JPH10272808A - Portable printer - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Problem] To provide a portable printer provided with an interface capable of simultaneously supplying print information and power from an external computer. An interface card connected to a portable printer via a cable is configured to be insertable into a PCMCIA card slot of an external computer. 4 is electrically connected to the computer 1 by inserting it into the card slot 2. Then, transfer of image information such as print data and power supply are simultaneously performed between the computer 1 and the portable printer 3.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a portable printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the size and weight of computers have been reduced, and the chances of carrying a computer and using it outdoors or outside have increased. Accordingly, there has been a demand for printing and outputting documents and images created by a computer outdoors or on the go. Therefore, a portable printer in which a conventional stationary printer is reduced in size and weight is provided.

[0003] These portable printers are configured to be driven by power supply means such as a rechargeable secondary battery or a primary battery, and can be used outdoors without an AC power supply.

[0004]

However, in the above-described portable printer driven by a battery, since the battery capacity is limited, a situation occurs where the battery cannot be used due to a shortage of the remaining battery power. As a countermeasure, a spare battery or AC adapter had to be separately carried. In other words, the user needs a computer, an AC adapter for that computer,
Said portable printer, and A for the portable printer
Carrying a C adapter or spare battery
There is a problem that portability is extremely poor.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and has as its object to provide a portable printer having an interface capable of simultaneously supplying print information and power from an external computer. .

[0006]

In order to achieve this object, a portable printer according to the first aspect of the present invention comprises: a recording unit for forming an image on a recording medium;
A storage device for storing print information for image formation by the recording device, and a configuration including an interface unit for receiving print information and power supply from an external computer, in particular, It was done.

Therefore, according to the portable printer of the present invention, the printing device is driven by the electric power supplied through the interface means, received through the interface means, and stored in the storage means. Is operated so as to form an image on the recording medium in accordance with the scanning of the recording medium by the recording means.

Further, in the portable printer according to the present invention, the connection interface means is configured to conform to the PCMCIA interface standard.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the portable printer includes a power storage unit for supplying power to the recording unit, the storage unit, and the control unit, and the interface unit is connected to the external computer. When connected, power supplied from the external computer is stored in the power storage means.

Further, in the portable printer according to the present invention, the recording means is constituted by an ink jet recording means for forming an image by discharging ink.

Further, in the portable printer according to the present invention, as the recording means, an electric signal is applied to the piezoelectric element to pressurize the ink chamber, whereby the thin section communicating with the pressurized ink chamber is formed. An ink jet type recording means for forming an image by discharging ink from the holes is used.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a portable printer according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the appearance of a portable printer 3 of the present embodiment and a portable computer 1 as an external computer to which the portable printer 3 is connected.

The portable computer 1 has a PCMCI
A card slot 2 conforming to the A standard is provided. The interface card 4 connected to the portable printer 3 via the cable 5 is configured to be insertable into the card slot 2, and the portable printer 3 inserts the interface card 4 into the card slot 2. As a result, it is electrically connected to the computer 1. Then, transfer of image information such as print data and power supply are simultaneously performed between the computer 1 and the portable printer 3.

FIGS. 2 and 3 show the configuration of the portable printer 3 according to the present embodiment. FIG. 2 is a top sectional view of the portable printer, and FIG. 3 is a side sectional view.

The portable printer 3 moves the carriage 7 mounted on the opening 6a of the printer main body 3 in a direction substantially perpendicular to the direction in which the printing paper is conveyed. A carriage moving mechanism that reciprocates according to the size of the printing paper, and these are housed in an elongated tubular casing 9. Then, an ink jet head 10 is mounted on the carriage 7. Here, the ink jet head 10 constitutes a recording unit of the present invention.

The ink jet head 10 is of a so-called piezo type, that is, by applying an electric signal to a piezoelectric element (piezo element) to pressurize the ink chamber, thereby communicating with the pressurized ink chamber. The method in which ink is ejected from the fine pores is most preferably used in terms of low power consumption.

A power switch 51 for turning on / off the power of the portable printer 3 and an online switch 52, and an LCD 53 for displaying the status of the printer are arranged on the upper surface of the casing 9. .

The carriage moving mechanism includes a casing 9
And a driven pulley 12 rotatably supported on one side of the casing 9.
And a timing belt 1 which is stretched between the pulleys 11 and 12 and partially fixed to a fixed portion of the carriage 7.
3, a pulley gear 14 formed integrally with the drive pulley 11, and a drive gear 15 meshing with the pulley gear 14.
And a pulse motor 16 for driving the drive gear 15 to rotate forward and reverse.

The transport mechanism is disposed on the left side of the casing 9 and transfers printing paper supplied through a paper supply port 6b formed on a side surface of the casing 6 in a direction orthogonal to the reciprocating direction of the carriage 7. After the printing is performed by the ink jet head 10 mounted on the carriage 7, the paper is discharged through a paper discharge port.

Specifically, the bearing member 2 is provided on the casing 9.
A transport roller 21 rotatably supported via the first and second rollers 22 and 22 for transporting the printing paper;
The gear 23 includes a gear 23 fixed to 1a, a driving gear 26 linked to the gear 23 via an idle gear 24, and a pulse motor 25 for rotating the driving gear 26.

The transport roller 21 is disposed on the left side of the center position of the casing 9, but is disposed substantially at the center of the print paper to be transported.

Auxiliary rollers 28, 28 are rotatably supported to assist the transport operation corresponding to the transport roller 21. Rotary shaft 2 of auxiliary rollers 28, 28
9 and 29 have one end rotatably supported by the bearing member 35 and the other end rotatably supported by the connecting member 31.

A coil spring 34 is interposed between the connecting member 31 and the left portion of the casing 9, and the auxiliary rollers 28, 28 are constantly urged by the coil spring 34 so as to contact the transport roller 21. ing.

A substrate 42 containing a control circuit for controlling the transport mechanism and the carriage moving mechanism to perform printing is provided between the drive motor 16 and the transport mechanism. A rechargeable battery 20 is provided.

Next, the electrical configuration of the portable printer according to the present embodiment will be described. FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an electrical configuration of the portable printer according to the present embodiment.

In the figure, a CPU 60 as a control means includes:
A ROM 61 containing a control program for controlling each functional block according to a predetermined program, a RAM 62 as storage means for storing and holding print data and the like, an LCD control unit 66 for controlling display on the LCD 53, and the inkjet head 10 A head drive unit 65 for driving control, a motor control unit 67 for driving the pulse motors 16 and 25, a power supply control unit 64 for controlling charging of the battery 20 and monitoring the remaining battery level, and a PCMCIA interface control unit 63 are included. It is connected.

PCMCIA interface control unit 63
Is stored in the interface card 4 and serves to convert the level and timing of signals exchanged with the computer 1 so as to match the processing in the portable printer 3 and to supply power from the computer 1. It is. Therefore, the PCMCIA interface control section 63 constitutes the interface means of the present invention.

Further, the CPU 60, ROM 61,
The RAM 62, the head drive unit 65, the LCD control unit 66, the motor control unit 67, and the power supply control unit 64 are mounted on the control board 42 described above.

Next, the operation of the portable printer 3 configured as described above will be described.

The portable printer 3 is used with the interface card 4 inserted into the card slot 2 of the computer 1.

When the interface card 4 is inserted into the card slot 2, power can be supplied from the computer 1 to the portable printer 3. By pressing the power switch 51 in this state, the portable printer 3 enters the operating state. The power control unit 64 supplies power to the control board 42 and various motors of the portable printer 3 and performs charging while monitoring the remaining amount of the battery 20.

On the other hand, when a user prints a document or the like created by the computer 1 with the portable printer, the computer 1 issues a print command to execute the printing.

Based on the intention of the user, the computer 1
When a print command is issued by the
The RA via the MCIA interface control unit 63
It is stored in M62. The motor control circuit 67 drives the pulse motor 16 to move the carriage 7 in accordance with a command from the CPU 60. Furthermore, the CPU 60
In accordance with the print data stored in M62, the head drive unit 65 is driven to discharge ink from the inkjet head 10 to perform printing. Then, the printing operation is continued until the printing of one line is completed.

When printing for one line is completed, the pulse motor 16 is rotated in the reverse direction to return the carriage 7 to the home position, and the pulse motor 25 is driven to rotate the transport roller 21 by a predetermined amount to rotate the carriage roller 21 by a specified amount. Send the printing paper and print the next one line. By repeating the above operation, a desired print result is obtained.

With the above-described configuration, the portable printer of the present invention is electrically connected to the computer by inserting the interface card into the card slot of the computer, and can transfer print data and supply power. It is not necessary to carry the AC adapter.

Further, as the ink jet head 10,
By using the piezo type having low power consumption, the power load on the power supply device of the computer itself can be reduced during printing by the portable printer 3,
Even if a large number of sheets are printed by the portable printer 3, no serious problems such as a system down will be caused on the computer main body side.

That is, in the thermal method, which is sometimes used as a recording device for a small printer, about 60 mJ of electric power is required per character, whereas in the ink jet method, particularly, in the piezo method, about 0.14 mJ of electric power per character is required. Therefore, according to the portable printer 3 using the ink jet head 10 which is a recording unit using the ink jet system, particularly the piezo system, the power consumption at the time of printing is suppressed to be low, and the power consumption of the computer main body side The power load is reduced. Therefore, even when the portable printer 3 is connected to a portable computer using a dry battery or a small secondary battery as a power source and is used outdoors or in a place where there is no AC power source, such as in a car, the portable printer 3 is connected to the main body of the computer. Since the consumption of the power supply battery can be suppressed to a low level, the computer does not go down during printing and does not cause serious problems such as damaging peripheral devices such as a hard disk.

In the present embodiment, the interface with the computer 1 has been described as a PCMCIA interface. However, this interface may be replaced with a Centronics interface or a USB interface.
The same effect can be obtained by realizing with the EEE1394 interface.

Further, in this embodiment, a portable computer has been described as an example of the external computer connected to the portable printer 3. However, the external computer can output print data from a so-called word processor or PDA to the outside. Any information processing device may be used.

[0041]

As is apparent from the above description, in the portable printer according to the first aspect of the present invention, the reception of print information from an external computer and the supply of power are performed via one interface card. At the same time. Accordingly, since the power of the portable printer can be supplied from the power supply of the external computer, there is no need to separately prepare and carry an AC adapter.

In the portable printer according to the present invention, since the interface means conforms to the PCMCIA interface standard, electrical connection with an external computer can be easily performed.

The portable printer according to the third aspect of the present invention is provided with the power storage means for storing the power supplied from the external computer via the interface means. It can be used even when the printer is disconnected.

Further, in the portable printer according to the fourth aspect, since the recording means is an ink jet type recording means for performing printing by discharging ink, printing is performed in a non-contact manner on a recording medium, Good printing results can be obtained even when the recording surface is not flat. Further, since the configuration is simpler than that of a recording unit using a printing ribbon or the like, the entire apparatus can be reduced in size, and printing can be performed more clearly.

Further, in the portable printer according to the present invention, a piezo-type ink jet head having low power consumption is used as the recording means. The power load is kept low, and even when printing a large number of sheets, no serious problems such as a system down on the computer main body side are caused.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating an appearance of a portable printer according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an upper sectional view showing the configuration of the portable printer according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a side sectional view showing a configuration of the portable printer according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of the portable printer according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 3 Portable printer 4 Interface card

Claims (5)

[Claims] A recording unit for forming an image on a recording medium; and a storage unit for storing print information for image formation by the recording unit. 1. A portable printer for forming an image on a recording medium in response to scanning of a portable printer, comprising: interface means for receiving print information and power supply from an external computer. 2. The computer according to claim 1, wherein said interface means is a PCMC.
The portable printer according to claim 1, wherein the portable printer conforms to the IA interface standard. 3. A power storage means for supplying power to the recording means, the storage means, and the control means, wherein the power supply means is supplied from the external computer when the interface means is connected to the external computer. The portable printer according to claim 1, wherein the power stored in the power storage unit is stored. 4. The portable printer according to claim 1, wherein the recording unit is an inkjet recording unit that forms an image by discharging ink. 5. The ink jet apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording unit applies an electric signal to the piezoelectric element to pressurize the ink chamber, thereby discharging ink from pores communicating with the pressurized ink chamber to form an image. 4. The portable printer according to claim 1, wherein the portable printer is a recording device of a system.