Print-on-the-fly pager

• US 4,021,608 A
• Filed: 05/22/1975
• Issued: 05/03/1977
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/1975
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sanders Associates, INC. (BAE Systems Plc)
• Original Assignee: Sanders Associates, INC. (BAE Systems Plc)
• Inventors: Brodeur, Lester R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Robinson, Thomas A.
• Application Number:
  US05/580,090
• Time in Patent Office: 712 Days
• Field of Search: 178/23 R, 178/24, 178/25, 178/30, 178/4.1 R, 178/4.1 A, 325/55, 325/64, 219/216, 340/311, 346/76
• US Class Current: 340/7.54
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 21/04 at the receiving end

Abstract

A hand held pager is disclosed which displays a transmitted message in hard copy form on a tape to permit a written record of the message for readout at the convenience of the recipient of the message. The hard copy pager is provided with a printing system in which the printing medium is continually moved past the printing head without significant degradation of the information recorded so that indexing of either the head or the printing medium is avoided.

Claims

1. A method for improving battery-operated performance and maintaining print legibility despite battery voltage decrease in a battery-operated, hand-held printing pager, in which the pager includes a tape and a print head driven in accordance with message signals decoded at the pager, and in which the pager is addressed by a predetermined paging code followed by message signals corresponding to alpha/numeric characters, comprising the steps of

providing the pager with battery-operated motor-driven tape drive means in which the motor is continuously driven upon the application of power thereto for advancing the tape continuously past the print head during the printing of the alpha/numeric characters at a speed dependent on the battery voltage,

and connecting the motor to the battery of the battery-operated pager through power switching means actuated to turn on the motor for the duration of the printing of the message in accordance with the decoding of a predetermined address at the pager, the legibility of the characters imprinted on the tape by the print head being virtually unaffected by variations in battery voltage and consequent variations in motor speed and the reliability of the printing operation being improved by the utilization of the continuously driven motor.

2. In a battery-operated, hand-held printing pager which includes a housing, a battery, means for receiving message signals corresponding to alpha/numeric characters in a message, a tape and a print head, the improvement comprising:

means including a battery-powered motor within said housing which is continuously driven upon the application of power thereto, for continuously advancing said tape past said print head during the printing of said characters at a speed dependent on battery voltage,

switching means connecting said motor directly to the pager battery for applying power to said motor for the duration of the printing of a message; and

battery-operated means within said housing for driving said print head to print the received characters during the continuous movement of said tape past said print head in a manner which is substantially independent of the speed of said tape relative to said print head, whereby print legibility is relatively unaffected by speed changes of said battery powered motor due to battery voltage fluctuations.

3. The battery-operated printed pager of claim 2 wherein said print head is in direct contact with said tape.