KR100493086B1 - Print control apparatus and method in an inkjet printer using a mono recording head and a color recording head mounted at the same time - Google Patents

Abstract

end. The technical field to which the invention described in the claims belongs

An apparatus and method for controlling printing in an ink jet printer using a mono recording head and a color recording head mounted at the same time.

I. The technical problem to be solved by the invention

Provided are an apparatus and method capable of printing even when the mono and color recording heads are changed in mounting positions in an ink jet printer having two heads.

All. Summary of Solution of the Invention

Before starting printing, check the mounting positions of the mono and color recording heads, and print them by enabling the recording head drive unit equipped with the recording heads for the data to be printed.

la. Important uses of the invention

It is used in an ink jet printer having two heads.

Description

Print control apparatus and method in an ink jet printer using a mono recording head and a color recording head mounted at the same time

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink jet printer, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for controlling printing of an ink jet printer using a mono recording head and a color recording head simultaneously mounted.

Typically ink jet printers can print not only black and white images but also color images, black and white printing by mono recording heads and color printers by color recording heads. The mono recording head and the color recording head have nozzles for ejecting ink. The ink in the nozzles is ejected onto the recording medium by being heated and expanded by heating elements provided one by one. The mono recording head is provided integrally with the mono cartridge (Cartridge) filled with black ink, and the color recording head is provided integrally with the color cartridge filled with the color ink. An ink jet printer records a desired image on a recording medium by selectively driving heating elements while moving such a mono recording head or color recording head in a horizontal direction.

Previous ink jet printers could only be used with one recording head at a time. In other words, a mono recording head was used for monochrome printing and a color recording head was used for color printing. Accordingly, when the user wanted to print in black and white while the mono recording head was mounted, the mono recording head had to be replaced with the color recording head. Therefore, whenever the monochrome print and the color print were changed, the recording head had to be replaced accordingly.

In order to solve this inconvenience, an ink jet printer capable of simultaneously mounting a mono recording head and a color recording head has been developed and used. In such an ink jet printer, the mono recording head and the color recording head were each mounted at their own mounting positions. That is, the mono recording head and the color recording head had to be mounted in their respective carriers to enable normal black and white or color printing.

An example of mounting of a mono recording head and a color recording head in an ink jet printer having these two heads is shown as FIG. FIG. 1 is designed to mount the mono recording head 102 to the mono carrier 106 on the left and the color recording head 104 to the color carrier 108 on the right when viewed from the front of the printer 100. An example of an ink jet printer is shown. As described above, the mono recording head 102 is provided integrally with the mono cartridge and the color recording head 104 is provided integrally with the color cartridge, but the following description does not mention the mono cartridge and the color cartridge for convenience.

1 illustrates a state in which the mono carrier 106 and the color carrier 108 are located at the head replacement position, and the mono carrier 106 and the color carrier 108 are integrally formed with one carriage mechanism. Installed in the horizontal direction, i.e., in the directions of arrows X and X '. In the head replacement position, the user can open the cover 110 to inspect or replace the mono recording head 102 or the color recording head 104.

In the ink jet printer having the two heads described above, the mono recording head 102 and the color recording head 104 should be mounted at their own mounting positions, and if the user incorrectly mounts the recording heads 102 and 104, respectively. The printer will not work. Accordingly, the user should always be aware of this. In general, since printing is impossible when the recording heads 102 and 104 are mounted in such a manner as to be changed in position, the printer has moved the recording head to the head replacement position and generates an error message so that the user can remount it.

As described above, in the conventional case, when the positions of the mono recording head and the color recording head are changed and mounted, printing is impossible, so that the user has to mount the mono recording head and the color recording head again.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a print control apparatus and method capable of performing normal printing even when the positions of the mono recording head and the color recording head are changed.

The present invention for achieving the above object is characterized in that the printer controller checks the mounting position of the recording heads before starting the printing, and prints the mono or color print data by enabling the corresponding head driver.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Many specific details are set forth in the following description and in the accompanying drawings to provide a more general understanding of the invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. And a detailed description of known functions and configurations that may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention will be omitted.

First, referring to FIG. 2, which shows a block diagram of a conventional two-jet ink jet printer, the printer 226 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 200, an input / output interface 202, a ROM 204, and a RAM ( 206, operation panel 208, motor drives 210, 214, carriage feed motor 212, paper feed motor 216, first and second head drives 218, 222, and first and second recording heads 220, 224. It is composed of The CPU 200 executes a program stored in the ROM 204 to control each part of the ink jet printer through the input / output interface 202. The ROM 204 stores an execution program of the CPU 200 and various reference data. The RAM 212 temporarily stores data according to the operation of the CPU 200. The input / output interface 202 interfaces signals input and output between the CPU 200 and input / output devices, that is, the operation panel 208, the motor driving units 210 and 214, and the first and second head driving units 218 and 222. The operation panel 214 has a plurality of keys for inputting various commands to the CPU 200 and a display device for displaying various states by the CPU 200. The motor driving unit 216 drives the carriage transfer motor 212 under the control of the CPU 200. The carriage transfer motor 212 is driven by the motor driver 210 and moves the carriers 106 and 108 of FIG. 1 in which the first and second recording heads 220 and 224 are installed. The carriage transfer motor 212 is also referred to as a C / R motor. The motor driving unit 210 drives the paper feed motor 216 under the control of the CPU 200. The paper feed motor 216 is driven by the motor driving unit 214 to transfer paper. The paper feed motor 216 is also referred to as an L / F motor. The first head driver 218 drives the first recording head 220 under the control of the CPU 200 to print an image on the recording medium. The second head driver 222 drives the second recording head 224 under the control of the CPU 200 to print an image on the recording medium.

3 shows a detailed circuit diagram between the input / output interface 202 and the first and second head driving units 218 and 222 according to an embodiment of the present invention in the block diagram of the conventional two-head ink jet printer. . Referring to FIG. 3, the CPU 200 transmits a control signal to the first and second exclusive ORs through the first and second ports A and B provided in the input / output interface 202. It is applied to the CE terminals of the first and second head drivers 218 and 222 through the selection circuit 234 including the gates 228 and 230 and the inverter 232. In this case, the first and second head drivers 218 and 222 are selectively driven according to the control signal applied through the selection circuit 234, and the first and second recording heads 220 and 224 are respectively provided when the control signal of the CE terminal is "low". Print data on the recording medium.

Referring now to FIG. 4, there is shown a control flow diagram according to an embodiment of the present invention that enables normal printing even when the mono recording head 102 and the color recording head 104 are incorrectly mounted using the circuit of FIG. . The operation according to the flowchart of FIG. 4 is programmed in the ROM 204 to be performed by the CPU 200 of FIG.

First, in step 400 of FIG. 4, the CPU 100 checks whether the recording head is mounted on both the mono carrier 106 and the color carrier 108 through the first and second head driving units 218 and 222. If it is detected in step (400) that the recording head is mounted on both carriers, the CPU 100 proceeds to step 402 and displays an error message on the liquid crystal display of the operation panel 208. And the LED blinks. On the contrary, if it is detected in step 400 that both recording heads are mounted on the two carriers, the CPU 100 proceeds to step 404 to check whether the types of the recording heads are the same. At this time, if it is detected that the types of recording heads are the same, the CPU 100 proceeds to step 406 and displays an error message on the liquid crystal display of the operation panel 208 and blinks the LED. On the contrary, if it is detected in step 404 that the types of recording heads are different from each other, the CPU 100 proceeds to step 408 to check whether the print data is mono or color. If it is determined in step 408 that the print data is monaural, the CPU 100 proceeds to step 410 to check whether the mono recording head is mounted in the first recording head 220. At this time, if the first recording head 220 detects that the mono recording head is mounted, the CPU 100 proceeds to step 412 and goes to " low " or " 0 " to the first port A of the input / output interface 202. Outputs " 0 " to the second port B. The " 0 " In operation 414, the CPU 100 enables the first head driver 218. Accordingly, mono printing through the first recording head 220 is possible.

On the contrary, if the mono recording head is not mounted on the first recording head 220 in step 410, the CPU 100 proceeds to step 416 to the first port A of the input / output interface 202. Outputs "1" and outputs "0" to the second port (B). In step 418, the CPU 100 enables the second head driver 222. This enables color printing through the second recording head 224.

Unlike the above description, if the print data is not monaural in step 408, the CPU 100 proceeds to step 420 to check whether or not the mono recording head is mounted on the first recording head 220. At this time, if the first recording head 220 detects that the mono recording head is mounted, the CPU 100 proceeds to step 422 and outputs "1" to the first port A of the input / output interface 202. Outputs "1" to the second port (B). The CPU 100 then enables the second recording head driver 222. This enables color printing through the second recording head 224.

On the contrary, if the mono recording head is not mounted on the first recording head 220 in step 420, the CPU 100 proceeds to step 426 to the first port A of the input / output interface 202. 0 "is output and" 1 "is output to the second port (B). The CPU 100 then proceeds to step 428 to enable the first recording head driver 218. This enables mono printing through the first recording head 218.

Therefore, the CPU 100 detects the mounting position of the recording head and enables the recording head driver equipped with the recording head suitable for the print data, thereby enabling normal printing even when the mono recording head and the color recording head are incorrectly mounted. .

Meanwhile, in the above description of the present invention, specific embodiments have been described, but various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. In particular, in the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the selection circuit 234 includes one inverter and two exclusive ora gates, but the selection circuit 234 may be implemented using other logic elements. Therefore, the scope of the invention should not be defined by the described embodiments, but should be defined by the equivalents of the claims and the claims.

As described above, the present invention has the advantage that the user can always print normally regardless of the mounting position of the mono recording head and the color recording head. .

1 is a drawing head mounting state of an ink jet printer having two conventional heads;

2 is a block diagram of a conventional ink jet printer having two heads;

3 is a circuit diagram of an input / output interface and a recording head driver according to an embodiment of the present invention;

4 is a process flow diagram of a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (4)

In the print control method of an ink jet printer using a mono recording head and a color recording head mounted at the same time, Before starting printing, check the mounting positions of the recording heads, and print them by enabling the recording head driver corresponding to the data to be printed. Control method. In the print control method of an ink jet printer using a mono recording head and a color recording head mounted at the same time, Checking the type of recording head attached to the carriers before starting printing; When the type of the recording head mounted on the carriers is confirmed, the process of enabling and printing the recording head driver equipped with the recording head corresponding to the data to be printed comprises: a mono recording head and a color recording head. Print control method for ink jet printers installed and used at the same time. In the print control apparatus of an ink jet printer using a mono recording head and a color recording head mounted at the same time, First and second head driving units which respectively drive the first and second recording heads and identify the type of recording heads respectively mounted; A CPU which checks the type of the recording head mounted on the first and second head driving units, and outputs a control signal for selectively enabling the head driving unit equipped with the recording head suitable for the type of data to be printed; An input / output interface for interfacing the input / output signals between the CPU and the first and second head driving units, and having first and second ports for outputting the control signal; And a selection circuit for selectively enabling the first and second head drivers according to the control signals output from the first and second ports of the input / output interface. A print control device in an ink jet printer that uses a recording head and a color recording head at the same time. The method of claim 3, wherein the selection circuit, A first exclusive ora gate for exclusively ORing the signals output from the first and second ports of the input / output interface to the CE terminal of the first head driver; An inverter for inverting a signal output from the first port of the input / output interface; And a second exclusive ora gate for exclusively ORing the signals output from the second port of the input / output interface and the inverter to the CE terminal of the second head driver. Print control unit for ink jet printers that are attached and used simultaneously.