Lexmark International, Inc.

Motorola Corporation

International Business Machines Corporation

Timothy P Craig

Christopher Alan Adkins

Timothy Lowell Strunk

Stephen Kelly Cunnagin

James R Stimple

Michael Shayne Wilson

Benjamin Keith Newman

David Lee Merrifield

Paul M Erickson

Phillip Byron Wright

Gary Scott Overall

James J Molloy

Thomas Campbell Wade

Steven L Applegate

Cyrus Bradford Clarke

John W Pettit

Thomas Gregrory Survant

Michael R Timperman

Gregrory Lawrence Ream

Methods for licensing functionality after an initial transaction are provided. One such method is directed to licensing after an initial transaction of a customer obtaining a supply item including the step of prompting the customer to acquire a usage license for the supply item.

Method of licensing functionality after initial transaction

An improved electrophotographic (EP) printer is provided having a detachable process cartridge that contains a non-volatile memory device, which is an EPROM that cannot be erased after a bit is burned. A 'toner wheel' mounted to the exterior of the toner reservoir of the process cartridge provides, in conjunction with an optoelectronic sensor, an electrical signal that the printer receives and uses to determine toner usage. A toner 'gas-gauge' is created which uses 'bucket levels' as discrete steps to indicate how much of the measured physical toner material actually remains within the toner reservoir. After a given amount of toner material has been dispensed through the developer unit, one of the bits of the EPROM memory device is irreversibly burned, thereby providing a permanent record on the process cartridge of a certain amount of toner usage. As with a normal automobile gas gauge, the toner gas-gauge reading should never increase unless the amount of toner material inside the toner reservoir has increased. Once the bucket level transitions begin to occur for the toner gas-gauge, the printer becomes aware that a majority of the toner material has been expended from inside the toner reservoir. If the number of bucket gradation levels then increases by more than the hysteresis amount, then the printer will 'lock out' the operation of a non-reusable process cartridge. When the lock-out mode occurs, a particular bit is burned on the EPROM mounted to the cleaner housing of the process cartridge. This ensures that this particular process cartridge cannot be removed, then simply placed back into the same (or a different) printer, and then begin supplying toner to a printer. Certain important 'machine data' also can be stored in the EPROM memory device on the process cartridge of the present invention. The present invention is also able to declare the 'end-of-life' of a process cartridge when the gas-gauge toner sensor is not functional (such as when it has been tampered with).

Method and apparatus for storing data in a non-volatile memory circuit

A current-drive circuit (FIG. 1) is provided to drive each of forty electrodes 41. Voltage at the electrodes 41 is monitored on line 49 as a control-input to a voltage-regulator circuit (FIG. 2), to produce the drive voltage Vdr. Vdr minus a current-level reference Vlev is applied as the input of a differential amplifier (transistors 3, 15, 51 and 53), thereby applying Vdr-Vlev on line 27. A constant current through the electrode 41 is produced across register 25. As the lowest voltage at all driven electrodes shifts, the regulator circuit (FIG. 2) shifts Vdr the same amount, employing differentially connected transistors 72 and 74, and Zener 120 to set the level of Vdr. Since most of the active elements operated within narrow limits, the circuit can be extensively miniaturized.

Regulated current source for thermal printhead

A plurality of horizontally directive antenna sectors are arranged in a configuration to receive signals from remote transmitters over a given angle in the horizontal plane. A scanning system is operative in one of several modes to sequentially couple each sector to a receiver. In its first mode, each sector is sequentially scanned with the peak signal level therefrom being compared to a reference level. If the signal level on any sector exceeds the reference level the scanner activates to its second mode wherein scanning of all sectors continues for a predetermined interval after which the system advances to a selective scanning mode wherein scan is limited to that sector with the largest stored signal level relative to the reference level, and to those sectors adjacent said sector for a predetermined time interval. At the end of this interval, scanning is inhibited and the receiver is coupled to that sector which exhibited the strongest relative signal level during the scanning sequences. In this listen mode, if the signal level from the sector falls to a minimum level or a coded squelch is undetected for a given period, the system reverts to the first scanning mode. The system periodically updates the reference levels to account for changes in background noise or the presence of an interfering signal.

Sectored antenna receiving system

The pre-limited IF signal from an FM receiver is coupled to a pair of linear amplifiers in a cascade configuration. The outputs from the amplifiers are detected and passed to piecewise linear amplifiers. Each piecewise linear amplifier is designed to exhibit a gain characteristic which is dependent on the level of signals applied at its input. A summing circuit sums the piecewise linear amplified signals in predetermined proportion to thereby produce a DC signal which is linearly related to the receiver's quieting level.

High dynamic range detector for indicating the quieting level of an FM

A plurality of horizontally directive antenna sectors are arranged in configuration to receive signals from remote transmitters over a given angle in the horizontal plane. A scanning system is operative in one of several modes to sequentially couple each sector to a receiver. In its first mode, each sector is sequentially scanned with the output signal level therefrom being compared to a reference level. If the signal level on any sector exceeds the reference level the scanner activates to its second mode wherein scanning continues for a predetermined interval. At the end of the interval, scanning is inhibited and the receiver is coupled to that sector which produced the strongest signal level during the second mode scanning cycle. In the inhibit scan mode, if the signal level from the sector falls to a minimum level for a given time period the system reverts to the first scanning mode.

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Georgetown, KY, United States of America

Timothy P Craig