Texas Instruments Corporation

Mark A Rendon

Thomas R Grimm

Erik A Treszoks

LaVaughn F Watts, Jr

Luther L Oliver

Jose I Rodriguez

Sam Vinson

Dan Dodson

Donald J Arndt

An electronic terminal employs a liquid crystal display for displaying desired characters. The terminal has circuitry for providing attributes to the characters, on a character-by-character basis or on a plurality of characters basis. These attributes include double width, double height, underline, inversion and intensity control. These attributes are formed using minimal additional memory and circuitry.

Flat panel display attribute generator

A portable printer including paper feed apparatus for utilizing sheet, roll or continuous form paper. The paper feed apparatus having pin feed drive members and friction rollers for feeding all three forms of paper. The printer also includes apparatus for selecting printing different character pitches to reduce the memory capacity required. A method is provided for operating the printer to obtain alignment of the paper feed drive motor prior to printing.

Portable printer

A printer has a detection mechanism for detecting the absence of paper and the end position of the printhead upon start-up and reset. The detection mechanism includes a detection lever arm that is spring loaded and operationally positioned in a normal state. An optical sensor made up of an LED and a photo transistor that receives light from the LED, has the lower end of the detection lever arm operationally positioned in the normal state, between the LED and the photo transistor. The upper end of the detection lever arm is urged against the paper, by the spring. The platen supporting the paper has a groove formed therein which, in the absence of paper, receives the upper end of the detection lever arm, causing the lower end to move from its normal position between the LED and the photo transistor, the optical sensor then indicating a paper-out condition. The carriage for supporting and moving the printhead has an activation arm that moves against the detection lever arm when the carriage moves to the leftmost position, thereby moving the lower end of the lever arm away from the normal state, the optical sensor then indicating a column one position.

Printer having paper-out and column zero detection mechanism

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Belton, TX, United States of America

Mark A Rendon