JPH0463788B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a control method that facilitates adjustment of a serial printer and eliminates the need for extra operating means.

There are two types of serial impact printers: one type that prints by selecting type, and the other type that prints characters composed of dots. However, in any case, many of the parts are mechanically constructed, and these mechanical parts need to be adjusted at the stage of manufacture at the factory.

The adjustment work in this factory is confirmed by being combined with a control section and finally operated based on control signals from the control section. In this case, it is necessary that the operation during the adjustment work is simple, that the printer is not damaged due to operational errors, and that there are no operating means used only for adjustment.

[Conventional technology]

The main operations of the mechanism in a serial impact printer include printing operations and changing operations. During these printing operations, if you print without setting the printing paper, it will damage the platen or the print head, so when adjusting the mechanism, if there is no printing paper, make sure that only the spacing operation is performed and no printing is performed. There is a switch to do this.

FIG. 3 is a circuit block diagram showing an example of a conventional dot printer.

Processor 1 reads a program stored in ROM 2 and operates. Print data is sent from the upper level via the interface control circuit 4. Processor 1 temporarily stores this print data in RAM 3, reads it again, extracts the character code,
A character pattern corresponding to the character code is read from the character generation circuit 7.

Processor 1 sends this character pattern to print head control circuit 10 and controls print head 11 to print. At this time, the space control circuit 8
is controlled to drive the space motor 9 and move the print head 11 to the print position.

When the line feed command is extracted from the print data read from the RAM 3, the processor 1 controls the line feed control circuit 5 to drive the line feed motor 6 to feed the paper.

Processor 1 detects the presence or absence of printing paper based on a set signal input via input port 12 from contact 13, which is turned on when printing paper is set. When the printer is in normal use, when the processor 1 detects based on this set signal that the printing paper is not set, it displays this information to the operator and stops the printing operation. However, while the mechanism is being adjusted, this function is ignored by the program or the contact 13 is kept on.

When adjusting the mechanism, a switch 14 operated by an operator causes the processor 1 to receive a command via the input port 12 to perform only a spacing operation without printing.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the conventional processor 1.

The processor 1 receiving the test print command checks whether the switch 14 is on or off. switch 14
If it is on, only the space operation is performed, so the print head control circuit 10 is controlled to stop the printing operation, the space control circuit 8 is controlled to perform only the space operation as described above, and the operation is ended by pressing the test print end button. .

If the switch 14 is off, the print head control circuit 10, the space control circuit 8, and the line feed control circuit 5 are controlled in the same manner as described above to perform a print feed operation, and after one line is printed, the line feed operation is repeated.
The operation ends when the test print end button is pressed.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

Since it operates as described above, the switch 14 is required only for test printing.
If there is a mistake in the operation, there is a risk of printing even if there is no printing paper and damaging the platen, and there is a problem that the adjustment work will be complicated.

[Means for solving problems]

The above-mentioned problems require a means for transporting the set print paper between the print head and the platen to perform a changeover operation, a means for detecting the presence or absence of print paper, a means for moving the print head in a spacing manner, and a means for moving the print head to space. The control means includes means for instructing the start of the test, and a control means, and when the start of the test is instructed, the control means determines the presence or absence of printing paper, and when the printing paper is present, the printing head is moved in space while The print head is driven to print one line, the printing paper is line-feeded, the presence or absence of printing paper is detected, this is repeated as long as there is printing paper, and when the printing paper runs out, the printer is tested. terminate the
If there is no printing paper when the test start is instructed, the printer performs a printing head spacing operation, then detects the presence or absence of printing paper, and repeats this until the presence of printing paper is not detected. This problem is solved by the printer test control method according to the present invention, which terminates the printer test when the problem is detected.

[Effect]

That is, when performing test printing, only the contact that detects the presence or absence of printing paper is used, and if this contact is on at the start of the test, it is assumed that printing paper is present, and the printing change operation is performed for one line, and the state of the contact is checked. When the contact turns off, the printing change operation ends, and if the contact is off at the start of the test, it assumes that there is no printing paper and performs only the space operation, then checks the state of the contact, and when the contact turns on, the space operation starts. This is the end of the process.

By doing this, if you want to perform only the space operation during test printing, you do not need to use a specially provided switch, and there is no need to print on the platen due to a mistake in operating the switch, and the test printing operation It can also be easily done.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a circuit showing one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart explaining the operation of FIG. 1.

In FIG. 1, the switch 14 of FIG. 3 is removed, and the other circuit configurations are the same. Therefore, different parts of the operation will be explained.

Processor 1 is started by a test print command,
Depending on the state of the contact 13, it is checked whether or not there is printing paper. If the contact 13 is off, for example, and it is determined that there is no printing paper, a space operation is performed, and a check is made to see if there is any printing paper, and if there is no printing paper, a space operation is performed. This operation is repeated, and when it is determined that the contact 13 is turned on and the printing paper is set, the spacing operation is completed.

Processor 1 is started by a test print command,
If it is determined that there is printing paper based on the state of the contact 13, it prints one line and then performs a line feed operation to check whether there is any printing paper. If there is printing paper, one line is printed continuously, a new line is created, and the operation of checking whether there is printing paper is repeated. When the printing paper runs out, the printing change operation ends.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention uses contacts provided to detect the presence or absence of printing paper, and depending on whether or not printing paper is set, the normal printing change operation is performed or the printing paper is not set. It is possible to distinguish whether only the space motion is to be performed or not, which makes the operation easier and eliminates the need for a special switch for performing the space motion.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a circuit showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart explaining the operation of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a circuit showing an example of a conventional dot printer, and FIG. The figure is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the conventional processor 1. In the figure, 1 is the processor, 2 is the ROM, and 3 is the processor.
is a RAM, 4 is an interface control circuit, 5 is a line feed control circuit, 6 is a line feed motor, 7 is a character generation circuit, 8 is a space control circuit, 9 is a space motor, 10 is a print head control circuit, 11 is a print head, 12 is an input port, 13 is a contact for detecting printing paper, and 14 is a switch.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A means for transporting the set printing paper between the printing head and the platen to perform a changeover operation, a means for detecting the presence or absence of the printing paper, and a means for moving the printing head in a spacing operation. The control means includes means for instructing the printer to start a test, and a control means, and when the start of the test is instructed, the control means determines the presence or absence of printing paper, and if the printing paper is present, causes the printing head to perform a spacing operation. The printer prints one line by driving the print head while moving the print head, and after the print paper is line-feeded, the presence or absence of print paper is detected, and this is repeated as long as there is print paper. If the print paper does not exist when the test is completed and the test start is instructed, the print head space operation is performed, then the presence or absence of the print paper is detected, and this is carried out until the presence of the print paper is detected. A printer test control method characterized in that the printer test is repeatedly terminated when the presence of printing paper is detected.