JPS63286380A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a printer which keeps printing until a series of data is completely printed even with the detection of a paper shortage during the printing of the series of data of a predetermined lines and realize a printing manner with printing paper at the paper shortage, by a method wherein, whether a printing may be stopped is judged at every line according to the stored information of a printable line number storing means when a paper shortage is detected by a paper shortage sensor. CONSTITUTION:If a paper shortage is detected during printing, for example, after ten lines were printed, a printing format 11 of data 12 is printed and thereafter the information of a register 10A is subtracted by the amount of '1'. Successively, the information of the register 10A is similarly subtracted at every one-line printing. in the meantime, the information of the register 10A is not '0', therefore, a printing is continued to the last line of a printing format 20 even though a paper shortage is detected. Next, the information of the register 10A is reduced to '0' by a printable line number clear code of data 22, and the printing is brought to a stop by the negative judgment. At this time, a receipt paper remains containing a length capable of another ten-line printing.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of industrial application] The present invention relates to printers, and more particularly to control associated with detection of printing paper in a printer that prints a series of multiple lines of a receipt or the like.

[Prior Art J An example of paper tear detection control and configuration of a conventional printer is shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, respectively.

In FIG. 6, 1 is a print head and 2 is a paper feed roller, and the paper feed roller 2 feeds the paper by one line each time the print head 1 prints one line. Reference numeral 3 denotes a paper tear sensor constructed by combining, for example, an LED element 38 and an odotransistor 3B, and when the end of the receipt paper 8 passes through, there is no shield between the LED element 3A and the phototransistor 3B. When the paper is torn, it is detected.

The print head 1 and paper feed roller 2 are arranged close to each other. Therefore, the distance between the paper feed roller 2 and paper tear sensor 3 is 4^
indicates the length of the remaining receipt paper when the paper tear is detected.

Further, a cutter 5 is provided close to the print head 1 on the opposite side of the paper feed roller 2, and the printed receipt 7 is pressed against the cutter 5 by, for example, a user's hand and cut.

In addition, the control associated with paper detection is as shown in Fig. 5.
In step S51, it is determined whether or not the paper tear sensor 3 has detected a paper tear. If there is no paper tear, data from the main control unit (not shown) is received in step S552, and in step S53
to determine whether to print or not. This judgment is made in step S
Depending on the contents of the data received in step S52, if it is print data, printing is performed in the next step S54, and the paper is fed by one line.

Next, in step 555, it is determined again whether or not there is a piece of paper.
If the paper is not a piece of paper, the process returns to step 551 and processes related to the next line are performed. If paper tear is detected in step 551 or step S55, printing is stopped.

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention J] However, as shown in Fig. 5, when a piece of paper is detected, printing stops immediately, so if printing stops midway, after replenishing the receipt paper, There is a problem in that the number of sheets must be printed again from the beginning.

Furthermore, if the distance 4A corresponding to the length of the remaining receipt paper is made longer than necessary, there is a problem that a large amount of wasted receipt paper will be produced.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to perform printing until the printing of a series of data is completed without stopping printing even if a paper tear is detected in the middle of printing a series of data on a predetermined line. To provide a printer with a small amount of printing paper remaining when it runs out of paper.

[Means for Solving the Problems] To this end, the present invention includes a paper out sensor that detects out of printing paper while leaving a length that allows printing of a predetermined number of lines, and a paper out sensor that detects out of paper. The number of lines that can be printed is stored by setting a predetermined number of lines when the paper is not running, and subtracting the number of lines printed when the paper tear sensor detects a paper tear from the set predetermined number of lines. a printable line number storage means for erasing the memory contents of the printable line number storage means after a series of printing of a predetermined number of lines, and a paper tear sensor detects a paper tear. The present invention is characterized in that it includes a printability determining means for determining whether or not printing of each line can be stopped based on the storage contents of the printable line number memory/column.

[Function 1 - According to the above configuration, even if a piece of paper is detected in the middle of printing a series of data of a predetermined number of lines, the number of printable lines is memorized, so printing does not stop immediately. , printing can continue until a series of data has been printed. Then, since the number of printable lines remaining after the printing of a series of data is completed is erased, printing of the next series of data is not started.

[Example] Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on the example shown in the drawings.

FIGS. 1 and 2 are a block diagram and a schematic diagram, respectively, showing the configuration of an embodiment of the tree invention.

Elements similar to those shown in FIG. 6 are designated by the same reference numerals, and their explanations will be omitted.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 9 denotes a central processing unit (CPU), which controls the entire printer 100, including the operations of the above-mentioned parts.

In addition, 10 is a random access memory (RAM), which temporarily stores data sent from the main control unit 200 and serves as a printable line number register IOA that is set corresponding to data related to the printable line number among those data. used. The printer 100 is mainly composed of the above-mentioned parts.

Further, in FIG. 1, 200 is a main control unit, and the printer 1
00(: Exchanges control signals with PI3, and printer 1
00 control. 20 is read-only memory (nov
), and stores processing procedures, data formats, etc., which will be described later in FIGS. 3 and 4.

As shown in FIG. 2, the remaining length of the receipt paper when the paper tear is detected by the paper tear sensor 3 is the distance l between the paper feed roller 2 and the paper tear sensor 3! !
Corresponds to I4. In this example, this distance 1llI4 is set so that printing of 20 lines is possible.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of printing control and control associated with paper tear detection in the embodiment.
The processing will be explained with reference to the figures.

FIG. 4 shows the data format stored individually in the ROM 20 of the main control unit 200, where data 1 is a code for setting the number of printable lines, and in this example, the distance Il! The possible number of rows is 20 corresponding to t4. Data 22 is a clear code for the number of lines that can be printed, and with this data the number of lines that can be printed is O.
becomes.

Data 2 to 21 indicate printing formats, which are appropriately selected depending on the content to be printed and the number of lines. In addition,
In this example, a receipt with 20 lines printed is assumed, but the number of lines and the content to be printed can be selected for each receipt by the main control unit 200.

The process shown in FIG.
It is started by turning on the power of 0, etc., and first steps 5
At step 21, the paper tear sensor 3 determines whether or not there is a paper tear.

If the determination is affirmative, the process advances to step S22, where it is determined whether printing is possible. This determination is made based on the contents of the printable line number register IOA in RAM10, and if the content of the printable line number register IOA is "0", it is determined that printing is impossible and printing is stopped.

If printing is possible, that is, the contents of the register IOA are not 0, or if a negative determination is made in step 521, the process advances to step S23. In step S23, the control unit 200 waits to receive data sent from the control unit 200 in the order of 1 to 22, and when the data is received, processes such as data setting are performed, and the process moves to the next step. The data accepted here is data 1.
If the number of lines that can be printed is Yat code, the number of lines that can be printed is 20.
" is set in register 10A. Further, if it is the clear code for the number of printable lines of data 22, the contents of the register IOA are set to "0". Next, in step 524, it is determined whether or not to print. This determination is made based on whether the code of the data received in step 523 is a print format code. Therefore, if the received code is a data 1 or data 22 code, the process returns to step 521 again.

If the received data is a print format code of data 2 to 21, the process advances to step S25, where one line of printing is performed based on the code, and at the same time, one line of paper is fed. Next, in step 526, it is determined again whether or not there is a piece of paper, and if the determination is affirmative, the process advances to step S27, and the register 1
The content of 0^ is subtracted by "l" and the process returns to step 521 again.

As a result of the above-described process, the receipts 7 are sequentially sent out as long as no paper tear is detected.

For example, if a piece of paper is detected after printing 10 lines in the middle of printing, after printing data 12 in print format 11, the contents of register IOA are rl.

decrease. From then on, register IO is performed for each line printed in the same way.
Go by subtracting the contents of . During this time, since the contents of the register 10A are not "0", printing is possible according to the judgment in step S22, and printing is performed up to the last line of the printing format 20 even though paper tear is detected, and then, The content of the register 10^ becomes "O" according to the printable line number clear code of the data 22, and the determination at step 522 is negative and printing is stopped. At this time, the remainder of the receipt paper has a length that allows 1.0 lines to be printed.

Note that, as described above, the present invention is applicable when the length of the receipt 7, that is, the number of printed lines is within the range of distance 4,
Even if you print a receipt that is longer than distance II4, when a paper tear is detected, the remaining number of lines to be printed will be at distance 4.
If it is within the range, printing will be performed up to the last line. Further, when the remaining number of lines to be printed is equal to or greater than the distance 1II4, printing is stopped when the number of lines equal to the distance 114 has been printed, thereby preventing blank printing when there is no receipt paper.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above explanation, even if a piece of printing paper is detected in the middle of printing a series of data of a predetermined number of lines, printing is not immediately stopped and the series of data is printed. Printing continues until the end. This eliminates the hassle of reprinting after replenishing printing paper, which was the case with conventional printers, and also has the effect of reducing waste of printing paper.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a data format according to the embodiment, FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the conventional example, and FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of the conventional example. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Print head, 2...Paper feed roller, 3...Paper out sensor, 5...Cutter, 7...Receipt, 8...Receipt paper, 9-CPU. lO...RAM. 2G-ROM. 100--Printer, 20G,--Main control unit. Figure 1 Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A paper break sensor that detects a paper break while leaving a length that allows printing of a predetermined number of lines; and a paper break sensor that detects a print paper break while leaving a length that allows printing of a predetermined number of lines, and when the paper break sensor does not detect a paper break, and a printable line number storage means for storing the printable line number by subtracting the number of lines printed when the paper tear sensor detects a paper tear from the set predetermined number of lines. and a printable line number erasing means for erasing the memory contents of the printable line number storage means after a series of printing of a predetermined number of lines; and a printable line number erasing means for erasing the memory contents of the printable line number storage means, and the printable line number erasing means for erasing the memory contents of the printable line number storage means after a series of printing of a predetermined number of lines; 1. A printer comprising: a printing permission determining means for determining whether printing of each line can be stopped based on the contents stored in the line number storage means.