Ink jet print head with standard computer interface
A print head, has a standardized computer interface to allow the print head to connect directly to a standard computer, an array of jets to deposit ink on a substrate in accordance with image data from the standard computer, a processing element to receive image data through the standardized computer interface, a buffer to store the image data received through the standardized computer interface and to transmit the image data to the array of jets when triggered by a dot clock, the buffer under control of the processing element and having a flexible depth of storage, and a driver to trigger individual ones of the array of jets in accordance with the image data.
1. A print head, comprising:
a standardized computer interface to allow the print head to connect directly to a standard computer;
an array of jets to deposit ink on a substrate in accordance with image data from the standard computer;
a processing element having a buffer, the buffer included in the processing element and under control of the processing element, the processing element programmed to:
receive image data through the standardized computer interface as data words corresponding to each jet;
store the words of image data received through the standardized computer interface in the buffer;
read the image data from the buffer as a subset of each word of image data in a different sequence than the image data was written;
transmitting the subset of the word of image data to the array of jets when triggered by a dot clock, the buffer having a flexible depth of storage to store varying amounts of image data, wherein the buffer receives image data according to a clock from the standard computer and outputs data according to the dot clock; and
a driver to trigger individual ones of the array of jets in accordance with the subset of the word of image data, wherein the standardized computer interface, the array of jets, the processing element, the buffer and the driver all reside in the print head.
2. The print head of claim 1 , further comprising a connection to an external direct current power supply to provide direct current power to the driver.
3. The print head of claim 1 , further comprising at least one connection to a position encoder.
4. The print head of claim 1 , wherein the dot clock is generated internally.
5. The print head of claim 1 , wherein the dot clock is generated externally.
6. The print head of claim 3 , wherein the dot clock is generated from the position encoder.
7. The print head of claim 1 , wherein the standardized computer interface comprises a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface.
8. The print head of claim 7 , wherein the USB interface comprises ones of a USB2, USB Power Delivery, or USB Type C interface.
9. The print head of claim 1 , wherein the processing element comprises a field-programmable gate array.
10. The print head of claim 1 , wherein DC power is provided over the standard computer interface to the driver.