KR20050108060A - Apparatus for controlling power supply of memory for managing consumables in a image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a power supply control apparatus of a memory for managing consumables of an image forming apparatus. A power supply control apparatus of a memory for managing consumables of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention is a power supply control apparatus of a memory that is stored in a consumable of the image forming apparatus and stores data related to the consumables, wherein data is written or read in the memory. A control unit which provides a control signal for performing as a clock signal; And a memory driver for transferring a clock signal received from the controller to the memory, the memory having a power supply for generating power to be applied to the memory from the clock signal, wherein the clock signal has a low level when data is not written or read. It is characterized in that it is maintained as. According to the present invention, a contact terminal is supplied by supplying a control signal for controlling a memory of a consumable with only three signals of clock, data, and ground, and keeping the control signal at a low level when data is not written or read into the memory. It is possible to prevent the malfunction of the memory by suppressing the electrical contact noise in the circuit.

Description

Apparatus for controlling power supply of memory for managing consumables in a image forming device}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a color image forming apparatus widely adopted in an image forming apparatus, for example, a multifunction printer, a printer, and the like. In particular, consumables management of an image forming apparatus capable of preventing malfunction of a memory by suppressing electrical contact noise at a contact terminal It relates to a power supply control device of a memory for.

In general, a facsimile machine, a printer, a copier, or a multifunction device that can realize a combination of these functions through a single device are all products manufactured based on a printing function. Therefore, these products have an image forming apparatus.

1 and 2 schematically show a block diagram of a general image forming apparatus and an engine unit of the image forming apparatus, respectively.

Referring to FIG. 1, a general image forming apparatus includes a control unit 10 for controlling overall operations of an image forming apparatus, an interface unit 20 connecting a computer and an image forming apparatus to receive print data output from a computer, and image forming. Various control programs required to implement the functions of the device and the storage unit 30 for storing data generated in accordance with the control program execution, the engine unit 50 for performing a print job, the engine unit under the control of the control unit 10 ( Engine control unit 40 for driving 50, high voltage providing unit 60 for applying a predetermined voltage to each roller of engine unit 50 under the control of control unit 10, and paper in engine unit 50 It includes a sensor unit 70 for detecting problems during printing, such as a jam or the presence of printing paper. Here, as shown in Fig. 2, the engine unit 50 includes a charging roller 51, a photosensitive drum 52, and an exposure apparatus (Laser Scan Unit: LSU) 53 for printing predetermined image data on printing paper. ), A developing roller 54, a supply roller 55, a transfer roller 56, and a fixing unit 57. The developing roller 54 and the transfer roller 56 are associated with color developing cartridges and intermediate transfer belts (ITB) for color printing.

The printing operation of the engine unit 50 having the configuration of FIG. 2 as described above is as follows. Under the control of the controller 10, the high voltage power supply unit (HVPS) 60 applies a predetermined voltage to each of the rollers 51, 54, 55, 56, and 57 of the engine unit 50. Here, the high voltage providing unit 60 typically has a charging voltage of -1.4 kV to the charging roller 51, a transfer voltage of +2.0 kV to the transfer roller 56, a developing voltage of 300 V to the developing roller 54, and a supply roller. A supply voltage of 500 V is applied to the 55. Accordingly, the charging roller 51 charged by the high voltage charging voltage rotates in engagement with the photosensitive drum 52 to evenly charge the photosensitive member formed on the outer circumferential surface of the photosensitive drum 52. At this time, the exposure apparatus 53 receives a control signal from the controller 10 to scan the image light corresponding to the image data input from the controller 10 to the photosensitive drum 52. Accordingly, the exposure apparatus 53 emits image light corresponding to the received control signal to the photosensitive drum 52 while the laser diode LD (not shown) is turned on. On the surface of the photosensitive drum 52, an electrostatic latent image to be printed which is charged by the image light emitted by the exposure apparatus 53 is formed. On the other hand, a potential difference is generated between the supply roller 55 which is applied with a high voltage from the high pressure supply unit 60 and the developing roller 54 which is applied with a lower level of voltage than the supply roller 55. Therefore, the toner that has negatively charged components from the feeding roller 55 to the developing roller 54 is moved, and the toner supplied to the developing roller 54 is applied to an electrostatic latent image formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 52 to produce a visible image. Form. The transfer roller 56 provided with the high voltage from the high-pressure providing unit 60 transfers the visible image formed by applying toner to the electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photosensitive drum 52 to the printing paper. The visible image transferred to the printing paper is fixed to the printing paper by the high heat and pressure of the fixing unit 57, thereby completing the printing process.

As described above, the image forming apparatus needs various consumables in order to print, especially in color. Examples of the consumables include a development cartridge, an intermediate transfer belt unit (ITB), a photosensitive drum unit, and the like. The developing cartridge includes a yellow developing cartridge for yellow color, a magenta developing cartridge for magenta color, a cyan developing cartridge for cyan color, and a black developing cartridge for black color. .

The conventional consumable management apparatus includes a memory in a part or all of the consumables to manage consumables. When the consumable is mounted in the printer, power is applied to the memory by the power supply and the ground terminal, and the information of the memory is read or the necessary information is written into the memory by a control signal (clock, data signal) from the image forming apparatus controller.

However, this method requires signals such as power, ground, clock, data, etc. to control the memory for consumable management, and therefore requires at least four electrical contact terminals per consumable. As there are more electrical contact terminals, there is a fear that the reliability is lowered. In addition, when power is applied through the power supply terminal, there is a possibility of malfunction of the memory due to electrical noise at the contact point.

The technical problem to be achieved by the present invention is to supply a control signal for controlling the memory of the consumables with only three signals of clock, data and ground to suppress the electrical contact noise at the contact terminal to prevent the malfunction of the memory image A memory power supply control apparatus for consumable management of a forming apparatus is provided.

In order to achieve the above technical problem, a power supply control apparatus of a memory for managing consumables of an image forming apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention is embedded in the consumables of the image forming apparatus and stores the data related to the consumables. A control unit for providing a control signal for writing or reading the data to the memory as a clock signal; And a memory driver for transferring a clock signal received from the controller to the memory, the memory having a power supply for generating power to be applied to the memory from the clock signal, wherein the clock signal writes the data. Or, when not being read, is kept at a low level. The power control device may further include a cover switch which automatically cuts off power supplied to the memory driver when the cover of the image forming apparatus is opened.

A power supply control apparatus for a memory for managing consumables in an image forming apparatus according to another aspect of the present invention is a power supply control apparatus for a memory that is embedded in the consumables of the image forming apparatus and stores data related to the consumables. A control unit for providing a control signal for writing or reading the data as a data signal; And a memory driver for providing a data signal received by the controller to the memory, the memory having a power supply for generating power to be applied to the memory from the data signal, wherein the data signal writes the data. Or, when not being read, is kept at a low level.

Hereinafter, a power control apparatus of a memory for managing consumables of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout the drawings.

3 is a block diagram illustrating a power control apparatus of a memory for managing consumables of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention. The illustrated power control apparatus includes an image forming apparatus controller 100, a memory driver 110, a development cartridge 120, and a cover switch 130. A developing cartridge memory 125 (hereinafter simply referred to as a memory) is built in the developing cartridge 120 serving as an example of consumables.

Referring to FIG. 3, the image forming apparatus controller 100 provides a clock signal to the memory driver 110 and transmits or receives data related to the development cartridge 120 and other consumables to the memory driver 110.

The memory driver 110 is interposed between the image forming apparatus controller 100 and the memory 125 to provide a clock signal of the controller 100 to the memory 125, and provides data information for managing consumables therebetween. It acts as a relay.

The memory 125 embedded in the developing cartridge is provided with a clock terminal, a data terminal, and a ground terminal, and these terminals are connected to the memory driver 110 of the image forming apparatus. For simplicity, only one developing cartridge is shown in FIG. 3, but the other developing cartridge, the intermediate transfer belt unit (ITB), the photosensitive drum unit, and the like have a built-in memory having the same function as that of the memory 125. A clock terminal, a data terminal and a ground terminal are provided. Each terminal of the memory 125 embedded in the developing cartridge is connected to the memory driving unit 110 in common with the same terminals of the other developing cartridge, the intermediate transfer belt unit and the photosensitive drum unit in common. Therefore, the memory driver 110 does not change the number of connection terminals for the memory circuit unit regardless of the number of the development cartridges. Thus, the hardware of the device can be simplified as much.

4 shows an example of a circuit configuration of the memory 125 incorporated in the development cartridge. Referring to FIG. 4, the memory 125 does not include a separate power supply terminal, but receives power required for the memory 125 through a clock terminal. That is, the clock signal of the memory driver 110 acts as a power signal of the memory 125. The reason why the clock signal can also act as a power source is that, when the clock signal is input to the memory 125, the pulse of the clock signal is smoothed by a charge pumping circuit composed of capacitors C1 and C4. to be. The charge pumping circuit 126 serves as a power supply unit supplying power required for the memory 125. The diode D1 serves to prevent the voltage caused by the charge pumping circuit from adversely affecting the clock signal.

Therefore, when the clock signal of the memory driver 110 is supplied to the memory 125, data can be written to or read from the memory 125. The data information written to or read from the memory 125 basically includes remaining data of the developing toner recorded in the memory 125, an ID of the developing cartridge, a developing toner capacity, a manufacturer, a product serial number, Date of manufacture, developing toner color, and the like.

More specifically, during the memory access, the DC level of the control signal (here, the clock signal) is first transitioned to a high state to apply power to the memory 125, and to perform a write or read operation by the control signal. The power supply is held by the control signal even during the write or read operation of the memory 125. However, after the memory access is completed, the DC level of the control signal is kept low, thereby lowering the power supply voltage of the memory 125 to the ground level. This prevents electrical contact noise at the contact terminals.

In the embodiment shown in Fig. 4, the power of the memory 125 is supplied by a clock signal, but can also be supplied by a data signal. That is, by connecting the charge pumping circuit consisting of the capacitors (C1, C4) and the diode (D1) to the data terminal, it is possible to supply power by the data signal.

Since the memory 125 does not erase data even when the power of the memory 125 is cut off, and the data to be stored must be updated, the memory 125 is electrically erased and programmable read only memory (EEPROM). It is preferable.

The cover switch 130 is a micro switch, which is connected to a power supply unit (not shown) of the main body, and automatically cuts off the power supplied to the memory driver 110 when the printer cover is opened, for example, to replace a consumable. do. When the power supply of the memory driver 110 is cut off, the clock signal (or data signal) to the memory 125 becomes low level, so that electrical connection noise at the contact terminal can be suppressed.

5 illustrates an example of a circuit configuration of the memory driver 110. Referring to FIG. 5, the memory driver 110 is interposed between the image forming apparatus controller 100 and the memory 125 to provide a clock signal of the controller 100 to the memory 125, and among the consumables. It relays data information for management.

Although specific terms have been used herein, they are used only for the purpose of describing the present invention and are not used to limit the scope of the present invention as defined in the meaning or claims. Therefore, those skilled in the art will understand that various modifications and equivalent other embodiments are possible therefrom. Therefore, the true technical protection scope of the present invention will be defined by the technical spirit of the appended claims.

According to the present invention, the control signal for controlling the memory of the consumables is supplied with only three signals of clock, data, and ground, and the DC level of any one of the clock signal and the data signal when data is not written or read into the memory. By keeping the low level, it is possible to suppress electrical contact noise at the contact terminal and prevent malfunction of the memory. In addition, when the cover of the image forming apparatus is opened to replace the consumable, the power supplied to the memory driver is automatically shut off, thereby suppressing electrical contact noise at the contact terminal.

1 is a block diagram schematically showing a conventional image forming apparatus.

2 is a diagram schematically showing a configuration of an engine unit of a conventional image forming apparatus.

3 is a block diagram showing a power supply control apparatus of a memory for managing consumables of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention;

4 is a diagram showing an example of a circuit configuration of a memory built in the developing cartridge in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a circuit configuration of a memory driver in FIG. 3. FIG.

* Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings *

100: image forming apparatus control unit 110: memory driving unit

120: developing cartridge 125: developing cartridge memory

130: cover switch

Claims (4)

A power supply control device of a memory which is embedded in a consumable of an image forming apparatus and stores data related to the consumable, A control unit for outputting a control signal for writing or reading the data to the memory as a clock signal; And A memory driver transferring the clock signal received from the controller to the memory; The memory has a power supply for generating power to be applied to the memory from the clock signal, and under the control of the controller, the clock signal is maintained at a low level when not writing or reading the data. Memory power supply control device for consumables management of the forming apparatus. The method of claim 1, And a cover switch for automatically cutting off power supplied to the memory driver when the cover of the image forming apparatus is opened. A power supply control device of a memory which is embedded in a consumable of an image forming apparatus and stores data related to the consumable, A control unit for providing a control signal for writing or reading data to the memory as a data signal; And A memory driver configured to provide a data signal received by the controller to the memory; The memory has a power supply for generating power to be applied to the memory from the data signal, and under the control of the controller, the data signal is maintained at a low level when the data is not written or read. Memory power supply control device for consumables management of the forming apparatus. The method of claim 3, And a cover switch for automatically cutting off power supplied to the memory driver when the cover of the image forming apparatus is opened.