CN203004527U

CN203004527U - Print cartridge control unit, circuit board, print cartridge and imaging device

Info

Publication number: CN203004527U
Application number: CN 201220736595
Authority: CN
Inventors: 钦雷; 刘卫臣; 梁月丹
Original assignee: Zhuhai Ninestar Management Co Ltd
Current assignee: Zhuhai Ninestar Management Co Ltd
Priority date: 2012-12-27
Filing date: 2012-12-27
Publication date: 2013-06-19
Anticipated expiration: 2022-12-27

Abstract

The utility model provides a print cartridge control unit, a circuit board, a print cartridge and an imaging device. The control unit comprises an instruction identification unit, an illuminating delay timing unit, a light illuminating unit, a blacking-out delay timing unit, and a light blacking-out unit. The instruction identification unit can be used to receive an illuminating control instruction, and can be used for the identification. The illuminating delay timing unit can be used for starting the illuminating delay timing. The light illuminating unit can be used to control the illuminating unit to illuminate, when a timing value of the illuminating delay timing reaches a predetermined first delay threshold value. The blacking-out delay timing unit can be used to start the blacking-out delay timing. The light blacking-out unit can be used to control the illuminating unit to black out, when a timing value of the blacking-out delay timing reaches the predetermined period. The first delay threshold value is smaller than a first period and larger than a second period, and the predetermined period is smaller than a third period. The first period is an opposite position detection phase, and the second period is an adjacent light detection phase. The utility model is advantageous in that the false alarm rate of the print cartridge position detection can be reduced.

Description

Ink cartridge control unit, circuit board, ink cartridge, and image forming apparatus

Technical Field

The utility model relates to an inkjet technique especially relates to an ink horn the control unit, circuit board, ink horn and imaging device.

Background

The imaging device is a common tool in work and life of people at present, such as a printer, a copy, a fax machine and the like. An image forming apparatus generally includes two parts, i.e., an image forming apparatus main body and an ink cartridge; the ink cartridge is a consumable item, and is therefore usually detachably mounted in the image forming apparatus main body to be easily replaced. Also, in order to make the image forming apparatus usable for a long time or to meet the needs of different ink cartridge colors, a plurality of ink cartridges may be provided in one image forming apparatus. Accordingly, in order to ensure that the mounting positions of the respective ink cartridges in the main body of the image forming apparatus are correct, an ink cartridge position detection technique has been proposed.

In the prior art, for example, the position detection of the ink cartridge is usually implemented by controlling the light emission of a light source on the ink cartridge, specifically: the ink box is provided with a light source, and the imaging device body is internally provided with a light receiver; the ink box position detection comprises two stages of opposite position detection and adjacent light detection, in the opposite position detection stage, the position of the ink box to be detected is opposite to the light receiver, then the light source of the ink box is controlled to emit light, and the light receiver receives the light and records the light emission quantity; subsequently, in the adjacent light detection stage, the ink cartridge adjacent to the ink cartridge to be detected is controlled to emit light, and the light receiver receives the light and records the amount of emitted light. If the light emission quantity of the ink box to be detected at the opposite position is larger than the preset threshold value and the light emission quantity of the ink box to be detected is larger than the light emission quantity of the adjacent ink box, the imaging device main body can determine that the installation position of the ink box to be detected is correct according to the light emission quantity.

However, the above ink cartridge position detection method has certain drawbacks: in the actual production process, there is inevitably a manufacturing error, that is, the light emission amounts of the light sources on the respective cartridges in the image forming apparatus cannot be strictly kept equal, so that there is a possibility that the light emission amounts of the adjacent cartridges in the adjacent light detection stage are equal to or larger than the light emission amount of the cartridge to be detected in the opposite position detection stage, resulting in an incorrect result of the cartridge position detection, and a false alarm of the cartridge position detection.

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

The utility model provides an ink horn control unit, circuit board, ink horn and imaging device to reduce the misstatement rate in the ink horn position testing process.

A first aspect of the present invention is to provide an ink cartridge control unit, the ink cartridge control unit is disposed on an ink cartridge detachably mounted on an image forming apparatus main body, and the image forming apparatus main body is provided with a light receiver, the ink cartridge further includes an interface unit for receiving a signal sent from the image forming apparatus main body, and a storage unit for storing identification information of the ink cartridge, the ink cartridge control unit is connected to a light emitting unit which emits light toward the light receiver, for controlling the light emission or extinction of the light emitting unit, and the image forming apparatus main body is provided with at least two ink cartridges;

the ink cartridge control unit includes: the device comprises an instruction identification unit, a lighting delay timing unit, a light lighting unit, a light extinguishing delay timing unit and a light extinguishing unit;

the instruction identification unit is connected with the interface unit on the ink box and used for receiving and identifying the light-emitting control instruction from the imaging equipment main body;

the lighting delay timing unit is connected with the instruction identification unit and is used for starting lighting delay timing when the instruction identification unit identifies that the light-emitting control instruction is a light ray lighting instruction;

the light ray lighting unit is connected with the lighting delay timing unit and used for controlling the light-emitting unit to emit light when the lighting delay timing subunit monitors that the timing value of the lighting delay timing reaches a preset first delay threshold value; the first delay threshold value is less than a first time period and greater than a second time period;

the extinguishing delay timing unit is connected with the instruction identification unit and used for starting extinguishing delay timing when the instruction identification unit identifies that the light-emitting control instruction is a light-off instruction;

the light ray extinguishing unit is connected with the extinguishing delay timing unit and used for controlling the light emitting unit to be extinguished when the extinguishing delay timing subunit monitors that the timing value of the extinguishing delay timing reaches a preset time period, wherein the preset time period is less than a third time period;

the first time period is a time interval of a facing position detection phase, the second time period is a time interval of an adjacent light detection phase, and the third time period is a time interval between the facing position detection phase and the adjacent light detection phase.

Optionally, the preset time period is a preset second delay threshold; or, the preset time period is less than a preset second delay threshold value; the light ray extinguishing unit is further configured to control the light emitting unit to extinguish when the extinguishing delay timing unit monitors that the timing value of the extinguishing delay timing reaches the second delay threshold value.

Optionally, the lighting delay timing unit is further configured to, when the preset time period is a preset second delay threshold value, stop the lighting delay timing when the instruction identification unit receives any light-emitting control instruction in a timing process after the lighting delay timing is started; or resetting the ignition delay timer; the extinguishing delay timing unit is further configured to, when the preset time period is a preset second delay threshold value, stop the extinguishing delay timing when the instruction identification unit receives any one of the light-emitting control instructions in a timing process after the extinguishing delay timing is started; or resetting the blanking delay timer.

Optionally, the turning-off delay timing unit is further configured to, when the preset time period is smaller than a preset second delay threshold value, in a timing process after turning-off delay timing is started, when the instruction identification unit receives any one of the light-emitting control instructions, not execute the light-emitting control instruction, and the turning-off delay timing does not execute the stopping or resetting operation but continues timing.

Optionally, the instruction identifying unit includes: an instruction receiving subunit configured to receive a light emission control instruction from the image forming apparatus main body, the light emission control instruction including cartridge identification information and light control information; the ink box determining subunit is connected with the instruction receiving subunit and is used for determining the ink box identification information of at least two ink boxes as the ink box identification information of the ink box where the ink box control unit is located according to the ink box identification information, and determining that the light-emitting control instruction is the light-emitting control instruction of the ink box where the light-emitting control unit is located according to a determination result; and the light ray control subunit is connected with the instruction receiving subunit and used for determining that the light-emitting control instruction is a light ray lighting instruction or a light ray extinguishing instruction according to the light ray control information in the light-emitting control instruction.

Another aspect of the present invention is to provide an ink cartridge lighting control circuit board, including an interface unit, a storage unit and an ink cartridge control unit, wherein the interface unit is configured to receive a signal sent by an imaging device main body, the signal includes a lighting control instruction, the storage unit is configured to store ink cartridge identification information, and the interface unit and the storage unit are respectively connected to the ink cartridge control unit; ink horn control unit adopts the utility model ink horn control unit.

Optionally, the cartridge identification information includes at least two logical values; the interface unit is an electrical contact for receiving a high voltage or a low voltage transmitted from the image forming apparatus body to form an instruction including the at least two-bit logic value.

Optionally, the method further includes: a light emitting unit disposed toward the light receiver on the image forming apparatus main body, for emitting light toward the light receiver; and is connected to the cartridge control unit.

Still another aspect of the present invention is to provide an ink cartridge, which includes an ink cartridge main body and a light-emitting control circuit board of the ink cartridge.

Optionally, the method further includes: a light emitting unit disposed toward the light receiver on the image forming apparatus main body, for emitting light toward the light receiver; the light-emitting unit is arranged on the ink box light-emitting control circuit board or the ink box main body.

It is still another aspect of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus including an image forming apparatus main body and at least two ink cartridges, the image forming apparatus main body including at least an optical receiver, a carriage, and a position detecting module; the at least two ink boxes are fixedly arranged on the carriage, and the carriage is movably arranged relative to the optical receiver; the ink box adopts the ink box of the utility model;

the interface unit of each of the cartridges is connected in line to the instruction output terminal of the image forming apparatus main body;

the position detection module includes:

the mobile control unit is connected with the carriage and is used for controlling the carriage to move to a position where the ink box to be detected is opposite to the optical receiver;

the light-emitting control unit is connected with the ink box and used for controlling the light-emitting unit to emit light in a first time period of opposite position detection and a second time period of adjacent light detection of the ink box to be detected by sending a light-emitting control instruction to the ink box;

and the light-emitting quantity detection unit is connected with the light receiver and used for determining that the position of the ink box to be detected is correct when the light receiver recognizes that the first light-emitting quantity received in the first period is larger than the first set light-emitting quantity and the second light-emitting quantity received in the second period is smaller than the first light-emitting quantity.

Optionally, the light-emitting amount detection unit is specifically configured to determine that the position of the ink cartridge to be detected is correct when it is recognized that the first light-emitting amount received in the first period is greater than the first set light-emitting amount, and the second light-emitting amount received in the second period is smaller than the first light-emitting amount and the second set light-emitting amount.

Optionally, when at least two ink cartridges included in the imaging device are respectively used as the ink cartridges to be detected, corresponding first time periods are different from each other, and corresponding second time periods and third time periods are also different from each other, a first delay threshold configured by the ink cartridge control unit in each ink cartridge is greater than a largest second time period in the imaging device and is less than a smallest first time period, and a preset time period configured by each ink cartridge control unit is less than a smallest third time period.

Alternatively, the first delay threshold value and the preset time period configured by the ink cartridge control units of different ink cartridges may be the same or different from each other.

Optionally, the light emitting unit is disposed at a position directly opposite to the light receiver; or the light-emitting unit is arranged at a position deviated from the light receiver, and an optical guide member is arranged between the light-emitting unit and the light receiver and used for guiding light rays emitted when the light-emitting unit emits light to a position of each ink box opposite to the light receiver.

Optionally, the method further includes: a transfer rack; the adapter rack is mounted on the imaging device main body, and the ink box is mounted on the adapter rack; the at least two light-emitting units are arranged on the switching frame and correspond to the ink boxes loaded into the switching frame one by one.

The utility model provides an ink horn control unit, circuit board, ink horn and imaging device's technological effect is: the ink box control unit in the ink box delays the light lightening instruction and the light extinguishing instruction for preset time according to the identified light emitting control instruction, so that the light emitting unit does not emit light in the adjacent light detection stage and emits light in the opposite position detection stage, the light emitting quantity of the adjacent ink box can be ensured to be smaller than that of the ink box to be detected, even if the light emitting quantities of the light sources on the ink boxes are not strictly kept equal due to manufacturing errors, the light emitting quantity of the adjacent ink box can be ensured to be smaller than that of the ink box to be detected, and the false alarm rate of the ink box position detection is reduced.

Drawings

FIG. 1a is a schematic structural diagram of an ink cartridge suitable for use in an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 1b is a schematic view of the cartridge shown in FIG. 1a mounted in the main body of the image forming apparatus;

FIG. 1c is an enlarged view of a portion of FIG. 1 b;

FIG. 2a is a first schematic diagram of a chip on the ink cartridge of FIG. 1 a;

FIG. 2b is a second schematic diagram of the chip on the ink cartridge of FIG. 1 a;

FIG. 3a is a schematic diagram illustrating a first principle of detecting the position of an ink cartridge according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3b is a schematic diagram of a second principle of detecting the position of the ink cartridge according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of an embodiment of the ink cartridge control unit of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic flow chart illustrating a method for controlling light emission of the ink cartridge according to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6a is a schematic view showing the sequence of ink cartridges according to still another embodiment of the method for controlling the emission of light from the ink cartridges of the present invention;

FIG. 6b is a schematic view of BK cartridge position detection in yet another embodiment of cartridge luminescence control method according to the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic view of BK cartridge position detection in an embodiment of a cartridge luminescence control method according to the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a schematic structural view of another embodiment of the ink cartridge control unit of the present invention;

fig. 9 is a first schematic structural diagram of an embodiment of the image forming apparatus of the present invention;

fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of an embodiment of the image forming apparatus of the present invention;

fig. 11 is a schematic flow chart of a method for controlling the light emission of the ink cartridge according to another embodiment of the ink cartridge control unit of the present invention;

fig. 12 is a schematic structural view of another embodiment of the ink cartridge control unit according to the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the technical solution of the embodiments of the present invention clearer and easier to understand, a typical ink cartridge and a connection structure thereof with an image forming apparatus main body are first described; it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the embodiments of the present invention are applicable to this ink cartridge, but are not limited to the ink cartridge structure described below. In addition, a method of detecting the position of a commonly used ink cartridge will be briefly described.

Fig. 1a is a schematic structural diagram of an ink cartridge to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied, and fig. 1b is a schematic structural diagram of the ink cartridge shown in fig. 1a installed in an image forming apparatus main body, and an image forming apparatus composed of the ink cartridge and the image forming apparatus main body is described by taking an ink jet printer as an example. Fig. 1c is an enlarged view of a portion of the structure of fig. 1 b.

As shown in fig. 1a, the ink cartridge 10 includes a case body and a case cover made of plastic, which are integrally connected by thermal welding or friction welding, and a chamber is formed inside. The chamber of the ink cartridge 10 is divided into a negative pressure chamber 103 and an ink chamber 105 by a partition 106, and the chambers are communicated with each other through a communication hole 107 below the partition 106. The ink chamber 105 contains ink to be supplied to the printer, and the negative pressure chamber 103 contains a negative pressure generating member such as a porous body, preferably a sponge body 104, for controlling the negative pressure inside the ink cartridge 10. It should be understood by those skilled in the art that the negative pressure generating component may be other valve bodies for controlling ink flow or air flow, and may be selected according to the specific use characteristics of the ink cartridge; the internal chamber of the ink cartridge may be provided according to specific needs, and is not limited to the above-described partition structure.

As shown in fig. 1b, the ink cartridge 10 is detachably mounted to the ink jet printer 20, which is provided with a support member 108 rotatable about a fulcrum of the rear side wall, the support member 108 being made of a resin material integrally molded with the casing of the ink cartridge 10. Also, a first engaging portion 109 and a second engaging portion 108a, which are engageable with locking

structures

202a, 202b on the ink jet printer 20 to securely mount the ink cartridge 10 on the ink jet printer 20, are formed on the front side wall and the rear side wall of the ink cartridge 10, respectively, and the second engaging portion 108a is integrally formed with the support member 108.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 1a, the bottom surface of the ink cartridge 10 is provided with an ink outlet 101 for supplying ink to the printer, as shown in FIG. 1b, which is connected to the print head 205 of the ink jet printer 20 when the ink cartridge 10 is mounted on the ink jet printer 20; and an air intake hole 102 for communicating the inside of the ink cartridge 10 with the outside atmosphere is further provided above the negative pressure chamber 103 of the ink cartridge 10. In addition, as shown in the figure, the bottom of the ink chamber 105 is further provided with a prism 110 for detecting the ink remaining amount of the ink cartridge 10, which is a common technique in the art and will not be described herein.

The ink-jet printer comprises the following components besides the plurality of ink cartridges: the ink jet printer 20 accommodating the ink cartridges 10 is provided with a carriage 201 which moves back and forth in a paper recording direction, a cartridge mounting portion 202 which is fixed to the carriage 201 and accommodates a plurality of the ink cartridges 10, a plurality of device electrical contacts 203 which correspond to the plurality of the ink cartridges 20, a light receiver 204 which can receive light, a circuit (not shown) which is connected to the plurality of device electrical contacts 203 via one line, and a control circuit (not shown) which determines whether or not the ink cartridges 10 are mounted at a correct position based on a reception result of the light receiver 204. Obviously, the plurality of device electrical contacts 203 are connected in a common line by a line, and when a plurality of ink cartridges 10 are mounted on the ink jet printer 20, the plurality of ink cartridges 10 are in a bus connection state.

In addition, as shown in fig. 1a and 2b, a chip 30 is disposed at a corner where the bottom wall and the rear side wall of the ink cartridge 10 meet. Fig. 2a and 2b are schematic views of the structure of the chip on the ink cartridge of fig. 1a, the chip 30 including thereon: a circuit board 301 for carrying various components described below: a cartridge-side electrical contact 302, a light-emitting unit 303, a storage unit, and a cartridge control unit 304, wherein the cartridge control unit 304 may be a controller, and the storage unit may be integrated in the controller or provided separately.

A plurality of cartridge side electrical contacts 302 are formed on the circuit board 301, and are capable of being connected to the corresponding device electrical contacts 203 to establish electrical connection between the ink jet printer 20 and the ink cartridge 10 for information exchange, that is, the cartridge side electrical contacts 302 correspond to interface units for receiving signals from the printer, and specifically, the plurality of cartridge side electrical contacts 302 include a power supply contact for applying a voltage applied from the printer side to the chip 30, a data contact for data input/output with the ink jet printer 20, and the like. A light emitting unit 303, as shown in fig. 1c, which emits light toward the light receiver 204, preferably, in the following embodiments, it is an LED lamp; further, the light emitting unit 303 may not be provided on the circuit board 301 as long as it can represent the position of the ink cartridge and receive the light emission control of the cartridge control unit 304. The memory unit is provided on the above-mentioned circuit board 301, and stores various information related to the ink cartridge 10, such as the amount of ink, the type of ink cartridge, the color of ink, the date of manufacture of the ink cartridge, and the like, including cartridge identification information, which may be selected as various memories such as an EEPROM, a RAM, and the like, as needed. The cartridge control unit 304 is a controller in the present embodiment, and is mainly used to control the light emitting unit 303 according to the light emitting control command of the printer inputted through the plurality of cartridge-side electrical contacts 302, as shown in fig. 2 b.

It should be understood by those skilled in the art that the light emitting unit may be configured as an incandescent lamp or other light emitting device; the LED lamp can emit light with different wavelengths according to different design requirements, such as visible light or invisible light, and in this embodiment, in order to provide a certain prompt function for a user, the LED lamp preferably emits visible light.

In addition, the ink cartridge 10 is further pasted with a label (not shown in the figure) which is provided with an identification of the type and color of the ink cartridge, and the accommodating cavity of each ink cartridge on the ink cartridge mounting part 202 of the ink jet printer 20 is pasted with a corresponding color label, so that a user only needs to compare the color identification of the ink cartridge label with the color label of the ink cartridge mounting part 202 of the ink jet printer 20 when mounting, and then the proper ink cartridge can be mounted in the right position.

Taking the inkjet printer of the embodiment of the present invention as an example, the following typical ink cartridge position detection scheme is described:

in order to ensure normal printing in an ink jet printer and prevent printing deviation from occurring due to the ink cartridge being mounted in the wrong position, it is generally necessary to detect whether the ink cartridge is correctly mounted in the proper position in the ink jet printer after the ink cartridge is loaded into the printer. Fig. 3a and 3b are schematic diagrams illustrating the principle of detecting the position of the ink cartridge, where the ink cartridge is provided with four ink cartridges, as shown in fig. 3a, and the ink cartridges are marked with color marks for clarity, such as black ink cartridge BK, yellow ink cartridge Y, indigo ink cartridge C, and magenta ink cartridge M. Each ink cartridge is mounted at a corresponding cartridge mounting position, and its respective correct position is shown in fig. 3a as position a, position B, position C and position D. The ink-jet printer is provided with a light receiver, the position of the light receiver is fixed, and the position of the ink box is moved by moving the carriage, so that the relative position between the light-emitting unit on the ink box and the light receiver on the printer is changed.

The position detection mainly comprises two parts, namely the opposite position detection of the current ink box to be detected and the adjacent light detection of the adjacent ink box, and each ink box in the imaging equipment needs to be used as the ink box to be detected one by one for detection. The opposite position detection refers to a process that the printer drives a light emitting unit of the ink box to be detected opposite to the position of the light receiver to emit light and detects whether the light quantity received by the light receiver is larger than a preset value, and the adjacent light detection refers to a process that the ink box to be detected is maintained at a position opposite to the light receiver, the printer drives the light emitting unit of any ink box adjacent to the ink box to be detected to emit light and detects whether the light quantity received by the light receiver at the moment is smaller than the light quantity received by the light receiver during the opposite position detection. As shown in fig. 3a, for the ink cartridge Y to be detected, the ink cartridge Y is moved to be located at the opposite position to the light receiver, the light emitting unit of the ink cartridge Y to be detected is controlled to emit light, the light receiver receives light to obtain a first light quantity S1, whether the first light quantity is greater than a preset threshold value is determined, if yes, the opposite position of the ink cartridge to be detected is detected correctly, and otherwise, the opposite position of the ink cartridge to be detected is detected incorrectly. As shown in fig. 3b, the position of the ink cartridge Y to be inspected is kept unchanged, the light emitting units of the adjacent ink cartridges BK of the ink cartridge Y to be inspected are controlled to emit light, the light receiver receives the light, the second light quantity S2 is obtained, whether the first light quantity is larger than the second light quantity is judged, and if yes, the adjacent light of the ink cartridge Y to be inspected is correctly detected. Only by the above two detections can the cartridge be considered correctly positioned. In the above description, the ink cartridge to be tested should be understood as an ink cartridge that is to be subjected to the dead-end position detection, and the adjacent ink cartridge should be understood as any ink cartridge adjacent to the ink cartridge to be tested.

Further, the composition of the light emission control instruction from the image forming apparatus main body is explained as follows, see table 1 below:

TABLE 1 composition of lighting control commands

As shown in table 1, the light emission control instruction issued by the image forming apparatus main body is mainly composed of two parts: ink cartridge identification information and light control information. The ink cartridge identification information is a code for distinguishing different ink cartridges, and in this embodiment, "ink cartridge color information" is used as the ink cartridge identification information, however, other information may be selected as the ink cartridge identification information as long as the function of distinguishing the ink cartridges is achieved; the light control information is a code for controlling the ON/OFF of the light emitting unit, i.e., a lighting/OFF (ON/OFF) operation. As shown in table 1, 100 indicates ON operation, i.e., driving the light emitting unit to emit light, and 000 indicates OFF operation, i.e., extinguishing the light emitting unit, and they may be indicated by other codes as long as they can distinguish the two operations. Alternatively, the light control information is also used as a basis for distinguishing whether the light emission control command is a light turning-on command or a light turning-off command. The codes of each ink box identification information and each light control information are combined pairwise to form a control signal for lighting/extinguishing the light-emitting units of the ink boxes with different colors. Light emission of the light emitting unit driving the BK cartridge is denoted by 000100; 100000 indicates a light emitting unit for turning off the ink cartridge C.

Example one

Fig. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of an embodiment of the ink cartridge control unit of the present invention, the ink cartridge control unit is disposed on an ink cartridge detachably mounted on the main body of the image forming apparatus, the main body of the image forming apparatus is provided with a light receiver, the ink cartridge further comprises an interface unit for receiving a signal sent by the main body of the image forming apparatus and a storage unit for storing identification information of the ink cartridge, the ink cartridge control unit is connected to the light-emitting unit of the light receiver for controlling the light-emitting unit to emit light or extinguish, and the main body of the image forming apparatus is provided with at least two ink cartridges.

As shown in fig. 4, the cartridge control unit includes: an instruction identifying unit 41, a lighting delay time counting unit 42, a light lighting unit 43, a lighting-off delay time counting unit 44, and a light lighting-off unit 45. Wherein,

an instruction recognition unit 41 connected to the interface unit on the ink cartridge, for receiving and recognizing a light emission control instruction from the image forming apparatus main body;

a lighting delay timing unit 42, connected to the instruction identification unit, for starting lighting delay timing when the instruction identification unit identifies that the light-emitting control instruction is a light-emitting instruction;

a light ray lighting unit 43, connected to the lighting delay timing unit, for controlling the lighting unit to light when the lighting delay timing unit monitors that a timing value of the lighting delay timing reaches a preset first delay threshold value; the first delay threshold value is smaller than the first time interval and larger than the second time interval;

an extinguishing delay timing unit 44, connected to the instruction identification unit, for starting extinguishing delay timing when the instruction identification unit identifies that the light-emitting control instruction is a light-off instruction;

the light extinction unit 45 is connected with the extinction delay timing unit and is used for controlling the light-emitting unit to extinguish when the extinction delay timing unit monitors that the timing value of the extinction delay timing reaches a preset time period, wherein the preset time period is less than a third time period;

the first time interval is the time interval of the ink box to be detected in the opposite position detection stage, the second time interval is the time interval of the adjacent light detection stage of the ink box to be detected, and the third time interval is the time interval between the opposite position detection stage and the adjacent light detection stage.

In the present embodiment, since the first delay threshold is greater than the second period T2, it is equivalent to that the light-emitting unit does not emit light due to delay in the period in which the adjacent light detection is performed; meanwhile, because the first delay threshold is smaller than the first time period T1, it is equivalent to that in the time period of the opposite position detection, there will be at least a light emitting time of T1-T1 duration after delaying for a certain time (T1 represents the first delay threshold) for detection, so as to ensure that the light quantity in the opposite position detection is inevitably larger than that in the adjacent light detection; moreover, since the preset time period is less than the third time period T3, it is equivalent to that the light-emitting unit is controlled to stop emitting light after the light-off instruction is received and the light-emitting unit still maintains emitting light for the preset time period, and the light-emitting time can be guaranteed to be T3 — the light-emitting time for the preset time period, so that it can be guaranteed that no light is emitted in the adjacent light detection stage.

Further, the preset time period is a preset second delay threshold value; or, the preset time period is less than a preset second delay threshold value; the light extinction unit 45 is further configured to control the light emitting unit to extinguish when the extinction delay timing unit monitors that the timing value of the extinction delay timing reaches the second delay threshold value.

Example two

The working principle of the ink cartridge control unit of the present invention is described in detail by the following specific examples:

in this embodiment, the ink cartridge control unit specifically delays both the light-on command and the light-off command; referring specifically to fig. 5, fig. 5 is a first schematic flowchart of the operation of the ink cartridge control unit according to the embodiment of the present invention, which includes:

501. the cartridge control unit receives a light emission control instruction from the image forming apparatus main body;

an instruction recognition unit, such as a cartridge control unit, receives a light emission control instruction transmitted from the image forming apparatus body from an interface unit on the cartridge.

502. The ink box control unit identifies that the received command is a light lightening command or a light extinguishing command;

the command recognition unit of the ink cartridge control unit recognizes the command as a light-on command or a light-off command according to the light control information in the light-emitting control command in table 1.

If the ink box control unit identifies that the light-emitting control instruction is a light-on instruction, continuing to execute 503 and 504; if the ink box control unit identifies that the light-emitting control instruction is a light-off instruction, the execution continues 505 and 506.

503. The ink box control unit starts the lighting delay timing;

when the instruction identification unit of the ink box control unit identifies that the light-emitting control instruction is a light-ray lighting instruction, the instruction identification unit notifies the lighting delay timing unit; the lighting delay timer unit starts the lighting delay timer.

504. The ink box control unit controls the light-emitting unit to emit light when monitoring that a timing value of the lighting delay timing reaches a preset first delay threshold value;

for example, when a lighting delay timing unit in the ink cartridge control unit monitors that a timing value of the lighting delay timing reaches a preset first delay threshold value, the lighting delay timing unit notifies the light lighting unit; the light ray lightening unit controls the light emitting unit to emit light. Of course, the light illumination unit may actively monitor whether the timing of the illumination delay timing unit reaches the first delay threshold.

In the present embodiment, the delay time for the ink cartridge control unit to control the light-emitting unit to delay light emission is referred to as a first delay threshold, and the first delay threshold is smaller than the first time period and larger than the second time period. The first time interval is a time interval of the imaging device main body performing a positive facing position detection phase on the ink cartridge to be detected, and can be represented by T1; the second period is a time interval in which the imaging apparatus main body performs the adjacent light detection phase on the cartridge to be detected, and may be denoted by T2. In the present embodiment, the first delay threshold is greater than the second period T2 and less than the first period T1.

In the present embodiment, the first delay threshold is designed to satisfy the above condition, i.e. greater than the second period T2 and less than the first period T1, based on the following considerations: since the first delay threshold value is greater than the second period T2, it corresponds to a period in which the light-emitting unit does not emit light due to a delay in performing adjacent light detection; meanwhile, since the first delay threshold is smaller than the first time period T1, it is equivalent to that in the period of the opposite position detection, there will be at least a light emitting time of T1-T1 duration after delaying for a certain time (T1 represents the first delay threshold) for detection, so as to ensure that the light quantity in the opposite position detection is inevitably larger than that in the adjacent light detection.

In addition, the ink box controls the light-emitting unit to emit light only when the received light-on command is delayed by a set first delay threshold value t1, if the delay time does not reach t1, the light-off command is received, the ink box directly controls the light-emitting unit not to emit light, and if the delay time reaches t1 and the light-off command is not received, the ink box controls the light-emitting unit to emit light.

505. The ink box control unit starts the extinguishing delay timing;

for example, when the instruction recognition unit of the ink cartridge control unit recognizes that the light emission control instruction is a light-off instruction, the light-off delay timing unit of the ink cartridge control unit starts the light-off delay timing. Similarly, the instruction recognition unit may notify the extinction delay timer unit of the instruction recognition result, or the extinction delay timer unit may actively obtain the instruction recognition result, which is not limited in this embodiment.

The start of the turn-on delay timer or the turn-off delay timer described in this embodiment may be started for the first time, or may be restarted after resetting the started timer.

506. The ink box control unit controls the light-emitting unit to extinguish when monitoring that the timing value of the extinguishing delay timer reaches a preset time period;

for example, a light extinction unit of the ink cartridge control unit is connected to the extinction delay timing unit, and when the extinction delay timing unit monitors that a timing value of the extinction delay timing reaches a preset time period, the light extinction unit controls the light-emitting unit to extinguish.

Wherein the preset time period is less than a third time period; the third time period T3 is a time interval between the current light-off command and the next light-on command issued, and also corresponds to a time interval between the facing position detecting stage and the adjacent light detecting stage.

In this embodiment, the ink cartridge delays the received light extinction instruction by the preset time period to control the light emitting unit to stop emitting light, and since the preset time period is less than the third time period T3, it is equivalent to control the light emitting unit to stop emitting light after the light extinction instruction is received and the light emitting unit still maintains emitting light for the preset time period, and it can also ensure that there is a light emission stop time of T3 — the preset time period, so it can ensure that no light is emitted in adjacent light detection stages. The preset time period of the present embodiment is the second delay threshold value t 2.

Specifically, the selection of the preset time period is related to the sensitivity of the optical receiver, and the higher the sensitivity of the optical receiver is, the smaller the preset time period should be selected; the lower the sensitivity of the light receiver, the larger the value of the preset time period can be selected, but, regardless of the selection, it must satisfy the condition of the preset time period < T3.

The light-emitting control modes of the ink box can be various, for example, when the opposite position detection and the adjacent light detection are carried out, a light-on instruction and a light-off instruction are sent to the corresponding ink box in sequence, the light-emitting unit of the ink box is controlled to emit light for a certain time, and each ink box does not distinguish whether the light-on instruction and the light-off instruction are used for carrying out the opposite position detection or the adjacent light detection; alternatively, the light emission control commands of the facing position detection and the adjacent light detection stages of a certain ink cartridge may be combined. In different light emission control modes, the division modes of the first time period, the second time period and the third time period are different; two alternatives are for example as follows:

alternatively, the control may be performed such that the paired light-on command and light-off command are sent independently during the period of the normal position detection and the adjacent light detection, and the ink cartridge is controlled to move to the normal position during the light emission control. In this embodiment, the first time period T1 is a time interval between the light-on command and the light-off command when the opposite position of the ink cartridge to be detected is detected; the second time interval T2 is the time interval between the light-on command and the light-off command during the adjacent light detection of the ink cartridge to be detected; the third time period T3 is a time interval between the positive position detection phase and the adjacent light detection phase, for example, a time interval between the light-off instruction of the positive position detection phase (the adjacent light detection phase) and the light-on instruction of the adjacent light detection phase (the positive position detection phase). In addition, since the imaging apparatus main body is independent of the light emission control instructions for the opposite position detection and the adjacent light detection of the ink cartridge to be detected, the order of the opposite position detection and the adjacent light detection of each ink cartridge to be detected is not limited.

Another optional mode is that if a certain ink cartridge needs to emit light as an adjacent ink cartridge of another ink cartridge and also as opposite position detection of the ink cartridge to be detected, and the above two light-emitting controls are continuous, only one set of light-on instruction and light-off instruction may be sent to make the ink cartridge emit light all the time, that is, the opposite position detection stage and the light-emitting control instruction of the adjacent light detection stage are combined. The period of time is at least the sum of the first period T1 and the second period T2. For this case, the above-described first period T1 is from the light-on instruction until the light receiver receives the light amount of the facing position detection, and the second period T2 is from the light amount of the adjacent light detection received by the light receiver until the light-off instruction. Alternatively, the above-described second period T2 is from the light-on instruction until the light receiver receives the amount of light for the position detection, and the first period T1 is from the light receiver receiving the amount of adjacent light detection until the light-off instruction. In addition, if the confronting position detection of the ink cartridge to be detected and the light emission control instruction as the adjacent light emission are combined, the scheme of the present embodiment is applicable to the case where the adjacent light detection is performed after or before the position detection.

In addition, the specific values of the first delay threshold t1 and the second delay threshold t2 configured for each ink cartridge control unit are preferably set according to the first time period, the second time period and the third time period corresponding to the time when the ink cartridge control unit is used as the ink cartridge to be detected. Moreover, since a plurality of ink cartridges are installed in one image forming apparatus, the corresponding first periods of time when different ink cartridges are to be inspected may be the same or different from each other, and the corresponding second periods of time may be the same or different from each other, and the corresponding third periods of time may be the same or different from each other. If the same is true, the first delay threshold value configured by each ink cartridge control unit is preferably greater than the largest second time period in the image forming apparatus and less than the smallest first time period; and the configured second delay threshold value is preferably less than the minimum third time period. If the delay time is different, the first delay threshold configured for each ink cartridge control unit may satisfy the rule of "being greater than the second time period, being less than the first time period" and the second delay threshold satisfying the rule of "being less than the third time period". Further, the delay threshold values configured by different ink cartridge control units may be the same or different from each other.

After the above-described arrangement is adopted in the present embodiment, as a result of detection of the light receiver on the imaging apparatus main body side, light is still received with the first light quantity in the period T1, and accordingly it is detected that the facing position detection is correct; in the period T2, no light is received, the light quantity is zero, and is inevitably smaller than the first light quantity, so that the adjacent light detection can be determined to be correct. Therefore, the technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the invention can meet the specific position detection requirement of the imaging equipment and overcome the defect of misjudgment rate caused by the manufacturing error of the ink box light-emitting unit. Moreover, the imaging device main body can be sold and used, and the scheme is adopted, so that the existing imaging device main bodies are not required to be changed, only the consumable ink box is required to be improved, and the popularization and the implementation are easy.

To describe the ink cartridge light emission control method provided in this embodiment more clearly, the control method will be described below by taking fig. 6a and 6b as an example.

In this embodiment, four ink cartridges, such as a BK ink cartridge, a C ink cartridge, an M ink cartridge, and a Y ink cartridge, which are loaded with different color inks and have the same shape, are loaded on a printer (image forming apparatus), and LED lamps (light emitting units) are all provided on the ink cartridges, and by observing and measuring the position detection process of the ink cartridges in the image forming apparatus main body, the movement and detection sequence of the plurality of ink cartridges in the position detection process can be obtained as follows:

FIG. 6a is a schematic diagram of the ordering of ink cartridges in another embodiment of the method for controlling the light emission of ink cartridges of the present invention, wherein four ink cartridges are driven by the carriage 201 to move; as can be seen from the above ink cartridge movement sequence, the two stages of the adjacent light detection as the BK ink cartridge and the opposite position detection as the ink cartridge to be detected by the C ink cartridge themselves are continuous, so in this embodiment, the adjacent light detection and the opposite position detection are combined, and only one light-ON command and one light-OFF command, that is, C ON and C OFF, are included. Specifically, the time interval between the light emission control commands issued by the printer when the respective ink cartridges perform the opposite direction position detection and the adjacent light detection, and the type of detection performed by the detection signal are shown in table 2. Where the time interval Δ t represents the time interval between the previous command and the next command, such as the time interval between BK ON and BK OFF of 800ms, the detection type N represents the adjacent light detection, P represents the facing position detection, and N + P represents the combination including the adjacent light detection and the facing position detection, such as at the C cartridge.

Table 2 time intervals between lighting control commands and detection types

For convenience of description, the emission control instruction issued hereinafter for the printer (image forming apparatus) is directly expressed in "color ID + emission control information" as an instruction BK ON indicating that the light emitting unit of the black cartridge is driven to emit light, and an instruction BK OFF indicating that the light emitting unit of the black cartridge is controlled to be turned OFF.

According to the Δ t and the detection type shown in table 2 and the detection sequence of the ink cartridge, when the ink cartridge detects the right position, the time interval between the instruction for controlling the LED lamp to be turned on and the instruction for controlling the LED lamp to be turned off is larger than 300 ms; when the adjacent light detection is carried out, the time interval between the light ray lighting instruction and the light ray extinguishing instruction is smaller and basically smaller than about 100ms, and the time interval between each light ray extinguishing instruction and the next light ray lighting instruction is unequal and basically not smaller than 7 ms. For this reason, in this example, it is preferable that the first delay threshold value is set to 200ms and the second delay threshold value is set to 3ms, so that when a plurality of ink cartridges perform the above-described detection process, it is possible to ensure that the position detection section is just successfully performed and to avoid performing adjacent light detection, thereby ensuring that the ink cartridge can be normally used even if the LED lamp (light emitting unit) is slightly weak in brightness and functions.

FIG. 6b is a schematic diagram of BK cartridge position detection in yet another embodiment of cartridge luminescence control method according to the present invention. As shown in fig. 6b, when the printer issues a BK ON command, the cartridge control units of the four cartridges each start the lighting delay timing when detecting the command, and until the timing value of the lighting delay timing reaches the first delay threshold value, the cartridge control units of the four cartridges each control the LED lamps thereon to emit light. After the light-emitting unit keeps emitting light for a period of time, the printer sends out a BK OFF instruction, at the moment, the ink box control units of the four ink boxes start turn-OFF delay timing when detecting the instruction, at the moment, the LED lamps of the four ink boxes still keep a light-emitting state, and until the timing value of the turn-OFF delay timing reaches a second delay threshold value, the ink box control units of the four ink boxes control the LED lamps to turn OFF. At this point, the facing position detection stage of the BK cartridge is completed. By analogy, when the printer sequentially sends out the control commands shown in table 2, the ink cartridges are executed according to the scheme.

In addition, in this embodiment, when the lighting delay time or the turning-off delay time reaches the first delay threshold value or the second delay threshold value, the lighting delay time or the turning-off delay time is stopped or reset, and the ink cartridge control unit controls the light emitting unit to emit or turn off. If the mode of stopping the lighting delay timing is adopted, the lighting delay timing or the extinguishing delay timing is reset and then the timing is started when the ink box control unit receives the light lighting instruction or the light extinguishing instruction again. After the lighting delay timing or the extinguishing delay timing is started, when the ink box control unit receives any lighting control instruction, the lighting delay timing or the extinguishing delay timing is stopped, and after the light lighting instruction or the light extinguishing instruction is received again, the lighting delay timing or the extinguishing delay timing is cleared or reset to restart the start of timing; or, the lighting delay timer or the extinguishing delay timer is directly cleared or reset, so that the lighting delay timer or the extinguishing delay timer can be directly started to restart the timer after receiving the light lighting instruction or the light extinguishing instruction again.

That is, in this embodiment, the lighting delay time counting unit 42 in the ink cartridge control unit is further configured to stop the lighting delay time counting when the instruction identifying unit receives any one of the light emission control instructions during the time counting after the lighting delay time counting is started when the preset time period is the preset second delay threshold value; or resetting the ignition delay timer;

the turning-off delay timing unit 44 is further configured to, when the preset time period is a preset second delay threshold value, stop the turning-off delay timing when the instruction identification unit receives any one of the light-emitting control instructions in a timing process after the turning-off delay timing is started; or resetting the blanking delay timer.

EXAMPLE III

The difference between this embodiment and the second embodiment is that the preset turning-off delay timer of this embodiment is a second delay threshold, the preset time period is smaller than the second delay threshold and smaller than a third time period, the value of the second delay threshold is greater than the third time period and smaller than the first time period T1, and the ink cartridge control unit can automatically control the light-emitting unit to turn off after the start of the turning-off delay timer reaches the preset time period.

Specifically, when the instruction identification unit of the ink cartridge control unit identifies that the light-emitting control instruction is a light-off instruction, the light-off delay timing unit starts light-off delay timing; when a light extinction unit of the ink box control unit monitors that the timing value of the extinction delay timer reaches the preset time period, the light-emitting unit is automatically controlled to extinguish; and when the ink box control unit monitors that the timing value of the extinguishing delay timer reaches a second delay threshold value, the ink box control unit controls the light-emitting unit to stop emitting light. Further, in the above-described extinction delay timer, the cartridge control unit does not execute the light emission control command received in the timer, and the extinction delay timer does not need to be stopped or reset. That is, the turn-off delay timer unit in the ink cartridge control unit of this embodiment is further configured to, when the preset time period is smaller than a preset second delay threshold value, in a timing process after the turn-off delay timer is started, when the instruction identification unit receives any one of the light-emitting control instructions, not execute the light-emitting control instruction, and the turn-off delay timer does not execute the stop or reset operation but continues the timing. The rest steps are the same as the previous embodiment and are not described again.

To more clearly describe the scheme of controlling the light emission of the ink cartridge provided in this embodiment, the control method is described below with reference to the BK ink cartridge as an example based on fig. 7.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of BK cartridge position detection in an embodiment of the cartridge luminescence control method of the present invention. As shown in fig. 7, when the printer issues a BK ON command, the cartridge control units of the four cartridges each start the lighting delay timing until the timing value of the lighting delay timing reaches the first delay threshold value, and the cartridge control units of the four cartridges each control the LED lamps thereon to emit light. After the light-emitting unit keeps emitting light for a period of time, the printer sends out a BK OFF instruction, at the moment, the ink box control units of the four ink boxes start turn-OFF delay timing, the LED lamps of the four ink boxes still keep a light-emitting state, until a timing value of the turn-OFF delay timing reaches a specific value, namely a preset time period, the ink box control units of the four ink boxes automatically control the LED lamps on the ink box control units to turn OFF, and the turn-OFF delay timing continues to perform timing. When the timing of the turn-off delay timer reaches a second delay threshold value and no new light-emitting control instruction is received in the period, the ink box control units of the four ink boxes control the LED lamps on the ink box to turn off again, namely the four LED lamps maintain the turn-off state. At this point, the facing position detection stage of the BK cartridge is completed. By analogy, when the printer sequentially sends out the control commands shown in table 2, the ink cartridges are executed according to the scheme.

In addition, as in the first embodiment, when the lighting delay timer or the extinguishing delay timer reaches the first delay threshold value or the second delay threshold value, the lighting delay timer or the extinguishing delay timer is stopped or reset, and the cartridge control unit controls the light emitting unit to emit light or extinguish. However, during the timing of the turn-on delay timer or the turn-off delay timer, if a new light-emitting control command is received, the ink cartridge control unit does not execute the new light-emitting control command, and does not need to stop timing and reset or clear until a preset timing value is reached, such as a first delay threshold value and a second delay threshold value, and then stops timing or directly resets or clears the preset timing value.

Example four

The following is further described: since there is an error in the light emission amount of the light emitting units on each cartridge, there may be a problem that the light emission amount of the cartridge in the opposite position detection stage is insufficient during the position detection process, so that the cartridge cannot pass the opposite position detection stage. (the foregoing embodiment also describes the case where such a plurality of ink cartridges are simultaneously lighted or extinguished).

Fig. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of another embodiment of the ink cartridge control unit of the present invention, and the instruction recognition unit 41 in the ink cartridge control unit of this embodiment may include: an instruction receiving subunit 411, a cartridge determining subunit 412, and a light control subunit 413; wherein,

an instruction receiving subunit 411 configured to receive a light emission control instruction from the image forming apparatus main body, the light emission control instruction including cartridge identification information and light control information;

an ink cartridge determining subunit 412, connected to the instruction receiving subunit 411, configured to determine, according to the ink cartridge identification information, the ink cartridge identification information of at least two ink cartridges as the ink cartridge identification information of the ink cartridge in which the ink cartridge control unit is located, and determine, according to a determination result, that the light-emitting control instruction is the light-emitting control instruction of the ink cartridge in which the light-emitting control unit is located;

and a light control subunit 413, connected to the instruction receiving subunit 411, and configured to determine, according to light control information in the light emission control instruction, that the light emission control instruction is a light turning-on instruction or a light turning-off instruction.

Specifically, the light emission control instruction of the image forming apparatus main body includes: cartridge identification information and light control information; the present embodiment performs light emission control on the light emitting unit of the ink cartridge, and may be designed to control the light emitting unit of the ink cartridge to emit light or to be turned off only according to the light control information.

In this embodiment, the plurality of ink cartridges are connected in a collinear manner, so that each ink cartridge can receive any light-emitting control instruction sent by the imaging device main body, and each ink cartridge can execute one-time control on the light-emitting unit according to the ink cartridge light-emitting control method when receiving one control instruction, so that the plurality of light-emitting units are ensured to be simultaneously lightened or extinguished, and each ink cartridge is ensured to smoothly pass through the dead-position detection stage. That is, the ink cartridge control unit of the present embodiment controls the light emitting unit only according to the light control information in the light emission control command, and ignores the ink cartridge identification information in the control command.

Optionally, in the position detection process of each ink cartridge in this embodiment, at least two ink cartridges and the ink cartridge are turned on or off at the same time, as long as the ink cartridges can pass through the position detection stage; in this embodiment, the ink cartridges may be connected by a bus or by a single line, which is not limited to this.

For example, as shown in table 1, the cartridge identification information in the light-emitting control command preferably includes at least two logical values, so the following manner is adopted in this embodiment to control the light-emitting units of at least two cartridges to emit light simultaneously: the ink box control unit determines that the received ink box identification information is the ink box identification information of the ink box by discarding the logic value of part or all bits in the ink box identification information and comparing the logic value of the rest bits with the logic value of the corresponding bits in the ink box identification information of the ink box, so that more than two ink boxes can be simultaneously lightened. If all the bits are discarded, the remaining bits do not exist, and the light emission control command is sent to all the cartridges. In this case, if the first and second delay threshold values used by the plurality of cartridge control units are the same, the light emitting units of the plurality of cartridges may be simultaneously turned on or off.

In addition, in the embodiment, the interface unit on the ink cartridge is an electrical contact which is in contact with a contact pin of the printer to exchange information, so that the logic value can be transmitted and received in an electrical contact mode; preferably, the discarding or not of the logic value can be realized by switching or opening the switch of the electrical contact, for example, the discarding of the logic value of the bit is realized when the switch is opened, or the discarding of the logic value can also be preset.

EXAMPLE five

The embodiment provides an ink box luminescence control circuit board, which comprises an interface unit, a storage unit and an ink box control unit, wherein the interface unit is used for receiving a signal sent by an imaging device main body, the signal comprises a luminescence control instruction, the storage unit is used for storing ink box identification information, and the interface unit and the storage unit are respectively connected with the ink box control unit; the ink box control unit adopts the utility model discloses arbitrary embodiment ink box control unit.

Further, the cartridge identification information includes at least two logical values; the interface unit is an electrical contact for receiving a high voltage or a low voltage transmitted from the image forming apparatus body to form an instruction including the at least two-bit logic value, thereby forming cartridge identification information.

Further, the method also comprises the following steps: a light emitting unit disposed toward the light receiver on the image forming apparatus main body, for emitting light toward the light receiver; and is connected to the cartridge control unit.

EXAMPLE six

This embodiment provides an ink horn, including the ink horn main part, still include the utility model discloses arbitrary embodiment the luminous control circuit board of ink horn.

Alternatively, the ink cartridge may include: a light emitting unit disposed toward the light receiver on the image forming apparatus main body, for emitting light toward the light receiver; the light-emitting unit is arranged on the ink box light-emitting control circuit board or the ink box main body.

EXAMPLE seven

The embodiment provides an image forming apparatus including an image forming apparatus main body including at least a light receiver, a carriage, and a position detecting module, and at least two ink cartridges; the at least two ink boxes are fixedly arranged on the carriage, and the carriage is movably arranged relative to the optical receiver;

the ink box adopts the ink box of any embodiment of the utility model;

the position detection module includes:

Further, the light emission amount detection unit is specifically configured to determine that the position of the ink cartridge to be detected is correct when it is recognized that the first light emission amount received in the first period is larger than the first set light emission amount, and the second light emission amount received in the second period is smaller than the first light emission amount and the second set light emission amount. Wherein the second set light emission amount corresponds to a received light amount threshold value of an adjacent light detection stage.

Further, at least two ink cartridges included in the image forming apparatus respectively have different corresponding first time periods when the ink cartridges are to be detected, and also have different corresponding second time periods and third time periods, a first delay threshold value configured by an ink cartridge control unit in each ink cartridge is greater than a largest second time period and less than a smallest first time period in the image forming apparatus, and a preset time period configured by each ink cartridge control unit is less than a smallest third time period.

Further, the first delay threshold value and the preset time period configured by the ink cartridge control units of different ink cartridges are the same or different from each other.

For example, fig. 9 is a first structural schematic diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in fig. 9, the first structural schematic diagram is installed in a plurality of ink cartridges of the main body of the image forming apparatus, the ink cartridge control unit and the light emitting unit may be only disposed on one ink cartridge, and the rest of the ink cartridges are not disposed, at this time, the light transmitter 3300 may be disposed through the first structural schematic diagram to guide light to the position where each ink cartridge corresponds to the light receiver when the light emitting unit emits light.

Alternatively, the image forming apparatus may include: a transfer rack; the adapter rack is mounted on the imaging device main body, and the ink box is mounted on the adapter rack; the at least two light-emitting units are arranged on the switching frame and correspond to the ink boxes loaded into the switching frame one by one.

For example, fig. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of an embodiment of the image forming apparatus of the present invention, and as shown in fig. 10, in this embodiment, a mode that one ink cartridge control unit controls a plurality of light emitting units may also be adopted. Specifically, the ink cartridge control unit and the plurality of light emitting units 3100 may be disposed on a transfer rack 3000 (the ink cartridge control unit is not shown in the drawings, and may be disposed on the transfer rack 3000 or on one of the ink cartridges, and the ink cartridge control unit is connected to the plurality of light emitting units 3100), and the transfer rack 3000 is disposed between the ink cartridge and the image forming apparatus main body, and a space 3200 for accommodating the plurality of ink cartridges is provided on the transfer rack 3000, that is, the transfer rack 3000 is first mounted on the image forming apparatus main body, and then the plurality of ink cartridges are mounted on the transfer rack 3000, and at this time, the plurality of light emitting units 3100 correspond to the plurality of loaded ink cartridges one by one. Therefore, the ink box is not required to be provided with the ink box control unit and the light-emitting unit, and only a storage unit for storing the relevant information of the ink box is required to be arranged so as to carry out data transmission or read-write operation with the imaging device main body. In addition, as can be understood by those skilled in the art, in the above technical solution, the plurality of light-emitting units may also be respectively disposed on the plurality of ink cartridges, and at this time, the ink cartridge control unit disposed on the adapter rack and the plurality of ink cartridges are only connected to each other through the interface unit on the ink cartridge, and the light-emitting units may be controlled according to the light-emitting control instruction sent by the imaging device main body.

Example eight

Fig. 11 is a schematic flow chart of a method for controlling the light emission of the ink cartridge according to another embodiment of the ink cartridge control unit of the present invention, in which the ink cartridge control unit of this embodiment specifically uses a light-on command as a timing starting point and combines a counting manner for the light-on command. As shown in fig. 11, the control method may include:

901. the cartridge control unit receives a light emission control instruction from the image forming apparatus main body;

902. the ink box control unit identifies that the received command is a light lightening command or a light extinguishing command;

the ink box control unit identifies the command as a light-on command or a light-off command according to light control information in the light-emitting control command;

if the ink box control unit identifies that the light-emitting control instruction is a light-ray lighting instruction, continuing to execute 903; if the cartridge control unit recognizes that the lighting control instruction is a light-off instruction, execution continues 906.

903. The ink cartridge control unit determines whether to execute according to whether the light emission control instruction is equal to a predetermined value;

if the occurrence times of the light ray lightening instruction are accumulated to be a preset value, the light ray lightening instruction is not executed; if the cumulative number of occurrences of the light illumination instruction is not equal to the predetermined value, 904 is executed, 905.

904. The ink box control unit starts delay timing;

when the ink box control unit recognizes that the accumulated times of the light lightening instructions are not equal to the preset value, the light-emitting unit is not immediately controlled to emit light, but is controlled to emit light in a delayed mode, and therefore delay timing is started.

905. The ink box control unit controls the light-emitting unit to emit light when monitoring that the timing value of the delay timing reaches a preset delay threshold value;

906. the ink box control unit determines whether the delay timing is started or finished, if the delay timing is started and/or the timing is not finished, the received light extinction instruction is not executed; if the delay timer is not started and/or the timer is completed, the received light-out command is executed.

In this embodiment, the ink cartridge control unit controls the light-emitting unit to emit light only when the timing value of the delay timing reaches the delay threshold value; if the delay timing is started and the delay time does not reach the preset delay threshold value, the light-off instruction is received, and the received light-off instruction is ignored at the moment and is not executed. If the light-off instruction is received after the delay time reaches the preset delay threshold value and the light-emitting unit is controlled to emit light, the received light-off instruction is directly executed at the moment, and the light-emitting unit is controlled to be off. If the delay time does not reach the preset delay threshold value, the light ray lighting instruction is received, timing or resetting is stopped at the moment, and the light ray lighting instruction is executed in a delayed mode or is not executed according to the control principle.

The delay time for the ink cartridge control unit to control the light-emitting unit to delay light emission is called a delay threshold, and the delay threshold is smaller than a first time period. The first time interval is a time interval of the imaging device body performing a positive position detection stage on the ink box to be detected.

As described above, each of the ink cartridges needs to perform the opposite position detection and the relative position detection, and the image forming apparatus main body issues the light-on command and the light-off command respectively at the opposite position detection stage and the relative position detection stage, and for this reason, the ink cartridge control unit counts the received light-on commands and sets the predetermined value as the cumulative number of light-on commands corresponding to the light-on commands of the adjacent light detection stage at the time of occurrence among all the light-on commands received by the ink cartridge control unit.

As shown in table 3, the setting of the predetermined value will be described by taking only a part of the light emission control command as an example.

For example, the predetermined value may be an accumulated number of light-on commands corresponding to light-on commands of adjacent light detection stages occurring in sequence. As shown in table 3, according to the issue sequence, if BK ON is used as the issue sequence of the light-ON commands in the adjacent light detection stage of the C ink cartridge, which is 5, but the cumulative number of the light-ON commands corresponding to BK ON is 3, the predetermined value may be set to 3, and if the ink cartridge control unit counts that the number of the received light-ON commands is 3, the light-ON command BK ON is not executed, and the light-emitting unit in the adjacent light detection stage is in the off state; and when M ON appears, the accumulated quantity of the corresponding light ray lightening instructions is 4 and is not equal to 3, and the light ray lightening instructions are executed at the moment to control the light-emitting unit to emit light. As described above, since the C cartridge emits light as an adjacent cartridge of the BK cartridge and the opposite position detection light as the cartridge to be detected are continuous operations, only one set of light-ON command and light-OFF command is transmitted at this time, and therefore, the adjacent light detection stage and the opposite position detection stage are included in the C ON and C OFF, and if the C ON command is not directly executed, the light receiver may not collect a sufficient amount of light at the opposite position detection stage of the C cartridge.

Therefore, the predetermined value may be set to the accumulated number of the light-on commands corresponding to the light-on commands in the adjacent light detection stages, which are required to avoid the light-emitting unit from emitting light, among all the light-on commands received by the ink cartridge control unit. One or more predetermined values may be included in each cartridge, and the specific quantities and values may be selected according to specific circumstances or needs.

TABLE 3 cumulative number of light control commands

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the predetermined value may also be set as the cumulative number of light-emitting control commands corresponding to the occurrence of light-emitting control commands in the adjacent light-detecting stages that are required to avoid light emission of the light-emitting unit, among all light-emitting control commands received by the ink cartridge control unit. As described in table 3, as the BK ON command of the adjacent light detection stage of the C cartridge, the cumulative number of light emission control commands corresponding to the occurrence time thereof is 5, so the predetermined value may be set to 5.

Specifically, fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of another embodiment of the ink cartridge control unit of the present invention, which can execute the ink cartridge control method described above. The ink cartridge control unit includes: an instruction recognition unit 1301 and an instruction processing unit 1302. The instruction processing unit 1302 specifically includes: a delay timer subunit 1401, a light lighting subunit 1402, and a light extinguishing subunit 1403;

a delay timing subunit 1401, configured to, when the instruction identifying unit 1301 identifies that the light-emitting control instruction is a light-emitting instruction, start delay timing if the cumulative number of light-emitting instructions or the cumulative number of light-emitting control instructions corresponding to the occurrence of the light-emitting instruction is not equal to a predetermined value;

a light lighting subunit 1402, configured to control the light emitting unit to emit light when the delay timing subunit 1401 monitors that the timing value of the delay timing reaches a preset delay threshold value; if the accumulated quantity of the corresponding light ray lightening instructions or the accumulated quantity of the light emitting control instructions is equal to a preset value when the light ray lightening instructions appear, the light ray lightening instructions are not executed;

a light-off subunit, configured to, when the instruction identifying unit 1301 identifies that the light-emitting control instruction is a light-off instruction, if the delay timing subunit 1401 is still counting time at this time, not execute the light-off instruction; if the delay timer subunit 1401 does not start the timing or the timing is finished, the light-emitting unit is controlled to be turned off.

The delay threshold value of the delay timer is less than the first time interval.

In addition, the light-lighting subunit 1402 in the ink cartridge control unit is specifically further configured to count the light-emitting control instructions or light-lighting instructions that are sent by the imaging device main body to the at least two ink cartridges, so as to obtain the accumulated number.

In addition, in this embodiment, the ink cartridge control unit may control the light-emitting unit to emit light only according to the light control information in the light-emitting control instruction, or may control the light-emitting unit to emit light by using the light control information after selecting the relevant ink cartridge according to the ink cartridge identification information in the light-emitting control instruction.

The cartridge control unit of the present embodiment may also be a unit in the cartridge lighting control circuit board as described above, for example, the circuit board includes: the ink cartridge control unit comprises an interface unit for receiving signals sent by the main body of the imaging device, a storage unit for storing ink cartridge identification information and the ink cartridge control unit; the ink box comprises an ink box main body and the ink box light-emitting control circuit board, wherein the ink box control unit is arranged on the circuit board. In addition, the above predetermined value may be stored in a storage unit. The storage unit may be provided independently or may be integrated in the cartridge control unit.

Similarly, the ink cartridge and the image forming apparatus may include the ink cartridge control unit.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that: all or a portion of the steps of implementing the above-described method embodiments may be performed by hardware associated with program instructions. The program may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. When executed, the program performs steps comprising the method embodiments described above; and the aforementioned storage medium includes: various media that can store program codes, such as ROM, RAM, magnetic or optical disks.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that "a plurality of ink cartridges are simultaneously lighted or extinguished" may be implemented by storing the cartridge identification information of a plurality of ink cartridges in the storage unit of each ink cartridge, as described above, because the plurality of ink boxes are connected by buses (in a collinear way), after the ink-jet printer sends out a lighting control command, after receiving the light-emitting control instruction, the control unit of each ink box acquires the ink box identification information and the light control information of the light-emitting control instruction, and comparing the ink cartridge identification information of the light emission control command with a plurality of ink cartridge identification information stored in the storage unit in advance, if the plurality of ink cartridge identification information stored in advance includes the ink cartridge identification information in the light emission control command, the control unit of each ink cartridge controls each light emitting unit to emit light or to be turned off according to the light control information.

It should be understood by those skilled in the art that, in the above embodiments, the ink cartridge control unit may not only adopt a mode of controlling a plurality of ink cartridges to be turned on or off at the same time, but also adopt a mode of selecting a specific ink cartridge and then controlling the light-emitting unit to emit light after receiving a light-emitting control instruction. Specifically, the ink box control unit acquires ink box identification information and light control information in the light-emitting control instruction, compares the ink box identification information with ink box identification information stored in the storage unit in advance, controls the light-emitting unit of the ink box to emit light or extinguish if the ink box identification information is consistent with the ink box identification information, and does not execute the light-emitting control instruction if the ink box identification information is inconsistent with the ink box identification information; thus, the ink cartridges can be controlled to be sequentially lightened.

Finally, it should be noted that: the above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solution of the present invention, and not to limit the same; although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that: the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments may still be modified, or some or all of the technical features may be equivalently replaced; such modifications and substitutions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. The ink box control unit is arranged on an ink box which is detachably arranged on an imaging device main body, the imaging device main body is provided with a light receiver, the ink box also comprises an interface unit for receiving a signal sent by the imaging device main body and a storage unit for storing identification information of the ink box, the ink box control unit is connected with a light-emitting unit which emits light towards the light receiver and is used for controlling the light-emitting unit to emit light or extinguish, and the imaging device main body is provided with at least two ink boxes;

characterized in that the ink cartridge control unit comprises: the device comprises an instruction identification unit, a lighting delay timing unit, a light lighting unit, a light extinguishing delay timing unit and a light extinguishing unit;

the light ray lighting unit is connected with the lighting delay timing unit and used for controlling the light-emitting unit to emit light when the lighting delay timing unit monitors that the timing value of the lighting delay timing reaches a preset first delay threshold value; the first delay threshold value is less than a first time period and greater than a second time period;

the light extinguishing unit is connected with the extinguishing delay timing unit and used for controlling the light emitting unit to extinguish when the extinguishing delay timing unit monitors that the timing value of the extinguishing delay timing reaches a preset time period, wherein the preset time period is less than a third time period;

2. The cartridge control unit of claim 1, wherein the preset time period is a preset second delay threshold value;

or, the preset time period is less than a preset second delay threshold value; the light ray extinguishing unit is further configured to control the light emitting unit to extinguish when the extinguishing delay timing unit monitors that the timing value of the extinguishing delay timing reaches the second delay threshold value.

3. The cartridge control unit according to claim 2,

the lighting delay timing unit is further configured to, when the preset time period is a preset second delay threshold value, stop the lighting delay timing when the instruction identification unit receives any one of the light emission control instructions in a timing process after the lighting delay timing is started; or resetting the ignition delay timer;

the extinguishing delay timing unit is further configured to, when the preset time period is a preset second delay threshold value, stop the extinguishing delay timing when the instruction identification unit receives any one of the light-emitting control instructions in a timing process after the extinguishing delay timing is started; or resetting the blanking delay timer.

4. The cartridge control unit according to claim 2,

the extinguishing delay timing unit is further configured to, when the preset time period is smaller than a preset second delay threshold value, in a timing process after the extinguishing delay timing is started, when the instruction identification unit receives any one of the light-emitting control instructions, not execute the light-emitting control instruction, and the extinguishing delay timing does not execute the stopping or resetting operation but continues the timing.

5. The cartridge control unit according to claim 1, wherein the instruction recognition unit includes:

an instruction receiving subunit configured to receive a light emission control instruction from the image forming apparatus main body, the light emission control instruction including cartridge identification information and light control information;

the ink box determining subunit is connected with the instruction receiving subunit and is used for determining the ink box identification information of at least two ink boxes as the ink box identification information of the ink box where the ink box control unit is located according to the ink box identification information, and determining that the light-emitting control instruction is the light-emitting control instruction of the ink box where the light-emitting control unit is located according to a determination result;

and the light ray control subunit is connected with the instruction receiving subunit and used for determining that the light-emitting control instruction is a light ray lighting instruction or a light ray extinguishing instruction according to the light ray control information in the light-emitting control instruction.

6. An ink box luminescence control circuit board comprises an interface unit, a storage unit and an ink box control unit, wherein the interface unit is used for receiving a signal sent by an imaging device main body, the signal comprises a luminescence control instruction, the storage unit is used for storing ink box identification information, and the interface unit and the storage unit are respectively connected with the ink box control unit; the ink cartridge control unit is characterized in that the ink cartridge control unit according to any one of claims 1 to 5 is adopted.

7. The cartridge lighting control circuit board of claim 6, wherein the cartridge identification information comprises at least two logical values; then

The interface unit is an electrical contact for receiving a high voltage or a low voltage transmitted from the image forming apparatus main body to form an instruction including the at least two-bit logic value.

8. The cartridge lighting control circuit board of claim 6, further comprising: a light emitting unit disposed toward the light receiver on the image forming apparatus main body, for emitting light toward the light receiver; and is connected to the cartridge control unit.

9. An ink cartridge comprising a cartridge main body, characterized by further comprising the cartridge lighting control circuit board according to claim 6 or 7.

10. The ink cartridge as claimed in claim 9, further comprising: a light emitting unit disposed toward the light receiver on the image forming apparatus main body, for emitting light toward the light receiver; the light-emitting unit is arranged on the ink box light-emitting control circuit board or the ink box main body.

11. An image forming apparatus includes an image forming apparatus main body including at least a light receiver, a carriage, and a position detecting module; the at least two ink boxes are fixedly arranged on the carriage, and the carriage is movably arranged relative to the optical receiver; it is characterized in that the preparation method is characterized in that,

the ink cartridge is the ink cartridge according to claim 9 or 10;

the position detection module includes:

12. The apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the light-emission amount detection unit is configured to determine that the position of the cartridge to be detected is correct when it is recognized that a first light-emission amount received in a first period is larger than a first set light-emission amount and a second light-emission amount received in a second period is smaller than the first light-emission amount and the second set light-emission amount.

13. The image forming apparatus according to claim 11, wherein at least two cartridges included in the image forming apparatus, each as a cartridge to be inspected, have corresponding first periods different from each other, and corresponding second and third periods different from each other, respectively, the cartridge control unit in each cartridge is configured to have a first delay threshold value larger than a largest second period in the image forming apparatus and smaller than a smallest first period, and each cartridge control unit is configured to have a preset period smaller than a smallest third period.

14. The image forming apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the first delay threshold value and the preset time period configured by the cartridge control units of different cartridges are the same as or different from each other.

15. The imaging apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the light emitting unit is disposed in a position directly opposite to the light receiver;

or the light-emitting unit is arranged at a position deviated from the light receiver, and an optical guide member is arranged between the light-emitting unit and the light receiver and used for guiding light rays emitted when the light-emitting unit emits light to a position of each ink box opposite to the light receiver.

16. The imaging apparatus of claim 11, further comprising: a transfer rack; the adapter rack is mounted on the imaging device main body, and the ink box is mounted on the adapter rack;

the at least two light-emitting units are arranged on the switching frame and correspond to the ink boxes loaded into the switching frame one by one.