KR19990017833U - Nozzle drive circuit of inkjet printer - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a nozzle driving circuit of an inkjet printer capable of printing nozzle driving data by dividing the nozzle driving data in two times when the nozzle driving voltage is sensed.

An inkjet comprising a nozzle drive unit of the ink cartridge, a nozzle drive power supply unit for supplying operation power to the nozzle drive unit, a comparator for comparing the output voltage and the reference voltage of the nozzle drive power source unit, and an CPU receiving the detection signal of the comparator In the nozzle drive circuit of a printer; The comparator detects a voltage drop according to the operation of the nozzle driver and provides an interrupt signal to the CPU, thereby reducing the number of nozzles driven simultaneously, thereby reducing power consumption due to head nozzle driving, thereby reducing power consumption. .

Description

Nozzle drive circuit of inkjet printer

The present invention relates to an inkjet printer, and more particularly, to an apparatus for printing nozzle driving data by dividing nozzle driving data in two at a voltage drop.

Among the peripheral devices of the computer, it is a representative output device displayed on a medium such as paper so that the user can recognize the contents according to the work of the computer.

Among these printers, inkjet printers are typical printers that can be purchased at a low price and have excellent print quality.

First, the configuration and operation principle of a general inkjet printer will be described with reference to FIG. 1.

CPU 10 that reads, analyzes and executes a system program in the EPROM 21 that stores initial setting values required for printer operation and values required for the system, and outputs a control signal according to the contents of the program; ROM 12 having various fonts embedded therein, RAM 11 used for temporarily storing data during system operation, and most logic circuits necessary for controlling the CPU 10 are ASICs. And a head drive for controlling the driving of the ink cartridge 31 according to the control signal of the CPU 10 transferred from the ASIC circuit 20 and the ASIC circuit unit 20 executing data transmission to the CPU 10. The driver 30, the carriage motor driving circuit 40 which controls the operation of the carriage return driving motor 41, and the line feed motor 51 for feeding and discharging paper by using a stepping motor are mainly controlled. And a line feed motor drive circuit 50 that is configured to include a power supply (SMPS) (60) for providing a driving voltage required for the overall printer apparatus.

It is the performance of an ink cartridge that measures the quality of printing in such an inkjet printer. Improving the quality of the ink cartridges and maintaining high quality is of paramount importance.

The drive of the nozzle configured in the head portion of the ink cartridge should be accurate and the operation should be stable. In an inkjet printer, the voltage for driving the ink nozzle must be kept constant so that the ink injection amount, force, speed, etc. can be kept constant when the nozzle is driven.

If the nozzle drive voltage is shaken, ink jetting becomes poor and the quality of printout is degraded.

But in inkjet printers, the number of nozzle drives is not always constant. At least one nozzle may be driven and at most all nozzles may be driven. Therefore, the nozzle drive power supply must be designed in the case where the nozzle is driven to the maximum. As a result, the capacity of the power supply unit for driving the nozzle is increased.

The present invention aims to solve this problem, and aims to reduce the maximum power consumption by reducing the number of nozzle drives that consume the maximum power consumption.

Features of the present invention for achieving the above object is a nozzle drive unit of the ink cartridge, a nozzle drive power supply unit for providing an operation power to the nozzle drive unit, a comparator for comparing the output voltage and the reference voltage of the nozzle drive power supply unit, the comparator A nozzle driving circuit of an inkjet printer, comprising: a CPU receiving a detection signal of? The comparator detects that the voltage falls in accordance with the operation of the nozzle driver and provides an interrupt signal to the CPU.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a general inkjet printer;

2 is a block diagram of a nozzle driving circuit according to the present invention,

3 is a detailed circuit diagram of FIG. 2.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described the configuration and operation according to the present invention.

2 is a block diagram showing a nozzle driving circuit of the inkjet printer according to the present invention. As shown in the drawing, an ink cartridge 31, a nozzle driving unit 32 for providing a spray operation signal to each nozzle of the ink cartridge 31, and a nozzle driving power unit for supplying operating power to the nozzle driving unit 32 ( 33), a comparator 34 for comparing the output voltage of the nozzle driving power supply unit 33 with a reference voltage, and a CPU 10 receiving the detection signal of the comparator 34.

3 is a circuit diagram illustrating the configuration of FIG. 2 in more detail.

The nozzle driver 32 includes a nozzle driver 321 for switching to control the spraying operation of each nozzle, and a nozzle resistor 322 for transferring power for driving the nozzle to each switching element of the nozzle driver. )

The nozzle resistor unit 322 includes a diode D1 that blocks V _dd power and supplies V _cc power, a comparison voltage V _cc provided through the resistor R1, and a power V _dd provided to the nozzle resistor unit. It is shown that a comparator 34 for comparing a is configured. Where V _dd is greater than V _cc (V _dd > V _cc )

The V _dd power is applied to the nozzle resistor R _{nn of the} ink cartridge so that the ink cartridge nozzle drive section performs a normal ink ejection operation.

When one nozzle N1 is driven in the nozzle driver 32, current flows through the nozzle drive resistor R _n1 and flows from the collector of the transistor Tr _n1 to the emitter.

V _cc detects the voltage distribution of the resistance (R1) and the nozzle resistor R _nn of the ink cartridge is connected to the power stage. In other words When it is input to the comparator 34 and lowered in comparison with the reference voltage when driving the nozzle, the comparator 34 outputs an interrupt signal INT.

In other words, as the driving of the nozzle increases, the current consumes a lot and the voltage drops by that amount. The comparator detects that the voltage falls during nozzle driving and generates an interrupt signal to the CPU 10.

The CPU 10 receiving the interrupt signal starts printing operation by dividing the nozzle data into two divisions from that moment. Printing is performed by dividing the mode data in two from the point of interrupt occurrence.

Therefore, the maximum number of drives of the nozzle is reduced and power consumption is also reduced.

As described above, the present invention can reduce power consumption by driving the head nozzle by reducing the number of nozzles simultaneously driven, thereby reducing power consumption.

Claims (2)

The nozzle drive of the ink cartridge, A nozzle driving power supply unit for supplying operation power to the nozzle driving unit; A comparator for comparing an output voltage and a reference voltage of the nozzle driving power supply unit; A nozzle driving circuit of an inkjet printer, comprising: a CPU receiving a detection signal of the comparator; And a comparator for detecting a voltage drop according to the operation of the nozzle driver to provide an interrupt signal to the CPU. The nozzle driving circuit of claim 1, wherein the CPU performs printing by dividing the nozzle data into two frequency divisions according to an interrupt signal.