JPH0939304A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the work load of a CPU and to realize high processing capacity by an inexpensive circuit by independently constituting a plurality of processing circuits processing printing data at every kinds and a control circuit containing the CPU relatively moving a printing medium. SOLUTION: The so-called microcomputer having a CPU controls the relative movement of a printing head and a printing medium. A first control circuit is constituted of a hardware logic circuit to discriminate the kinds of the data from a host device and image data, character code data and character modifying data are respectively processed by processing circuits 44, 45, 46 to store pattern data in an image buffer region. The data not corresponding to all of the processing circuits, for example, the feed command of the printing medium is transmitted to the CPU to perform program control.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing device which receives data from a host device and prints it on a printing medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a printing apparatus of this type processes print data sent from a host apparatus by a central processing unit (hereinafter referred to as CPU) in the printing apparatus, decomposes it into a print pattern, and temporarily prints a dot of a print image. The set is expanded on the memory in correspondence with the on / off of the bit, and the printing mechanism is driven based on this printing pattern to perform printing. There is also a method of generating print data by sending a print pattern itself (hereinafter referred to as image data) from a host device.

[0003]

In recent years, particularly in ink jet printers and the like in printing apparatuses, the density of dots has increased, and accordingly, the amount of data to be processed by the CPU has increased, resulting in a great load on the processing of the CPU. ing. Therefore, it is necessary to use a CPU having a high processing capacity, which causes a cost increase.

The present invention has been made in view of these problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an inexpensive printing apparatus that realizes a high processing capacity with an inexpensive circuit and uses an inexpensive circuit. And

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, a printing apparatus according to a first aspect of the invention is a printing apparatus which receives various data including print data and control data from a higher-level device and performs a printing operation, A receiving circuit for receiving the various data from the host device, a data discriminating circuit for discriminating the type of various data received by the receiving circuit, and processing of print data for each type among various data classified by the data discriminating circuit. At least one of the plurality of processing circuits, and a switching circuit that selectively switches and transfers print data to each of the corresponding processing circuits based on the determination result of the data determination circuit. 1
One is composed of a hardware logic circuit.

With the above configuration, various data including print data and control data are received from the host device, the type of the data is discriminated by the data discriminating circuit, and transferred to the plurality of processing circuits by the switching circuit. Then, at least one of the plurality of processing circuits is configured by a hardware logic circuit, and a large amount of print data is processed for each type.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the receiving circuit, the discriminating circuit, and the switching circuit are configured by a hardware logic circuit. As a result, data reception, determination, and switching processing are speeded up by the hardware logic circuit. The printing apparatus according to claim 3 is
3. The pattern storage device according to claim 1, further comprising pattern storage means for storing pattern data to be printed, the print data including at least image data and character code data, and the plurality of processing circuits, wherein the print data is image data. A first processing circuit for transferring the data to the pattern storing means as pattern data without converting the data, and converting the data into pattern data when the print data is character code data,
And a second processing circuit for transferring to the pattern storage means. Thus, when the image data is received as the print data, it is transferred to the pattern storage means without being converted, and when the character code data is received, it is converted to the pattern data and transferred to the pattern storage means.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the printing apparatus according to the third aspect further includes information storage means for storing data instructing conversion processing of the print data transferred by the character code from the higher-level device, and the plurality of processings. The circuit is further provided with a third circuit for transferring the data instructing the conversion processing of the print data to the information storage means. As a result, when the character code data is received, conversion such as modification is performed according to the data instructing the conversion process and the result is transferred to the pattern storage means.

A printing apparatus according to a fifth aspect of the present invention further comprises an exceptional processing circuit for processing the data determined by the determination circuit as not corresponding to any of the plurality of processing circuits according to any one of the first to fourth aspects. Then, the switching circuit transfers the data that does not correspond to any of the processing circuits to the exception circuit. Thus, the exception processing circuit processes data that does not correspond to any of the plurality of processing circuits, and processes all the various data from the host device.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing apparatus according to the fifth aspect, further comprising a printing mechanism that prints on a printing medium and a moving mechanism that moves the printing mechanism relative to the printing medium. It is configured to control the moving mechanism. As a result, the print data of the data from the higher-level device is processed by the plurality of processing circuits, the data that does not correspond to any of the plurality of processing circuits is processed by the exception processing circuit, and the printing mechanism and the print medium are relatively moved.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing apparatus having a printing mechanism for printing on a printing medium and a moving mechanism for moving the printing mechanism relative to the printing medium, and various data including print data and control data from a host device. In a printing device that receives the data and performs a printing operation, a receiving circuit that receives the various data from the host device, a data determining circuit that determines the type of various data received by the receiving circuit, and the data determining circuit A plurality of processing circuits that process print data for each type among the classified data, and a switch that selectively switches and transfers the print data to each corresponding processing circuit based on the determination result of the data determination circuit. Circuit and the data determined by the determination circuit as not corresponding to any one of the plurality of processing circuits, the data for controlling the moving mechanism. It consists exception processing circuit for processing data, including data.

Thus, the processing in the printing apparatus is shared by the plurality of processing circuits for processing the print data and the exceptional processing circuit for controlling the relative movement of the printing mechanism and the printing medium, whereby the load of one circuit is reduced. It enables to use the one with less processing power.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the printing apparatus according to the seventh aspect, at least one of the plurality of processing circuits, the receiving circuit, the discriminating circuit, and the switching circuit is a hardware logic circuit, which is inexpensive.

A printing apparatus according to a ninth aspect of the present invention is the printing apparatus according to any one of the fifth to eighth aspects, wherein the exception processing circuit performs processing in accordance with a read-only storage unit that stores a processing procedure and a procedure of the read-only storage unit. It is composed of a central processing unit. As a result, a so-called microcomputer facilitates processing of data that does not correspond to any of the plurality of processing circuits, for example, data having a wide variety of control contents. Further, as described above, the processing is shared between the plurality of processing circuits and the microcomputer, so that the microcomputer has a small processing capacity and is inexpensive.

A printer according to a tenth aspect of the present invention is a printer according to any one of the fifth to ninth aspects.
In any one of the above, at least one of the plurality of processing circuits is detachably provided in the printing apparatus, and further has a detection unit that detects attachment / detachment of the detachable processing circuit, and the exception processing circuit includes the detection unit. When it is detected that the processing circuit is not mounted, the processing of the processing circuit which is not mounted is performed instead. This allows you to attach any of the processing circuits to the printing device as needed.
Even if a specific processing circuit does not exist, the exception processing circuit performs the processing.

The printing apparatus of claim 11 is from claim 6 to claim 1.
0, an inkjet head that prints by ejecting ink droplets onto a print medium,
As described above, the inkjet high-resolution printing apparatus can be realized at low cost by using the inexpensive circuit having high processing capability.

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 3 shows a schematic mechanical structure of the printing apparatus. The printing mechanism, that is, the print head 20, is mounted on a carriage 21, and is moved by a moving mechanism along a printing medium, for example, a printing paper 23 in a row direction X and a direction Y perpendicular thereto. The moving mechanism includes a scanning mechanism 22 that reciprocally scans the carriage 21 in the row direction X, and a conveyance mechanism 24 that conveys the print paper in the direction Y perpendicular to the row direction.

The scanning mechanism 22 includes guide rails 25, 25 for slidably supporting the carriage 21 in parallel with the printing paper.
And a drive source for reciprocally scanning the carriage 21 in the same direction via a belt 26, for example, a CR motor 27 (FIG. 1). The transport mechanism 24 includes a roller 28 that is rotated around an axis parallel to the printing paper, and a drive source that drives the roller 28, such as an LF motor 29 (FIG. 1). The scanning mechanism 22 and the transport mechanism 24 may scan or transport either the print head 20 or the print paper 23.

The print head 20 has a large number of printing elements at equal intervals in a direction substantially perpendicular to the row direction X, that is, in the vertical direction. As the print head 20, for example, an inkjet head can be used. In that case, the printing element is a nozzle for ejecting ink towards the printing medium. other than this,
As the print head, a dot impact type head having a striking wire as a print element, a thermal type head having a heating element as a print element, or the like that prints in a dot matrix format can be used.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration for controlling the printing apparatus. It generally receives data from a higher-level device such as a personal computer, discriminates the data, and processes the print data. Control circuit 40 of
Second processing of data that cannot be processed by the first control circuit
The control circuit 30 of FIG.

The first control circuit 40 comprises a so-called gate array composed of hardware logic circuits,
As shown in detail in FIG. 2, a receiving circuit 41 that receives data from a host device through an interface circuit I / F such as Centronics, a data discriminating circuit 42, a discriminating table 52, a switching circuit 43, and a plurality of processes. Circuit 44,
45, 46, a conversion circuit 47, a writing circuit 48, a monitoring circuit 49, a reading circuit 50 and a CR motor control circuit 51.

The discriminating circuit 42 discriminates the received data by referring to the data in the table 52. As shown in FIG.
Image data (S1) or character code data (S
2), it is determined whether other registration code data, that is, data for modifying print data (S3), and the switching circuit 43
To the image data processing circuit 44, the character code processing circuit 45, and the other registration code processing circuit 46, respectively. In the case of image data, the discriminating circuit 42 reads the data representing the number of data associated with the code representing the image pattern and sets the internal counter. When it is determined that the data exists, the data is transferred to the image data processing circuit 44 and the counter is decremented. In the case of other data including control data for the transport mechanism that does not correspond to any of S1 to 3 above, the second control circuit 30 through the switching circuit 43.
Output to

The image data processing circuit 44 outputs the input image data to the writing circuit 48 as pattern data for printing without conversion. The character code processing circuit 45 converts the pattern data corresponding to the received character code, that is, reads the corresponding pattern data from the character generator CG storing a large number of pattern data and outputs it to the conversion circuit 47. The other registration code processing circuit 46 processes modification data such as enlargement processing, emphasized printing processing, italic processing, rotation (vertical writing) processing of print data represented by a character code, and writes necessary flags. It is set in the information storage means of the readable memory (RAM), that is, the memory area 53. Further, the other registration code processing circuit 46 can also write other simple data, for example, line feed pitch data, into the storage address of the table described later in the memory area 53.

As shown in FIG. 5, the conversion circuit 47 copies the pattern data read from the character generator CG by the character code processing circuit 45 into the work buffer area 55 of the RAM (S11), and the other registration code processing circuit 46. If there is a modification process instructed by, for example, a horizontal doubling process (S1
2), the horizontal double conversion is executed (S13), and if italic processing is performed (S14), the italic conversion is executed (S15),
If there is rotation processing (S16), the rotation conversion is executed (S17), and the converted pattern data is output from the work buffer to the writing circuit 48. Writing circuit 48
Includes an address counter, and writes the pattern data from the image data processing circuit 44 and the conversion circuit 47 to the pattern storage means of the readable / writable memory (RAM), that is, the image buffer area 54, based on the strobe signal from the host device. Put in.

The monitoring circuit 49 counts the number of data written in the image buffer area 54 by the writing circuit 48, and notifies the second control circuit 30 when a predetermined number, for example, one row is reached. Based on the notification, the second control circuit 30
A timing signal is output to the CR motor control circuit 51 to start the printing of the line, and the CR motor 27 of the scanning mechanism is driven. The CR motor control circuit 51 uses the CR motor 2 in one row.
7, acceleration, constant speed, and deceleration are controlled. Also the second
The control circuit 30 instructs the read circuit 50 to read the pattern data from the image buffer area 54 when the CR motor 27 is at a constant speed. The read circuit 50 is the print head 2
Data corresponding to the print element array of 0 is transferred to the print head 20 in synchronization with the timing signal, and printing of one line is executed.

The second control circuit 30 includes the first control circuit 4
Functions as an exception processing circuit for processing data that cannot be processed by 0. The second control circuit 30 is composed of a so-called microcomputer, and has a read-only memory ROM that stores a program that controls the transport mechanism and a writable and readable memory RAM that stores control data.
And a central processing unit CPU for calculating control data.
The first control circuit 40 includes three processing circuits 44, 45, 46.
When the data that cannot be processed by the controller is discriminated and the monitoring circuit 4
When the print start condition for one line is satisfied in 9, an interrupt request is issued to the CPU of the second control circuit 30 and data is passed to the CPU. In addition, the second control circuit 30 is the operation panel 3
Input the signal from the 1 key switch. When the second control circuit 30 receives a line feed command, that is, a control code for transporting in the Y direction from the host device, the second control circuit 30 reads the line feed pitch data stored in the memory area and drives the LF motor 29 of the transport mechanism to drive the drive circuit 33. Drive through.

Usually, the data received by the printer is the following 3
, (1) image data, (2) character code data,
(3) It can be classified into control codes such as character modification and motor control. In the present embodiment, a processing table for a control code is prepared, and control is performed so that the corresponding memory area is operated according to the processing table. A part of this processing table is shown below.

[0029]

[Table 1]

In the table, the first data of "stored address" represents the address, and "," and thereafter represent the processed bit position of the address. When the control code is received, when it is necessary to receive the parameter, the parameter is represented by n, and in the process,
If "Transfer" is selected, the parameter is transferred to "Store Address". "Set" and "clear" mean setting or clearing a bit in the above bit position.

Further, each address and control code data is represented in hexadecimal notation.

In the present embodiment, when the control code does not match these tables, the data is transferred to the CPU of the second control circuit 30 to request the processing.

In the present embodiment, the data received from the host device is classified, and the data flow can be switched to the processing unit according to each classification, thereby speeding up the data discrimination. Furthermore, simple processing in each processing is processed by the hardware circuit instead of program control,
If the control is diverse, the CPU of the first control circuit
To process.

FIG. 6 is a view corresponding to FIG. 1 showing another embodiment. The same parts as those in the above-mentioned embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted.

In this embodiment, the first control circuit is
It is divided into a data processing part 40a and a mechanism control part 40b. The data processing section 40a includes a receiving circuit 41, a data discriminating circuit 42, a discriminating table 52, and a switching circuit 4.
3, a plurality of processing circuits 44, 45, 46, a conversion circuit 47,
A writing circuit 48 and a monitoring circuit 49 are provided. The mechanism control portion 40b includes a read circuit 50 and a CR motor control circuit 51. The CR motor control circuit 51 may be omitted from the mechanism control portion 40b as in the embodiment described later. This embodiment also operates in the same manner as the above embodiment. FIG. 7 shows another embodiment.
In the corresponding drawings, the same parts as those in the above-mentioned embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted.

In this embodiment, the host device transfers the print data of one line, and then transfers the control code for starting printing and the parameter relating to the length of one line. Therefore, the monitoring circuit 49 and the CR motor control circuit 51 of the above embodiment are not provided in the first control circuit 40. The second control circuit 30 stores a program for controlling the scanning mechanism in the ROM, drives the CR motor 51 based on an instruction to start printing from a higher-level device, and sends a timing signal to the reading circuit 50 to send 1 Start printing lines.

Further, in this embodiment, the three processing circuits 44, 45 and 46 are respectively formed on independent substrates and are detachably connected to the substrate which constitutes the first control circuit 40 via the connector. ing. When one of the processing circuits is not attached, the second control circuit 30 substitutes the processing of the processing circuit.

In other words, the detection means 56 includes the processing circuits 44, 4
Detecting attachment / detachment of 5 and 46, the switching circuit 43 is notified of the attachment / detachment state. The detection means 56 has a known configuration, such as detecting the conduction state of the connector using pin 1 of the connector or detecting the presence or absence of the substrate of the processing circuit with a sensor switch.
Determine if the processing circuit is properly connected.
As a result, the switching circuit 43 transfers to the second control circuit 30 the data to be processed by the processing circuit in which non-mounting is detected.

The second control circuit 30 stores a program corresponding to the processing of each processing circuit in the ROM, so that the processing can be replaced even if any processing circuit is not mounted.

As is apparent from each of the embodiments, the second control circuit may control one of the moving mechanism and the scanning mechanism, or may control both of them. In each embodiment, printing is started when one line of image data is completed.
Printing may be started when the image data of the page is completed.

[0041]

As described above, according to the printing apparatus of the first aspect, the type of various data received from the higher-level device is discriminated by the data discriminating circuit and transferred to the plurality of processing circuits by the switching circuit to print the print data. Since each type is processed by a plurality of processing circuits including a hardware logic circuit, a large amount of print data can be processed by an inexpensive circuit.

According to the printing apparatus of the second aspect, in addition to the effect of the first aspect, the data reception, determination and switching processing can be speeded up by the hardware logic circuit.

A printing apparatus according to a third aspect of the present invention is the printing apparatus according to the first or second aspect.
Further, when the image data is received as the print data, it can be transferred to the pattern storing means without conversion, and when the character code data is received, it can be converted to the pattern data and transferred to the pattern storing means. , Can be processed at high speed.

In addition to the effect of the third aspect, the printing apparatus of the fourth aspect, when receiving the character code data, performs conversion such as modification according to the data instructing the conversion processing and transfers the data to the pattern storage means. You can

In addition to the effect of any one of claims 1 to 4, the printing device of claim 5 can process data that does not correspond to any of the plurality of processing circuits by the exception processing circuit, and the printing device from the host device can All kinds of data can be processed.

In addition to the effect of claim 5, the printing device of claim 6 processes the print data among the data from the host device by a plurality of processing circuits, while processing the data that does not correspond to any of the plurality of processing circuits. By processing by the exception processing circuit, the printing mechanism and the print medium can be moved relatively in the exception processing circuit.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, a printing apparatus determines the type of various data received from a host apparatus by a data determination circuit, and processes the print data for each type by a plurality of processing circuits including a hardware logic circuit. Therefore, a large amount of print data can be processed by an inexpensive circuit, and the data that controls the relative movement of the print mechanism and the print medium is processed by the exception processing circuit. , The print data processing and the control of the relative movement of the print mechanism and the print medium can be shared by different circuits, and the load of one circuit can be reduced and the one having a small processing capacity can be used, which is inexpensive. It is possible to provide various printing devices.

In addition to the effect of the seventh aspect, the printing apparatus of the eighth aspect is further inexpensive because at least one of the plurality of processing circuits, the receiving circuit, the discriminating circuit and the switching circuit is a hardware logic circuit. It can be composed of a circuit.

In addition to the effect of any one of claims 5 to 8, the printer according to claim 9 is configured so that the exception processing circuit is configured by a so-called microcomputer so that it does not correspond to any of the plurality of processing circuits, for example, control. It is possible to easily process data having various contents. Moreover, by sharing the processing between the microcomputer and the plurality of processing circuits, it is possible to use an inexpensive microcomputer having a small processing capacity.

A printer according to a tenth aspect of the present invention is a printer according to the fifth aspect.
In addition to the effect of any of the above, when a specific processing circuit among a plurality of processing circuits is not mounted, by allowing the exception processing circuit to substitute the processing of the processing circuit not mounted, only an arbitrary processing circuit Even a printing device equipped with can process various data from the host device without any trouble.

The printing apparatus of claim 11 is from claim 6 to claim 1.
In addition to the effect of 0, by using an ink jet type head that prints by ejecting ink droplets onto a print medium as a printing mechanism, it is possible to use an ink jet type by using a circuit that is inexpensive and has high processing capacity as described above. It is possible to provide a high-resolution printing device at low cost.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration for controlling a printing apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of a first control circuit in the block diagram.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a schematic mechanical configuration of the printing apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the control of the discrimination circuit in the first control circuit.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing control of a conversion circuit in the first control circuit.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of another embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 20 Printing Mechanism 30 Second Control Circuit (Exception Processing Circuit) 40 First Control Circuit 41 Reception Circuit 42 Discrimination Circuit 43 Switching Circuit 44 Image Data Processing Circuit 45 Character Code Data Processing Circuit 46 Other Registration Data Processing Circuit 47 Conversion circuit

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. A printing apparatus that receives various data including print data and control data from a higher-level device and performs a printing operation, a receiving circuit that receives the various data from the upper-level device, and a receiving circuit that receives the various data. A data discriminating circuit that discriminates the type of various data, a plurality of processing circuits that process print data among the various data classified by the data discriminating circuit, and print data based on the discrimination result of the data discriminating circuit. A switching circuit for selectively switching and transferring to each of the corresponding processing circuits, and at least one of the plurality of processing circuits is configured by a hardware logic circuit. 2. The printing device according to claim 1, wherein the receiving circuit, the determining circuit, and the switching circuit are configured by a hardware logic circuit. 3. The pattern storage device according to claim 1, further comprising pattern storage means for storing pattern data to be printed, wherein the print data includes at least image data and character code data, and the plurality of processing circuits include: When the print data is image data, a first processing circuit which transfers the data to the pattern storage means as pattern data without converting the data; and when the print data is character code data, converts the data into pattern data. And a second processing circuit for converting and transferring to the pattern storage means. 4. The information storage unit according to claim 3, further comprising information storage means for storing data instructing conversion processing of print data transferred by a character code from the higher-level device, wherein the plurality of processing circuits further include the printing unit. A printing apparatus comprising a third circuit for transferring the data for instructing a data conversion process to the information storage means. 5. The exception processing circuit according to claim 1, further comprising an exception processing circuit that processes the data determined by the determination circuit as not corresponding to any of the plurality of processing circuits. A printing apparatus, wherein data that does not correspond to any of the processing circuits is transferred to the exception circuit. 6. The printing apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising a printing mechanism for printing on a printing medium, and a moving mechanism for moving the printing mechanism relative to the printing medium, wherein the exception handling circuit controls the moving mechanism. A printing device characterized by the above. 7. A printing mechanism that prints on a printing medium, and a moving mechanism that moves the printing mechanism relative to the printing medium, receives various data including print data and control data from a host device, and prints the data. In a printing device that operates, a receiving circuit that receives the various data from a host device,
A data discriminating circuit that discriminates the type of various data received by the receiving circuit, a plurality of processing circuits that process print data among the various data classified by the data discriminating circuit for each type, and a discrimination result of the data discriminating circuit Based on the above, a switching circuit for selectively switching and transferring the print data to the corresponding processing circuits respectively, and the data determined by the determination circuit as not corresponding to any of the plurality of processing circuits, An exception processing circuit for processing data including data for controlling the movement mechanism;
A printing apparatus comprising: 8. The printing device according to claim 7, wherein at least one of the plurality of processing circuits, the receiving circuit, the determination circuit, and the switching circuit is configured by a hardware logic circuit. 9. The exception processing circuit according to claim 5, comprising: a read-only storage unit that stores a processing procedure; and a central processing unit that performs processing in accordance with the procedure of the read-only storage unit. A printing device characterized by the above. 10. The method according to claim 5, wherein
At least one of the plurality of processing circuits is removably provided in the printing apparatus, and further has a detection unit that detects attachment / detachment of the removable processing circuit, wherein the exception processing circuit is configured to detect whether the processing circuit is not detected by the detection unit. A printing apparatus having a function of substituting the processing of an unmounted processing circuit when the mounting is detected. 11. The printing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the printing mechanism is an inkjet head that ejects ink droplets onto a printing medium to print.