Thermal Printer Disconnection Detection Noise Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Thermal printers face reduced accuracy in determining heating element disconnection due to noise in A/D values acquired during the disconnection check process, affecting printing quality.
Innovation Solution
A method that involves acquiring a noise value by energizing heating elements with NULL data, calculating an average noise value, and then reducing noise from actual A/D values to improve the accuracy of disconnection detection.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If the thermal printer supplies power to each heating element sequentially and acquires A/D value for disconnection detection, then the disconnection state can be determined, but noise in the A/D value reduces the determination accuracy
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by acquiring a reference A/D value from a normal heating element before performing disconnection detection on other elements. This reference value is obtained in advance and stored for subsequent comparison, allowing the system to establish a baseline for what a healthy heating element's electrical characteristics should look like, thereby improving detection accuracy while accounting for noise variations
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements feedback by comparing the A/D value of each heating element against the reference A/D value obtained from a known good element. This comparison mechanism provides feedback that enables the system to identify deviations indicating disconnection or abnormality, with the reference value serving as the feedback benchmark for accurate determination
Data Source
AI summary
Generally, in accordance with embodiments, a thermal printer comprises heating elements, a storage section, a drive circuit and a controller. A plurality of heating elements are linearly arranged. The storage section stores a one-line amount of image data. The drive circuit energizes each heating element according to the one-line amount of image data. An acquisition section acquires an A/D value corresponding to the voltage applied to each heating element every time each heating element is energized. The controller outputs a one-line amount of empty data to the storage section to acquire a first A/D value with the acquisition section, reduces, based on the first A/D value, noises of a second A/D value which is acquired by energizing each heating element and checks the disconnection of each heating element based on the noise-reduced second A/D value.