JPH05138997A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Structure] A clock (15) and clock memory (16) driven by a power supply (18) different from the main power supply (17) are provided.
At the time of printout, the current time information is obtained from the clock (15), converted into character information, and automatically printed at the specified position. [Effect] It was possible to prevent the omission of the creation date and time of the document by automatically printing the date and time when printing.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer used in copying machines, word processors, personal computers and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in offices, a method is often used in which a document is created by a word processor or the like, the created document is printed by a printer, printed as a printed matter, and the printed matter is managed as a file.

It is known that a host computer such as a word processor or a personal computer has a built-in clock function and displays time on a display or the like. However, the printer only prints an image according to the image information from the host computer, and the date and time is not printed. Therefore, when looking at the filed printed matter, it is unknown when it was created. Conventionally, the creation date and time cannot be confirmed later unless the creator has entered the creation date and time. Therefore, there is a problem that a new document cannot be distinguished from an old document.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems and to provide a printer capable of entering a date and time of creation on printed matter without omission.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the above problems by a data processing section for forming an image based on an image information signal from a host computer, a main power supply for driving the data processing section, and the image forming member. In a printer having a controller for controlling the clock, a clock, a clock power source provided separately from the main power source for driving the clock, and a clock interface connecting the clock and the controller are provided, and at the time of printing output. The present invention has been solved by a printer which is characterized in that it receives information on the current time from the clock, exchanges it for character information, and automatically prints it at a designated place in an output image.

[0006]

According to the present invention, the printer has a built-in clock, and information relating to the clock is exchanged with the controller by the clock interface, and at the time of print output, a predetermined position of an output image or a position designated by an operator. The time at that time is automatically printed on.

Therefore, the date and time of creation is automatically printed on the printed matter, and the problem of forgetting to enter the date and time is solved.

By attaching a clock memory to the printer according to the present invention, it is possible to set the date when the main power is turned on and the date when the main power is turned off. The set date and time and the current time information from the clock are compared and calculated. By sending a signal to the main power supply when the two coincide with each other, the main power supply can be automatically turned on and off at the set time.

As a result, the host computer can execute a job for a long time, output the printer unattended, and turn off the power at a predetermined time. You no longer have to wait for the output of to finish. Also, even if the person who leaves the office last time forgets to turn off the main power, or if the person who came in the morning forgets to turn on the power, it is possible to automatically turn off or turn on the main power at a predetermined time. It is possible to solve the problem of wasteful consumption of data and sending data from a host computer to a printer that has not started up.

According to the present invention, when data is received from the host computer, it is judged whether it is the first data of each page, the time when it is judged as the first data is set to 0, and the time is measured by the clock. It is possible to send the time information at that time to the data processing unit and display it on the display unit at any time at a fixed time interval, and it takes a long time to print with the complicated graphic function, but in such a case Eliminate the anxiety caused by not knowing how long a page is spending and, conversely, how long it will take, and not knowing if the printer is actually doing the job can do.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The details of the present invention will be described based on the embodiments shown in the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, a printer 1 has a controller 2, and exchanges information between the host machine 3 such as a word processor, a personal computer, a document image reading unit of a copying machine and the controller 2, and the host machine 3 The image is printed by the printer engine 4 based on the above information.

The controller 2 includes a host interface 5, a program ROM 6, a photo ROM 7, a panel interface 8, a CPU 9, a RAM 10 and an option R.
It has an AM, an engine interface 12 and a clock interface 13.

The controller 2 communicates with the host machine 3 via the host interface 5, and communicates commands and statuses via the operation panel (OP, panel) 14 of the printer 1 and the panel interface 8 to inform the user of the current printer status. To inform or to give a mode instruction.

The printer 1 has a clock 15, a clock memory 16 connected to the clock 15, a main power source (main power source) 17 for driving the clock 15 and the controller 2, and a main power source 1.
In addition to 7, a clock power source 18 is provided as a power source capable of driving the clock 15 and the clock memory 16, and a font cartridge 19 is formed so that the font pattern data and the like are input to the controller 2 from the font cartridge 19. It is possible to

A control program for the controller 2 is stored in the program ROM 6, a font pattern data and the like is stored in the font ROM 7, and the CPU 9 controls the program in the program ROM 6 and a mode instruction from the operation panel 14, and the host machine 3 Command controls the entire controller 2.

The RAM 10 is used as a work memory for the CPU 9, an input data input buffer, a print data page buffer, and the like.

The engine interface 12 communicates commands, status, and print data with the printer engine 4 for printing.

With the configuration shown in FIG. 1, even if the power source of the printer main body, that is, the main power source 17 is cut off, the clock 15 can accurately indicate the current time as long as the clock power source 18 is operated, and the clock information is stored in the clock memory 16. It can be stored in and can also communicate information with the clock interface. Clock 15
It is convenient to use the one that has the function of a stopwatch. The timepiece power source 18 may be a battery, or may be branched from a circuit from the outlet to the main power source 17 so that power can be constantly supplied regardless of whether the main power source 17 is ON or OFF.

By providing the clock power supply 18, the clock 15 and the controller 2 are always connected to the clock interface 13.
The information can be transmitted via the controller 2, and the controller 2 can obtain the time information at any time regardless of whether the main power supply 17 is ON or OFF. Moreover, the clock 15 can provide necessary information at any time.

The control by the controller 2 can be performed, for example, according to the flow shown in FIG.

Data is received from the host machine 3 through the font interface 5 (step 1), and the data is processed according to the printer control program (step 2).

By processing this data, it is judged whether or not the page under development is output to the printer engine 4 (step 3). This determination is made by the data processing unit depending on whether a paper ejection command is received or whether the printing position is beyond the lower edge of the paper.

When it is determined in step 3 that the page is to be output, it is determined whether or not the print date and time is entered (step 4). This judgment is made by the judgment flag provided in the RAM 10. This flag is set based on a command from the host machine 3 or information input from the operation panel 14 by the user's judgment. Printing can be standard, and the user can rewrite it so that it is not printed.

When it is determined in step 4 that the print date and time is not recorded, the page buffer is converted into video data and output to the printer engine 4 by a normal procedure (step 5) to print an image.

When it is determined in step 4 that the printing date and time is to be recorded, information on the printing position is obtained from the RAM 10 and the printing location is clarified (step 6). Print position information is R
It is managed by a variable provided in the AM 11 and can be rewritten based on a command from the host machine 3 or information input by the user through the operation panel 14.

Next, information on the current time is obtained from the clock 15 through the clock interface 13 (step 7).

The time information is converted into character data, and the data is written in the page buffer of the RAM 10 together with the print position information (step 8).

The page buffer data written in step 8 is converted into video data in step 5 and output to the printer engine 4. As a result, the date and time of printing is automatically written in the specified desired position of the image.

Normally, the printer is kept turned on during work such as office, but after the work is finished, the printer is usually turned off to save power. In this case, when the computer executes the job for a long time and the worker is not in the office, the power remains on even after the printing is completed. Therefore, it is not desirable to continue printing in an unattended state. Also, if the person who leaves the office at the end forgets to turn off the power, power will be wasted, but this cannot be completely eliminated.

If the power of the printer is forgotten to be turned on in the morning, data will be sent from the host machine to the printer in a state where it is not started up.

This problem can be avoided by setting the time for the operator to turn on the main power source and the time for turning off the power source in advance in the printer using the operation panel or the like.

The main power supply 17 is turned on by the operation panel 14,
Enter the information about the time to turn off the program ROM6
It is converted into information that can be discriminated by the timepiece 15 by the printer processing program programmed in the above and is sent to the timepiece 15 through the timepiece interface 13. The clock 15 stores the input information in the clock memory 16 at the main power-on time and O
Record as FF time.

Since the clock continues to operate even when the main power supply 17 is turned off, the time information is always output regardless of whether the main power supply 17 is ON or OFF, and the current time is compared with the power ON time in the clock memory 16. The information is sent from the timepiece 15 to the main power source 17 when they match each other, and the main power source is turned on. As the main power source 17, a normally used relay circuit or the like is used.

After the main power is turned on, the clock memory 16 repeatedly compares the current time with the power off time, and when the two coincide, the information is sent to the main power supply 17, and the main power supply 17 is turned off.

Thus, the main power source is automatically and reliably turned on and off at a predetermined time even if there is no person.

If the image is a complicated graphic,
It takes a considerable amount of time to print one page, and with a normal printer, it is only to display the status of receiving or processing on the operation panel, and it is not clear whether printing is actually performed.
The problem is that it's not clear if a job is running. This problem is caused when the controller is provided with means for determining that it is the start time of the processing for one page when processing the image data in the data processing unit of the controller 2 when it is determined that the processing start for one page is started. The information is sent to the clock 15, and the start time of processing is set to 0 in the clock memory.
Set to and start measuring the clock. Time information is displayed on the operation panel or the like at regular time intervals counted in the clock memory or at all times. This allows the operator to know the elapsed time from the start of printing one page, or to make the remaining time predictable.

If a flag indicating that one page is finished is provided in the memory such as the RAM 10 and the data is received from the host machine 3 and the flag is referred to and the state shows that the page is finished, the data is the page. Is determined to be the first data of. The flag is set to indicate the end of page at printer initialization.

The page is rewritten so as to indicate that the page is not finished when the first data is received from the host machine 3. When outputting several pages of data in succession, when it is determined that the last data for one page has been received, for example, whether the data processing unit has received a paper ejection command, the printing position extends beyond the bottom edge of the paper. If it is determined whether or not it is, the flag is rewritten to the page end state.

When it is determined that the first data of the page has been received, the data processing unit sends the clock interface 1
The information is sent to the watch through 3 and then the watch 15
Resets the stopwatch function to 0 and starts measuring the time. The clock 15 sends the value of the time being measured at regular time intervals, for example, at intervals of 1 second, to the data processing unit through the clock interface 13.

The data processing unit interrupts the time information from the clock. First of all, the information entered is the operation panel 1
Data is converted according to the display unit such as 4 and sent to the operation panel 14 through the panel interface 8.

When the last processing of the page is completed, the information is sent to the clock 15 through the clock interface 13.
The clock that has received the information stops measuring time.

This makes it possible to display the time from the start of processing of each page until that time on the display unit.

[0044]

According to the present invention, the printer outputs the printing date and time at the time of printing output, and the date and time can be written in a predetermined position, and a problem similar to forgetting to write the date and time has been solved.

According to the present invention, the main power source of the printer can be automatically turned off at the set time even if the printer continues the printing output work unattended, which does not require unnecessary power consumption and the presence of a person. Preventing accidental data transmission from the printer without forgetting to turn on the main power.

According to the present invention, it is possible to predict the time required for printing, the remaining time, and the estimated time at which the processing is completed and output. Therefore, even if the job has a long processing time, it is possible that the own job is operating. You can check it and you don't have to worry about the operation.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Printer 2 Controller 3 Host Machine 4 Printer Engine 15 Clock 16 Clock Memory 17 Main Power Supply 18 Clock Power Supply

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A printer having a data processing unit for forming an image based on an image information signal from a host computer, a main power supply for driving the data processing unit, and a controller for controlling the image forming member, comprising a clock. And a clock power supply provided separately from the main power supply for driving the clock, and a clock interface connecting the clock and the controller, and receiving the information of the current time from the clock at the time of printing and outputting the character information. The printer is characterized in that the printer is replaced with the printer and is automatically printed at a specified place in the output image. 2. A timepiece memory is attached to the timepiece, and the time when the main power is turned on and the time when the main power is turned off can be set in the timepiece memory, and the set time and information are compared and calculated. 2. The printer according to claim 1, wherein when they coincide with each other, information is sent to the main electric wire to control ON / OFF of the main power source. 3. When the data processing unit determines that the first data of each page has been received from the host computer, the information is sent to the clock, and the time when the information is received is set to 0, and the clock is reset. Start the measurement, send the information of the time at a certain time interval to the data processing unit,
2. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the data processing unit displays the received time information on the display unit at any time.