JPS647873B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field] The present invention relates to a recording apparatus that records a pattern on a recording medium using dots.

[Prior Art] A recording system, such as a thermal printer, wire dot printer, or inkjet printer, in which dot recording elements for recording dots are arranged to form a recording head, and characters are recorded by selectively driving the dot recording elements. The device is widely known.

In such a recording device, for example,
Publication No. 138920 describes a dot matrix type serial printer that can make the width of characters variable, and is configured to temporarily store dot pattern data D in a shift register for each printed line. A technology has been disclosed that attempts to change the width of characters by varying the timing of outputting data for one printed line by a fixed amount.

However, the recording head can be tilted,
Moreover, the timing of writing to and reading from the memory can be made variable according to the amount of inclination, so there is no need to wait until a predetermined amount of dot pattern data has accumulated in the buffer, and data can be read in the order in which it is stored in the buffer. It was not possible to expect a device that had a readable buffer and could record efficiently.

[Objective] In view of the above points, an object of the present invention is to use a memory having a FIFO function as a buffer memory for dot signals to be recorded, and to vary the timing of writing and reading from the memory according to the inclination of the recording head. It is an object of the present invention to provide a recording device capable of reading out dot signals without waiting for a predetermined amount of dot signals to accumulate in a buffer memory.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a recording apparatus to which the present invention is applied. Reference numeral 11 indicates a carriage having a thermal head as detailed in FIG. The rotating shaft 14 of the pulse motor 13
A belt 17 wound between a pulley 15 and a pulley 16 is fixed to the carriage 11, and the carriage 11 is movable on the rail 12 by driving the motor 13. . Please note that the carriage 11 is marked with an arrow P when recording.
It moves at a constant speed in the direction.

A platen 18 is provided on the carriage 11 at a position facing the thermal head, and the platen 18 is rotated in the direction of arrow F by a pulse motor 19, a pulley 21 fixed to its rotating shaft 20, a belt 22, and a pulley 23. , for transporting the thermal recording paper 24 in the direction of arrow F1. Note that this platen 18 is stopped during recording, and 1
When recording of a line is completed, the recording paper 24 is driven so as to be transported in the direction of arrow F1 by one line.

Therefore, by applying a recording signal to the thermal head while moving the carriage 11 in the direction of arrow P with the recording paper 24 stopped, recording can be performed as shown in FIG. 1.

To explain the thermal head on the carriage 11 in more detail with reference to FIGS.
1-2, this mounting portion 11-2 is provided with a circular hole, and a rotating member 25 having a shape that fits into the circular hole is mounted in this hole.

This rotating member 25 is rotatably provided with respect to the mounting portion 11-2, and can be rotated manually by holding a knob 26. In the embodiment, a click device (not shown) allows the tip of the knob 26 to take three positions corresponding to the marks a, b, and c.

To explain in more detail with reference to FIG. 2 when the carriage 11 is viewed from the recording paper 24 side, the rotating member 25
On the upper surface facing the recording paper 24, there is provided a thermal head TH in which 20 heat generating elements TH1 to TH20 are linearly arranged. This thermal head
TH is provided so that its lower end coincides with the center of rotation of the rotating member 25.

Therefore, by driving the knob 26, the marks a, b,
If the rotating member is rotated so as to match mark c, the thermal head TH can be locked at a position corresponding to marks a', b', and c', and the position shown in FIG. 3A, B, and C is shown. It is possible to take

Note that the marks a', b', and c' are provided at positions facing the marks a, b, and c via the mounting portion 11-2.

A recording signal is applied to the thermal head TH through a signal line 27, and this signal line 2
The end portion 7 is attached to the rotating member 25. A switch is built into the mounting portion 11-2 to notify which direction the rotating member 25 is facing, and the thermal head TH is located at the positions shown in FIG. 3, A, B, and C. At this time, signals SA, SB, and SC are derived onto the signal lines 27, respectively.

In the recording apparatus according to this embodiment, FIG.
As shown in B and C, the inclination angle of the thermal head TH is selected by rotating the rotating member 25, and the size of the recorded character is selected.
That is, as shown at A in FIG. 3, when the direction perpendicular to the moving direction P of the thermal head TH coincides with the extending direction of the thermal head TH, CA
The character "large" is recorded in the size shown in .

In addition, as shown in FIG. 3B, the thermal head TH is
If the extending direction of TH is tilted by bΘ, the character "large" will be recorded in the size shown in CB.

Further, as shown in Fig. 3C, the thermal head TH is
When the extending direction of TH is tilted CΘ (bΘ<cΘ), the character "large" is recorded in the size shown in CC.

How the character size can be changed by tilting the thermal head TH in this way will be explained with reference to FIG. In Figure 4, the thermal head
The case of forming a straight line using TH will be explained.

Fig. 4A shows a state in which recording is performed on the straight line O-O' by the thermal head TH arranged at an angle as shown in Fig. 3A, but at a right angle to the straight line P as shown in Fig. 4A. Heat generating element TH1~TH2 in direction
When 0 is arranged, such heating element TH
1 to TH20 may be driven to generate heat approximately at the same time. If it is driven in this way, the records made by each heating element TH1 to TH20 will be RT1 to RT.
As shown in Figure 20, the length LA is recorded.

Furthermore, Fig. 4B shows a state in which recording is performed on the straight line O-O' by the thermal head TH arranged at an angle bΘ as shown in Fig. 3B. Since the thermal head TH moves in the direction of arrow P, the heat generating element
When TH1 reaches the straight line O-O', the heating element TH
1 to form a recording trace RT1, and when the heating element TH2 reaches the straight line O-O' after a minute time τ2 has elapsed, the heating element TH2 is driven to generate heat to form a recording trace RT2. By sequentially driving the heat generating elements every time τ2 elapses as shown in Fig. 4B,
As shown in RT, a record trace of length LB can be formed.

Also, Fig. 4C shows a state in which recording is performed on the straight line O-O' by the thermal head TH arranged at an angle cΘ as shown in Fig. 3C, but it is different from that explained in Fig. 4B. Similarly, the heating element is generated every minute time τ3.
By sequentially driving TH1 to TH20, a recording trace of length LC can be formed as shown by RT in FIG. 4C.

In this way, the size of the characters can be changed by changing the extending direction and drive timing of the thermal head TH, and this is achieved in conjunction with rotation as shown in Figure 5. It is something.

Control of character size will be further explained below with reference to FIG.

Reference numeral 30 indicates a line buffer memory for recording character information for one line (for example, 20 characters), and character information is sent to this line buffer memory 30 via an output line 31 from a computer or the like.
The character information in this line buffer memory 30 is stored in a control unit 3 connected to a computer etc. through signal lines 46 and 47.
2, character information is applied one character at a time to the character pattern generator 33.

This character pattern generator 3 records a character pattern using dots arranged in a 20 x 20 matrix as shown in FIG. , 20 dot signals belonging to the column are simultaneously output to output lines 34-1 to 34-20.

For example, if character information indicating "large" is applied and the first column 1C is specified, the dot signals 1L to 20L belonging to column 1C in FIG.
4-1 to 34-20 are derived simultaneously. These dot signals are stored in memories 35-1 to 35-3, respectively.
The memory 35 is, for example, a 32-bit FiFo (First In
First Out) memory (memory with a FIFO function that allows data to be output in the order in which it is input without waiting until a predetermined amount of data is accumulated); A dot signal is written into the memory 35 by the clock signal.

The contents of the memory 35 are read out by applying clock signals generated by a recording clock generator 36 through signal lines 37-1 to 37-20, respectively, and applied to drivers 38-1 to 38-20, respectively. It is something. The memory clock signals are generated at separate timings as described later, and this timing is determined by the character size signal applied from the character size control section 39 via the signal line SL.
It is controlled according to SA, SB, and SC.

To explain this recording clock generator 36 in more detail with reference to FIG.
This is a pulse generator that generates a pulse signal (its frequency is f1) as shown in Figure A, and the signal line SL
1, the generation of the pulse signal is started by a start signal applied from the control section 32. The buffer of the pulse generator 40 is applied to cascaded shift registers SR1 to SR20 each consisting of an n-bit shift register.
The respective outputs of the shift register SR are connected to signal lines 37-1 to 37-20, and are connected to the memory 3.
This is the read clock signal applied to 5.

A shift pulse generated by a variable shift pulse generator 41 is applied to each of the shift registers SR.
1, a character size signal is applied through the signal line SL, and the frequency of the generated shift pulse is changed in accordance with the applied size signal. To explain in more detail with reference to FIG. 8, when the size signal SA as a character size signal is applied to the shift pulse generator 41, the shift pulse generator 41 outputs the pulses generated by the pulse generator 40, for example. It generates a shift pulse with a frequency (200 fl) that is 200 times that of the signal.

Therefore, shift registers SR1, SR2,...,
The clock signals derived from each of the SRs 20 are as shown by b1, b2, . . . , b20 in FIG. 8B, and there is a delay time τ1 between the clock signals derived between adjacent signal lines 37. It is something.

When the size signal SB is applied as a character size signal to the shift pulse generator 41, from the shift pulse generator 41, for example, the pulse generator 4
30 times the frequency of the pulse signal generated at 0 (30fl)
This generates a shift pulse having the following values.

Therefore, shift registers SR1, SR2,...,
The clock signals derived from each of the SRs 20 are shown as C1, C2, . . . , C20 in FIG. be.

When the size signal SC as a character size signal is applied to the shift pulse generator 41, the shift pulse generator 41 generates a shift pulse having, for example, 20 fl.

Therefore, shift registers SR1, SR2,...,
The clock signals derived from each of the SRs 20 are as shown by d1, d2, ..., d20 in FIG. 8, and there is a delay time τ3 between the clock signals derived between adjacent signal lines 37. It is.

To further explain with reference to FIG. 4, when the thermal heads TH are arranged as shown in FIG. 4A, the size signal SA is transmitted to the shift pulse generator 4.
1, the heating element TH1,
TH2,...,TH20 are pulse signals b in Fig. 8B.
1, b2, . . . , b20 are sequentially driven by dot signals read out. Therefore, a recording trace as shown by TRT in FIG. 4A is formed on the recording paper 24. As can be seen from Fig. 8B, the driving times of the heat generating elements TH1 and TH20 are different from each other by 20τ1, so the recording trace RT is tilted downward, but this 20τ only corresponds to one pixel interval or less. , essentially this record
The slope of RT is negligible.

However, this τ1 is the number of bits n of the shift register SR.
By selecting , you can set it in any way you like.

If you want the recording trace RT to be exactly perpendicular to the direction of arrow P, use a thermal head.
All you have to do is tilt the TH slightly clockwise.

When the thermal heads TH are arranged as shown in FIG. 4B, the size B signal is applied to the shift pulse generator 41, but the heat generating elements TH
1, TH2, . . . , TH20 are sequentially driven with dot signals read out by pulse signals C1, C2, . . . , C20 shown in FIG. 8C.

As mentioned above, there is a delay of time τ2 between each pulse signal, but in Fig. 4B, the heating element
When TH1 is located on the straight line O-O', pulse signal C1 is applied to the memory 35-1, and the thermal head is
When the heat generating element TH2 is located on the straight line O-O' after time τ2 after TH has moved, pulse signal C2 is applied to the memory 35-2, and after the thermal head TH has moved further and time τ2 has further elapsed, heat generation occurs. element TH
3 is located on the straight line O-O', the pulse signal C
3 to the memory 35-3 and sequentially drive the heating elements TH1 to TH20 at intervals of time τ2, as shown in FIG. 4B, a straight line O-
It is possible to form a record on O′.

In order to form a recording trace on the straight line O-O' by the thermal head TH inclined in this way, the heating elements TH1, TH2,..., TH20 must sequentially reach the straight line O-O' at time intervals of τ2. When the thermal heads TH are arranged as shown in FIG. 4C, the configurations shown in FIG.
Pulse signals as shown in the memory 35-1, 35-
The dot signals read out by applying to the heating elements TH1, TH2, . . . , TH20 may be applied to the heating elements TH1, TH2, . If applied in this way, the fourth
As explained in Figure B, the straight line O- in Figure 4C
It is possible to form a record trace RT on O′.

The height of the characters formed on the recording paper 24 is controlled as described above, and the width of the characters is controlled by controlling the feed speed of the carriage 11. That is, the motor 13 shown at 42 controls the motor 13 for transporting the carriage 11.
The motor control unit controls the transfer speed of 1.
A character size signal is applied to the motor control section 42 as a control signal via a signal line SL.

This control section 42 receives a size signal via a signal line SL.
When SA is applied, the motor 13 is controlled so as to transport the carriage 11 at a speed VA;
When the size signal SB is applied, the motor 13 is controlled to transport the carriage 11 at a speed VB that is slower than the VA, and when the size signal SC is applied, the motor 13 is controlled to transport the carriage 11 at a speed VC that is slower than the VB. The motor 13 is controlled so as to transfer the paper.

Therefore, when the size signal SA is derived, Fig. 3
If a character is recorded with a size as shown by CA, when the size signal SB is derived, the character is recorded with a size as shown by CB, and when a size signal SC is derived, the character is recorded with a size as shown by CC. can be recorded.

Reference numeral 43 denotes a power supply control section that controls the power supply voltage applied to the thermal head TH, and controls the power supply voltage that drives the thermal head TH based on a size signal.

That is, when the size signal SA is applied, this power supply control section 43 derives the voltage EA on the signal line 44, and when the size signal SB is applied, the voltage EB lower than the voltage EA is derived on the signal line 44. When the size signal SC is applied, control is performed so that a voltage EC lower than the voltage EB is derived on the signal line 44.

The reason why the driving voltage of the thermal head TH is lowered as the characters to be recorded become smaller is to keep the recording density constant regardless of the size of the characters.

That is, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the recording density increases as the characters become smaller, and the recording density increases as the time during which the recording paper is heated by the thermal head increases. , EA, EB, EC and the power supply voltage is changed.

These voltages EA, EB, and EC may be selected to values that will keep the density of characters recorded on the recording paper constant.

Note that the respective outputs of the memories 38-1 to 38-20 are sent to the respective heat generating elements TH1 to TH20 of the thermal head TH via drivers 45-1 to 45-20.
This driver applies the dot signal read from the memory 35 to the thermal head.
This is to form a pulse signal suitable for driving TH.

In the above embodiment, a thermal head is used as the recording head, but the present invention is not limited to such a head.
It can be applied to any head that performs recording using dots, such as a head with an inkjet nozzle or a head with a wire dot.

[Effects] As detailed above, according to the present invention, a memory with a FIFO function is used as a buffer memory for dot signals to be recorded, and the timing of writing and reading from the memory can be varied according to the inclination of the recording head. Furthermore, it is possible to provide a recording device that can read out dot signals without waiting for a predetermined amount of dot signals to accumulate in the buffer memory.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a recording device according to the present invention, and FIG.
The figure is a perspective view of the carriage, Figures 3A, B, and C are front views of main parts of the carriage, Figures 4A, B, and C are explanatory diagrams showing the inclination of the head and the records formed by the head, and Figure 5 The figure is a control circuit diagram of the recording device, FIG. 6 is a circuit diagram showing the recording clock generator in FIG. 5 in more detail, FIG. 7 is a front view showing a character pattern, and FIGS. It is a signal waveform diagram. Here, 11 is the carriage, 24 is the recording paper, and 25
26 is a rotating member, 26 is a knob, TH1 to TH20 are heating elements, TH is a thermal head, 33 is a character pattern generator, 36 is a recording clock generator, 39 is a character size control section, 42 is a motor control section, 43 is a Power supply control unit.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. Feeding means for feeding a recording medium, recording dots on the recording medium while sequentially updating dot recording positions in a direction perpendicular to the direction of feeding by the feeding means. a recording means having a recording head for recording; a signal generation means for generating a tilt information signal of the recording head; a storage means for storing a plurality of dot signals in order to record a pattern in the form of dots by the recording means; Based on the slope information signal from the generating means, at a timing different from the timing at which the dot signals are stored, and without waiting for a predetermined amount of dot signals to accumulate in the storage means, in the order in which they are stored in the storage means. , a control means for reading out the dot signals, and the recording means records the dot signals read from the storage means by the control means in the order by the recording head while updating the dot recording positions. recording device. 2. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the feeding device feeds the recording medium after the recording device finishes recording one line. 3. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording means includes a thermal head and a driver section thereof. 4. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording means has a head for performing dot recording with ink. 5. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording means has a head for performing dot recording using a wire.