JPH054430A - Controller for printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To set the conditions of stoppage of the printing operation of a printer flexibly by a control command from a host computer, and to select a detector conducting an output to one signal conductor connected to the host computer flexibly by the control command of the host computer. CONSTITUTION:A detector selecting means 4 selecting a specified form detector from form detectors 1, 2, 3 detecting the presence of or more printing paper mounted by a control command from a host computer, a stoppage control means 8 determining whether or not printing operation is stopped or continued according to the state of the form detector and a transmission control means 5 transmitting the state of the form detector selected over the host computer are provided.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer controller used by connecting to a host computer through a transmission line.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a printer has two or more paper detectors for detecting the presence or absence of paper, and the printing operation of the printer is controlled according to the status of the paper detectors. A large number of printer control devices have been put into practical use. In these, there is no means for selecting an arbitrary paper detector from two or more paper detectors for detecting the presence or absence of printer paper, and only the presence / absence of printer paper is detected by a selection means fixed in advance.

The above-mentioned pre-fixed selection means is a means for detecting the printer out of paper when all the paper detectors detect the paper out, or at least one paper detector when the paper out is detected. It is means for detecting the absence of printer paper. The control of the printing operation of the printer is performed based on the presence or absence of the printer paper by the previously fixed selection means.

Regarding the method of notifying the host computer of the presence or absence of printer paper, a method of outputting the status of the presence or absence of printer paper by the above-mentioned fixed selection means to one transmission line to notify the host computer, or This is a method in which the same number of transmission lines as required paper detectors are prepared, the state of one paper detector is assigned to one transmission line, and the state of only the assigned paper detector is notified to the host computer.

[0005]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional technique, the required paper detector is selected from the two or more paper detectors for detecting the presence or absence of the printer paper, and the printing is stopped. There was a problem that I could not.
Also, regarding the method of notifying the host computer of the presence of printer paper, it is costly to prepare the same number of transmission lines as the required paper detectors, and at the same time, select the required paper detectors and send it to the host computer. There was a problem that I could not announce.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to select a predetermined detector to be detected by a control command of a host computer from among a plurality of paper detectors for detecting the presence or absence of printer paper in the printer, and select the above-mentioned detector. A printer controller capable of detecting the presence / absence of printer paper by a paper detector and stopping the printing operation of the printer based on the detected result, and one transmission line for indicating the detected result as the presence / absence of printer paper. It is to provide a control device for a printer that notifies the host computer using the.

[0007]

As a first means for solving the above-mentioned problems, the present invention detects the presence or absence of printer paper in a printer control device which is used by being connected to a host computer through a transmission line. Two or more paper detectors, an interface for receiving data from the host computer, and a detector selecting means for selecting only a predetermined detector from the paper detectors by a control command from the host computer. As a second means of the present invention, stop control means for stopping printing based on the state of the paper detector selected by the detector selecting means in the first means is provided. As a third means of the present invention, the state of the paper detector selected by the detector selecting means in the first means is Characterized in that a transmission control means for transmitting to strike a computer.

[0008]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a printer controller according to the present invention. In the figure, reference numerals 1, 2, 3 in the figure
Is a paper detector that opens when the printer detects that there is no paper, and the detector selecting means 4 is required from the paper detectors 1, 2, and 3 by a control command from the host computer 7 via the interface 6. The stop control means 8 stops the printing operation of the printing mechanism 9 according to the state of the paper detector selected by the detector selecting means.

The transmission control means 5 detects the state of the paper detector selected by the detector selecting means and performs a predetermined calculation to notify the host computer 7 of the result through the interface 6. There is.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of an embodiment of a control command from the host computer to the stop control means.
"ESC + c + 4 + n" shown by 10 is an example of the control command, and the argument n selects the paper detector for detecting the presence or absence of the paper. 11 is an argument n
And a table showing an example of the function of its control command. For example, one paper detector is associated with one bit, and if the corresponding bit is "1", that paper detector is selected and "0" is selected. If there is, it will not be selected, and all combinations of paper detectors are possible. Therefore, it is possible not to select all the paper detectors, which indicates that the paper detector can create a condition where it is not installed in the printer.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of an embodiment of a control command from the host computer to the transmission control means.
"ESC + c + 1 + n" shown by 12 is an example of the control command, and the argument n selects the paper detector for detecting the presence or absence of the printer paper. 13 is the argument n
And a table showing an example of the function of its control command. For example, one paper detector is associated with one bit, and if the corresponding bit is "1", that paper detector is selected and "0" is selected. If there is, it will not be selected, and all combinations of paper detectors are possible. Therefore, it is possible not to select all the paper detectors, which means that it is possible to support a model in which the paper detector is not installed in the printer.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a circuit which constitutes the detector selecting means, stop controlling means and transmission controlling means of the present invention. Reference numerals 20, 21 and 22 in FIG. In combination, it is a paper detector that opens when it detects that there is no printer paper. CPU 24,
A ROM 25, RAM 26, etc. constitute a microcomputer, and a signal indicating the presence or absence of printer paper from the paper detector and a control command from the host computer 28 via the interface 27 are input, and the paper corresponding to the control command is input. A detector is selected, the printing operation of the printing mechanism 29 is stopped depending on the state of the sheet detector, and the state of the sheet detector is detected to notify the host computer 28 of the state of the sheet detector. . RO
In M25, a program for interpreting the control command from the host computer 28 shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 and selecting only the required paper detector, and a program for stopping the printing operation of the printing mechanism 29 depending on the state of the paper detector, A program for notifying the host computer 28 of the state of the paper detector is stored. The RAM 26 is used as a temporary memory for flags and the like necessary for the program.

Next, the operation of the apparatus thus constructed will be described with reference to the flow chart of the detector selecting means shown in FIG. 3, the flow chart of the stop controlling means shown in FIG. 4, and the flow chart of the transmission controlling means shown in FIG. Explain.

The detector selecting means of FIG. 3 judges the value of the first bit of the argument n in the control command of FIG. 6 or 7 (step 30) based on the result of interpreting the control command from the host computer, and the result is obtained. Is 0, the paper detector 1 selection flag indicating that the paper detector 1 is selected is set to "0" (step 31), and if it is "1", the flag is set to 1 (Step 32). Next, the second bit is judged (step 33) and the paper detector 2 selection flag is set (steps 34, 35). Next, the third bit is judged (step 36) and the paper detector 3 selection flag is set (steps 37, 38).

The stop control means of FIG. 4 determines which paper detector state to perform the print stop process based on the control command and the state of the paper detector selection flag determined by the detector selection means. It is a thing.

In the process for the sheet detector 1, the state of the sheet detector 1 selection flag is judged (step 40). If the result is "0", the process for the sheet detector 2 is started, and if it is "1". For example, the state of the paper detector 1 is detected and judged (step 41). If the result is "paper is present", the process for the paper detector 2 is started. If "paper is not present", the printing is stopped (step 46). Move to.

In the process for the paper detector 2, the state of the paper detector 2 selection flag is judged (step 42). If the result is "0", the process for the paper detector 3 is started, and if "1". If there is, the state of the paper detector 2 is detected and judged (step 43). If the result is "paper is present", the process moves to the paper detector 3, and if it is "no paper", the printing is stopped (step 46). ).

The process for the sheet detector 3 judges the state of the sheet detector 3 selection flag (step 44). If the result is "0", the process is ended. The state is detected and judged (step 45). If the result is "paper is present", the process is ended, and if "paper is not available", the process is shifted to the print stop process (step 46).

The transmission control means of FIG. 5 determines which sheet detector state is notified to the host computer according to the state of the control command and the sheet detector selection flag decided by the detector selecting means. is there.

In the process for the sheet detector 1, the state of the sheet detector 1 selection flag is judged (step 50). If the result is "0", the process for the sheet detector 2 is started, and if it is "1". For example, the state of the paper detector 1 is judged (step 51), and if the result is "paper present", it is stored in the memory 1.
0 "is set (step 52), and if" no paper "," 1 "is set in the memory 1 (step 53) and the process for the paper detector 2 is started.

In the process for the paper detector 2, the state of the paper detector 2 selection flag is judged (step 54). If the result is "0", the process for the paper detector 3 is started, and if "1". If there is a sheet, the state of the sheet detector 2 is judged (step 55).
0 "is set (step 56). If" no paper "," 1 "is set in the memory 2 (step 57), and the process for the paper detector 3 is started.

In the process for the paper detector 3, the state of the paper detector 3 selection flag is judged (step 58), and if the result is "0", the process proceeds to post-processing, and if it is "1", the paper detector 3 is detected. The state of the container 3 is judged (step 59) and the result is "
If there is paper, "0" is set in the memory 3 (step 60), and if there is no paper, "1" is set in the memory 3 (step 61) and the post-processing is performed.

In the post-processing, the logical sum of the memory 1, memory 2 and memory 3 is calculated (step 62) and the result is notified to the host computer via the interface (step 63).

The flow charts of FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 show an embodiment in which there are three paper detectors for detecting the presence / absence of printer paper, and when there are three or more paper detectors. The control command determination and the paper detector selection flag setting are repeated for the number of paper detectors included in the printer.

After that, the number of sheet detectors corresponding to the number of sheet detectors, the state of the sheet detectors, and the determination of the state of the sheet detectors are executed, and based on the result, the printing stop processing is started.
Further, the number of the sheet detectors is determined and the state of the sheet detectors is detected, and the result is notified to the host computer.

[0026]

As described above, according to the present invention, the paper detectors for detecting the presence / absence of the printer paper can be selected in any combination by the control command from the host computer, which is necessary at that time. The printing operation of the printer can be stopped only by the state of the paper detector.

Also, the state of two or more paper detectors can be notified to the host computer by using only one signal line of the transmission line connected to the host computer, and the cost can be reduced. Flexible control by the host computer becomes possible.

Moreover, since the paper detector required to stop printing and the paper detector required to notify the host computer can be selected independently, the range of control by the host computer is widened.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the detector selection means, stop control means and transmission control means according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing detector selection means according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing stop control means according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing transmission control means according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of an embodiment of a control command from a host computer to stop control means.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of an embodiment of a control command from the host computer to the transmission control means.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Paper detector 1 for detecting the presence of printer paper 2 ... Paper detector 2 that detects the presence of printer paper 3 ... Paper detector 3 for detecting the presence of printer paper 4 ... Detector selection means 5: Transmission control means 6 ... Interface 7: Host computer 8: Stop control means 9 ... Printing mechanism

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A printer controller which is connected to a host computer via a transmission line and is capable of handling a plurality of types of paper, and two or more paper detectors for detecting the presence or absence of printer paper; and the host computer. An apparatus for controlling a printer, comprising: an interface for receiving data from the printer; and a detector selecting means for selecting only a predetermined detector from the paper detectors by a control command from the host computer. 2. The printer control device according to claim 1, further comprising stop control means for stopping printing based on the state of the paper detector selected by the detector selecting means. 3. The printer control device according to claim 1, further comprising: transmission control means for transmitting the state of the paper detector selected by the detector selection means to the host computer.