JPS6252327B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to an X-Y plotter, and particularly to an improvement of an X-Y plotter that plots by repeatedly bringing the recording means and the recording medium into contact and non-contact states. It is related to.

[Prior art]

Generally, an X-Y plotter has various drawing functions such as straight line drawing, linear movement, character drawing, and scale drawing as drawing commands.
The X-Y plotter user selects and combines these multiple functions to execute plotting. Therefore,
For example, a computer is used to transmit drawing commands and drawing data via a communication circuit.

Now, the various drawing functions of the X-Y plotter are realized by a combination of straight line drawing. There are two ways to draw a straight line: one is to bring the recording means and the recording medium into contact and then move them relative to each other, leaving a straight line on the recording medium. It can be divided into cases where no trace is left on the medium and cases where no trace is left on the medium. The former will be called straight line drawing, and the latter will be called straight line movement. From the above, the processing flow of the conventional X-Y plotter is as shown in the flowchart shown in FIG.

In block 101, when a plotting command and plotting data are not transmitted from the communication circuit, that is, when there is no plotting instruction from the outside, the X-Y plotter does nothing and enters an idle loop. If there is a drawing instruction, the content of the instruction is determined and the function owned by the user is selected (block 102). Next, the target position for drawing or movement is calculated based on the drawing data (block 103). Next, perform linear drawing or linear movement to the target position (blocks 104 to 10).
6). Next, in block 107, it is determined whether or not the execution of one drawing command has been completed. If it has been completed, the process branches to block 101, and if not, it branches to block 103 to continue the process. In the above process, in the case of a drawing command that does not involve relative movement between the recording means and the recording medium, for example, a drawing command that instructs an X-Y plotter about the size of character drawing, the flow of processing is as follows: , as shown by the dotted line in the figure. That is, block 103
After completing the processing, the program immediately branches to block 101.

Note that when the linear drawing is finished, the recording means and the recording medium are in contact with each other, and when the linear movement is finished, the recording means and the recording medium are stopped in a non-contact state. This state is maintained until the next drawing instruction is given.

On the other hand, oil-based or water-based fiber pens, ballpoint pens, drafting pens, etc. are generally used as recording means.
In addition, although paper and vinyl sheets are conceivable as the recording medium, fiber pens or drafting pens are often used as the recording means and paper is often used as the recording medium due to its ease of use and good drawing quality. At this time, since the viscosity of the ink used in the pen is low and the paper is composed of fibers, if the pen and paper remain in contact for a long time,
The ink oozes into the paper, leaving an ink stain. As mentioned above, in the X-Y plotter, after the drawing and movement are completed, the recording means and the recording medium usually remain in the same state unless there is an instruction. Therefore, if there is no next drawing instruction after drawing a straight line, the pen and paper remain in contact without changing their relative positions, leaving ink stains on the paper. The size of the stain can be several millimeters in diameter, resulting in a significant deterioration in the quality of the drawing.

One way to prevent this ink stain is to use special paper. For example, use paper that has a chemical coating on its surface and is resistant to ink stains. However, as paper became more expensive,
This results in the inconvenience that the paper that can be used is limited.
It is also conceivable to change the process flow shown in FIG. 1 so that the recording means and recording medium are always brought into a non-contact state after straight line drawing. but,
This adds unnecessary operations and reduces the overall drawing speed. In addition, contact and non-contact movements increase, which is undesirable because it accelerates wear of the pen tip. It is also possible to send an instruction to the X-Y plotter to intentionally create a non-contact state when the recording means and recording medium are in contact with each other for a long time. This is not desirable as it puts a burden on the person.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to provide an X-Y plotter that can bring the recording means and recording medium into a non-contact state even without an instruction from the outside. It is in.

[Summary of the invention]

The present invention is characterized by a time measuring means for measuring the elapsed time after the recording means contacts the recording medium, and when the elapsed time reaches a predetermined time and there is no drawing command, the recording means and the recording medium and a means for bringing the recording medium into a non-contact state, thereby preventing the recording means from remaining in contact with the recording medium for a long period of time.

[Embodiments of the invention]

The present invention will be explained in detail below using the embodiments shown in FIGS. 2 to 4.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view showing one embodiment of the recording means driving mechanism of the X-Y plotter of the present invention. 1st
In the figure, the drive mechanism can be roughly divided into three parts. That is, an x-axis drive mechanism moves the recording means (hereinafter simply referred to as a pen) in the x-axis direction, a y-axis drive mechanism and a pen control mechanism that move the pen in the y-axis direction. In FIG. 2, a recording medium (hereinafter simply referred to as paper, not shown in FIG. 2) is placed on a plane including the x-axis and y-axis, and the pen 15 is placed on the paper surface. By moving the pen 15 up and down, the pen 15 and paper can be brought into contact or out of contact. The y-axis drive mechanism includes axis 1, y-axis motor 2, pulley 3, and thread 4.
and a y-axis carriage 5. The thread 4 has both ends fixed to the carriage 5.
The carriage 5 is moved while sliding on the shaft 1 by the rotation of the motor 2 via the pulley 3. The x-axis drive mechanism includes a motor carriage 6, an x-axis motor 7,
It is composed of a thread 8, a pulley 9 and a shaft 10. Both ends of the thread 8 are fixed to the motor carriage 6, and are encircled in an X-shape via a pulley 9, etc. Through this, the motor carriage 6 slides on the shaft 10 as the motor 7 rotates. do. In this way, by rotating the x-axis motor 7 and the y-axis motor 2, movement in the x-axis direction and the y-axis direction can be controlled independently.

The pen control mechanism is constructed as follows. That is, a movable iron piece 12 supported by a fulcrum 11 on the carriage 5 has a pen holder 13 at one end and protrudes above a solenoid 14 fixed to the carriage 5 at the other end. There is a female thread cut inside the pen holder 13, and screw the pen 15, which has a male thread cut into this part, into the pen holder 1.
3 has a pen 15 fitted therein. The current flowing through the solenoid 14 is controlled by a transistor 16, and when the transistor 16 becomes conductive,
Current flows through the solenoid 14 and the movable iron piece 12 is attracted to the solenoid 14, so that the pen 1
5 moves upwards. In this state, the pen 15 and the paper are not in contact with each other. Further, when the transistor 16 is non-conductive, no current flows through the solenoid 14, and as a result, the pen 15 moves downward under its own weight. In this state, the pen 15 and the paper are in contact. Note that the positional relationship between the pen 15 and the paper is determined to ensure that the pen 15 and paper are in contact or non-contact state.

When the x-axis drive mechanism, y-axis drive mechanism, and pen control mechanism described above are controlled in accordance with plotting commands, the XY plotter plots.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the overall configuration of the X-Y plotter of the present invention. In Fig. 3, 7 and 2 are the x-axis motor, y-axis motor,
21 and 22 are an x-axis motor drive circuit and a y-axis motor drive circuit, respectively, 23 is a pen control unit, and the solenoid 14, transistor 16, and movable iron piece 1 shown in FIG.
Including 2nd prize. 24 is an interface that receives plotting commands and plotting data sent from outside the X-Y plotter, and 25 is a processor that controls the entire X-Y plotter, for example, selects the x-axis motor 7 and the y-axis motor 2. It is possible to draw straight lines with various inclinations by driving the Since the specific method for drawing a straight line is well known, the explanation will be omitted here. 26 is a read-only memory (ROM) in which a program for controlling the X-Y plotter is recorded; 27 is a random access memory (RAM) used for temporarily storing plotting data; and 28 is a timer.
performs measurements over time. The processor 25 gives instructions to start and stop the measurement, and the measurement results can be read by the processor 25.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing one embodiment of the processing flow. Next, the operation of the X-Y plotter according to the present invention will be explained according to FIG. First, in block 201, the timer 28 is started to begin measuring the passage of time. In the next block 202, it is determined whether or not there is a drawing instruction from outside. If there is, the process proceeds to block 207; if not, the process proceeds to block 203. Here, block 20
Since the operations of blocks 7 and subsequent blocks are the same as those of the conventional X-Y plotter shown in FIG. 1, their explanation will be omitted here. In block 203,
The state of the paper and the pen 15 is determined, and if there is no contact, the process returns to block 202. If there is contact, the elapsed time is read from the timer 28 in block 204, and as a result, the predetermined time T is
If seconds have not elapsed, the process branches to block 202. However, if T seconds have elapsed, the timer 28 is stopped in block 205, and the pen 15 is raised upward in the next block 206 to be in a non-contact state with the paper. Thereafter, the process returns to block 202.

By the above-described operation, it is possible to avoid continuous contact between the paper and the pen 15 for a long period of time. Now, regarding the issue of the size of time T, we will do the following. If the time T is extremely small, even if the next drawing command is sent soon after the execution of one drawing command is completed in block 208, it will be determined in block 204 that time T seconds have elapsed, and the pen It may happen that 15 and the paper are left out of contact. In such a case, the pen 15 and the paper will repeatedly come into contact and not come into contact with each other for each drawing command, which is undesirable as described above. Conversely, if the bottom is extremely large, block 2
When it is determined that time T seconds have elapsed in 04, the ink has already soaked into the paper sufficiently.
This is also not desirable. Therefore, it is appropriate to set the time T to about 2 to 3 seconds, depending on the type of pen commonly used and the properties of paper.

According to this embodiment, by providing the time elapse measuring means, it is possible to prevent the pen 15 and the paper from being in continuous contact for a long time, and as a result, it is possible to reduce ink stains on the paper. It is possible to improve the drawing quality.

In this embodiment, the processor 25 reads the measurement results over time, but after the time T seconds have elapsed, the timer 28 reads the measurement results.
It is also possible to change the flow of processing to request interrupt processing for 5.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, it is possible to bring the recording means and the recording medium into a non-contact state even without an instruction from the outside, and to avoid large stains on the recording medium due to continued contact for a long time. This has the effect that it is possible to prevent this from occurring and to improve the drawing quality.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing the processing flow of a conventional X-Y plotter, FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view showing an embodiment of the recording means drive mechanism of the X-Y plotter of the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the overall configuration of the X-Y plotter of the invention, and FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an embodiment of the processing flow of the X-Y plotter of the invention. 1, 10... axis, 2... yaw motor, 3, 9...
...Pulley, 4, 8...Drawing thread, 5...Y-axis carriage, 6...Motor carriage, 7...X-axis motor, 12...Movable iron piece, 13...Pen holder, 1
4...Solenoid, 15...Pen, 16...Transistor, 21...x-axis motor drive circuit, 22...
...Y-axis motor drive circuit, 23...Pen control section, 2
4...Interface, 25...Processor,
28...Timer.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 When drawing a line by the control operation of the holder holding the recording means upon receiving a drawing command and drawing data, the recording means and the recording medium are brought into contact with each other, and when the line is not drawn, the In an X-Y plotter configured to draw a plot by scanning the recording medium over the recording medium with the recording means and the recording medium in a non-contact state, after the recording means contacts the recording medium, It is characterized by comprising a time measuring means for measuring the elapsed time, and a means for bringing the recording means and the recording medium into a non-contact state when there is no drawing command even when the elapsed time reaches a predetermined time. X-Y plotter.