JPS6157372A - Control of printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate operations for test printing, by a method wherein either an operation of normal line feeding or an operation of spacing without setting a printing paper is discriminatively performed according to whether or not a printing paper is set, by using only a contact for detecting the presence or absence of the printing paper. CONSTITUTION:A processor 1 is started by a command for test printing, and examines the presence or absence of the printing paper through the condition of the contact 13. For example, when the contact 13 is OFF and it is judged that the printing paper is absent, a spacing operation is conducted, then the presence or absence of the paper is checked, and when the paper is absent, the spacing operation is conducted. These operations are repeated, and the spacing operation is finished when the contact 13 is turned ON. When the contact 13 is ON at the start of the test, it is judged that the paper is present, a line feeding operstion is conducted for a one-line amount, then the condition of the contact 13 is checked, and when the contact 13 is OFF, the line feeding operation is finished. Accordingly, printing on a platen due to misoperation of the switch can be prevented from occurring, and operations for test printing are facilitated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention facilitates the adjustment of serial printers, and
This invention relates to a control method that 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, there are many mechanically constructed parts,
These mechanical parts need to be adjusted at the factory when they are manufactured.

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 easy, that t'M (&) does not occur in the printer due to an operational error, and that there is no operating means used only for one round adjustment.

[Conventional technology]

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

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

The processor 1 reads a program stored in the ROM 2 and operates. Ink face control circuit 4 from host device
Print data is sent via. The processor 1 temporarily stores this print data in the RAM 3, extracts the character code again, and reads out the character pattern corresponding to the character code from the character generation circuit 7.

The processor 1 sends this character pattern to the print head control circuit 10 and controls the print head 11 to print.

At this time, the space control circuit 8 is simultaneously controlled to drive the space motor 9 and move the print head 11 to the printing position.

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

The processor 1 detects the presence or absence of printing paper based on a cent signal input via the input port 12 from a contact 13 that is turned on when printing paper is set. When the printer is in normal use, when the processor 1 detects from this set signal that the printing paper has not been 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.

Switch 14 operated by the operator when adjusting the mechanism part
Accordingly, the processor 1 receives a command to perform only a space operation without printing through the input port 12.

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

Upon receiving the test print command, the processor 1 switches the switch 14
Check whether 7 is on or off. If the switch 14 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 terminated by pressing the test print end button.

If the switch 14 is OFF, a print break operation is performed, so the print head control circuit 10, space control circuit 8, and line feed control circuit 5 are controlled in the same way as described above, and the operation of printing a - line and then a line feed is repeated, and test printing is performed. The operation ends when the end button is pressed.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

In order to operate as described above, the switch 14 is required only for test printing, and if the switch 14 is operated incorrectly, there is a risk of printing even when there is no printing paper and damaging the platen, making the adjustment work complicated. There's a problem.

[Means for solving problems]

The above problem is that when performing test printing, based on the detection result of the means for detecting the presence or absence of printing paper, when the printing paper is centered, the printing change operation is repeated as long as there is printing paper, and the printing paper is centered. The problem is solved by the printer control method according to the present invention, which performs a space operation when the space operation is not performed.

[Effect]

In other words, when performing test printing, only the contact that detects the presence or absence of printing paper is used, and if this contact is turned on at the start of the test, it is assumed that there is printing paper, and the printing change operation is performed for one line, and the contact point is turned on. Check the status, and if the contact turns OFF, end the printing change operation. If the contact is OFF at the start of the test, assume that there is no printing paper and perform only the space operation, then check the contact status and check the contact turns ON. This will end the space operation.

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 possibility of printing on the platen due to a mistake in operating the switch, and the test printing operation is also possible. It can be done easily.

〔Example〕

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.

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 activated by a test print command and contacts 13
Check to see if there is printing paper depending on the condition. Contact 1
3 is off 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 space operation is ended.

Processor 1 is activated by a test print command and contacts 13
If it is determined that there is printing paper based on the state of , it prints a - line and starts a new line, and then checks to see if 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, performs the normal printing change operation or changes the printing paper to seven positions. It is possible to distinguish whether to perform only the space motion without moving the space motion, making the operation easier and eliminating 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 one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart explaining the operation of FIG. 1, and FIG.
The figure is a block diagram of a circuit showing an example of a conventional dot printer, and FIG. 4 is a flowchart explaining the operation of the conventional processor 1. In the figure, 1 is a processor, and 2 is a ROM. 3 is RAM. 4 is an interface control circuit, 5 is a line feed control circuit, 6 is a line feed morph, 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, 1
2 is an input port, 13 is a contact for detecting printing paper, and 14 is a switch. No./I! 1

Claims (1)

[Claims] When performing test printing in a serial impact printer, based on the detection result of the means for detecting the presence or absence of printing paper, if printing paper is set, the printing change operation is repeated as long as there is printing paper, and the printing paper is set. A method for controlling a printer, characterized in that a space operation is performed when the printer is not pressed.