JPS63207677A - Printer controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten the period of time from the end of printing to the start of the next printing, by discriminating whether an operation is normal or an error is generated based on the information on the presence or absence of a paper, a count and a printing condition when a time set on a timer means is up. CONSTITUTION:When a paper discharge signal is inputted from a laser printer 14, a paper discharge interruption processing is performed, and a counter 12 is decremented by 1. When a time-up signal is inputted from a timer 13, a timer interruption processing is performed. In the processing, it is first discriminated whether a paper is present in the laser printer. When the paper is present and the count on the counter 12 is '1', it is discriminated whether printing is being conducted. When the answer to the discrimination is YES, it is judged that the operation is normal, and the interruption processing is finished to return to a main routine. When the count on the counter 12 is '2' or when the answer to the discrimination of whether printing is being conducted is NO, there is a high possibility of the paper being jammed, so that it is judged that an error has been generated, then the printing operation is stopped, and an error alarm is issued.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a printer control device, and in particular,
The present invention relates to a printer control device that enables highly efficient printing by confirming the ejection of printed paper using a new method.

(Prior Art) In conventional printers such as laser printers, the discharge of printed paper is detected using the following method.

That is, as shown in FIG. 6, a timer is started at the beginning of the print state, and then paper is sucked. The timer is set to a time longer than the time it takes for the paper to be printed and ejected, and when the timer is completed (time tl).

At t2), it is determined whether or not the paper has been ejected.

When the completion of ejection is confirmed by this judgment, the start of the next print is started, the timer is started in the same way as above,
The same operation as above is performed. On the other hand, if it is confirmed that the ejection has not been completed, it is determined that a paper jam has occurred, and the start of the next print is canceled.

As described above, conventional laser printers and the like start the next print after a predetermined period of time after confirming that the paper has been ejected.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) According to the above-mentioned conventional apparatus, the next printing cannot be started during the time period of 10 from the end of printing to the confirmation of paper ejection, resulting in a large loss time. There was a problem that the amount of print per print was small.

The purpose of the present invention is to eliminate the problems of the prior art described above,
To provide a highly efficient printer control device by shortening the time from the end of printing to the start of the next print.

(Means and operations for solving the problems) In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a printer to which data to be printed and a print start signal are input, as shown in FIG. 1, and “1” by the print start signal.
A counter means 2 that increments and subtracts by "1" in response to a paper ejection signal, a timer means 3 that is activated by the print start signal and completes after a period of time slightly longer than the paper ejection time, and the timer means 3 completes. means 4 for determining whether the printer is operating normally or in error based on the presence or absence of paper in the printer, the count value of counter means 2, and information as to whether or not the printer is in a printing state. There is.

According to the present invention, when the timer completes, the error determining means 4 first determines whether or not there is paper in the printer mortar, and if there is paper, it determines whether the count value is "1". If the count value is "1#", it is determined to be normal and the operation continues. On the other hand, if the count value is other than "ml", it is determined to be an error, and the printing operation is stopped and an error alarm is issued.

If there is no paper in the printer, the count value will be “
0". If the count value is "0", it is determined to be normal and the operation continues. On the other hand, if the count value is other than "0", it is determined to be an error. The operation is to issue an error alarm.

(Example) The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing the hardware configuration of the main parts of an embodiment of the present invention, Figs. 3 and 4 are flowcharts showing the functions of the printer control section of Fig. 2, and Fig. 5 shows the operation of this embodiment. A timing chart for explanation is shown.

In FIG. 2, 11 is a printer control unit, 12 is a counter, 13 is a timer, and 14 is a laser printer. Print data, a print start command signal a, etc. are sent from the printer control unit 11 to the laser printer 14. On the other hand, from the laser printer 14 to the printer control section 11, a signal indicating the state of the paper in the laser printer 14 and a signal indicating whether or not it is in the printing state are sent.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained with reference mainly to FIG. 3.4.

The printer control unit 11 first determines whether or not there is a print command (step Sl), and if yes, starts printing (step S2) and sets the counter 12 to "1".
m count up (step S3) and timer 13 activation (step S4) are performed (time 11 in FIG. 5).
. On the other hand, if it is NO, an error check is performed (step S8), and if there is an error, error processing is performed (step S9).

After receiving the command to start printing, the laser printer 14 sucks paper (time t2).

After step S4, the printer control unit 11 performs main routine processing such as transferring print data from its own buffer memory to the laser printer 4, or storing print data of the next page in the buffer memory. and,
Determine whether there is a next page (step S5),
If the answer is yes, the process returns to step S1, and if the answer is no, the process ends.

During this main routine, when a paper ejection signal is input from the laser printer 14, a paper ejection interrupt process (step R1) is performed. In this process, as shown in FIG. 4(a), the count value of the counter 12 is subtracted by 1 (step R2). On the other hand, if a signal indicating that the timer 13 has completed is input while the main routine is being executed, timer interrupt processing (step Tl) is performed. In this timer interrupt process, first, it is checked whether there is paper in the laser printer or not (step T2).
If there is paper, the process advances to step T8, and if there is no paper, the process advances to step T5.

In step T3, it is checked whether the value of the counter 12 is "1" or "2", and if it is "1", it is determined in step T4 whether or not printing is in progress. If the determination at step T4 is YES, it is determined that the interrupt processing is normal, and the interrupt processing is terminated and the process returns to the main routine. On the other hand, when the value of the counter 12 is determined to be "2" in step T3, or when it is determined as NO in step T4, there is a high possibility that the paper has jammed, so it is determined that an error has occurred, and the printing operation is performed. is stopped and an error alarm is issued.

In step T5, it is checked whether the value of the counter 12 is "1" or "0", and if it is "0", it is determined to be normal and the interrupt processing is terminated, and the main routine Return to On the other hand, if it is “1°, it is determined that there is an error, and the printing operation is stopped and an error warning is issued.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be specifically explained with reference to FIG.

When a command to start printing is issued to the laser printer 14 at time t1, the timer 13 is activated and the counter 12 is counted up by 11 at the same time.Next, at time t2 after the print start command, the number of sheets of paper is increased. Suction is performed.The printing operation ends at time t3, but paper ejection is performed at time t6, which is later than time t.

In this embodiment, a command to start the next print is given at time t4 before the paper is ejected, and the next paper is sucked in at time t5. Also, the timer 3 is started, and the counter 2 is counted up by "1". As a result, the value of counter 2 becomes '2'. Furthermore, as the timer 3,
Two timers configured in hardware may be used, or they may be configured in software.

Now, at time t6, when the first sheet of paper is ejected, "1" is subtracted from the counter 2.

Next, at time t7 when the timer 3 completes, the presence or absence of paper and the count value of the counter 2 are checked. If the value of the counter 2 is "1" when there is paper, it is determined to be normal, and the printing operation is continued. However, if the value of the counter 12 is other than "1#", it is determined that an error has occurred, and the printing operation is interrupted. Then, an error warning is issued.

Next, when the third sheet of paper is sucked at J time t9,
As before, the timer 13 is started and the counter 12
is counted up by “1”.

Next, at time t10, when the second sheet of paper is ejected, the value of the counter 12 is decremented by "1#" and again "
Then, at time t11 when the timer completes, the presence or absence of paper is checked and the count value of the counter 12 is checked.Similarly to the above, when there is paper, the value of the counter 12 becomes "1". If so, it is determined to be normal and the printing operation continues.On the other hand, if the value of the counter 12 is other than "1", it is determined to be an error and the printing operation is interrupted.At the same time, an error alarm is issued. be exposed.

Next, if printing ends at time t12, the next sheet will not be sucked in, so the timer will not start and the counter 12 will not operate.

When the third sheet of paper is ejected at time t13, counter 1
The value of 2 is subtracted by 1° and becomes “θ”. Time t14
When the timer 13 is completed, the presence or absence of paper and the value of the counter 12 are checked.

At this time, if there is no paper and the value of the counter 12 is "0", it is determined to be normal, and if it is not "0", it is determined that there is an error such as a jam.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the next printing starts and the next paper is sucked in before the printed paper is ejected, so the loss time unlike the conventional device is reduced and printing efficiency is improved. improves.

Furthermore, if the paper is jammed, it will be detected shortly after the next paper is sucked in, and the printing operation will be stopped at that point, so the paper problem can be quickly resolved.

Although this embodiment has been described using a laser printer, it is clear that the present invention can be applied to printers of other types.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, the present invention has the excellent effect of increasing the amount of prints per unit time and improving the efficiency of print generation.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the functions of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of an embodiment of the invention, and Figs. 3 and 4 are the functions of the printer control section shown in Fig. 2. FIG. 5 is a timing chart for explaining the operation of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a timing chart for explaining the operation of a conventional device. 1.14... Laser printer, 2.12... Counter means, 3, 13... Timer means, 4... Error determination means Patent attorney Michito Hiraki and 1 other person Figure 1 Figure 2 (a) (b) Figure 3 51N Figure 6

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) A printer that starts the next print operation without waiting for the completion of paper ejection, and a print start signal that outputs “1”
a counter means that counts up and counts down by "1" in response to a paper ejection signal; a timer means that is started in synchronization with the print start signal and outputs a completion signal when the time elapses at least after the paper ejection time; A printer control device comprising means for determining whether the printer is operating normally or in error based on the paper presence/absence state of the printer, the printing state, and the count value of the counter when the completion signal is output. (2) The error determining means determines that the operation of the printer is normal when the count value of the counter is "1" and printing is in progress when paper is present, and the count value is other than "1". 2. The printer control device according to claim 1, wherein an error is determined when the error occurs. (3) The error determining means determines that the operation of the printer is normal when the count value of the counter is "0" when there is no paper, and determines that there is an error when the count value is other than "0". A printer control device according to claim 1, characterized in that: