| 摘要 |
PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automate mairmtenance operations of, e.g. resuming a discharge from a recording head when an ink tank is exchanged, managing the remaining amount of ink, etc., and improve the ease of use. SOLUTION: A carriage 30 is started to be accelerated from a home position(HP). A predetermined number of driving pulses are impressed with a constant pulse rate to a carriage motor when the carriage 30 reaches a predetermined speed. If the carriage 30 is shifted from an HP sensor 8, a passing time is started to be measured, and finished when the predetermined number of pulses are impressed. The obtained time reflects a tracking delay corresponding to a weight of the carriage, that is time is, the time becomes long when there is a lot of ink and short when the amount is decreased. The times are measured and stored beforehand when an ink tank is empty and completely filled with the ink. When ink tanks are exchanged, the times are measured in the same manner and compared with the stored values. In this manner, whether ink tanks are exchanged or whether the ink tank after being exchanged is full or not can be detected. |
