KR100424002B1 - How to alert the printer to run out of paper - Google Patents

Abstract

end. The technical field to which the invention described in the claims belongs

An image forming apparatus having an automatic sheet feeding apparatus is provided for a method of warning of a lack of paper in a sheet feeding cassette.

I. The technical problem to be solved by the invention

A paper shortage warning method is provided to warn the user of a paper shortage in the paper feed cassette.

All. Summary of Solution of the Invention

A printer equipped with a paper remaining amount sensing device that detects the remaining amount of paper loaded in the paper feed cassette and capable of bidirectional communication with a personal computer, wherein the amount of paper loaded in the paper feed cassette is checked to determine the amount of paper loaded in the paper feed cassette. Displays a message warning you of the lack of paper.

la. Important uses of the invention

It is used to warn the user of the lack of paper in the personal computer.

Description

Printer out of paper warning

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a printer having an automatic paper feeder, and more particularly, to a method for warning of a lack of paper in a paper feed cassette.

Typically, a printer such as a laser beam printer, a LPH (LED Print Head) printer, an ink jet printer, or the like is provided with an automatic paper feeder. The automatic document feeder is used to feed the paper loaded in the paper feed cassette into the inside of the device during printing. If the paper runs out of paper in the cassette, printing cannot be done or paper must be fed using the manual feeder. Accordingly, a printer equipped with an automatic paper feeder employs a paper sensing device for detecting the presence of paper in the paper feed cassette. When there is no paper in the paper feed cassette, it is placed on an operating panel (hereinafter referred to as "OPE"). By displaying it to the user. In this case, however, only the presence or absence of paper in the paper feed cassette could be detected, but the amount of paper remaining was unknown. That is, as long as even one sheet of paper remains in the paper cassette, it is displayed as normal, and even if only one sheet or a very small amount of paper remains in the paper cassette, the user could not know this in advance unless the user checks the paper cassette.

Accordingly, in the past, when printing a large number of documents, one or a few sheets were printed and the paper was not found. Therefore, the printing was stopped in the middle of printing and the paper was prepared and loaded into a paper cassette. Particularly, in case of urgent printing, there is a problem of causing troubles due to time delay due to paper loading during printing.

On the other hand, the printer of the HP LJ4 or higher has a device capable of checking the remaining amount of paper in the paper cassette, so that the user can visually check the remaining paper amount. In the HP LJ4 printer, when the paper remaining amount checking device installed in the paper feed cassette is filled with a lot of paper, the paper remaining amount checking device is lifted up and disappears from the paper feeding cassette as the paper presses the bottom surface of the paper cassette. Accordingly, the user perceives that the paper remaining amount in the paper feed cassette is sufficient. On the other hand, if there is less paper remaining in the paper cassette, the lower surface of the paper cassette is lifted and the paper remaining amount checking device is lowered accordingly. Accordingly, the user was able to recognize how much of the remaining paper was low depending on how much the paper remaining amount checking device came down. However, if several people use the printer by using the router, the user has to go to the location where the printer is installed and check the remaining amount of paper.

Recently developed printers use the P1284 protocol through a parallel cable between the personal computer and the printer to communicate various conditions such as the printer's on-line, off-line, paper jam, and cover open. The error state of the printer can be known through the monitor screen of the personal computer by software that can confirm the state of the printer on the personal computer by communication. However, this does not provide a function to check the remaining amount of paper in the paper feed cassette of the printer with a personal computer.

Accordingly, Patent Application No. 95-42255, entitled "Residual Recognition of Printer Cassette", filed on November 20, 1995, by the same applicant as the present applicant, allows a personal computer to recognize the amount of paper remaining in the printer feed cassette. The technique is disclosed. The patent application No. 95-42255 checks the paper remaining amount using a paper remaining amount detecting device installed in the paper feed cassette and transfers it to the personal computer for display on the monitor screen of the personal computer.

However, according to the patent application No. 95-42255, although the user can know the remaining amount of paper in the paper feed cassette of the printer through the monitor screen, if the user does not pay attention to it, the above problems still persist due to the lack of paper Appeared.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a paper shortage warning method that can warn a user of a paper shortage in a paper feed cassette.

The present invention for achieving the above object is provided with a paper remaining amount sensing device for detecting the remaining amount of paper loaded in the paper cassette, and in a printer capable of bidirectional communication with a personal computer, by checking the amount of paper loaded in the paper cassette, If the number of sheets is less than the prescribed number, a message for warning of a paper shortage is displayed on the monitor of the personal computer.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description and the annexed drawings, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the present invention, such as the structure of specific elements or components, circuits, or process flows. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. And a detailed description of known functions and configurations that may obscure the subject matter of the present invention will be omitted. For convenience, the present invention will be described as an example where the present invention is applied to the case of using a laser beam printer.

1 shows a system configuration for carrying out the present invention, which shows a configuration in which a personal computer and a laser beam printer are connected, and a paper remaining amount detecting unit 28 for carrying out the present invention in a conventional laser beam printer. It is further provided. The laser beam printer is largely composed of a video controller 10, a print engine unit 20, and an OPE 18 which is a user interface means. The video controller 10 includes a computer interface 12, a video control unit 14, and an engine interface 16. The computer interface 12 is a parallel interface supporting bidirectional communication as described above and interfaces various commands and data transmitted and received between the personal computer and the video control unit 14. The video controller 14 communicates with the personal computer through the computer interface 12 and controls the print engine 20 according to various commands and image data input from the personal computer and the OPE 18 to print various functions including printing. Do this. The engine interface 16 interfaces the input / output signals between the video control unit 14 and the print engine unit 20. The OPE 18 includes a plurality of keys capable of inputting various commands and a display device for displaying information according to the operation of the printer.

In addition, the print engine unit 20 includes a video interface 22, an engine controller 24, an input / output (I / O) interface 26, a paper remaining amount detection unit 28, a mechanism driving unit 30, and an electrophotographic phenomenon. It is composed of a part 32 is connected to the video controller 10. The video interface 22 provides an interface for transmission and reception signals between the video controller 10 and the engine controller 24. The engine control unit 24 controls the mechanical drive unit 30 and the electrophotographic developing unit 32 under the control of the video controller 10, and prints an image according to the image data received from the video controller 10 on paper. In addition, the engine control unit 24 transmits data corresponding to the remaining amount of paper input from the remaining paper amount detecting unit 28 to the video control unit 14. The I / O interface 26 is connected between the engine control unit 24, the paper remaining amount detecting unit 28, the mechanical drive unit 30, and the electrophotographic developing unit 32 to interface the input / output signals of the engine control unit 24. . The paper remaining amount detecting unit 28 outputs data having a value corresponding to the remaining amount of paper to the engine control unit 24. The paper remaining amount detecting unit 28 detects the remaining amount of paper according to its mounting height. The mechanism driving unit 30 drives various mechanisms for feeding and conveying paper and printing images under the control of the engine control unit 24, and the electrophotographic developing unit 32 is controlled by the engine control unit 24 to display an image. Print on paper.

Unlike a conventional printer, the printer may include a paper remaining amount detecting unit 28 to detect a remaining amount of paper in a paper cassette (not shown). The paper remaining amount detecting unit 28 may be, for example, illustrated in FIG. As shown, the mechanism of the sensor unit S of FIG. 2 is configured as shown in FIG. 3.

1 to 3 are attached to the above-mentioned patent application No. 95-42255 as the first to third views and are disclosed in detail, so the detailed description will be omitted and only a rough paper remaining amount sensing operation will be described. In FIG. 2, the bottom reference point is fixed according to the amount of paper loaded in the paper feed cassette, and the sensor unit S as shown in FIG. 3 is installed using the point where the mounting height H is changed. Then, the resistance value of the variable resistor VR is changed according to the position change of the sensor unit S according to the remaining amount of paper, and the voltage value corresponding to the resistance value change is converted into digital data by the A / D converter 34. The video is transmitted to the video control unit 14 through the engine control unit 24. Accordingly, the video control unit 14 can check the paper remaining amount from the data output from the paper remaining amount detecting device.

The present invention provides a paper shortage by performing an operation according to the flowcharts of FIGS. 4 and 5 by partially modifying the software showing the error state of the printer as described above in the printer having the paper remaining amount detecting unit 28 as described above. Warning. 4 is a flow chart of a personal computer according to an embodiment of the present invention, which shows a flow of software showing an error state of a printer as described above. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a printer according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, which illustrates a processing flow of the video controller 14.

An operation example of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4. First, the video controller 14 checks for an engine error in step 36 of FIG. 4 while performing a standby mode or printing. At this time, when the engine error signal is input from the print engine unit 20, the error state is transmitted to the personal computer as described above in step 44 and returned to the main routine. The personal computer then responds to these steps (46) to (48) in Fig. 5 and displays the corresponding error state on the monitor screen in step 52 and returns to the main routine. This process is the same as the operation showing the error state of the printer as described above.

On the other hand, if the engine error state is not in step (36), the video control unit 14 checks the amount of paper loaded in the paper feed cassette in step (38) from the data output from the paper remaining amount detecting unit 28 in step (40). Check whether the number is less than the prescribed number. At this time, if the amount of paper is less than or equal to the predetermined number of sheets, the video controller 14 transmits the paper shortage status to the personal computer through the computer interface 12 and returns to the main routine. At this time, the video control unit 14 transmits the paper shortage status to the personal computer as one of the printer errors as described above. The prescribed number of sheets can be set to, for example, about 20 sheets in view of the normal number of prints. The personal computer then displays and returns a message warning the paper shortage on the screen of the monitor in response to receiving the paper shortage condition from the printer in steps 46 to 48.

Therefore, the user can be warned in advance of the shortage of paper before all the paper in the paper feed cassette is exhausted. In this case, the personal computer may display a low paper warning message in the same manner as the normal warning message. For example, if a printer is not in an error state in a window environment, the printer is in an icon state, and when a paper out condition is received from the printer, a window is displayed to alert the personal computer user.

As described above, the present invention can warn the user in advance of a shortage of paper before all the paper in the paper cassette is exhausted. Therefore, the inconvenience of having to stop printing and prepare the paper and load it in the paper cassette during the printing or the resulting time delay. Can be prevented.

1 is a system configuration for performing the present invention,

2 is a detailed configuration diagram of the paper remaining amount detecting unit 28 of FIG.

3 is a mechanism configuration diagram of the sensor unit S of FIG.

4 is a process flow diagram of a personal computer according to an embodiment of the present invention;

5 is a processing flowchart of the printer according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (3)

In the paper shortage warning method of a printer having a paper remaining amount sensing device for outputting data having a value corresponding to the remaining amount of paper loaded in the paper feed cassette and capable of bidirectional communication with a personal computer, Checking, by the printer, the amount of paper loaded in the paper feed cassette from data output from the paper remaining amount sensing device; Transmitting a paper shortage status to the personal computer when the confirmed amount of paper is less than or equal to a predetermined number of sheets; And a step of displaying, by the personal computer, a message indicating a paper shortage on the screen of the monitor in response to the reception of the paper shortage condition. The paper short warning method according to claim 1, wherein the printer sends the paper short status to the personal computer as one of printer errors. The paper shortage warning method according to claim 2, wherein the prescribed number of sheets is set to 20 sheets.