Printer and ink cartridge attached thereto

• US 7,134,738 B2
• Filed: 07/18/2002
• Issued: 11/14/2006
• 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): Huffman, Julian D.
• Application Number:
  US10/197,408
• Publication Number:
  US 20020180851A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,580 Days
• Field of Search: 347/19, 347/23, 347/86
• 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

A printer has a relatively small sequential access EEPROM on black and color ink cartridges. Information relating to each cartridge like remaining quantities of inks are stored. Addressing for storage elements of cartridges differs from that of an EEPROM in the printer. A control IC in the printer converts the storage format of addressing, before writing information into cartridge'"'"'s storage elements. A RAM is mounted with the control IC on a carriage, and information to be written into the cartridge'"'"'s storage elements is temporarily registered in the RAM. The information is then written into the respective storage elements of the cartridges, for example, during a power-off operation. Signal lines and memory used when writing 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, and the memory, in which print data are stored.

Claims

1. A cartridge configured to be detachably attached to a printer, the printer having a printer main body incorporating a processing unit and a physically separate storage device having plural pieces of information about said cartridge, said cartridge comprising:

an ink reservoir wherein said ink reservoir is divided into at least five ink chambers, in which at least five different inks are respectively kept, and wherein the plural pieces of information at least in part correspond to quantities of the at least five different inks;

a rewritable non-volatile memory containing a plurality of pieces of corresponding information relating to said cartridge, wherein said non-volatile memory comprises a plurality of information storage areas, in which the plural pieces of corresponding information corresponding to quantities of the at least five different inks are stored respectively and independently, and each of the plurality of information storage areas has a storage capacity of at least one byte;

the plural pieces of corresponding information having been written into said non-volatile memory less frequently than at which the plural pieces of information relating to said cartridge are written into the physically separate storage device incorporated in the printer main body of the printer, and

the writing of the plural pieces of corresponding information to said non-volatile memory of said cartridge being triggered based upon at least one of the following actions, operation of a power switch, operation of a cartridge switch reflecting replacement of the cartridge, and termination of a power supply to the printer.

2. A cartridge in accordance with claim 1, wherein the at least five different inks comprise three deep color inks and two light color inks, which correspond to two of the three deep color inks, and

wherein the information storage areas for storing pieces of corresponding information regarding the three deep color inks being located in a first area that is written first by said printer, and the information storage areas for storing pieces of corresponding information regarding the two light color inks being located in a second area that is written next by said printer.

3. A cartridge in accordance with claim 2, wherein the three deep color inks are cyan, magenta, and yellow, and the two light color inks are light cyan and light magenta.

4. A method of exchanging information between a cartridge and a printer having a printer main body incorporating a processing unit and a separate storage device having plural pieces of information about the cartridge, comprising the steps of:

providing the cartridge, the cartridge comprising;

an ink reservoir wherein the ink reservoir is divided into at least five ink chambers, in which at least five different inks are respectively kept, and wherein the plural pieces of corresponding information at least in part correspond to quantities of the at least five different inks;

a rewritable non-volatile memory containing a plurality of pieces of corresponding information relating to said cartridge, wherein said non-volatile memory comprises a plurality of information storage areas, in which the plural pieces of corresponding information corresponding to quantities of the at least five different inks are stored respectively and independently, and each of the plurality of information storage areas has a storage capacity of at least one byte;

writing a plurality of pieces of corresponding information relating to the cartridge into the non-volatile memory with a first frequency;

writing the plural pieces of information relating to the cartridge into the storage device incorporated in the printer main body of the printer with a second frequency that is greater than the first frequency; and

commencing the writing of the plural pieces of corresponding information into the non-volatile memory of the cartridge in response to at least one of operating a power switch, operating a cartridge switch reflecting replacement of the cartridge, and terminating a power supply to the printer.

5. A method in accordance with claim 4, wherein the writing into the non-volatile memory of the cartridge of the plural pieces of corresponding information respectively stores the plural pieces of corresponding information in the information storage areas.

6. A method in accordance with claim 4, wherein the at least five different inks comprise three deep color inks and two light color inks, which correspond to two of the three deep color inks, and further comprising the step of:

first storing the pieces of corresponding information regarding the three deep color inks in a first area of the information storage areas; and

then the storing pieces of corresponding information regarding the two light color inks in a second area of the information storage areas that is written next by the printer.

7. A method in accordance with claim 6, wherein the three deep color inks are cyan, magenta, and yellow, and the two light color inks are light cyan and light magenta.

8. A method in accordance with claim 4, wherein said writing of the plural pieces of corresponding information relating to the cartridge into the non-volatile memory further comprises writing the plural pieces of information to a specific writing area at on one end of a memory space thereof.