Method for managing a thermal printer, corresponding device and program
View Patent ↗A method for managing printing of data by a thermal printer. The thermal printer includes a thermal print head. The thermal print head has a plurality of points, each point having an effective resistance r d , and is powered by a power source. The method includes the following actions: measuring a voltage U given by the power source of the thermal printer; measuring an internal resistance r u of the power source; and computing a duration t for heating a number n of points as a function of the voltage U of the power source, the internal resistance r u of the power source, at least one effective resistance r d of at least one point corresponding to a dot to be printed for the printing of the data and as a function of at least one value of parasitic resistance r p of at least one element of the thermal printer.
1. A method for managing a printing of data by a thermal printer, comprising a thermal print head, said thermal head comprising a plurality of points, each point having an effective resistance r d , said thermal printer being powered by a power source, wherein the method comprises the following actions:
measuring a voltage U given by said power source of said thermal printer;
measuring an internal resistance r u of said power source, and
computing a duration t for heating a number n of points as a function of said voltage U of said power source, said internal resistance r u of the power source, said effective resistance r d of at least one point corresponding to a dot to be printed for the printing of said data and as a function of at least one value of parasitic resistance r p of at least one element of said thermal printer,
wherein said duration is computed according to the following formula:
t
=
W
×
r
d
U
d
2
×
n
=
(
n
×
r
u
+
(
r
d
+
r
p
)
)
2
n
×
r
d
×
U
2
×
W
wherein:
n represents the number of printing points of said thermal print head;
W represents the energy needed to heat n points of said thermal print head;
r p represents the parasitic resistance of a printing point of said thermal print head.
2. The method of management according to claim 1 , wherein said thermal printer has low resistance and said power source is a detachable battery of a device within which said thermal printer is installed.
3. The method of management according to claim 1 , wherein the points of the thermal head are distributed among a predetermined number of modules.
4. The method of management according to claim 3 , wherein each of said modules of points has a common parasitic resistance r c , and said act of computing additionally taking account of a common resistance r c of at least one module to which said points belong.
5. The method of management according to claim 1 , wherein said values of effective resistance r d of said at least one point of said print head are recorded within a data structure.
6. A thermal printer powered by a power source and comprising:
a thermal print head, said thermal head comprising a plurality of points, each point having an effective resistance r d ,
a processor; and
a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon, which when executed by the processor configure the thermal printer to perform acts comprising:
measuring a voltage U given by said power source,
measuring an internal resistance r u of said power source, and
computing a duration t to heat a number n of points as a function of said voltage U of said power source and of said internal resistance r u of the power source, at least one said effective resistance r d of at least one point to be printed for the printing of said data as a function of at least one value of parasitic resistance r p of at least one element of said thermal printer, wherein computing computes said duration according to the formula below:
t
=
W
×
r
d
U
d
2
×
n
=
(
n
×
r
u
+
(
r
d
+
r
p
)
)
2
n
×
r
d
×
U
2
×
W
wherein:
n represents the number of printing points of said thermal print head;
W represents the energy needed to heat n points of said thermal print head;
r p represents the parasitic resistance of a printing point of said thermal print head.
7. An electronic device comprising the thermal printer according to claim 6 .
8. The electronic device according to claim 7 , wherein the electronic device takes the form of a payment terminal.
9. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon and comprising program code instructions for execution of a method for managing printing of data by a thermal printer, when the instructions are executed on a computer of the thermal printer, which comprises a thermal print head, said thermal print head comprising a plurality of points, each point having an effective resistance r d , said thermal printer being powered by a power source, wherein the method comprises the following actions:
measuring a voltage U given by said power source of said thermal printer;
measuring an internal resistance r u of said power source, and
computing a duration t for heating a number n of points as a function of said voltage U of said power source, said internal resistance r u of the power source, said effective resistance r d of at least one point corresponding to a dot to be printed for the printing of said data and as a function of at least one value of parasitic resistance r p of at least one element of said thermal printer,
wherein said duration is computed according to the following formula:
t
=
W
×
r
d
U
d
2
×
n
=
(
n
×
r
u
+
(
r
d
+
r
p
)
)
2
n
×
r
d
×
U
2
×
W
wherein:
n represents the number of printing points of said thermal print head;
W represents the energy needed to heat n points of said thermal print head;
r p represents the parasitic resistance of a printing point of said thermal print head.