Scale controller
AssigneeSanitary Scale Company
InventorsEdward C. Karp, Randy J. Curran
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A controller is described which interfaces with a scale and a label printer for computing prices of weighed commodities, for displaying a human readable description of the commodity being weighed and other characteristics of the commodity, and for activating the label printer to print the displayed information on a label. The controller includes a keyboard for selecting and changing the information to be displayed and printed, and a cathode ray tube for displaying the information.
Claims14
In a weighing and label printing system having a scale, a label printer, and a controller for responding to the weight of a commodity on the scale, for computing the price of the commodity, and for causing the label printer to print the commodity's price, weight and other commodity characteristics, an improved controller comprising:
- memory means for storing at least a list of commodities to be priced, an alpha description of each commodity, and a price per pound of each commodity;
- a keyboard having a plurality of keys thereon;
- a cathode ray tube;
- and
- circuit means coupled to the scale, the label printer, the memory, the cathode ray tube and the keyboard, the circuit means being responsive to operator actuation of a selected keyboard key for causing the cathode ray tube to display the list of commodities from memory, responsive to operator actuation of a keyboard key for causing the cathode ray tube to extinguish the displayed commodity list and to display the alpha description and the price per pound of a commodity selected from the list, for computing and displaying the computed price of the commodity, and for activating the label printer to print a label bearing at least the displayed alpha description, price per pound, and computed price.
In a weighing and label printing system having a scale, a label printer, and a controller for responding to the weight of a commodity on the scale, for computing the price of the commodity, and for causing the label printer to print the commodity's price, weight and other commodity characteristics, an improved controller comprising:
- memory means for storing a list of commodities to be priced, an alpha description of each commodity, a price per pound of each commodity, and a grade list identifying various commodity grades;
- a keyboard having a plurality of numbered keys for entering numbers, a commodity list key, a commodity index key, a grade index key, a cursor horizontal positioning key, a cursor vertical positioning key, and a price key,
- a cathode ray tube;
- and
- circuit means coupled to the scale, the label printer, the memory, the cathode ray tube and the keyboard, and responsive to operator actuation of the commodity index key for causing the cathode ray tube to display the list of commodities and a cursor, responsive to actuation of the cursor vertical positioning key for moving the cursor adjacent a selected displayed commodity, responsive to further actuation of the commodity index key for displaying a commodity list for the selected commodity and the alpha description and the price per pound of the commodities in the displayed list;
- said circuit means being responsive to actuation of the grade index key for causing the cathode ray tube to display the grade list and a cursor, responsive to actuation of a cursor positioning key for moving the cursot to a selected grade, and responsive to further actuation of the grade index key for displaying the selected grade as a part of the alpha description of the selected commodity;
- said circuit means being responsive to actuation of the price key followed by actuation of selected numbered keys for changing the displayed price per pound;
- said circuit means being also responsive to a cursor positioning key while the alpha description is displayed for moving the cursor to a portion of the alpha description to be changed, and responsive to actuation of another cursor positioning key for sequentially displaying different alpha characters at the position of the cursor until the last mentioned cursor positioning control is deactuated so as to modify the alpha content of the description,
- said circuit means being adapted to activate the label printer to print a label bearing at least the displayed alpha description and price per pound.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.