Printer and ink cartridge attached thereto

• US 6,969,140 B2
• Filed: 05/27/2003
• Issued: 11/29/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 11/26/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Original Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Inventors: Saruta, Toshihisa
• Primary Examiner(s): Meier, Stephen D.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Huffman, Julian D.
• Application Number:
  US10/445,036
• Publication Number:
  US 20030197751A1
• Time in Patent Office: 917 Days
• Field of Search: 347/5, 347/7, 347/19, 347/23, 347/86, 711/202, 711/206
• US Class Current: 347/19
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/1652 by driving a fluid through the nozzles to the outside thereof, e.g. by applying pressure to the inside or vacuum at the outside of the print head
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/17546 electronically
• CPC Class Codes: B41J 2/17566 Ink level or ink residue control
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 15/102 using ink jet print heads

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.

Claims

1. A printer, to which an ink cartridge is detachably attached, said ink cartridge keeping ink therein and having a rewritable non-volatile memory, said printer causing the ink kept in the ink cartridge to be transferred from a print head mounted on said printer 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 ink cartridge into a predetermined area thereof in a predetermined format of addressing, which is different from a serial format of addressing for forwarding the information to the cartridge to store in said non-volatile memory, at least some of the information forwarded from the printer to the cartridge reflecting an ink property that changes as the printer is operated;

a memory writing unit that reads the information relating to the ink kept in the ink cartridge from the predetermined area and writes the read-out information into a specific area of the 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 serial format of addressing when said memory writing unit writes the information.

2. A printer in accordance with claim 1, said printer further comprising:

a cleaning unit that carries out head cleaning in response to a predetermined operation, the head cleaning causing a preset quantity of ink to be transferred from said print head,

wherein said memory writing unit writes the information into the non-volatile memory when said cleaning unit is activated to carry out the head cleaning.

3. A printer in accordance with claim 1, wherein the cartridge detachably attached to said printer comprises a black ink cartridge, in which black ink is kept, and a color ink cartridge, in which a plurality of different color inks are kept, and said memory writing unit writes the information into the non-volatile memory that is provided in both the black ink cartridge and the color ink cartridge.

4. A printer and ink cartridge system in which said ink cartridge is detachably attached to said printer, said ink cartridge keeping ink therein and having a rewritable nonvolatile memory, said printer causing the ink kept in said ink cartridge to be transferred from a print head mounted on said printer to a printing medium, thereby implementing a printing operation, comprising:

a printer memory, which is part of the printer, that stores information relating to the ink kept in said ink cartridge into a predetermined area thereof in a predetermined format of addressing, which is different from a serial format of addressing for forwarding the information to the cartridge to store in said non-volatile memory;

a memory writing unit, which is part of the printer, that reads the information relating to the ink kept in said ink 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, which is part of the printer, that converts a storage format of addressing of the information relating to the ink from the predetermined format of addressing into the serial format of addressing when said memory writing unit writes the information, at least some of the information forwarded from the printer to the cartridge reflecting an ink property that changes as the printer is operated.