Printer and ink cartridge attached thereto

Abstract

In a printer of the present invention, an EEPROM that carries out sequential access and has a relatively small storage capacity is applied for storage elements mounted on both black and color ink cartridges, which are detachably attached to the printer. Pieces of information relating to each ink cartridge, for example, pieces of information on remaining quantities of respective inks in the ink cartridge, are stored in the storage element of the ink cartridge. A format of addressing adopted in the storage elements of the Ink cartridges is different from that adopted in an EEPROM incorporated in a printer main body of the printer. A control IC provided in the printer accordingly converts the storage format of addressing, before writing the information into the storage elements of the ink cartridges. In the printer, a RAM is mounted with the control IC on a carriage, and the pieces of information to be written into the storage elements of the ink cartridges are temporarily registered in the RAM. The pieces of information are then written into the respective storage elements of the black and color ink cartridges, for example, at a timing of a power-off operation. The signal lines and the memory used in the course of writing the information into the storage elements are identical with the signal lines, through which print data are transmitted to a print head mounted on the carriage of the printer, and the memory, in which the print data are stored. The arrangement of the present invention reduces the manufacturing cost of the ink cartridge and also enables size reduction of the whole printer.

1 . A printer comprising: 
 a printer main body incorporating; 
 a processing unit, and  
 a physically separate storage device having plural pieces of information about a cartridge,  
   said cartridge, the cartridge being detachably attached to the printer, said cartridge comprising; 
 an ink reservoir;  
 a plurality of inks stored within the cartridge in the ink reservoir;  
 a rewritable non-volatile memory containing a plurality of pieces of corresponding information relating to said cartridge,  
 the plural pieces of corresponding information having been written into said non-volatile memory less frequently than at which the plural pieces of information relating to said cartridge are written into the physically separate storage device incorporated in the printer main body of the printer, and  
 the writing of the plural pieces of corresponding information to said non-volatile memory of said cartridge being triggered based upon at least one of the following actions, operation of a power switch, operation of a cartridge switch reflecting replacement of the cartridge, and termination of a power supply to the printer;  
   wherein the plural pieces of corresponding information with regard to the cartridge are written into said non-volatile memory of said cartridge.    
   
   
       2 . The printer in accordance with  claim 1 , wherein said ink reservoir is divided into at least three ink chambers, in which at least three different inks are respectively kept, 
 wherein the plural pieces of corresponding information at least in part correspond to quantities of the at least three different inks, and    wherein said non-volatile memory comprises a plurality of information storage areas, in which the plural pieces of corresponding information corresponding to quantities of the at least three different inks are stored respectively and independently, and    wherein each of the plurality of information storage areas has a storage capacity of at least one byte.    
   
   
       3 . The printer in accordance with  claim 1 , wherein said non-volatile memory has a specific writing area, in which the plural pieces of corresponding information are written, on one end of a memory space thereof.  
   
   
       4 . The cartridge as in  claim 1 , wherein the physically separate storage device of the printer is a non-volatile memory.  
   
   
       5 . The cartridge as in  claim 2 , wherein the physically separate storage device of the printer is a non-volatile memory.  
   
   
       6 . The cartridge as in  claim 3 , wherein the physically separate storage device of the printer is a non-volatile memory.