Seiko Epson Corporation

Akihiro Uno

Shinichi Yoshie

Hideki Nishimura

Katsuo Takeuchi

A printing device that and a control method of the printing device enable supplying power to a connected external device without affecting operation of the printing device. A thermal printerhas a USB connectorthat connects to a smart devicea power supply circuita print mechanismthat operates using power supplied from the power supply circuita communicatorthat communicates with the smart deviceand a controllerthat receives a command to start or stop operation of the print mechanismfrom the smart devicethrough the communicatorand controls the power supply to the smart devicefrom the power supply circuitaccording to the timing when operation of the print mechanismstarts and stops.

Printing device and method for controlling power supplied from the printing device to an external device

A thermal printer with head elements enables accurately determining the state of deterioration of the head elements, and minimizing the amount of stored data. A printing device has a thermal head having multiple head elements; a voltage application circuit configured to apply a printing voltage and an inspection voltage to the head elements; a head controller configured to control the thermal head and the voltage application circuit; and data storage configured to store a conversion table relationally storing a divided voltage and a resistance of the head elements. At a specific timing, the head controller applies the inspection voltage to the head elements by the voltage application circuit, measures the divided voltage of the head elements, converts the measured divided voltage to resistance based on the conversion table, acquires deterioration information based on the converted resistance, and stores the deterioration information in the data storage.

Growing community of inventors

Shiojiri, Japan

Akihiro Uno