RU2672999C1 - Thermal printer with energy accumulator on supercapacitors - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: computer equipment.SUBSTANCE: invention relates to the computing and electronic equipment, and can be used for the cash transactions performance in the field of goods and services provision. Thermal printer contains located in the plastic housing thermal printer, energy accumulator, connected to the control computer control module, as well as standard connectors. Energy accumulator consists of installed on the control module electronic board three supercapacitors. Their continuous powering from the USB connector is performed in the parallel mode of their installation. With the supercapacitors switching to the serial connection, the receipts thermal printing is provided. Thermal printer is configured to operate without the power supply unit. Increase in the receipts of thermal printing speed, service life due to the absence of requiring replacement power supply unit batteries.EFFECT: reducing the thermal printer market price for the user, the overall dimensions are reduced, as well as the number of used wires, the service place appearance is improved, and the operation is simplified.1 cl, 4 dwg

Description

The invention relates to the field of printing on heat-sensitive tape and can be used as cash registers (CCP) in various fields of activity, in particular in trade or in transport for printing checks when making cash transactions.

In the market of modern thermal printers and KKT, many different models of devices containing thermal printing mechanisms are used. The power supply system of such devices can be based on an external power supply with a power of 30..60 W. In this case, in standby mode, the product usually consumes less than 2 W, and the remaining power is used only at the time of printing. An average trading company breaks about 30 checks per day and, thus, it turns out that the maximum power is used up only in less than two minutes per day. In order to prevent electric shock by the cashier and prevent the cashier from overheating, i.e. To create a safe cash register without protective grounding (protective grounding), the power supply is made external and powerful. The use of such power supplies leads to an increase in the cost of the product due to the need to complete the entire product with a power supply, which is large and expensive, packaging increases, delivery is more expensive, and each additional cable and power supply at the cashier’s workplace worsens the appearance and complicates the maintenance of the cash register.

Another well-known embodiment of the thermal printer is a portable thermal printer. In this case, they use built-in batteries of a backup source of energy storage, the energy of which is spent on ensuring the operation of the entire device as a whole, but compact batteries of such devices cannot give high currents to ensure high printing speed. This circumstance encourages developers to compromise, i.e. Decrease print speed compared to the print speed of stationary devices. However, even such currents, which provide sufficiently slow printing of receipts, are significant for compact batteries, which inevitably leads to accelerated degradation of the latter, reducing their useful life and limiting the life of the devices as a whole.

At the same time, modern developments are known in which ionistors - high-capacity capacitors are used as energy storage devices. Such energy storage devices are used mainly as a backup power source, for example, for transport systems, aircraft, emergency and uninterruptible power supply systems for communications and telecommunications, etc. In particular, it is known to use ionistors to recharge a portable electric lamp in the process of lighting an object (see RU 2234638 C2, F21S 9/04, 08/20/2004), as well as in the information storage device, where large-capacity ion-capacitors are used as a backup power source in the absence of I have primary source provided apparatus design (see. RU 108167 U1, 10.09.2011), i.e. such devices use hybrid power supplies.

However, energy sources operating only on ionistors have not yet been used as main power sources in thermal printing devices.

In particular, a thermal printer is known for printing receipts containing a conventional power supply unit (US 4519075 A1, B41J 2/35, 05/21/1985). The developers of this model paid attention to automatically checking the printed circuit of the device and supplying power to the corresponding heaters of the printing mechanism at a time when the thermal printer is in standby mode (does not print). The design improves thermal printer reliability and saves heat-sensitive paper.

The thermal printer is selected as the closest analogue (prototype) of the claimed invention, which contains a plastic case, a thermal printing mechanism with a printhead, a place for paper and sensors for its detection, an energy storage device in the form of rechargeable batteries, a control module with power supply circuits and hardware for communication with a control computer, as well as many electrical contacts for charging and maintenance (US 7643044 B2, B41J 3/36, 01/05/2000). A feature of this device is the use instead of a large paper roll of a folded stack of paper of a certain size (shown in Fig. 10 of the indicated source), which reduces the overall dimensions of the thermal printer and provides efficient printing, making the device easily portable and compact. However, the presence of a sufficiently large and short-lived power supply in the form of rechargeable batteries reduces the life of the thermal printer and increases its overall dimensions, which is a significant drawback of modern equipment (CCP).

In connection with the foregoing, the technical problem is the creation of a thermal printer that works without a power supply unit and ensures thermal printing of checks at a high speed, as well as an increase in the reliability and service life of the thermal printer as a whole due to the lack of needing to replace batteries (power supply unit).

The specified technical problem, according to the developers, can be solved by constructive implementation of the thermal printer, ensuring its operation without a power supply.

The technical result provided by the claimed invention consists in the use of ionistors as an energy storage device for thermal printing of checks, which will allow to achieve high printing speed on a heat-sensitive tape, as well as reduce the overall dimensions of the device, increase the reliability and durability of its operation, reduce the price on the market of CCT and to improve the appearance of the place of customer service, which is an important factor in modern conditions of development of the market of goods and services.

The intended technical result is ensured by a set of essential features of the invention, revealing a thermal printer containing a thermal printing mechanism located in a plastic case, an energy storage device, a control module associated with the control computer, and electrical connectors, while the thermal printer is configured to operate without a power supply, control module contains an electronic board and is connected to the control computer via a standard USB connector, and the energy storage device is made in in the form of three ionistors mounted on the electronic board of the control module with the possibility of continuous power supply from the USB connector when installed in parallel and switched to a serial connection, which provides thermal printing of checks.

The claimed technical solution is illustrated by the following drawings: in FIG. 1 shows a general view of a thermal printer; in FIG. 2 shows the internal structure of a thermal printer; in FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of the operation of the thermal printing mechanism; in FIG. 4 shows a diagram of the use of ionistors in a thermal printer.

The thermal printer (Fig. 1) contains a plastic case (1), a thermal printing mechanism (3), electrical connectors (USB) (2), through which communication with the control computer and continuous power storage are performed. The control module (Fig. 2, item 4) contains an electronic board (5) on which ionistors (6) are installed, which are an energy storage device. The thermal printing mechanism (3) comprises a thermal printing head, a pressure roller, a paper tray and tear-off upper and lower knives. On the electronic board (see Fig. 2, item 5) of the control module (4) there is an energy storage device in the form of three ionistors (6) (large capacitors), which provide direct printing of checks on a thermal tape. The thermal printer is powered and controlled by a computer (see the block diagram of Fig. 3) through a standard USB connector (block 1 in Fig. 3). Three ionistors installed in parallel connection (block 4 in Fig. 3) are powered through a pulse power converter (block 2 in Fig. 3). The switching circuit (block 6 in Fig. 3) can put the ionistors in parallel mode to obtain triple voltage, which is necessary to power the thermal printing mechanism (block 8 in Fig. 3). The microcontroller (block 5 in Fig. 3) is powered through a pulse voltage converter (block 3 in Fig. 3) and controls the thermal printing mechanism directly and through a bridge chip to control the stepper motor (block 7 in Fig. 3). The control module (4) with the electronic board (5) (Fig. 2) contains components for controlling the thermal printing mechanism. At the same time, thermal energy of thermal printer checks is carried out from the energy of ionistors switched to sequential mode.

The ionistors are charged in parallel (Fig. 4). For this, the n-channel transistors VT10, VT11 must be open, and the p-channel VT16, VT17 - closed. When used in the operating mode for thermal printing of the checks, the ionistors are switched in series connection using mosfet transistors, while VT10, VT11 must be closed, and VT16, VT17 open.

As an example, 25F ESHSR-0025CO-001R7 ionistors can be used, which are fed through a switching power converter, for example MIC2267, in parallel with current limitation. A microcontroller, such as the LPC1768FBD100, is powered from the USB connector via a switching voltage converter, such as ST1S12GR. The microcontroller controls the thermal printing mechanism, for example SS205-V4-LV, directly and through a bridge chip to control a stepper motor, for example DRV8835DSSR. The advantage of using ionistors is a large operating current, which, based on the documentation for the specified thermal printing mechanism, allows for high-speed printing characteristics of 100 mm / sec. According to the USB2.0 standard, 2.5 W taken from the port is enough to power the ionistors and supply power to the rest of the thermal printer circuit.

The final consumer characteristics are that we get standard 2.5 W from USB, and we can spend up to 64 W at the time of printing. These indicators allow us to state that as a result of using such a scheme, thermal printing is possible due to the use of only ionistors that can provide a print speed of up to 100 mm / s (this is impossible for printing checks in devices using compact batteries).

Along with the above advantages of using ionistors for thermal printing, they have a sufficiently long service life of about ten years, which also creates an advantage for their use, since technical solutions on batteries usually have only 300 full charge cycles, which is much less than ten years. This makes it possible to carry out equipment maintenance less frequently, which saves time and money spent on it.

Thermal printers made on the basis of the described design will reduce the overall dimensions of the device due to the absence of a power supply, and also reduce the number of wires used, which is an important aspect when used in cramped conditions of use.

Thus, the claimed technical solution has clear advantages over the known models and can find wide application in the field of goods and services.

Claims (1)

A thermal printer for printing receipts comprising a thermal printing mechanism located in a plastic case, an energy storage device, a control module connected to the control computer, and electrical connectors, characterized in that the thermal printer is configured to operate without a power supply, the control module comprising an electronic board and connected to the control computer via a standard USB connector, and the energy storage device is made in the form of three ionistors installed on the electronic board of the control module with ozhnostyu continuous powering of the USB connector in a parallel mode and switching connections in series connection to provide a thermal printing of checks.

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