Printer and ink cartridge attached thereto
First Claim
1. A printer, to which a cartridge is detachably attached, said cartridge keeping ink therein and having a rewritable non-volatile memory, said printer causing the ink kept in said cartridge to be transferred to a printing medium, thereby implementing a printing operation, said printer comprising:
- a printer memory that stores information relating to the ink kept in said cartridge into a predetermined area thereof in a predetermined format of addressing, which is different from a specific format of addressing adopted in said non-volatile memory;
a memory writing unit that reads the information relating to the ink kept in said cartridge from the predetermined area and writes the read-out information into a specific area of said non-volatile memory, which corresponds to the predetermined area of said printer memory; and
an address decoder that converts a storage format of addressing of the information relating to the ink from the predetermined format of addressing into the specific format of addressing when said memory writing unit writes the information.
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Accused Products
Abstract
In a printer of the present invention, an EEPROM that carries out sequential access and has a relatively small storage capacity is applied for storage elements mounted on both black and color ink cartridges, which are detachably attached to the printer. Pieces of information relating to each ink cartridge, for example, pieces of information on remaining quantities of respective inks in the ink cartridge, are stored in the storage element of the ink cartridge. A format of addressing adopted in the storage elements of the ink cartridges is different from that adopted in an EEPROM incorporated in a printer main body of the printer. A control IC provided in the printer accordingly converts the storage format of addressing, before writing the information into the storage elements of the ink cartridges. In the printer, a RAM is mounted with the control IC on a carriage, and the pieces of information to be written into the storage elements of the ink cartridges are temporarily registered in the RAM. The pieces of information are then written into the respective storage elements of the black and color ink cartridges, for example, at a timing of a power-off operation. The signal lines and the memory used in the course of writing the information into the storage elements are identical with the signal lines, through which print data are transmitted to a print head mounted on the carriage of the printer, and the memory, in which the print data are stored. The arrangement of the present invention reduces the manufacturing cost of the ink cartridge and also enables size reduction of the whole printer.
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Citations
39 Claims
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1. A printer, to which a cartridge is detachably attached, said cartridge keeping ink therein and having a rewritable non-volatile memory, said printer causing the ink kept in said cartridge to be transferred to a printing medium, thereby implementing a printing operation, said printer comprising:
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a printer memory that stores information relating to the ink kept in said cartridge into a predetermined area thereof in a predetermined format of addressing, which is different from a specific format of addressing adopted in said non-volatile memory;
a memory writing unit that reads the information relating to the ink kept in said cartridge from the predetermined area and writes the read-out information into a specific area of said non-volatile memory, which corresponds to the predetermined area of said printer memory; and
an address decoder that converts a storage format of addressing of the information relating to the ink from the predetermined format of addressing into the specific format of addressing when said memory writing unit writes the information. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 20, 21)
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10. A printer, to which a cartridge is detachably attached, said cartridge keeping ink therein and having a rewritable non-volatile memory, said printer causing the ink kept in said cartridge to be transferred from a plurality of dot-forming elements, which are formed on a print head mounted on said printer, to a printing medium by a unit of dot, thereby implementing a printing operation, said printer comprising:
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a printer memory that stores information relating to the ink kept in said cartridge into a predetermined area thereof;
a data registration unit that is disposed on a carriage, which has said print head mounted thereon and moves forward and backward relative to said printing medium, and temporarily registers therein the information relating to the ink, which is read from the predetermined area of said printer memory; and
a memory writing unit that writes the information temporarily registered in said data registration unit into a specific area of said non-volatile memory, which corresponds to the predetermined area of said printer memory. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 38, 39)
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22. A method of writing information relating to ink kept in a cartridge into a rewritable non-volatile memory incorporated in said cartridge, which is detachably attached to a printer, said printer causing the ink kept in said cartridge to be transferred from a print head mounted on said printer to a printing medium, thereby implementing a printing operation, said method comprising the steps of:
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storing the information relating to the ink kept in said cartridge into a predetermined area of a printer memory incorporated in said printer in a predetermined format of addressing, which is different from a specific format of addressing adopted in said non-volatile memory;
reading the information relating to the ink kept in said cartridge from the predetermined area;
converting a storage format of addressing of the information relating to the ink from the predetermined format of addressing into the specific format of addressing; and
writing the information in the converted specific format of addressing into a specific area of said non-volatile memory, which corresponds to the predetermined area of said printer memory.
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23. A method of writing information relating to ink kept in a cartridge into a rewritable non-volatile memory incorporated in said cartridge, which is detachably attached to a printer, said printer causing the ink kept in said cartridge to be transferred from a plurality of dot-forming elements, which are formed on a print head mounted on said printer, to a printing medium by a unit of dot, thereby implementing a printing operation, said method comprising the steps of:
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storing the information relating to the ink kept in said cartridge into a predetermined area of a printer memory incorporated in said printer;
temporarily storing the information relating to the ink, which is read from the predetermined area of said printer memory, into a temporary memory that is disposed on a carriage, which has said print head mounted thereon and moves forward and backward relative to said printing medium; and
writing the information temporarily stored in said temporary memory into a specific area of said non-volatile memory, which corresponds to the predetermined area of said printer memory.
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24. A cartridge that keeps ink therein and is detachably attached to a printer with a print head, said printer causing the ink kept in said cartridge to be transferred from said print head to a printing medium by a unit of dot, thereby implementing a printing operation, said cartridge comprising:
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a rewritable non-volatile memory;
an input unit that receives information relating to ink kept in said cartridge, which has been stored in a predetermined format of addressing in a predetermined area of a printer memory incorporated in said printer, in a specific format of addressing that is different from the predetermined format of addressing; and
a writing controller that writes the information into said non-volatile memory in the specific format of addressing received by said input unit. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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32. A cartridge that keeps ink therein and is detachably attached to a carriage set on a printer, said printer having a plurality of dot-forming elements formed on a print head mounted on said carriage that moves forward and backward relative to a printing medium, said printer causing the ink kept in said cartridge to be transferred from the plurality of dot-forming elements on said print head to said printing medium by a unit of dot, thereby implementing a printing operation, said cartridge comprising:
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a rewritable non-volatile memory;
an input unit that receives information relating to ink kept in said cartridge, which has been stored in a predetermined format of addressing in a temporary memory mounted on said carriage for temporarily storing information, in a specific format of addressing that is different from the predetermined format of addressing; and
a writing controller that writes the information into said non-volatile memory in the specific format of addressing received by said input unit. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
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Specification