Printer and method and device for controlling same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9333781-B2
Application number	US-201314435767-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 10, 2013
Priority date	Oct 15, 2012
Publication date	May 10, 2016
Grant date	May 10, 2016

Abstract

The disclosure discloses a printer and a method and device for controlling the same. The method for controlling the printer comprises: detecting the number of heating units of a currently mounted printing head; acquiring a resolution, corresponding to the detected number of the heating units, of the printing head; and setting a printer parameter according to the acquired resolution of the printing head. The problem of high error rate after the resolution of the printing head of the printer is changed is solved.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for controlling a printer, comprising:
detecting number of heating units of a currently mounted printing head;
acquiring a resolution, corresponding to the detected number of the heating units of the printing head; and
setting a printer parameter according to the acquired resolution of the printing head,
wherein detecting the number of the heating units of the currently mounted printing head comprises:
controlling a test power supply to supply power to the printing head to make a test voltage V t act on a reference resistance Rref and the heating units, wherein the reference resistance Rref is configured to divide the test voltage V t ;
generating test data Di, wherein i is a positive integer between 1 and j+1, an initial value of i is 1, j is a number of the heating units of the printing head with a maximum resolution supported by the printer, the test data Di consists of j+1-bit binary data, a value of the (j+2−i)th bit of the test data Di is “1”, and values of the other bits are all “0”;
transmitting the test data Di to the printing head, and transmitting an effective latch signal and an effective strobe signal of the printing head, wherein a shift register of a printing head driver of the printing head sequentially receives and stores the bits of the test data Di under the synchronization of a clock signal CLK;
calculating a detection voltage V i output by a voltage detection circuit according to V i =V t *(Rhd/(Rref+Rhd)), wherein Rhd is the resistance value of heating units of the printing head, and Rref is a resistance value of the reference resistance of the voltage detection circuit;
judging whether a difference between the test voltage V t and the detection voltage V i is greater than a preset threshold value or not, adding 1 to a value of i when the difference between the test voltage V t and the detection voltage V i is greater than the preset threshold value and continuing transmitting the test data Di to the printing head; and
determining the number of the heating units of the printing head to be N=i−1 when the difference between the test voltage V t and the detection voltage V i is determined not to be greater than the preset threshold value.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein acquiring the resolution, corresponding to the number of the heating units, of the printing head comprises:
acquiring the resolution, corresponding to the detected number of the heating units, of the printing head according to a pre-stored corresponding relationship between the number of the heating units and the resolution of the printing head,
or
calculating the resolution, corresponding to the detected number of the heating units, of the printing head according to the detected number of the heating units and an effective printing width.

3. The method according to claim 1 ,
before setting the printer parameter according to the acquired resolution of the printing head, further comprising: detecting a resistance value of each heating unit of the printing head; and calculating an average resistance value of all the heating units of the printing head,
setting the printer parameter according to the acquired resolution of the printing head comprises: setting the printer parameter according to the resolution of the printing head and the average resistance value.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein setting the printer parameter according to the resolution of the printing head and the average resistance value comprises:
judging whether the average resistance value is equal to a preset resistance value of the heating units or not, wherein
setting printing strobe time according to the average resistance value when the average resistance value is determined to be unequal to the preset resistance value of the heating units.

5. The method according to claim 1 , before setting the printer parameter according to the acquired resolution of the printing head, further comprising:
judging whether the resolution of the currently mounted printing head is equal to a preset resolution of the printing head or not, wherein
setting the printer parameter according to the acquired resolution of the printing head when the resolution of the currently mounted printing head is determined to be unequal to the preset resolution of the printing head.

6. The method according to claim 1 , when the difference between the test voltage V t and the detection voltage V i is determined to be greater than the first preset threshold value, further comprising:
calculating and storing the resistance value R i of the heating units of the printing head in a power-on state,
wherein an average value of the resistance value R i of all the heating units of the printing head is used as the average resistance value of the heating units of the printing head.

7. A device for controlling a printer, comprising:
a detection unit, configured to detect number of heating units of a currently mounted printing head, wherein detect number of heating units of a currently mounted printing head comprises:
control a test power supply to supply power to the printing head to make a test voltage V t act on a reference resistance Rref and the heating units, wherein the reference resistance Rref is configured to divide the test voltage V t ;
generate test data Di, wherein i is a positive integer between 1 and j+1, an initial value of i is 1, j is a number of the heating units of the printing head with a maximum resolution supported by the printer, the test data Di consists of j+1-bit binary data, a value of the (j+2−i)th bit of the test data Di is “1”, and values of the other bits are all “0”;
transmit the test data Di to the printing head, and transmitting an effective latch signal and an effective strobe signal of the printing head, wherein a shift register of a printing head driver of the printing head sequentially receives and stores the bits of the test data Di under the synchronization of a clock signal CLK;
calculate a detection voltage V i output by a voltage detection circuit according to V i =V t *(Rhd/(Rref+Rhd)), wherein Rhd is the resistance value of heating units of the printing head, and Rref is a resistance value of the reference resistance of the voltage detection circuit;
judge whether a difference between the test voltage V t and the detection voltage V i is greater than a preset threshold value or not, adding 1 to a value of i when the difference between the test voltage V t and the detection voltage V i is greater than the preset threshold value, and continuing transmitting the test data Di to the printing head; and
determine the number of the heating units of the printing head to be N=i−1 when the difference between the test voltage V t and the detection voltage V i is determined not to be greater than the preset threshold value;
an acquisition unit, configured to acquire a resolution, corresponding to the detected number of the heating units of the printing head, of the printing head; and
a setting unit, configured to set a printer parameter according to the acquired resolution of the printing head.

8. The device according to claim 7 , wherein the acquisition unit comprises:
an acquisition module, configured to acquire the resolution, corresponding to the detected number of the heating units of the printing head, of the printing head according to a pre-stored corresponding relationship between the number of the heating units of the printing head and the resolution of the printing head,
or
a calculation module, configured to calculate the resolution, corresponding to the detected number of the heating units of the printing head, of the printing head according to the detected number of the heating units of the print

Assignees

• Shandong New Beiyang Inf Tech
• Shandong New Beijang Information Technology Co Ltd

Inventors

• Qu Bo
• Wang Xin
• Ding Jinfeng
• Wang Botao
• Wang Xinping

Classifications

• B41J29/38 Primary

  Drives, motors, controls or automatic cut-off devices for the entire printing mechanism · CPC title

• B41J2/335

  Structure of thermal heads · CPC title

• B41J29/393

  Devices for controlling or analysing the entire machine {; Controlling or analysing mechanical parameters involving printing of test patterns} · CPC title

• B41J2/32

  using thermal heads · CPC title

• B41J2/35

  providing current or voltage to the thermal head · CPC title