Cockpit printer system

Abstract

A cockpit printer system disclosed by the present invention comprises a main control board unit, a backboard unit, a power panel unit, a connection unit, a printing head and a motor, the backboard unit, the printing head and the motor are all connected with the main control board unit, and the power panel unit and the connection unit are both connected with the backboard unit. The main control board unit is provided with an Ethernet interface, an ARINC 429 interface, a discrete magnitude interface, an RS232 interface, an IIC interface and a USB interface. An Ethernet interface, an ARINC 429 interface, a discrete magnitude interface, an RS232 interface, a USB interface and the like are reserved, the functions are powerful, the expansibility is high, printers of other models can be replaced only by replacing the front panel and the rear panel, and the printer has rich self-checking functions and can be widely applied to the technical field of aviation airborne equipment.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to the technical field of aviation airborne equipment, in particular to a cockpit printer system. Background Art

[0002] With the development of civil aviation technology, the degree of comprehensive integration of aviation airborne equipment is getting higher and higher. Airlines have more and more requirements on the performance and functions of printers installed in the cockpit during operations, and the requirements for the speed and timeliness of fault location and trend analysis are also getting higher and higher. It is also necessary to integrate multiple functions such as providing printing functions that support Hongmeng, Windows, Linux and other operating systems, providing inkless thermal printing functions, providing Ethernet and ARINC 429 communication printing functions, etc., for printing various flight parameters and data documents during flight.

[0003] At present, the related equipment of cockpit printers of domestic civil aviation aircraft is expensive, and has shortcomings such as a limited number of interfaces, backward product technology, low scalability, low product robustness, few self-test functions, poor maintainability, and limited product application scenarios. Summary of the invention

[0004] In order to solve the above technical problems, the object of the present invention is to provide a cockpit printer system that can improve the scalability of the system.

[0005] To achieve the above-mentioned purpose, one aspect of an embodiment of the present application proposes a cockpit printer system, comprising a main control board unit, a backplane unit, a power board unit, a connection unit, a print head and a motor, wherein the backplane unit, the print head and the motor are all connected to the main control board unit, the power board unit and the connection unit are all connected to the backplane unit, the main control board unit is configured with an Ethernet interface, an ARINC 429 interface, a discrete quantity interface, an RS232 interface, an IIC interface and a USB interface, the connection unit is used to access an external airborne system, the backplane unit is used to connect the main control board unit and the power board unit to the external airborne system, the power board unit is used to convert a first power supply input by the external airborne system to obtain a second power supply with multiple voltage values, so as to supply power to the main control board unit, the print head and the motor through the backplane unit, the main control board unit is used to output a motor control signal and a print head control signal according to the print data output by each of the external airborne systems, and monitor the Ethernet interface, the ARINC 429 interface and the channel status of the discrete quantity interface, the motor is used to drive the paper in and out of the print head according to the motor control signal, and the print head is used to perform a printing job according to the print head control signal.

[0006] In some embodiments, the cockpit printer system also includes a sensor unit, which is connected to the main control board unit, and the sensor unit is used to obtain print head status information and print head fault information. The main control board unit is also used to output an alarm control signal based on the print head status information and the print head fault information.

[0007] In some embodiments, the cockpit printer system also includes a display keypad unit, which is connected to the main control panel unit, and the display keypad includes a fault indicator light, a status indicator light, a power button, a test button, a stop button and a paper feed button. The fault indicator light is used to indicate an abnormal state of the cockpit printer system, the status indicator light is used to indicate the state of the print head according to the alarm control signal, the power button is used to control the power of the cockpit printer system to be turned on or off, the test button is used to control the cockpit printer system to perform a self-test, the stop button is used to control the cockpit printer system to terminate the current printing job, and the paper feed button is used to control the paper to move forward.

[0008] In some embodiments, the connection unit includes a first connector, a second connector and a third connector, the output end of the first connector is connected to the input end of the backplane unit, the second connector and the third connector are both connected to the backplane unit, the first connector is used to connect to the first power supply, the second connector is used to implement ARINC 429 protocol, RS232 protocol, IIC protocol, USB protocol, and input and output discrete signals, and the third connector is used to implement ARINC 646 protocol.

[0009] In some embodiments, the backplane unit includes an EMC / EMI protection circuit, the connection unit, the main control board unit and the power board unit are all connected to the EMC / EMI protection circuit, and the EMC / EMI protection circuit is used to perform EMI filtering and ESD protection on the printing data.

[0010] In some embodiments, the main control board unit includes a SOC circuit and a local power supply circuit, and the local power supply circuit includes an input filter circuit, a timing control circuit, multiple buck converters and multiple low-voltage difference linear regulators. The input end of the input filter circuit is connected to the output end of the backplane unit, and the first input end of each buck converter and each low-voltage difference linear regulator is connected to the output end of the input filter circuit. The second input end of each buck converter and each low-voltage difference linear regulator is connected to the output end of the timing control circuit. The output end of each buck converter and each low-voltage difference linear regulator is connected to the input end of the SOC circuit. The input filter circuit is used to filter the second power supply, and each buck converter and each low-voltage difference linear regulator are used to convert the filtered second power supply to obtain a third power supply with multiple voltage values. The timing control circuit is used to control the power-on and power-off timing of the SOC circuit.

[0011] In some embodiments, the main control board unit includes a SOC circuit and an ARINC 429 interface circuit, the ARINC 429 interface circuit includes an ARINC 429 driver group, an ARINC 429 receiver group and an ARINC 429BIT circuit, the input end of the ARINC 429 driver group is connected to the output end of the SOC circuit, the output end of the ARINC 429 driver group is connected to the input end of the backplane unit, the input end of the ARINC 429 receiver group is connected to the output end of the backplane unit, the output end of the ARINC 429 receiver group is connected to the input end of the SOC circuit, the SOC circuit and the backplane unit are both connected to the ARINC 429BIT circuit, wherein the ARINC 429 receiver group includes a plurality of ARINC 429 interfaces for receiving the print data output by each of the external airborne systems.

[0012] In some embodiments, the main control board unit includes a SOC circuit and a discrete quantity interface circuit, the discrete quantity interface circuit includes an EMC protection circuit, a diode, a discrete-to-digital sensor, a level conversion circuit, an RMS-DC converter, a comparator, and a voltage-controlled pulse width modulator, the EMC protection circuit is connected to the backplane unit, the input end of the diode is connected to the first output end of the EMC protection circuit, the output end of the diode is connected to the input end of the discrete-to-digital sensor, the output end of the discrete-to-digital sensor is connected to the input end of the SOC circuit, the input end of the level conversion circuit is connected to the output end of the SOC circuit, the output end of the level conversion circuit is connected to the input end of the EMC protection circuit, the input end of the RMS-DC converter is connected to the second output end of the EMC protection circuit, the input ends of the comparator and the voltage-controlled pulse width modulator are both connected to the output end of the RMS-DC converter, and the output ends of the comparator and the voltage-controlled pulse width modulator are both connected to the input end of the SOC circuit.

[0013] In some embodiments, the main control board unit includes a SOC circuit and a universal communication interface circuit, the universal communication interface circuit includes an RS232 transceiver, an IIC buffer level converter, an ESD protection circuit and a USBPHY chip, the SOC circuit and the backplane unit are both connected to the RS232 transceiver, the SOC circuit and the backplane unit are both connected to the IIC buffer level converter, the backplane unit and the USBPHY chip are both connected to the ESD protection circuit, and the USBPHY chip is also connected to the SOC circuit.

[0014] In some embodiments, the main control board unit includes a SOC circuit and an ARINC 646 interface circuit, the ARINC 646 interface circuit includes a network transformer and a switch, the backplane unit and the switch are both connected to the ARINC 646 interface circuit, and the switch is also connected to the SOC circuit.

[0015] The beneficial effects of the present invention are as follows: a cockpit printer system of the present invention comprises a main control board unit, a backboard unit, a power board unit, a connection unit, a print head and a motor. On the one hand, the present invention has reserved interfaces such as Ethernet, ARINC 429, discrete quantity, RS232, USB, etc., with powerful functions and high scalability. Only the front panel and the rear panel need to be replaced to replace other types of printers; on the other hand, it has rich self-checking functions, can support continuous monitoring and abnormality detection at the device level, and monitor or monitor the channel status of the ARINC 429 bus interface, Ethernet interface, and discrete quantity interface. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0016] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solution in the embodiments of the present invention, the following introduction is made to the drawings required for use in the embodiments of the present invention. It should be understood that the drawings introduced below are only for the convenience of clearly describing some embodiments of the technical solution of the present invention. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative work.

[0017] Figure 1 A structural block diagram of a cockpit printer system provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0018] Figure 2 A hardware architecture diagram of a cockpit printer system provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0019] Figure 3 A circuit principle block diagram of a backplane unit provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0020] Figure 4 A circuit principle block diagram of a local power supply circuit provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0021] Figure 5 A circuit principle block diagram of a SOC circuit provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0022] Figure 6 A circuit principle block diagram of an ARINC 429 interface circuit provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0023] Figure 7 A circuit principle block diagram of a discrete quantity interface circuit provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0024] Figure 8 A circuit principle block diagram of a universal communication interface circuit provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0025] Fig. 9 A circuit principle block diagram of an ARINC 646 interface circuit provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

[0026] Fig.10 A circuit principle block diagram of a power board unit provided in an embodiment of the present invention;

[0027] Fig.11 A schematic diagram of a network printing process provided by an embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0028] In order to make the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of the present application clearer, the present application is further described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and examples. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are only used to explain the present application and are not intended to limit the present application. When the following description refers to the drawings, unless otherwise indicated, the same numbers in different drawings represent the same or similar elements. The embodiments described in the following exemplary embodiments do not represent all embodiments consistent with the embodiments of the present application. They are only examples of devices and methods consistent with some aspects of the embodiments of the present application as detailed in the attached claims.

[0029] It is understood that the terms "first", "second", etc. used in this application can be used to describe various concepts in this article, but unless otherwise specified, these concepts are not limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one concept from another concept. For example, without departing from the scope of the embodiment of the present application, the first information may also be referred to as the second information, and similarly, the second information may also be referred to as the first information. Depending on the context, the words "if" and "if" as used herein can be interpreted as "at the time of" or "when" or "in response to determination".

[0030] The terms "at least one", "multiple", "each", "any", etc. used in this application, at least one includes one, two or more, multiple includes two or more, each refers to each of the corresponding multiple, and any refers to any one of the multiple.

[0031] Before describing the embodiments of the present application in detail, some nouns and terms involved in the embodiments of the present application are first described. The nouns and terms involved in the embodiments of the present application are subject to the following explanations.

[0032] BIT: Built In Test, built-in self-test;

[0033] ARINC: Aeronautical Radio Incorporation;

[0034] IC:Integrated Circuit;

[0035] JTAG: Joint Test Action Group, Joint Test Working Group;

[0036] PL: Programmable Logic, programmable logic device;

[0037] PS:Processing System,processing system;

[0038] RTC: Real Time Clock, real-time clock;

[0039] TVS: Transient Voltage Suppressor, transient diode.

[0040] With the development of civil aviation technology, the degree of comprehensive integration of aviation airborne equipment is getting higher and higher. Airlines have more and more requirements on the performance and functions of printers installed in the cockpit during operations, and the requirements for the speed and timeliness of fault location and trend analysis are also getting higher and higher. It is also necessary to integrate multiple functions such as providing printing functions that support Hongmeng, Windows, Linux and other operating systems, providing inkless thermal printing functions, providing Ethernet and ARINC 429 communication printing functions, etc., for printing various flight parameters and data documents during flight.

[0041] At present, the related equipment of cockpit printers of domestic civil aviation aircraft is expensive, and has shortcomings such as a limited number of interfaces, backward product technology, low scalability, low product robustness, few self-test functions, poor maintainability, and limited product application scenarios.

[0042] To this end, an embodiment of the present invention proposes a cockpit printer system, including a main control board unit, a backplane unit, a power board unit, a connection unit, a print head, and a motor. On the one hand, the present invention has reserved interfaces such as Ethernet, ARINC 429, discrete quantity, RS232, USB, etc., with powerful functions and high scalability. Only the front panel and the rear panel need to be replaced to replace other models of printers; on the other hand, it has rich self-checking functions, can support continuous monitoring and abnormality detection at the device level, and monitor or monitor the channel status of the ARINC 429 bus interface, Ethernet interface, and discrete quantity interface.

[0043] Reference Figure 1 , Figure 1The present invention provides a structural block diagram of a cockpit printer system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The present invention provides a cockpit printer system, including a main control board unit, a backboard unit, a power board unit, a connection unit, a print head and a motor. The backboard unit, the print head and the motor are all connected to the main control board unit. The power board unit and the connection unit are all connected to the backboard unit. The main control board unit is configured with an Ethernet interface, an ARINC 429 interface, a discrete quantity interface, an RS232 interface, an IIC interface and a USB interface. The connection unit is used to access an external airborne system. The backboard unit is used to connect the main control board unit and the power board unit to the external airborne system. The power board unit is used to convert a first power supply input from the external airborne system to obtain a second power supply with multiple voltage values ​​to supply power to the main control board unit, the print head and the motor through the backboard unit. The main control board unit is used to output a motor control signal and a print head control signal according to the print data output by each external airborne system, and monitor the Ethernet interface, ARINC 429 interface and the channel status of the discrete quantity interface. The motor is used to drive the paper in and out of the print head according to the motor control signal, and the print head is used to perform printing operations according to the print head control signal.

[0044] Specifically, the cockpit printer of the embodiment of the present invention adopts the communication form of ARINC 429 and Ethernet, and is a monochrome thermal printer. As an important data output device in the cockpit, its main goal is to receive the print data sent by the external airborne systems such as the flight management system, communication system, and airborne maintenance system on the aircraft, print text and graphics, and provide the status of the printer itself to each member system. The cockpit printer is an independent LRU, and the same part number can be interchanged in situ to meet the functional and logical consistency. The cockpit printer system is mainly composed of a main control board unit, a backplane unit, a power board unit, a print head, a motor, and a chassis assembly.

[0045] The main control board unit is the core of the cockpit printer system, which is used to receive the printing data transmitted by other external airborne systems connected to it, and drive the print head and motor to print. The main control board unit has reserved interfaces such as Ethernet, ARINC 429, discrete quantity, RS232, USB, etc. It has powerful functions and high product scalability. It can replace other models of printers by simply replacing the front panel and rear panel.

[0046] The power board unit is used to rectify and transform the first power supply (115VAC / 400Hz) input from the outside, thereby converting it into a second power supply including +5VDC, +24VDC and ±12VDC to supply power to the main control board unit, print head and motor, etc., and the power board unit has overload and undervoltage protection, and power-on abnormal alarm design;

[0047] The backplane unit is used to provide a physical basis for the internal wiring of the rear connector and the connection with other boards, and to perform EMI filtering and ESD protection functions on external signals;

[0048] The connection unit is used to connect with the external connector in the cockpit;

[0049] The print head uses a thermal print head, which is used to print specific content on thermal paper. It can print 80 columns of black and white letters, digital data, semi-graphic text and full-graphic images on thermal paper, and supports Chinese characters;

[0050] The motor uses a two-phase stepper motor to control the paper in and out and complete the printing task together with the print head.

[0051] Reference Figure 1 Further as an optional implementation, the cockpit printer system also includes a sensor unit, the sensor unit is connected to the main control board unit, the sensor unit is used to obtain print head status information and print head fault information, and the main control board unit is also used to output an alarm control signal according to the print head status information and the print head fault information.

[0052] Specifically, the sensor unit is used to obtain print head status information and print head fault information such as paper shortage, printer front panel door opening, etc. Each sensor is distributed in various places inside the product and connected to the main control board unit through cables.

[0053] Reference Figure 1 As an optional implementation, the cockpit printer system also includes a display keypad unit, which is connected to the main control panel unit. The display keypad includes a fault indicator light, a status indicator light, a power button, a test button, a stop button and a paper feed button. The fault indicator light is used to indicate an abnormal state of the cockpit printer system. The status indicator light is used to indicate the state of the print head according to an alarm control signal. The power button is used to control the power of the cockpit printer system to turn on or off. The test button is used to control the cockpit printer system to perform a self-check. The stop button is used to control the cockpit printer system to terminate the current printing job. The paper feed button is used to control the paper to move forward.

[0054] Specifically, the display keypad unit is used to provide human-machine interface functions such as indicator warning lights and buttons, including fault indicator lights, status indicator lights, power buttons, test buttons, abort buttons, and paper feed buttons. If an error is found during operation and testing, the fault indicator light will light up. The status indicator light is used to indicate paper shortage / door opening. When the printer detects that the paper has run out or the front loading door is open, the status indicator light will light up amber; when the print head is overheated, the fault indicator light and the status indicator light will light up at the same time; when the print head temperature is restored, the two indicators will go out. The power button is used to control the power on and off of the printer. When the printer is turned on and ready to receive jobs, the power indicator light will continue to light up. The test button is used to perform a printer self-test when this button is pressed for more than 2 seconds. The abort button is used to control the printer to abort the current job and return to the ready state when it is pressed for less than 2 seconds. The paper feed button is used to advance the paper to the next top (prompt) mark. The paper will continue to advance until the button is released, and then the paper will continue to advance until the next prompt mark.

[0055] Reference Figure 1 , further as an optional implementation, the connection unit includes a first connector, a second connector and a third connector, the output end of the first connector is connected to the input end of the backplane unit, the second connector and the third connector are both connected to the backplane unit, the first connector is used to access the first power supply, the second connector is used to implement the ARINC 429 protocol, RS232 protocol, IIC protocol, USB protocol, and input and output discrete signals, and the third connector is used to implement the ARINC 646 protocol.

[0056] Specifically, the first connector is used to connect to the first power supply input from the outside. The first power supply is a single-phase AC power of 115VAC / 400Hz (the acceptable input range is 360Hz~800Hz), which can meet the requirements of MIL-STD-704F for the power characteristics of aircraft AC power supply, and its limit value is also within the requirements of the standard. The second connector supports the ARINC429 bus protocol, RS232 serial communication protocol, IIC synchronous serial communication protocol and USB universal serial bus protocol, and supports the input and output of various discrete signals. The third connector supports the ARINC 646 protocol. Among them, the ARINC 429 bus protocol defines the requirements for digital information transmission between avionics equipment and related systems, and the ARINC 646 protocol defines the data interface and communication specifications between the flight recorder and the aircraft system.

[0057] Reference Figure 1 , Figure 2 as well as Figure 3 , Figure 2 A hardware architecture diagram of a cockpit printer system provided by an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 3The circuit principle block diagram of the backplane unit provided in an embodiment of the present invention, further as an optional implementation mode, the backplane unit includes an EMC / EMI protection circuit, the connection unit, the main control board unit and the power board unit are all connected to the EMC / EMI protection circuit, and the EMC / EMI protection circuit is used to perform EMI filtering and ESD protection on the printing data.

[0058] Specifically, the backplane unit is mainly used to isolate, protect and filter the power and signals of the external connector on the back panel and then convert them into internal onboard interfaces. Combined with the protection circuit of the power board unit, it ensures that it can operate under any electrical system operating conditions without adversely affecting the electrical system or causing failures.

[0059] Among them, the EMC / EMI protection circuit is a secondary protection circuit, which is composed of overcurrent protection, overvoltage protection transient suppression circuit. The overcurrent protection circuit is used to prevent internal components from being damaged and ports from being short-circuited, and the overvoltage protection transient suppression circuit is used to absorb differential mode overvoltage signals with faster rise times but smaller energy.

[0060] Reference Figure 2 and Figure 4 , Figure 4 The circuit principle block diagram of the local power supply circuit provided in the embodiment of the present invention is further provided as an optional implementation mode. The main control board unit includes an SOC circuit and a local power supply circuit. The local power supply circuit includes an input filtering circuit, a timing control circuit, multiple buck converters and multiple low-voltage difference linear regulators. The input end of the input filtering circuit is connected to the output end of the backplane unit. The first input end of each buck converter and each low-voltage difference linear regulator is connected to the output end of the input filtering circuit. The second input end of each buck converter and each low-voltage difference linear regulator is connected to the output end of the timing control circuit. The output end of each buck converter and each low-voltage difference linear regulator is connected to the input end of the SOC circuit. The input filtering circuit is used to filter the second power supply. Each buck converter and each low-voltage difference linear regulator is used to convert the filtered second power supply to obtain a third power supply with multiple voltage values. The timing control circuit is used to control the power-on and power-off timing of the SOC circuit.

[0061] Specifically, the local power supply circuit first converts the +24VDC, +5VDC, ±12VDC DC voltages (i.e., the second power supply) input by the power board unit, and then converts the conditioned +24VDC into a variety of power supplies required by the IC on the single board through multiple step-down converters (BUCK) and low-dropout linear regulators (LDO). In addition, the local power supply circuit also has functions such as overcurrent and overvoltage protection and power-on slow start. The 24V power supply for the stepper motor and print head is isolated from other low-voltage circuits of the whole machine, and over-temperature and overload protection is achieved through current, temperature, motor speed and other sensor sampling and fuses, and it starts after other power supplies are stably powered on, reducing the impact of inrush current on system startup.

[0062] The local power supply circuit consists of an input filter circuit, a timing control circuit, multiple buck converters, and multiple low-dropout linear regulators. The input filter circuit mainly filters the DC voltage input by the previous power board unit. BUCK / LDO together form a power tree, which converts the input intermediate voltage into a variety of low-voltage DC power required by the IC on the single board. Among them, the buck converter mainly provides large load voltages of 1.0V, 1.8V, 3.3V, etc., while the low-dropout linear regulator mainly provides small loads such as 0.75V, 1.5V, 1.2V required by DDR3. The timing control circuit is used to control the power-on and power-off timing of the SOC circuit. Since the SOC circuit and other ICs on the single board have strict power-on and power-off timing requirements, unified planning is required. The timing device controls the power-on and power-off timing of the single board by setting / resetting the enable end of each power IC.

[0063] The SOC circuit is the core component of the entire cockpit printer system, which is used to process the printing data and control the print head and motor to complete the printing action. The circuit principle block diagram of the SOC circuit is shown in the figure below. Figure 5 As shown, it is composed of ZYNQ7045SOC, PS storage circuit, PL storage circuit, debugging and maintenance interface, reset circuit and external data control interface, which can process the input printing data and the information of each sensor and output the control signals of the motor and print head and the alarm control signals.

[0064] In the embodiment of the present invention, the SOC circuit adopts Xilinx's Zynq7045SOC as the main chip. Zynq7045 adopts a programmable SOC architecture, and integrates a dual-core ArmCortexA9 processor (PS) and a 7-series programmable logic device (PL). The dual-core A9 of ZynqPS can reach a main frequency of 800MHz. The built-in FPGA of Zynq is Kintex7FPGA, which has 350k logic units, 218600 LUTs, and 19.2Mb internal RAM. The storage subsystem of PS is composed of DDR3, large-capacity eMMC, dual QSPINORFlash and NVRAM to realize their corresponding functions:

[0065] 1) DDR consists of two 16-bit 4GbDDR particles to form a 32-bit wide DDR system, which provides running memory for the PS of the cockpit printer. The total capacity can reach 8Gb and the speed can reach 1066Mbps, which can meet the needs of program operation and data processing.

[0066] 2) A 64GB large-capacity eMMC chip is used for large-capacity storage.

[0067] 3) QSPINORFlash consists of two chips with a capacity of 256Mb, each with a 4-bit bus, forming an 8-bit bit width, which can speed up the system startup speed. QSPINORFlash is used to store the boot loader startup system, root file system, etc.

[0068] 4) NVRAM is a 4Mb NVRAM dedicated to caching print data. When the cockpit printer is powered on, the main control board unit software decides whether to continue printing based on the power-off duration (at least 3 minutes).

[0069] The external data control interface is mainly used to provide an input interface for external data of the main control board unit and output control and alarm signals. The IIC, USB, RS232 and ARINC 646 interfaces are connected to the PS, and the ARINC 429, discrete quantity, motor, print head control signals, various sensors and alarm signals are connected to the PL.

[0070] The reset circuit is mainly composed of a reset chip and its peripheral circuits, and is mainly used to provide power-on reset and watchdog functions for PL.

[0071] The debugging and maintenance interface consists of the JTAG burning interface, 1000M Ethernet debugging interface and debugging serial port. The JTAG burning interface is used for SOC program burning and chip debugging. The debugging serial port is derived from the UART interface of the chip, and after level conversion by the RS422 conversion chip, it is provided for on-board debugging by development engineers.

[0072] Reference Figure 2 As an optional implementation, the main control board unit includes a SOC circuit and an ARINC 429 interface circuit, the ARINC 429 interface circuit includes an ARINC 429 driver group, an ARINC 429 receiver group and an ARINC 429BIT circuit, the input end of the ARINC 429 driver group is connected to the output end of the SOC circuit, the output end of the ARINC 429 driver group is connected to the input end of the backplane unit, the input end of the ARINC 429 receiver group is connected to the output end of the backplane unit, the output end of the ARINC429 receiver group is connected to the input end of the SOC circuit, the SOC circuit and the backplane unit are both connected to the ARINC 429BIT circuit, wherein the ARINC 429 receiver group includes multiple ARINC 429 interfaces for receiving print data output by each external airborne system.

[0073] In some optional embodiments, the ARINC 429 interface circuit provides 12 ARINC 429 interfaces for input (4 of which are connected to external connectors and 8 are reserved for expansion), 1 ARINC 429 interface for output, and has a built-in BIT circuit, and all output and input channels can be independently set to high-speed or low-speed mode.

[0074] Specifically, the ARINC 429 interface circuit is composed of an ARINC 429 receiver group, an ARINC 429 driver group, and an ARINC 429 BIT circuit. Its block diagram is shown in FIG. Figure 6 shown.

[0075] The ARINC 429 receiver group consists of two 8-channel ARINC 429 receiver chips to form a 12-channel ARINC 429 receiving array, which converts the ARINC 429 signal input from the rear connector into a 3.3V level that matches the FPGAIO, and the FPGA then decodes it and performs a series of other tasks.

[0076] The ARINC 429 driver group consists of a single-channel ARINC 429 driver chip to form a 1-channel ARINC429 transmission path. The FPGA sends the encoded 3.3V bipolar code, which is converted by the array to generate a standard ARINC 429 signal and output to the external interface.

[0077] The ARINC 429BIT circuit is composed of an analog electronic switch device built into each receiving channel, an ARINC 429BIT transmitting circuit, an ARINC 429BIT receiving circuit, an IO expander, and a buffer driver.

[0078] like Figure 6As shown, an analog switch is built into each ARINC 429 receiving channel, which acts as a single-pole double-throw switch. In normal use, the BIT enable is low, the switches 1 and 2 are connected, and the airborne ARINC 429 signal input from the rear connector is selected; when the BIT test is performed, the BIT enable is high, switches 3 and 1 are connected, and the PL generates a specified ARINC 429 BIT pattern, and generates a standard ARINC 429 signal through the BIT driver, which is input to the corresponding RX channel under test through the analog switch, and returns to the PL after level conversion. The PL observes whether the signal is received within a specific time window. If the signal is received, it is compared with the transmitted signal and then the result is generated. The ARINC 429 BIT driver is a single-channel ARINC 429 driver with the same structure as the aforementioned ARINC 429 driver. Since there are many test channels and each channel needs to be tested independently, the BIT enable end of each channel requires an independent I / O control. The required number of I / Os is large, so an I / O expander is needed. The I / O expander can be realized through serial-to-parallel conversion. The principle for the sending direction is the same. The signal flow direction of the data is opposite to the receiving BIT.

[0079] Reference Figure 2 and Figure 7 , Figure 7 The circuit principle block diagram of the discrete quantity interface circuit provided in the embodiment of the present invention is further provided as an optional implementation mode. The main control board unit includes an SOC circuit and a discrete quantity interface circuit. The discrete quantity interface circuit includes an EMC protection circuit, a diode, a discrete-to-digital sensor, a level conversion circuit, an RMS-DC converter, a comparator, and a voltage-controlled pulse width modulator. The EMC protection circuit is connected to the backplane unit. The input end of the diode is connected to the first output end of the EMC protection circuit. The output end of the diode is connected to the input end of the discrete-to-digital sensor. The output end of the discrete-to-digital sensor is connected to the input end of the SOC circuit. The input end of the level conversion circuit is connected to the output end of the SOC circuit. The output end of the level conversion circuit is connected to the input end of the EMC protection circuit. The input end of the RMS-DC converter is connected to the second output end of the EMC protection circuit. The input ends of the comparator and the voltage-controlled pulse width modulator are both connected to the output end of the RMS-DC converter. The output ends of the comparator and the voltage-controlled pulse width modulator are both connected to the input end of the SOC circuit.

[0080] In some optional embodiments, the discrete quantity interface circuit is mainly used for inputting and outputting control signals and lamp test signals, and the discrete interface input adopts shunt discrete input. The control signals include: PinProg1, PinProg2, functional test and PPP; the lamp test signals include: 5VLEGEND, 5VALARM, PWM and Test. Figure 7 As shown in the figure, these input signals first pass through the EMC protection circuit to filter out the interference signals, and the discrete input is then isolated by a diode, and then sent to the PL for processing through the 8-channel discrete digital sensor chip. The discrete output is controlled by the PL to output the optocoupler, so as to achieve electrical isolation between the PL and the external interface. The analog input passes through the RMS-DC converter, and then is converted into a PWM signal output by the voltage-controlled pulse width modulator or sent to the PL for processing.

[0081] Furthermore, the main control board unit also includes a discrete quantity BIT circuit, which is composed of an analog switch device, a discrete quantity BIT transmission circuit / discrete quantity BIT transmission circuit and an IO expander. Its specific working principle is: an analog switch is built into each discrete quantity receiving channel, which plays the role of a single-pole double-throw switch. In normal use, the BIT enable is a low level, the switches 1 and 2 are connected, and the airborne discrete quantity signal input from the backplane is selected; when the BIT test is performed, the BIT enable is a high level, and switches 3 and 1 are connected. At this time, PL generates a specified discrete quantity test code sequence, generates a standard discrete quantity signal through the BIT driver, and inputs it to the corresponding RX channel under test through the analog switch. After the level conversion, it returns to PL. PL observes whether the signal is received within a specific time window. If the signal is received, it is compared with the transmitted signal and then generates the result.

[0082] Reference Figure 2 and Figure 8 , Figure 8 The circuit principle block diagram of the universal communication interface circuit provided for the embodiment of the present invention is further provided as an optional implementation mode. The main control board unit includes a SOC circuit and a universal communication interface circuit. The universal communication interface circuit includes an RS232 transceiver, an IIC buffer level converter, an ESD protection circuit and a USBPHY chip. The SOC circuit and the backplane unit are both connected to the RS232 transceiver, the SOC circuit and the backplane unit are both connected to the IIC buffer level converter, the backplane unit and the USBPHY chip are both connected to the ESD protection circuit, and the USBPHY chip is also connected to the SOC circuit.

[0083] Specifically, the universal communication interface circuit is used to provide an RS232 interface, an IIC interface, and a USB interface. Figure 8As shown, the cockpit printer system of the embodiment of the present invention has a three-wire RS232 interface without flow control, which is composed of a 232 level conversion chip (i.e., RS232 transceiver). The UART interface of the PS is connected to the rear connector on the backplane through the 232 chip and the ESD protection circuit, and is connected to other external airborne devices. The number of IIC interfaces is 1, which is connected to the rear connector by the IIC interface of the PS through the IIC buffer level converter and the ESD protection circuit. The number of USB interfaces is also 1, which is converted from the ULPI parallel interface of the PS into a USB signal through the USBPHY chip and connected to the rear connector on the backplane through the ESD protection circuit.

[0084] Reference Figure 2 and Fig. 9 , Fig. 9 The circuit principle block diagram of the ARINC 646 interface circuit provided in an embodiment of the present invention is further provided as an optional implementation mode, wherein the main control board unit includes a SOC circuit and an ARINC 646 interface circuit, the ARINC 646 interface circuit includes a network transformer and a switch, the backplane unit and the switch are both connected to the ARINC 646 interface circuit, and the switch is also connected to the SOC circuit.

[0085] Specifically, the cockpit printer system of the embodiment of the present invention is provided with four ARINC 646 communication interfaces, which are expanded into four network ports through the RGMII interface of the PS via a switching chip and a network transformer, two of which are connected to the rear connector on the backplane to realize Ethernet interconnection with other airborne devices, and the other two are reserved on the backplane. These interfaces are standard 10BASET / 100BASET adaptive interfaces, and the port mode can be configured to adaptive mode, forced 10M or forced 100M mode through software, and each network port can be turned on or off separately. Since the maximum rate of each network port is 100M, and the RGMII of the PS is gigabit, even if each network port is communicating at full rate, there will be no transmission congestion.

[0086] Further, if Figure 2 As shown, the main control board unit also includes a print head drive communication circuit, a motor drive communication circuit, a sensor control circuit, a display key board control circuit, a reset circuit and a clock circuit.

[0087] Among them, the motor drive communication circuit is mainly composed of a bipolar DC stepper motor drive circuit, a motor bipolar feedback PWM signal filter circuit, and a buffer drive circuit. The motor drive circuit uses a dedicated integrated chip DRV8424PWPR, which can manage the direction and step rate of the stepper motor through FPGA. The working process of the motor bipolar feedback PWM signal filter circuit is as follows: the motor integrates a stepping distance feedback sensor inside, outputs three OD gate PWM signals through an infrared encoder disk, and the PWM signal is sent to the PL for sampling after passing through a pull-up resistor, ESD protection, and RC filter. The buffer drive circuit is used to electrically isolate the PL end control pin from the driver chip to make the circuit more robust.

[0088] The working process of the sensor control circuit is as follows: first, the FPGA end adjusts the bias current to the sensing end of the sensor through the IIC digital potentiometer. The sensor detects in real time and feeds back the induced analog voltage to the main control board unit. Then the main control board unit amplifies the signal through the front stage and then conditions the signal through the final follower and sends the analog voltage to the FPGA end for ADC conversion, or finally sends the parallel data to the FPGA end through a dedicated ADC conversion chip, so as to calibrate the distance and judge the print head status information such as the printer is out of paper and the printer front panel door is open.

[0089] The working process of the display keypad control circuit is as follows: 6 PWM signals are output through the FPGA end to control each indicator light respectively, where each PWM signal is converted with the rear panel interface FunctionalTest and then processed by the OR gate, and then the signal is electrically isolated by the optocoupler electronic switch and sent to the display keypad unit to drive the indicator light. FunctionalTest can be used for printer debugging after entering the OR gate. The 4-way key first passes through the switch de-shaker to prevent jitter and increase the electrical buffer isolation before entering the FPGA end for processing.

[0090] In some optional embodiments, such as Fig.10 The figure shows the circuit principle block diagram of the power board unit. The power board unit includes a lightning protection circuit, an EMC filter circuit, a full-wave rectifier filter circuit, an inrush current protection circuit, a boost & power factor correction circuit, an energy storage circuit, a main control circuit, an isolation transformer DC / DC conversion circuit, an output rectifier circuit, an inductor energy storage circuit, an output filter circuit, a status monitoring circuit, a temperature monitoring circuit, an output feedback circuit, an output protection circuit, an output start and restart circuit, an indicator light circuit, an auxiliary source circuit, an LDO conversion circuit, an over-voltage and under-voltage reporting circuit, and a non-isolated DC / DC conversion circuit.

[0091] The following describes in detail the structure, working principle and function of each circuit in the power board unit:

[0092] 1) The lightning protection circuit consists of four bidirectional TVS diodes, which are connected between L and N, and between L, N and PE respectively.

[0093] 2) EMC filter circuit adopts a three-level common mode circuit, which is composed of common mode inductor, differential mode inductor, X capacitor and Y capacitor. The common mode inductor and Y capacitor are mainly used to eliminate common mode interference, and the differential mode inductor and X capacitor are used to suppress differential mode interference.

[0094] 3) Full-wave rectifier circuit, composed of four identical slow rectifier diodes and a film capacitor. The rectifier diode is used to convert the input AC voltage into a unidirectional pulsating voltage, and the film capacitor is used to convert the rectified pulsating voltage into a smooth DC voltage. The surge current protection circuit is used to prevent the input current from being too large due to the instantaneous short circuit of the input energy storage capacitor during the startup of the power board because the capacitor voltage cannot change suddenly.

[0095] 4) The surge current protection circuit is placed between the rectifier circuit and the boost circuit. At the moment of power-on, the MOS inside the surge protection circuit is not turned on, and most of the current passes through the 150Ω resistor in parallel, limiting the increase of the input current; after normal operation, the MOS is turned on, and most of the current passes through the MOS, and the current of the resistor becomes very small, thus playing a protective role.

[0096] 5) Boost & Power Factor Correction Circuit (PFC Control Circuit), mainly used to improve the input power factor and wide voltage input range adaptability of the power supply. The input voltage of this circuit is 115V / 400Hz AC, and the output is a fixed DC voltage of 350VDC, so that the subsequent high-frequency isolation conversion circuit can work more stably. The PFC control circuit has a built-in undervoltage protection circuit and a hysteresis comparison function. It samples the PFC chip power supply pin (VCC). When VCC is less than 8V, the PFC chip shuts down the entire power output; and when VCC is greater than 14V, the PFC chip starts output. The onboard 115V AC is full-wave rectified and filtered, and the voltage is divided by selecting an appropriate resistor combination. When the input voltage drops below 50VAC, the PFC cuts off the onboard AC power supply with too low external input, and enables the energy inside the energy storage capacitor, which can maintain the full power output of the power supply for 200ms. When the input is greater than 90VAC, the PFC enables the external input, and the power board unit starts to work normally. In this way, the power board unit can prevent the power board unit from frequently starting and stopping when the input voltage fluctuates around 50VAC while providing undervoltage protection, thereby increasing the stability of the overall system. The power board unit of the embodiment of the present invention adopts a boosted BOOST topology active PFC control circuit, because this topology circuit form has many advantages and is also a typical boost switch circuit with stable and reliable circuit performance.

[0097] 6) Energy storage circuit, composed of voltage conversion device and energy storage element. When the external power supply is normal, the voltage conversion device converts the external power supply to the voltage of the energy storage element. When the system loses power, the voltage conversion device converts the voltage of the energy storage element to the voltage of the power supply bus, so that the system can continue to work uninterruptedly for more than 200ms after the external power supply is interrupted. When the external power supply interruption time is less than or equal to 200ms, the energy storage circuit can make the normal operation of the system unaffected. When the power failure time is greater than 200ms, when the external power supply is restored, the power board unit does not require manual intervention and can automatically restart. After the power is started, it can quickly continue to charge the energy storage element to meet the next system power outage. The energy storage circuit uses two 330uF / 350VDC energy storage capacitors. When the power board outputs at full power 100W load, the power on the energy storage capacitor is 100W / 80%=125W.

[0098] 7) Main control circuit, used to control PFC and PWM transistors. When working normally, it controls the two switch tubes to boost the rectified voltage and transfer energy to the output through the transformer. When protection occurs, the chip stops working, turns off the PWM output, stops voltage boosting and turns off energy transmission.

[0099] 8) Isolation transformer DC / DC conversion circuit, used to convert the high-voltage direct current after primary rectification and boosting into a low-voltage pulsating voltage that meets the requirements through an isolation transformer, and transmit it to the rectifier circuit module input.

[0100] 9) Output rectifier circuit, consisting of two rectifier diodes and two groups of RC absorption circuits, is used to rectify the pulsating voltage output by the transformer into a DC voltage and output it to the filter circuit. One of the rectifier diodes (upper tube) is a rectifier tube, and the lower tube is a freewheeling diode. The RC absorption circuit is used to absorb the high-frequency noise generated when the diode switches between forward conduction and cutoff to prevent electromagnetic interference from being output to the outside.

[0101] 10) Inductor energy storage circuit: when the primary switch is closed, the transformer transfers energy from the primary to the secondary. At this time, the energy storage inductor current increases and stores energy. When the primary switch is disconnected, the secondary rectifier diode is reverse biased, and the transformer cannot transfer energy to the output. At this time, the energy storage inductor releases the stored energy through the freewheeling diode to power the output.

[0102] 11) Output filter circuit, in addition to using conventional multiple large-capacity electrolytic capacitors and multi-layer ceramic capacitors to filter out high-frequency interference, in the embodiment of the present invention, a first-level differential mode filter circuit is added, and the circuit parameters are reasonably adjusted to reduce the output voltage ripple.

[0103] 12) The status monitoring circuit compares the voltage after input AC rectification with the voltage converted by the primary winding of the auxiliary source transformer through comparator and optocoupler isolation. When the input voltage is powered off, the comparator outputs a high level and transmits the signal to the secondary main control board through the optocoupler. The main control board processes and converts the received signal and finds out that the input of the power board is abnormal. At this time, the main control board will immediately save the data that has not been printed or is being printed to prevent data loss during the printing process.

[0104] 13) Temperature monitoring circuit: Two digital temperature sensors with IIC communication interface are arranged on the power board unit. The sensors have reset and over-temperature interrupt pins. The main control board unit collects temperature in real time and monitors the status through the above pins, so as to achieve the purpose of effectively monitoring the working temperature of the power board.

[0105] 14) The output feedback circuit is mainly composed of a feedback network and an optocoupler, which is used to ensure the dynamic stability of the output voltage. When the output load increases, the output voltage is pulled down, and the current fed back to the primary control chip through the optocoupler will become smaller, prompting the main control chip to increase the duty cycle of the main switch, increase the output energy transmission through the transformer, and ensure that the output voltage is not pulled down. When the output load becomes lighter, the output voltage will float higher, the current feedback amount will increase, the duty cycle of the main switch will decrease, the output energy will decrease, and the output voltage will fall back to the set value. Therefore, through this output feedback circuit, the power board unit can still ensure that the output voltage has a smaller fluctuation range when outputting different loads.

[0106] 15) Output protection circuit: When the output voltage exceeds or falls below the set voltage of the protection chip, the output protection signal is fed back to the primary control circuit through the optocoupler, the primary switch driver chip is powered off, and the control chip is turned off. Turning off the main switch MOS blocks the energy transmission of the transformer, shuts down the output voltage, and protects the product from damage due to overvoltage or undervoltage.

[0107] 16) Output start and restart circuit. When the output is working normally, the protection chip needs to enter the normal state, and the protection chip needs a rising edge pulse voltage when working normally. Therefore, a rising edge pulse chip generating circuit, i.e., an output start circuit, is added in the embodiment of the present invention. This circuit is used to send pulses to the protection chip to start the protection chip normally. Only after the protection circuit enters the normal state can the power board unit enter normal operation. The restart circuit is used to solve the problem that after the power board unit enters the protection state, when the protection factor is removed, it cannot automatically restore to the normal working state. When the power board enters the protection state, the restart detection of the power board unit will be triggered immediately. As long as the over-voltage or under-current factors of the power board unit are removed, the power board unit can automatically restore to the restart state.

[0108] 17) Indicator light circuit, used to indicate whether the output voltage of the power board unit is working normally or not. If the indicator light is on, it means that the output voltage of the power board unit is normal, otherwise the power board unit may be faulty.

[0109] 18) Auxiliary source circuit, used to provide stable and reliable power supply for the input main control chip and the output protection chip, so that the entire protection system can be protected and restarted more reliably.

[0110] 19) LDO conversion circuit, used to convert the auxiliary source voltage into the voltage required for powering each chip, ensuring the protection and conversion of the power board unit.

[0111] 20) Over-voltage or under-voltage reporting circuit: When the output voltage of the power board is over-voltage or under-voltage, an error signal is sent to the main control board unit through the comparator. The main control board unit reports the over-voltage or under-voltage fault and saves the data by detecting the high and low level changes of the pin.

[0112] 21) Non-isolated DC / DC conversion circuit (24V to +5V, ±12V). The power board unit outputs the main power supply of 24V, which is mainly used to power the motor and print head to ensure the normal operation of the print head. The main control board unit needs to use +5V and ±12V power supplies. Therefore, the 24V is converted to +5V and ±12V by stepping down or inverting, thereby meeting the normal operation needs of the printer.

[0113] In summary, the structure of the cockpit printer system proposed in the embodiment of the present invention is described. Based on the above structure, the cockpit printer system in the embodiment of the present invention mainly includes the following functions:

[0114] 1) Cockpit printer status reporting function

[0115] Report the printer status information (such as print job status, printer operation status), device information, fault information, etc. to other system devices through the Ethernet SNMP protocol or ARINC 429 data channel.

[0116] 2) Network printing function of cockpit printer

[0117] The cockpit printer saves the print data received from the network as PS format files by parsing the LPR / LPD protocol and the RAW9100 protocol. The display terminal, print service software and other external airborne systems on the aircraft can be connected to the cockpit printer via Ethernet to send print tasks to the cockpit printer. The print task management program constrains the print tasks and controls the cockpit printer to execute the print tasks in the print queue. Among them, the priority management of the print job is based on the queue name priority management in the LPR protocol, which is set to 6 priorities, namely "HX1-1", "HX1-2", "HX1-3", "HX1-4", "HX1-5" and "HX1-6"; among them, "HX1-1" has the highest priority and "HX1-6" has the lowest priority. In addition, the cockpit printer supports the function of sending multiple documents for printing and supports the printing of queues with different priorities. The printer files sent to the cockpit printer are queued according to the priority. The ones that have been printed have the highest priority, and the ones that have not been printed are queued according to the priority and printed in sequence.

[0118] like Fig.11 The figure shows the specific network printing process. After the cockpit printer client installs the printer driver and connects to the printer through the network, it can print pictures, graphics and texts, including PNG, JPEG / JPG, TXT, PDF, WORD, OFD and other format files. When the cockpit printer receives the printed file, it will return the printer status information, including the success or failure of receiving the file. Other status information is uploaded through the SNMP function.

[0119] 3) Cockpit printer ARINC 429 communication printing function

[0120] As mentioned earlier, the cockpit printer is equipped with eight ARINC 429 input ports for receiving, identifying and processing print data from various external airborne systems, currently mainly providing data printing services for the communication system. Data transmission is defined by ARINC specification 429 "Mark 33 Digital Information Transmission System (DITS)". All input ports can automatically identify and receive data at low speed (12.5kbps) or high speed (100kbps).

[0121] The cockpit printer's ARINC 429 ports are assigned and prioritized based on the port number. Input 1 is defined as having the highest priority, input 8 has the lowest priority, and the priorities of the intermediate inputs are proportional to their number. When the cockpit printer is powered on, it determines which input ports are active and which specific external onboard system is connected to each active port. The cockpit printer waits 10 seconds after power-on to allow the source subsystem to initialize and begin sending the system identification word identified by label 172 (octal) and its system address label.

[0122] The cockpit printer will use polling to monitor each port to see if it has received the system identification word and its address label sent by the external airborne system. If the data is received, the port is considered to be an active port and monitors whether there is any print data transmitted. If the data is not received, the port is considered to be an inactive port and the polling cycle of the port is increased to reduce the system's resource consumption until the port receives the system identification word sent by the source subsystem and is re-marked as an active port.

[0123] The ARINC 429 printing communication data of the cockpit printer complies with the ARINC 744A protocol. After receiving the ARINC429 data, the printer parses the control words and data words therein and performs corresponding actions according to their contents. Each data word carries 4 characters of data and can print 96 ASCII characters and semi-graphics.

[0124] 4) Self-detection function

[0125] The cockpit printer has the functions of startup BIT, continuous BIT and periodic BIT, which can support continuous monitoring and abnormal detection at the device level, monitor or monitor the status of ARINC 429, Ethernet, discrete input channels, monitor the usage of internal memory, processor, power supply, motor and storage resources, etc., and save BIT data to the system log.

[0126] 5) Data loading function

[0127] With an Ethernet interface, it can be used for ARINC 615A software loading via ADL / PDL, so that the software of the device can be upgraded without disassembling the device.

[0128] 6) Network configuration management function

[0129] The cockpit printer provides a Web management interface for maintenance personnel. Maintenance personnel can use a handheld tablet computer or other device to connect to the Web management interface on the printer through a wireless network to view the printer's device status, device information, check logs, modify network configurations, trigger device maintenance self-tests, etc., to help maintenance personnel understand the current status of the printer and diagnose printer faults.

[0130] The structure and working principle of the cockpit printer system according to the embodiment of the present invention are described above. It can be appreciated that compared with the traditional cockpit printer, the embodiment of the present invention has the following advantages:

[0131] 1. Rich interfaces, reserved with Ethernet, ARINC 429, discrete, RS232, USB and other interfaces, powerful functions. And it adopts SOC with integrated PS / PL, fast main frequency processing capability and advanced chip manufacturing technology. The product is highly scalable, and can replace other models of printers when only the front panel and rear panel need to be replaced;

[0132] 2. The self-check function is rich, which can support continuous monitoring and abnormal detection at the device level, monitor or monitor the status of ARINC429, Ethernet, discrete input channels, monitor the usage of internal memory, processor, power supply and storage resources, etc., and save BIT data to the system log; when using maintenance self-check, with the simple operation of maintenance personnel, fault diagnosis can be carried out at the installation location, and the fault detection rate reaches 97%.

[0133] 3. The product has high integration and BIT function, which can detect abnormalities and perform maintenance in time through the background, and the labor cost is low. The chip has high integration, high productivity and low overall price.

[0134] It should be appreciated that embodiments of the present invention may be implemented or enforced by computer hardware, a combination of hardware and software, or by computer instructions stored in a non-transitory computer-readable memory. The above methods may be implemented in a computer program using standard programming techniques, including a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium configured with a computer program, wherein the storage medium so configured causes the computer to operate in a specific and predefined manner, according to the methods and drawings described in the specific embodiments. Each program may be implemented in a high-level procedural or object-oriented programming language to communicate with a computer system. However, if desired, the program may be implemented in an assembly or machine language. In any case, the language may be a compiled or interpreted language. In addition, the program may be run on a programmed dedicated integrated circuit for this purpose.

[0135] Furthermore, the operations of the processes described herein may be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context. The processes described herein (or variations and / or combinations thereof) may be performed under the control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions, and may be implemented as code (e.g., executable instructions, one or more computer programs, or one or more applications) that is executed collectively on one or more processors, by hardware, or a combination thereof. The computer programs described above include a plurality of instructions that may be executed by one or more processors.

[0136] Further, the above method can be implemented in any type of computing platform that is operably connected to a suitable computer, including but not limited to a personal computer, a minicomputer, a mainframe, a workstation, a network or distributed computing environment, a separate or integrated computer platform, or in communication with a charged particle tool or other imaging device, etc. Various aspects of the present invention can be implemented in machine-readable code stored on a non-transitory storage medium or device, whether removable or integrated into a computing platform, such as a hard disk, an optical read and / or write storage medium, a RAM, a ROM, etc., so that it can be read by a programmable computer, and when the storage medium or device is read by the computer, it can be used to configure and operate the computer to perform the process described herein. In addition, the machine-readable code, or a portion thereof, can be transmitted via a wired or wireless network. When such media includes instructions or programs that implement the steps described above in conjunction with a microprocessor or other data processor, the invention described herein includes these and other different types of non-transitory computer-readable storage media. When programmed according to the methods and techniques described in the present invention, the present invention also includes the computer itself.

[0137] The computer program can be applied to input data to perform the functions described herein, thereby converting the input data to generate output data stored in a non-volatile memory. The output information can also be applied to one or more output devices such as a display. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the converted data represents physical and tangible objects, including specific visual depictions of physical and tangible objects produced on the display.

[0138] In the above description of this specification, the description with reference to the terms "one embodiment / example", "another embodiment / example" or "certain embodiments / examples" etc. means that the specific features, structures, materials or characteristics described in conjunction with the embodiment or example are included in at least one embodiment or example of the present invention. In this specification, the schematic representation of the above terms does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment or example. Moreover, the specific features, structures, materials or characteristics described may be combined in any one or more embodiments or examples in a suitable manner.

[0139] Although embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various changes, modifications, substitutions and variations may be made to the embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the present invention, and that the scope of the present invention is defined by the claims and their equivalents.

[0140] The above is a specific description of the preferred implementation of the present invention, but the present invention is not limited to the embodiments. Those skilled in the art may make various equivalent modifications or substitutions without violating the spirit of the present invention. These equivalent modifications or substitutions are all included in the scope defined by the claims of this application.

Claims

1. A cockpit printer system, characterized in that: The invention comprises a main control board unit, a backboard unit, a power board unit, a connection unit, a print head and a motor, wherein the backboard unit, the print head and the motor are all connected to the main control board unit, the power board unit and the connection unit are all connected to the backboard unit, the main control board unit is configured with an Ethernet interface, an ARINC 429 interface, a discrete quantity interface, an RS232 interface, an IIC interface and a USB interface, the connection unit is used to access an external airborne system, the backboard unit is used to connect the main control board unit and the power board unit to the external airborne system, the power board unit is used to convert a first power supply input by the external airborne system to obtain a second power supply with multiple voltage values, so as to supply power to the main control board unit, the print head and the motor through the backboard unit, the main control board unit is used to output a motor control signal and a print head control signal according to the printing data output by each of the external airborne systems, and monitor the Ethernet interface, the ARINC 429 interface and the channel status of the discrete quantity interface, the motor is used to drive the paper in and out of the print head according to the motor control signal, and the print head is used to perform a printing job according to the print head control signal.

2. A cockpit printer system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The cockpit printer system also includes a sensor unit, which is connected to the main control board unit. The sensor unit is used to obtain print head status information and print head fault information. The main control board unit is also used to output an alarm control signal according to the print head status information and the print head fault information.

3. A cockpit printer system according to claim 2, characterized in that: The cockpit printer system also includes a display keypad unit, which is connected to the main control panel unit. The display keypad includes a fault indicator light, a status indicator light, a power button, a test button, a stop button and a paper feed button. The fault indicator light is used to indicate an abnormal state of the cockpit printer system, the status indicator light is used to indicate the state of the print head according to the alarm control signal, the power button is used to control the power of the cockpit printer system to be turned on or off, the test button is used to control the cockpit printer system to perform a self-check, the stop button is used to control the cockpit printer system to terminate the current printing job, and the paper feed button is used to control the paper to move forward.

4. A cockpit printer system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The connection unit includes a first connector, a second connector and a third connector, the output end of the first connector is connected to the input end of the backplane unit, the second connector and the third connector are both connected to the backplane unit, the first connector is used to access the first power supply, the second connector is used to implement ARINC 429 protocol, RS232 protocol, IIC protocol, USB protocol, and input and output discrete signals, and the third connector is used to implement ARINC 646 protocol.

5. A cockpit printer system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The backplane unit includes an EMC / EMI protection circuit, and the connection unit, the main control board unit and the power board unit are all connected to the EMC / EMI protection circuit, and the EMC / EMI protection circuit is used to perform EMI filtering and ESD protection on the printing data.

6. A cockpit printer system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The main control board unit includes an SOC circuit and a local power supply circuit. The local power supply circuit includes an input filter circuit, a timing control circuit, multiple buck converters and multiple low-voltage dropout linear regulators. The input end of the input filter circuit is connected to the output end of the backplane unit. The first input end of each buck converter and each low-voltage dropout linear regulator is connected to the output end of the input filter circuit. The second input end of each buck converter and each low-voltage dropout linear regulator is connected to the output end of the timing control circuit. The output end of each buck converter and each low-voltage dropout linear regulator is connected to the input end of the SOC circuit. The input filter circuit is used to filter the second power supply. Each buck converter and each low-voltage dropout linear regulator is used to convert the filtered second power supply to obtain a third power supply with multiple voltage values. The timing control circuit is used to control the power-on and power-off timing of the SOC circuit.

7. A cockpit printer system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The main control board unit includes a SOC circuit and an ARINC 429 interface circuit, the ARINC 429 interface circuit includes an ARINC 429 driver group, an ARINC 429 receiver group and an ARINC 429BIT circuit, the input end of the ARINC 429 driver group is connected to the output end of the SOC circuit, the output end of the ARINC 429 driver group is connected to the input end of the backplane unit, the input end of the ARINC 429 receiver group is connected to the output end of the backplane unit, the output end of the ARINC 429 receiver group is connected to the input end of the SOC circuit, the SOC circuit and the backplane unit are both connected to the ARINC 429BIT circuit, wherein the ARINC 429 receiver group includes a plurality of ARINC 429 interfaces for receiving the print data output by each of the external airborne systems.

8. A cockpit printer system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The main control board unit includes an SOC circuit and a discrete quantity interface circuit, wherein the discrete quantity interface circuit includes an EMC protection circuit, a diode, a discrete-to-digital sensor, a level conversion circuit, an RMS-DC converter, a comparator, and a voltage-controlled pulse width modulator. The EMC protection circuit is connected to the backplane unit, the input end of the diode is connected to the first output end of the EMC protection circuit, the output end of the diode is connected to the input end of the discrete-to-digital sensor, the output end of the discrete-to-digital sensor is connected to the input end of the SOC circuit, the input end of the level conversion circuit is connected to the output end of the SOC circuit, the output end of the level conversion circuit is connected to the input end of the EMC protection circuit, the input end of the RMS-DC converter is connected to the second output end of the EMC protection circuit, the input ends of the comparator and the voltage-controlled pulse width modulator are both connected to the output end of the RMS-DC converter, and the output ends of the comparator and the voltage-controlled pulse width modulator are both connected to the input end of the SOC circuit.

9. A cockpit printer system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The main control board unit includes a SOC circuit and a universal communication interface circuit, the universal communication interface circuit includes an RS232 transceiver, an IIC buffer level converter, an ESD protection circuit and a USBPHY chip, the SOC circuit and the backplane unit are both connected to the RS232 transceiver, the SOC circuit and the backplane unit are both connected to the IIC buffer level converter, the backplane unit and the USBPHY chip are both connected to the ESD protection circuit, and the USBPHY chip is also connected to the SOC circuit.

10. A cockpit printer system according to claim 1, characterized in that: The main control board unit includes a SOC circuit and an ARINC 646 interface circuit, the ARINC 646 interface circuit includes a network transformer and a switch, the backplane unit and the switch are both connected to the ARINC 646 interface circuit, and the switch is also connected to the SOC circuit.

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