Printing method, color material cartridge and printer

Abstract

A printing method is provided for printing on a medium with a color material by a printer including a cartridge accommodating section that removably accommodates a cartridge to which an advance payment information storage section for storing therein advance payment information is attached and which contains the color material. The printing method includes the steps of: reading/writing the advance payment information to/from the advance payment information storage section of the cartridge accommodated in the cartridge accommodating section; outputting a print driving signal for controlling to print; printing by using the color material in the cartridge based on the print driving signal outputted by the print controlling step; acquiring the print driving signal outputted by the print controlling step and converting the print driving signal to accounting information; and settling the advance payment information read by the advance payment information reading/writing step by the accounting information converted by the print driving signal converting step.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows an example of printer 30;

FIG. 2A is a perspective view showing a cartridge 50 and FIG. 2B is a perspective view showing a cartridge 60;

FIG. 3 shows an example of block diagram of a printer 30;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of operation of the printer 30;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the stored credits;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing another example of operation of the printer 30

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing the stored credits;

FIG. 8 shows an example of display screen shown by a display 14;

FIG. 9 shows a schematic perspective view showing the printer 10;

FIG. 10 is an upper front perspective view showing the carriage 100;

FIG. 11 is an upper back perspective view showing the carriage 100;

FIG. 12 is schematic perspective view showing a connecting terminal 110 included in the carriage 100;

FIG. 13 is a schematic perspective view showing an example of the ink cartridge 30.

FIG. 14 is a schematic view showing the ink information storage section 310 and the advance payment information storage section 320 which are accommodated in a chip accommodating section 800.

FIG. 15 is a schematic view showing an example of electrical connection between the ink information storage section 310 and the advance payment information storage section 320;

FIG. 16 is a block diagram showing an example of block configuration of the printer 10;

FIG. 17 shows another example of electrical connection between the ink information storage section 310 and the advance payment information storage section 320;

FIG. 18 is a block diagram showing another example of block configuration of the printer 10;

FIG. 19 is a schematic view showing further another example of electrical connection between the ink information storage section 310 and the advance payment information storage section 320;

FIG. 20 is a block diagram showing further another example of block configuration of the printer 10;

FIG. 21 is a schematic perspective view of a connecting terminal 120 included in the carriage 100;

FIG. 22 is a schematic perspective view showing another example of ink cartridge 30;

FIG. 23 is a schematic view showing the ink information storage section 330 and the advance payment information storage section 340 accommodated in a chip accommodating section 802;

FIG. 24 a schematic view showing an example of electrical connection between the ink information storage section 330 and the advance payment information storage section 340;

FIG. 25 is a block diagram showing further another example of block configuration of the printer 10;

FIG. 26 is a schematic perspective view of the connecting terminal 130 included in the carriage 100;

FIG. 27 is a schematic perspective view showing further another example of ink cartridge 30;

FIG. 28 is a schematic view showing an ink information storage section 350 and an advance payment information storage section 360 accommodated in a chip accommodating section 804;

FIG. 29 is a schematic view showing an example of electrical connection between the ink information storage section 350 and the advance payment information storage section 360; and

FIG. 30 is a block diagram showing further another embodiment of the block configuration of the printer 10.

Claims

1. A printing method for printing on a medium with a color material by a printer including a cartridge accommodating section that removably accommodates a cartridge to which an advance payment information storage section for storing therein advance payment information is attached and which contains the color material, the printing method comprising: reading/writing the advance payment information to/from the advance payment information storage section of the cartridge accommodated in the cartridge accommodating section; outputting a print driving signal for controlling to print;printing by using the color material in the cartridge based on the print driving signal outputted by the print controlling step;acquiring the print driving signal outputted by the print controlling step and converting the print driving signal to accounting information; andsettling the advance payment information read by the advance payment information reading/writing step by the accounting information converted by the print driving signal converting step.

2. The printer as set forth in claim 1, wherein the print control section prevents the printing section from printing when the advance payment information read by the advance payment information reading/writing section indicates that there is no advance payment.

3. The printer as set forth in claim 1, wherein the print control section prevents the printing section from printing when the advance payment information is not read from the cartridge accommodated in the cartridge accommodating section.

4. The printer as set forth in claim 1, wherein the advance payment information storage section is removably attached to the cartridge.

5. The printer as set forth in claim 1, wherein the cartridge includes an ink information storage section that stores therein information on a color material, andthe ink information storage section includes the advance payment information storage section.

6. The printer as set forth in claim 1, wherein the cartridge includes an ink information storage section that stores therein information on the used amount of printing the cartridge,the advance payment information reading/writing section reads the advance payment information corresponding to the remaining amount enough to print with the cartridge based on the information on the amount of printing stored in the ink information storage section before the printing section prints, andthe print control section outputs the print driving signal to the printing section provided that the advance payment information corresponding to the remaining amount is read from the advance payment information reading/writing section.

7. A cartridge removably accommodated in a printer, comprising a cartridge body that contains a color material; andan advance payment information storage section attached to the cartridge body that stores therein advance payment information read/written by the printer, whereinthe advance payment information read by the printer is settled by accounting information converted based on a print driving signal that controlled the printer to print.

8. A color material cartridge comprising: a cartridge body that contains a color material;a color material information storage section that stores therein color material information on the color material; andan advance payment information storage section that stores therein advance payment information on a printing,each of the color material information storage section and the advance payment information storage section includes a connecting terminal connecting to an external reading/writing device.