Method for improving ink jet printer reliability in the presence of ink shorts

摘要

A circuit and method for improving the reliability of ink jet printers in the presence of ink shorts is provided. Ground and supply voltage contacts at the electrical interconnect to the ink pens are separated by at least one electrical contact that connects a higher impedance circuit such as a data line to provide warning of the ink short in order to take corrective action before any damage to the printer occurs. Resistive isolation between each of the data lines allows the data signals to continue to reach the other pens in the presence of an ink short. After the ink short has been detected and an alarm signal generated, adaptive re-mapping of the data to utilize the remaining good pens and data lines to maximum advantage which allows the printer to continue printing. The data for the affected pen could be adaptively remapped to the remaining good pens to provide continued printing. The data can also be adaptively re-mapped to remaining good data lines to also provide for continued printing.