JPH04310772A - Printer and its control method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To automate a sheet feeding device for a printer and to improve efficiency and safety of the sheet feeding as well as accuracy in insertion of roll paper. CONSTITUTION:The present apparatus is equipped with cover opening sensors 11, 12 that detect presence of opening or shutting of a main body cover, and is also equipped with a control means that executes, when the cover is open, feeding of roll paper based on a switching-on signal from a paper loading switch 3.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic paper feeding (autoloading) device for a roll paper feeding mechanism used in a printer.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, this type of technology used a paper feed switch on a panel to insert roll paper while moving the entire printer mechanism, and was not automated.

0003

However, in the above-mentioned prior art, roll paper cannot be inserted into a desired position when paper is fed, and paper jamming occurs. Furthermore, since insertion had to be done manually to a certain extent, there was a lack of safety in terms of impact on the human body.

The present invention has been made to solve these drawbacks, and by automatically inserting roll paper, it improves the efficiency and safety of paper feeding work, and at the same time improves the accuracy of roll paper insertion. The purpose is to increase

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] The autoloading device of the present invention is a printer that has a printing mechanism, a paper feed mechanism, and a paper load switch in a printer case. It has one cover open detector, a switch control means for enabling or disabling the paper load switch for inserting the roll paper based on the detection result of the detector, and a paper feed control means for transporting the roll paper. death,
When the cover open detector detects that the cover is open, the paper load switch is enabled, and when the paper load switch is turned on, automatic paper feeding of the roll paper is executed and the roll paper is transported to a predetermined position. This is an autoloading device for a printer that is characterized by:

[0006]

According to the above structure of the present invention, if the cover open detection circuit detects that the main body cover is open, only the operation of inserting the roll paper by the paper load switch is enabled. All other switch operations and printing operations are disabled.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a printer using an autoloading device according to the present invention. Reference numeral 1 denotes a take-up unit cover (hereinafter abbreviated as TU cover) of the main body cover, which is opened when replacing roll paper. 2 is a printer cover other than the main body cover, which is opened when inserting roll paper, replacing an ink ribbon, or in case a paper jam occurs. 3 is a paper load switch. It uses a non-locking slide switch and is attached to the top of the printer mechanism. If at least one of the TU cover 1 and the printer cover 2 is open, paper feeding is performed only by the paper load switch 3. At this time, it is not affected by the line feed amount set by the control program stored in the ROM, which will be described later.

[0008] To load the roll paper, press the paper load switch 3 with the TU cover 1 and printer cover 2 open.
Insert the roll paper into the paper path. Once the paper is inserted in the proper position, release the paper load switch 3.

FIG. 2 shows panel switches and indicators of a serial printer using the autoloading device of the present invention. 4 is the power LED
, 5 is roll paper without LED, 6 is cut paper (PAPE)
R) LED, 7 is ON LINE LE
It is D. When the online LED 7 is lit, it indicates online mode, and when it is off, it indicates offline mode. 8 is an online switch. Switch between online and offline mode. Online mode is a normal mode in which printing is possible. When switching to offline mode, printing stops after the line being printed is finished. The online switch 8 can be enabled or disabled by a control program stored in a ROM, which will be described later. When disabled, online/offline mode switching by the online switch 8 does not function. When the power is turned on, the online mode is set and the online switch 8 is enabled. 9 is a release switch. This releases the paper clamp. 10 is a paper feed switch. Paper feed is executed based on the line feed amount set by the control program stored in the ROM. Paper feed switch 1 when the cover is open
0 is invalid and does not work.

FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of the autoloading device of the present invention. 11 is the printer cover sensor (P
12 is a take-up unit cover sensor (TU cover sensor). When the P cover sensor 11 and the TU cover sensor 12 detect that the cover is open, they output an 'H' level signal. Reference numeral 16 denotes a central processing unit (hereinafter abbreviated as CPU), which is a one-chip CPU in which a ROM for storing a control program, a RAM for temporarily storing data, an I/O port, etc. are built-in. When at least one of the cover sensors 11 and 12 is detected to be open, the OR GATE 13 becomes active and outputs an 'H' level signal. In the Schmitt circuit 14, OR
The input signal from GATE13 changes from 'L' level to 'H' level.
'It becomes active when rising to the level, and the CP
Immediately outputs an interrupt signal to U16. If the printer is printing, the CPU 16 performs interrupt processing to stop printing. At the same time, the interrupt signal from the Schmitt circuit 14 is also input to the paper feed switch (FEED SW) 10, so the paper feed switch 10 becomes invalid and the panel switches 8 to 10 on the cover panel do not operate. At this time, only the paper load switch 3 is enabled, and only the paper load switch 3 can issue a paper feed request to the CPU 16.

15 is INVERT NOR GAT
E, and if at least one of paper feed switch 10 and paper load switch 3 is ON, an 'L' level signal is input, so INVERT NOR GA
TE15 becomes active. At this time, a paper feed request signal is output to the CPU 16.

When the CPU 16 receives the paper feed request signal, it outputs a command signal to the paper feed mechanism 17, and the paper feed of the roll paper is immediately executed.

When the cover sensors 11 and 12 do not detect that the cover is open, the paper feed switch 10 is activated and requests the CPU 16 to feed the paper. Since the paper load switch 3 is located inside the printer cover 2, the paper load switch 3 cannot be moved in this state, so only the paper feed switch 10 is effective at this time.

Regarding the positions of the cover sensors, the printer cover sensor 11 is located at the position shown in FIG. 1, and the take-up unit cover sensor 12 is installed near the roll paper insertion position.

The CPU 16 and the control program stored in the ROM constitute the switch control means and the paper feed control means as main components.

FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of the autoloading device of the present invention. (Flowchart from detection of cover open to start of printing) In step 40, the current state of opening and closing of the cover is detected by the cover sensors 11 and 12 shown in FIG. In step 41, it is determined based on the signal sent from step 40 whether the TU cover 1 and printer cover 2 are opened or closed. If it is detected that the cover is open, the offline mode is set in step 42. This mode setting is enabled/disabled by online switch 8.
Regardless of whether it is disabled or not, it is automatically set by the control program stored in the ROM. If it is detected that the cover is closed, the online mode is set in step 45. If printing is in progress in step 42, printing is immediately stopped because the offline mode has been set. When the cover is open, the cover is opened when the need arises, such as when inserting or replacing roll paper, attaching and detaching an ink ribbon, or dealing with paper jams. At this time, switch 8 to 1 on the cover panel
Since 0 is not necessary, all of them are invalid, and only the paper load switch 3 is valid. Therefore, when replacing the roll paper or inserting a new roll paper, it is sufficient to operate the paper load switch 3 and insert the paper. In the next step 43, the roll paper is automatically fed. In step 44, switching from offline mode to online mode is performed. If the online switch 8 is enabled, returning to the online mode after performing automatic paper feeding is performed by the online switch 8 after closing the cover. Furthermore, if the online switch 8 is disabled, this is done by closing the main body cover. After returning to online mode, the printing operation can be restarted in step 46.

In this embodiment, an example in which two main body covers are provided has been described, but it goes without saying that cases in which there may be one main body cover or three or more main body covers are also envisioned. At this time, it is also possible to make the cover open detector correspond to the number of covers, if necessary.

[0018]

As described above, according to the present invention, in a printer having a printing mechanism, a paper feeding mechanism, and a paper load switch in a printer case, a cover open detector for detecting whether or not a main body cover is opened or closed is provided. , switch control means for enabling or disabling the paper load switch for inserting roll paper based on the detection result of the detector, and paper feed control means for transporting the roll paper, the cover open detector When detecting that the cover is open, the paper load switch is enabled, and when the paper load switch is turned on, automatic paper feeding of the roll paper is executed and the roll paper is transported to a predetermined position. By developing an autoloading device for printers, we were able to automate the paper feeding device, making paper feeding more efficient and safe, and improving the accuracy of paper roll insertion.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of panel switches and indicators of a serial printer, showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the autoloading device of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an embodiment of the autoloading device of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Take-up unit cover (TU cover)
2 Printer cover (P cover) 3 Paper load switch 4 Power (POWER) LED 5 No roll paper LED 6 Paper (PAPER) LED 7 Online (ON LINE) LED 8 Online switch 9 Release switch 10 Paper feed switch (FEED SW) 11
Printer cover sensor (P cover sensor)
12 Take-up unit cover sensor (T
U cover sensor)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A printer having a printing mechanism, a paper feeding mechanism, and a paper load switch in a printer case, comprising: at least one cover open detector for detecting whether at least one main body cover is opened or closed; It has a switch control means for enabling or disabling the paper load switch for inserting the roll paper based on the detection result, and a paper feed control means for transporting the roll paper, and the cover open detector detects the cover open. When the paper load switch is turned on, the paper load switch is turned ON, thereby automatically feeding the roll paper and transporting the roll paper to a predetermined position.