Ink jet recording apparatus and control method therefor
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorAkihiko Sukigara
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention is to provide a user-friendly ink jet recording apparatus capable of preventing a sudden ink exhaustion and a resulting unclear print by canceling the no-ink error signal without an ink tank replacement. In the ink jet recording apparatus, in case of a no-ink error signal, a no-ink timer is activated and time information of no-ink state is stored in a non-volatile memory, and a period from such-time is measured and compared, and after the lapse of predetermined time, a no-ink error signal is generated even before a threshold value for the no-ink error signal is reached, thereby requesting an ink tank replacement to the user.
Claims18
An ink jet recording apparatus capable of controlling a no-ink error of an ink tank, the apparatus comprising:
- measuring means which measures a consumed ink by a dot count;
- detection means which detects absence of the ink in the ink tank;
- first generation means which generates a no-ink error signal when the measuring means measures the consumed ink by the dot count and the detection means detects absence of the ink in the ink tank;
- first canceling means which cancels the no-ink error signal by a replacement of the ink tank;
- second canceling means which cancels the no-ink error signal without a replacement of the ink tank;
- timer means which starts a timer in case of a cancellation by the second no-ink error signal canceling means;
- and
- second generation means which causes the timer means to generate the no-ink error signal at a timing different from that of the first generation means.
A control method for an ink jet recording apparatus, comprising:
- a measuring step of measuring a consumed ink by a dot count;
- a first generation step of generating a no-ink error signal when the measuring step detects absence of the ink;
- a first canceling step of canceling the no-ink error signal by a replacement of the ink tank;
- a second canceling step of canceling the no-ink error signal without a replacement of the ink tank;
- a timer step of starting a timer in case of a cancellation of the no-ink error signal by the second no-ink error signal canceling step;
- and
- a second generation step of causing the timer step to generate said no-ink error signal at a timing different from that of the first generation step.
A control method for an ink jet recording apparatus, comprising:
- a measuring step of measuring a consumed ink by a dot count;
- a first generation step of generating a no-ink error signal when the measuring step detects absence of the ink;
- a second generation step of generating the no-ink error signal at a timing different from that of the first no-ink error signal generation step and after a lapse of a predetermined time;
- and
- a canceling step of canceling the no-ink error signal.
A control method for an ink jet recording apparatus, comprising:
- a measuring step of measuring a consumed ink by a dot count;
- a first generation step of generating a no-ink error signal when the measuring step detects absence of the ink;
- a second generation step of generating the no-ink error signal at a timing different from that of the first generation step and after a lapse of a predetermined time;
- a first canceling step of canceling the no-ink error signal by a replacement of the ink tank;
- a second canceling step of canceling the no-ink error signal without a replacement of the ink tank;
- a timer step of starting a timer of a second predetermined time in case of a cancellation by the second canceling step;
- and
- a third generation step of generating the no-ink error signal by the timer step at a timing different from that of the second generation step.
A control method for an ink jet recording apparatus, comprising:
- a first measuring step of measuring a consumed ink by a dot count;
- a second measuring step of measuring a lapse of a predetermined time;
- a generation step of generating a no-ink error signal, when the first measuring step measures the consumed ink by the dot count and the second measuring step measures the lapse of the predetermined time;
- and
- a canceling step of canceling the no-ink error signal.
A control method for an ink jet recording apparatus, comprising:
- a first measuring step of measuring a consumed ink by a dot count;
- a second measuring step of measuring a lapse of a predetermined time;
- a detection step of detecting absence of an ink in an ink tank;
- a generation step of generating a no-ink error signal, when the first measuring step measures the consumed ink by the dot count, the second measuring step measures the lapse of the predetermined time and the detection step detects absence of the ink in the ink tank;
- and
- a canceling step of canceling the no-ink error signal.
A control method for an ink jet recording apparatus, comprising:
- a first measuring step of measuring a consumed ink by a dot count;
- a second measuring step of measuring a lapse of a predetermined time;
- a detection step of detecting absence of an ink in an ink tank;
- a generation step of generating a no-ink error signal, when at least one condition among the first measuring step, the second measuring step and the detection step is satisfied;
- and
- a canceling step of individually canceling the no-ink error signals.
An ink jet recording apparatus capable of controlling an ink remain amount in an ink tank, the apparatus comprising:
- counting means which counts a discharged ink amount;
- notification means which notifies a low ink remain amount when the count means counts a predetermined count value;
- cancellation means which cancels the notification by the notification means;
- and
- timer means which counts a predetermined time in response to the cancellation of the notification by the cancellation means;
- wherein, in response to a counting of a predetermined time by the timer means, the notification means notifies a low ink remain amount before the count means counts a predetermined count value.
A control method for an ink jet recording apparatus, comprising:
- a counting step of counting a discharged ink amount;
- a timer step of counting a predetermined time;
- a notification step of notifying a low ink remain amount in response to a counting of a predetermined time by the timer step before the counting step counts a predetermined ink amount.
A control method for an ink jet recording apparatus, comprising:
- a counting step of counting a discharged ink amount;
- a storage step of storing time information;
- a comparison step of comparing the time information stored in the storage step with a current time;
- and
- a notification step of notifying a low ink remain amount according to a result of comparison by the comparison step, before the counting step counts a predetermined ink amount.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.