Lexmark International, Inc.

Thomas Jon Eade

John Philip Bolash

Frank Edward Anderson

Randall David Mayo

Bruce David Gibson

George Keith Parish

Mark Joseph Edwards

Scott Michael Heydinger

Stephen Kelly Cunnagin

Mark Walter Fagan

Curt Paul Breswick

Michael Anthony Marra, Iii

Christopher Alan Adkins

Adam Jude Ahne

Timothy John Rademacher

Michael Clark Campbell

Zachary Nathan Fister

Bruce Anthony DeBoard

David Allen Crutchfield

James Ray Bailey

Lawrence Russell Steward

John Booth Bates

Bryan McKinley

Tommy Otis Lowe

Joseph Wade Luciano

Bruce Lanier Walcott

Darell Dean Cronch

Michael Kelley Webb

David Keith Lane

Paul Albert Cook

Daniel Scott Powell

Darrel Lee Henry

Matthew Kevan Zimmer

David Steven Waldrop

Michael David Gonzalez-Rubio

John A Goodman

A printer architecture and memory card is described. The architecture can include an integrated circuit and a memory card. The memory card can include print swaths and bit-maps of thumbnail images associated with the print swaths. The thumbnail images can be displayed on the hand-held printer. A print swath associated with the selected thumbnail image can be printed.

Architecture and memory card for hand-held printer

An imaging apparatus includes a printing mechanism. A reservoir is connected to the printing mechanism. The reservoir contains an imaging substance supply. A secured compartment contains at least the reservoir, the secured compartment being configured to restrict access to the reservoir. A communication port is configured to receive print data. The communication port is communicatively coupled to the printing mechanism, and the communication port is accessible from outside the secured compartment.

Imaging apparatus for facilitating printing

A method of transforming a n-bit data packet to a m-bit data packet with a lookup table. The lookup table includes at least one entry data packet and at least one respective delta value associated with each entry data packet. The method includes the acts of receiving an input data packet having n-bits, indexing the lookup table with at least a portion of the input data packet to obtain one of the at least one entry data packet, and decompressing the obtained entry data packet with the at least one respective delta value associated with the obtained entry data packet, thereby resulting in an output data packet having m-bits. The decompressing act includes using a portion of the input data packet to determine the number of delta values called for decompressing the obtained entry data packet. The method can be used in, for example, an image processor.

Method of an image processor for transforming a n-bit data packet to a m-bit data packet using a lookup table

A method for printing shingling print data in a shingling print pass of a multi-shingling-pass print swath. One step includes compacting the shingling print data by removing the deterministic voids associated with the shingling print algorithm. Another step includes expanding the compacted shingling print data based on the shingling print algorithm. An additional step includes printing the expanded shingling print data.

Method for printing shingling print data

A method for facilitating printing includes the steps of providing to a consumer a first printer containing a fixed amount of imaging substance; receiving back from the consumer the first printer after a substantial portion of the imaging substance has been used; and exchanging the first printer with an exchange printer.

Imaging apparatus and method for facilitating printing

A method of printing on a print medium with a printer which is in communication with a host computer includes the steps of providing the host computer with a print job to be printed by the printer, identifying a data format associated with the print job, determining an operating system stored in the printer, comparing the data format with the printer operating system, downloading an operating system which corresponds to the data format from the host computer to the printer if the printer operating system does not correspond to the data format, transmitting print data associated with the print job from the host computer to the printer, and printing on the print medium with the printer using the print data.

Dynamic printer operating system

A first method obtains a printer having a single-printhead horizontal resolution of H dpi. Dots are printed using first and second printheads in the same print pass. The first printhead is enabled and the second printhead is non-enabled during a first portion of a carrier-movement distance equal to 1/H, and the second printhead is enabled and the first printhead is non-enabled during a second non-overlapping portion of such distance. A printer and a printhead driver for performing the first method are described. A second method obtains a printer having a single-printhead resolution of H horizontal dpi by V vertical dpi. First print data for the first printhead and second print data for the second printhead of H/2 horizontal dpi by V vertical dpi are obtained, are horizontally interlaced creating H horizontal dpi by V vertical dpi, and are printed using the first and second printheads in the same print pass.

Method, printer and printhead driver for printing using two printheads

A control system in the form of an all-digital phase-locked loop controls movement of a DC motor. The control system includes a movement detector in the form of an optical encoder to detect movement of a DC motor. A digital phase detector compares output of a feedback signal from the movement detector and a reference signal. The digital phase detector is phase frequency detector that follows a describing function to model non-linear components of the reference signal. A digital loop filter then filters noise from the comparison signal and the filtered signal is amplified to control the DC motor. The phase frequency detector includes a state machine to track a time varying reference signal and selectively output a response to provide for system damping.

Apparatus and method for electronic control of DC motor using an all-digital phase-locked loop

A method and system for controlling a stepper motor that may be used in a paper feed rolling arrangement of a printer. The method includes storing step mode selection data in combination with time data in a single table for retrieval and use by a controller.

Stepper motor control system

The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for firing the nozzles on an ink jet print head cartridge that requires a reduced number of data lines between the ink jet print head cartridge and the printer electronics. A group data line provides serial group select data that is stored in a set of group select latches on the ink jet print head cartridge and identifies a particular group of nozzles on the ink jet print head. A primitive data line provides primitive select data that is stored in a set of primitive select latches on the ink jet print head cartridge and identifies a particular nozzle in the selected set of nozzles. A first clock line provides a first clock signal that is used to advance the group select data and the primitive select data into the group select latches and primitive select latches respectively. The group select data and the primitive select data is decoded to produce firing data which is advanced to a set of firing latches in accordance with a second clock signal that is provided on a second clock line. The data in the firing latches is logically ANDed or NANDed with a firing pulse provided on a firing line in order to expel a drop of ink from the selected nozzle or nozzles on the ink jet print head cartridge.

Print head drive scheme for serial compression of I/O in ink jets

An improved ink jet printer is provided in which its carrier position and velocity information is derived from a linear optical encoder mounted on the carrier, which produces the position information uses a quadrature output signal, and one of the channels of that output signal is used to determine &ldquo;critical edge&rdquo; transitions used to provide the actual print fire timing. Two adjacent encoder periods are needed to determine the acceleration of the carrier. By measuring the time intervals of these two encoder periods, and measuring the difference between these time intervals, the present invention provides correction logic that can determine if the second of the two measurements has been corrupted by motion not relative to carrier speed across the print media. If the difference between the previous two periods is greater than a preset maximum, the correction logic will limit the new encoder time (i.e., for purposes of fire pulse width calculation) to the old encoder time, plus or minus the preset limit. In this manner, any significantly large errors in the critical edges of the encoder signals can be temporarily ignored for the fire pulse calculations of the next encoder period, at least within the programmable preset limits. This is particularly useful during printing operations during which the carrier should be traveling at a relatively constant velocity, wherein the false edges that may occur otherwise would significantly degrade the placement of printed pels on the print media if not for the automatic self-correction provided by the present invention.

Method and apparatus for automatically correcting the fire timing of a printhead carrier due to linear encoder velocity errors

The specification describes a printer containing an angled printer cartridge and a method for printing using the cartridge. The printer is an ink jet printer which includes a print media movement device for moving a print media having through the printer along a print media path and a printer cartridge attached to the printer at an angle between 0&deg; and 90&deg; relative to an axis perpendicular to an axis along the direction of the media path through the printer. The printer cartridge has a length sufficient to print substantially the entire width of the printed width across the print media and contains a plurality of printheads along at least a portion of the length thereof, each printhead having one or more nozzle arrays. During a printing operation, only a portion of the printheads along the length of the cartridge are activated thus, reducing power consumption during printing. Angling the printer cartridge also has the advantage of increasing the print quality without increasing the density of nozzles in the nozzle array of the printhead.

Angled printer cartridge

An apparatus addresses ink jet heating elements based on image data to cause ejection of ink droplets toward a print medium. The apparatus includes a controller for generating address signals, power signals, and first and second bank signals. The first and second bank signals, which are carried on first and second bank lines, alternate between on and off states. The first bank signal is off when the second bank signal is on, and the second bank signal is off when the first bank signal is on. The apparatus has m address lines and n power lines connected to the controller for carrying the address signals and the power signals. A print head has m&times;n number of first driver circuits, each of which is connected to the first bank line and to a corresponding one of the m address lines. The first driver circuits enable flow of a first driving current when the first bank signal and the address signal are simultaneously on on the first bank line and the corresponding address line. The print head has m&times;n number of second driver circuits, each of which is connected to the second bank line and to a corresponding one of the m address lines. The second driver circuits enable flow of a second driving current when the second bank signal and the address signal are simultaneously on on the second bank line and the corresponding address line. First heating elements are each connected to a corresponding one of the first driver circuits and to one of the n power lines. A first heating element is activated by the first driving current when the power signal is on on the connected power line and the corresponding first driver circuit enables flow of the first driving current. Second heating elements are each connected to a corresponding one of the second driver circuits and to one of the n power lines. A second heating element is activated by the second driving current when the power signal is on on the connected power line and the corresponding second driver circuit enables flow of the second driving current.

Transitional ink jet heater addressing

Mechanical and electrical characteristics of individual print cartridges are determined and used to generate control information for customizing control of each individual print cartridge. One or more characteristics including nozzle heater resistance, drop mass and drop velocity for individual print cartridges are determined and used to derive offset values for widths of pulses used to drive nozzle heaters in the individual print cartridges. While all three characteristics are preferably used, any one or two may also be used. Once determined, pulsewidths or offsets from nominal pulsewidths to improve or optimize printing using the print cartridges are stored in memory devices located on the print cartridges so that printers utilizing the print cartridges can retrieve the pulsewidth or offset data and utilize it in customizing or individualizing control of the print cartridges.

Method and apparatus for customized control of a print cartridge

A host computer transmits raster information to a multi-color ink jet printer. The printer includes a printhead connected with an electrical processor. The printhead includes a plurality of arrays of ink jetting heaters. Each array of ink jetting heaters corresponds to a different color ink to be jetted onto the print medium, and is offset relative to an adjacent array of ink jetting heaters in an advance direction of the print medium. First raster information for a first raster is transmitted from the host computer to the electrical processor of the printer. The first raster information is associated with a first array of ink jetting heaters. The print medium is printed on by selectively actuating the ink jetting heaters of the first array of ink jetting heaters, using the first raster information. After the first printing step, second raster information for a second raster is transmitted to the electrical processor. The second raster information is associated with the first array of ink jetting heaters. After the first printing step, third raster information for the first raster is transmitted to the electrical processor. The third raster information is associated with a second array of ink jetting heaters. After the second and third transmitting steps, the print medium is printed on by selectively actuating the ink jetting heaters of the first and second arrays of ink jetting heaters, respectively using the second and third raster information.

Growing community of inventors

Lexington, KY, United States of America

Thomas Jon Eade