INK CARTRIDGE AND PRINTER USING THE SAME
First Claim
1. An ink cartridge configured to be detachably attached to a printer, said ink cartridge comprising:
- an ink reservoir in which an ink used for printing is kept; and
a storage unit storing specific information in a readable, rewritable, and non-volatile manner, wherein the specific information comprises an ink quantity-relating information relating to a quantity of ink kept in said ink reservoir, wherein the storage unit is accessed in synchronism with a clock signal, and has an ink quantity information storage area storing the ink quantity-relating information, and wherein the ink quantity information storage area is located at a specific area that is the area located within the storage unit that is accessed for rewriting first before accessing for rewriting any other area within the storage unit.
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Accused Products
Abstract
In an ink jet printer of the present invention, in order to reduce the manufacturing cost, an inexpensive EEPROM enabling only sequential accesses is applied for storage elements incorporated in a black ink cartridge and a color ink cartridge. The data array of a memory cell included in each of the storage elements mounted on the ink cartridges is determined in such a manner that a second storage area, in which rewritable data, for example, data on remaining quantities of inks in the ink cartridge, are stored, is accessed prior to a first storage area, in which read only data are stored. This configuration enables the rewritable data to be securely written into the second storage area even after a power-off operation. The second storage area has two memory divisions allocated to each ink, that is, a first ink remaining quantity memory division and a second ink remaining quantity memory division. Latest data on the remaining quantity of each ink is alternately written into these two memory divisions. Alternatively, the latest data on the remaining quantity of each ink is written into these two memory divisions in a duplicated manner. Each ink remaining quantity memory division has a write complete flag to determine whether or not a writing operation has been completed normally in the ink remaining quantity memory division. This arrangement enables the remaining quantities of the respective inks to be monitored accurately and continuously.
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Citations
40 Claims
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1. An ink cartridge configured to be detachably attached to a printer, said ink cartridge comprising:
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an ink reservoir in which an ink used for printing is kept; and
a storage unit storing specific information in a readable, rewritable, and non-volatile manner, wherein the specific information comprises an ink quantity-relating information relating to a quantity of ink kept in said ink reservoir, wherein the storage unit is accessed in synchronism with a clock signal, and has an ink quantity information storage area storing the ink quantity-relating information, and wherein the ink quantity information storage area is located at a specific area that is the area located within the storage unit that is accessed for rewriting first before accessing for rewriting any other area within the storage unit. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16)
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10. An ink cartridge configured to be detachably attached to a printer, said ink cartridge comprising:
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an ink reservoir in which an ink used for printing is kept; and
a storage unit storing information in a readable, rewritable, and non-volatile manner and being accessed in synchronism with a clock signal, said storage unit having a first storage area, in which a plurality of read only information is stored, and a second storage area, which is the area located within the storage unit that stores rewritable information relating to a quantity of ink kept in said ink reservoir and is accessed for rewriting first before accessing for rewriting any other area within the storage unit. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13)
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17. A method of rewriting plural pieces of specific information into an ink cartridge, said ink cartridge being configured to be detachably attached to a printer and having a storage element, said method comprising the steps of:
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(a) receiving the plural pieces of specific information that are to be rewritten into said storage element by said printer, wherein the plural pieces of specific information comprises information relating to a quantity of ink kept in said ink cartridge and other information; and
(b) rewriting the ink quantity-relating information into said storage element, preferentially over the other pieces of specific information at an area within the storage element that is the area located within the storage element that is accessed for rewriting first before accessing for rewriting any other area within the storage element. - View Dependent Claims (18)
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19. An ink jet printer comprising an ink cartridge, which is detachably attached to a printer main body and in which ink is kept, and said printer main body that causes the ink kept in said ink cartridge to be ejected from a print head to a printing medium, so as to implement printing on said printing medium,
wherein said ink cartridge comprises a storage device, said storage device comprising a storage unit and an address counter that carries out either one of a count-up operation and a count-down operation in response to a clock signal in the course of information transmission between said storage unit and said printer main body, said storage unit included in said storage device comprises a first storage area, in which read only information is stored and which is only read by said printer main body, and a second storage area, in which rewritable information, including ink-quantity related information, is stored and which is the area located within the storage device that is accessed for rewriting by said printer first before accessing for rewriting any other area within the storage device, said ink jet printer has an information input-output unit that carries out reading and rewriting operations in response to a clock signal.
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21. A storage device mounted on an ink cartridge, which is configured to be detachably attached to a printer, said storage device comprising:
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an address counter that outputs a count in response to a clock signal output from said printer; and
a storage element that is accessed based on the count output from said address counter and has a storage area, in which plural pieces of specific information are stored in a readable, writable, rewritable and non-volatile manner at an area storing the specific information and located within the storage element that is accessed for rewriting first before accessing for rewriting any other area within the storage element, wherein the specific information relates to a quantity of ink kept in the ink cartridge. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. An ink cartridge configured to be detachably mountable on a printer, comprising:
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an ink reservoir for keeping ink; and
a non-volatile memory being accessed from an access start position in synchronism with a clock signal, the memory having a first memory area for storing information not to be updated according to use of the ink cartridge and a second memory area for storing information to be updated according to use of the ink cartridge, wherein the second memory area has a specific area for storing ink quantity information related to consumption of the ink, the specific area being located at a front end of the second memory area which is to be rewritten first before accessing for rewriting any other area within the second memory area.
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28. An ink cartridge configured to be detachably attached to an ink-jet printer, comprising:
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an ink storage reservoir; and
a non-volatile storage element that stores information, the storage element having;
a first storage area for storing read-only information, and a second storage area for storing rewritable information pertaining to ink-quantity related information, wherein the second storage area is accessed for rewriting first before accessing for rewriting any other area within the storage element. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34)
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35. A method of providing information in an ink cartridge that is configured to be detachably mountable on a printer, the ink cartridge having a non-volatile memory, comprising the steps of:
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first, storing read-only information in a first storage area of the memory; and
second, storing rewritable information, pertaining to ink-quantity related information at a second storage area of the memory, wherein the second storage area is accessed for rewriting by said printer first before accessing for rewriting any other area within the memory. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37, 38, 39)
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40. A method of retrieving information from an ink cartridge that is configured to be detachably mountable on a printer, the ink cartridge having a non-volatile memory, the memory containing read-only information at a first address and rewritable information at a second address in the memory, wherein the second address is closer to a beginning of the memory than the first address, comprising the steps of:
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providing ink quantity information in the second address before other pieces of specific information at an area within the memory that is accessed for rewriting by the printer first before accessing for rewriting any other area within the memory;
reading the ink quantity information without reading the other information.
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Specification