery near the end of the wheel, and a hammer magnet 14 is inserted and placed in the cup by a mechanism not shown. Ru.

18 is an ink ribbon, 20 is paper, and 22 is a platen. The cup 10 is mounted at a mounting F rotated by a motor 26.
j, attached to 24. Therefore, by rotating the motor 26 by a desired angle, the type wheel 10 is rotated by a desired angle to select a type, and at that position, the magnet 14 is energized to cause the hammer 16 to protrude and strike the selected type to hit the paper 2.
0 can be printed with the characters of the type.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

Type wheel 10 is replaceably mounted to mounting plate 24. There are also types of type wheels made of metal and those made of plastic, which have different weights and different type layouts. Therefore, it is made clear which type of type wheel is attached, and there are a plurality of recesses or holes 28 provided in the bottom part 10a of the cup-shaped type wheel shown in fb) in FIG. This is the plurality of switch spring pieces 30. When the type wheel 10 is mounted on the mounting plate 24 so that the stopper hole 10b fits into the projection 24a of the mounting plate 24, the spring piece 30 fits into the hole 28.
A spring piece facing the hole 28 enters the hole, and a spring piece without a hole is pushed by the wheel bottom 10a to open and close the switch. Type wheels can be identified.

However, in this system, it is necessary to provide a slip ring on the motor shaft or the like in order to extract information on whether the switch is open or not, and to extract this information to an external stationary part through the slip ring, which makes the mechanism complicated. It also uses a motor-driven, type selection system that follows the installed type wheel, indicating an error in the event that the operator attempts to print with a plastic type wheel but has actually installed a metal type wheel. There is no function to do so.

The type of type wheel installed can simply be entered by the operator using the keyboard.

However, with this approach, the motor becomes extremely vibrating driving the lightweight plastic type wheel with the torque required by the heavy metal wheel, especially if a mistake such as the one described above is made, causing the type wheel to break. This may cause accidents such as damage.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a printer having a function of checking whether or not the type wheel desired by the operator is attached.

[Means for solving problems]

The present invention provides a means for inputting the type of the attached type wheel and a predetermined position of the type wheel in a printer that is equipped with a replaceable type wheel, rotates the wheel by a motor, and prints selected type by hitting it with a hammer. means for detecting type wheel type marks provided at different angles apart for each wheel type, and comparing the type of type wheel inputted by the input means and the type of type wheel detected by the detection means. The present invention is characterized in that it includes means for generating a scheduled signal when these match, and for generating an unscheduled alarm when they do not match.

[Function and Examples]

In the present invention, the type of type wheel is input into the printer by an operator using a keyboard. Further, type identification means is provided on the type wheel. As shown in FIG. 1, the type wheel 10 is disk-shaped in this example, and has a radial shape with a large number of slits around the periphery, into which the type 12 is attached. The printing operation is the same as in the case of the cup-shaped type wheel, in which the motor 26 is rotated to select a type, the magnet 14 is energized to drive the hammer 16, and the selected type is printed on the paper 20. A home position mark 34 and a type wheel identification mark 36 are provided in the middle of this type wheel, and a sensor 32 is attached to a support 33 such as the motor 26 and hammer magnet 14 (holes as marks 34 and 36 are provided). If a reflective plate is used as the mark 34 or 36, the sensor 32 can be a reflective sensor, that is, a light emitter and a light receiver. A suitable sensor is a sensor that detects an object based on whether or not the emitted light returns when the mark 34, 36 is used. In addition, when permanent magnet pieces are used as the marks 34 and 36, a Hall IC is suitable as the sensor 32. The rotation angle α from the home position mark 34 to the type wheel identification mark 36 is made different for each type of type wheel.

The operator attaches the type wheel 10 to the mounting plate 24,
When you enter the type of type wheel using the keyboard, the printer generates low frequency pulses and activates the pulse motor 2.
Rotate 6 at low speed. Curve C3 in FIG. 2 is a curve (through curve) showing this low speed rotation, and C1 and C2 are curves showing high speed rotation during printing operation. During a printing operation, the required rotation angle is determined from the current position of the type wheel and the position of the next type to be printed, and in order to rotate it in a short time, it is accelerated at the maximum acceleration and then decelerated at the maximum deceleration.

Since the plastic type wheel is lightweight, the curve C1
On the other hand, since the metal type wheel has an amount of M, the acceleration/deceleration becomes small as shown by curve C2.

When the type of type wheel is input, the printer knows the rotation angle α, so after the sensor 32 detects the home position mark 34, the pulse motor 26 generates the necessary number of pulses to rotate the angle α. has an open-loop control system), and then the output of the sensor 32 is checked. If there is such an output, it means that the type wheel is installed as intended by the operator, and if there is no output, it means that it is not installed. In this way, the printing operation can be performed correctly using the type wheel desired by the operator.

Figure 2(b) is a flowchart showing another identification (confirmation) procedure,
When there is a wheel setting signal (type wheel type signal input), the printer drives the motor 26 at a low speed at a through curve C3 for wheel identification (in this case, it does not stop at the rotation of the angle α, but rotates continuously for a certain period of time), After detecting the position mark 34, the presence or absence of a signal during a predetermined excitation phase at a time tl corresponding to the angle α is checked. In this example, the angle α corresponds to the BC phase excitation after time t1. At this time, the output of the sensor 32 is checked, and if there is an output signal, the
K (as planned), if not, a warning will be issued indicating that it is not as planned.

Figure 3 shows an overview of the printer. 40 is an operator panel, which includes power, reset, seat load, . . . switches. Although the type wheel is not shown, it is shown in a partial perspective view in FIG. 4, 42 is a carrier, 44
4 is a feed screw shaft, 46 is a guide par, and 48 is a motor which rotates the feed screw shaft 44 via a belt 50 to move the carrier forward and backward.

Type wheel 10, its drive motor 26, hammer 16,
The driving magnet 14 and the like are attached to the carrier 42.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure when starting up the printer. As described above, the operator sets the switch on the panel for the type wheel to be used and inserts the type wheel into the printer. The printer then knows the weight of the wheel that was sent.

For this detection, elements such as a permanent magnet and a Hall element, a reflector and a reflective sensor, a slit disk and a photodiode, etc. are installed, and the detection timing or position is determined.
Moxibustion (the fffii of the cent wheel). Once detected, the detected content is compared to see if it is the same as the switch setting content. This can be done by putting the switch settings into accumulator A of the printer's CPU, putting the detection details into accumulator B, and comparing the two. If they match, the printer is brought online and the original printer processing begins. If there is a discrepancy, an alarm will be issued. The alarm is displayed on the printer or sent to the host, requesting the operator to replace the wheel. This wheel identification process may be performed during the initial operation when the power is turned on, or may be performed by issuing a wheel check command from the host.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As is clear from the above explanation, according to this identification method, the operator confirms whether or not the desired type wheel has been attached to the type wheel mounting plate, and then uses the desired type wheel to
The type arrangement and through curve allow printing, and breakage of the type wheel can be reliably prevented. In addition, a non-contact sensor detects the ohm position mark attached to the type wheel and the type wheel identification mark located at a specific angle α from the mark, and detects the angle α.
The mechanism is simple and the angle α can be easily confirmed with high precision.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a detailed explanatory diagram of the present invention, Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the operation,
FIG. 3 is a general view of the printer, FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the type wheel section, FIG. 5 is a flowchart when starting the printer, and FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional device. In the drawing, 10 is a type wheel, 26 is a motor, 12 is a type, 16 is a hammer, 34 is a home position mark,
36 is a type wheel identification mark.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In a printer equipped with a replaceable type wheel, which is rotated by a motor and prints selected type by hitting it with a hammer, a means for inputting the type of the attached type wheel and from a predetermined position of the type wheel is provided. means for detecting type wheel type marks provided at different angles for each type of wheel; type of type wheel inputted by the input means;
A type wheel characterized by comprising means for comparing the type of type wheel detected by the detection means and generating a scheduled signal when they match, and generating an unscheduled alarm when they do not match. A printer using (2) The type wheel type mark is formed by a hole provided in the type wheel, a reflective plate, or a permanent magnet piece, and the sensor for detecting the mark is composed of a photo sensor or a Hall IC. A printer using a type wheel according to scope 1.