Tape printing apparatus and control method of tape printing apparatus

A tape printing apparatus comprising:

• a drive motor that rotates in a first rotation direction and a second rotation direction opposite to the first rotation direction;
• a platen drive shaft that engages with a platen roller and rotates the platen roller;
• a gear train mechanism that transmits power of the drive motor to the platen drive shaft so that the platen roller feeds a tape in a first feeding direction when the drive motor rotates in the first rotation direction, and the platen roller feeds the tape in a second feeding direction opposite to the first feeding direction when the drive motor rotates in the second rotation direction;
• a printing head that performs printing on the tape fed in the first feeding direction;
• a sensor that has a detection position located in the first feeding direction with respect to a printing position by the printing head and detects presence or absence of the tape at the detection position;
• and
• a control section that controls the drive motor and the printing head, wherein
• the control section acquires a printing start command, and when a margin distance, which is a distance from a leading end of the tape to a printing start position of the tape, is shorter than a sensor-head distance, which is a distance between the detection position and the printing position, and the leading end of the tape is located in the second feeding direction with respect to the detection position, the control section feeds the tape in the first feeding direction, locates the leading end of the tape in the first feeding direction with respect to the detection position by a predetermined distance, feeds the tape in the second feeding direction, determines that the leading end of the tape passed the detection position, and then feeds the tape in the second feeding direction until the printing start position of the tape comes to the printing position.