SEWING MACHINE WITH HIGH SPEED INTERFACE FOR PERSONAL COMPUTER CONTROL

MACHINE A COUDRE A INTERFACE HAUTE VITESSE POUR COMMANDE PAR ORDINATEUR PERSONNEL

Claims

I Claim:
1. A sewing or embroidery machine having a USB interface.
2. A sewing or embroidery machine having a IEEE1394 interface.
3. A sewing or embroidery machine having an Ethernet interface.
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Description

CA 02355540 2001-08-20
SEWING MACHINE WITH HIGH SPEED INTERFACE FOR PERSONAL
COMPUTER CONTROL
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Currently all automated sewing machines for Industry or commercial sale can be
categorized into two groups:
Category 1 contains machines having an integrated control panel which read
design files
describing a sewing or embroidery pattern from a floppy drive, allow for
limited
manipulation of the design, and control machine operations to produce the
design.
Category 2 contains machines having an RS-232 communications port for the
purpose of
receiving design data or files. Being stored temporarily, the files are then
interpreted and
sewn by the machine.
Both of these systems rely on aging, slow interfaces that are coupled to an
integrated or
embedded computer that reads design files, interprets the file and then
operates the machine.
This limits machine networking capabilities, operational flexibility and
serves as a barrier to
creating "low cost" automated sewing or embroidery machines.
Some newer home use sewing or embroidery machines allow for communication of
data
files via a serial connection to a PC. Compared to traditional home sewing
machines, these
newer machines have proven to be quite expensive. These systems are limited in
functionality and quality, as the designers have been forced to compromise the
operational
specifications to achieve a low target price. The serial connection serves
merely as a slow
means for transferring a data file to the machine.
The serial connection is generally not adequate to provide for control from an
external host
control system nor can the machines be networked.. The internal embedded
computer must
perform the functions of reading a design file and interpreting it, responding
to a minimal
HMI resident on the machine, as well as actually performing machine motion.
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CA 02355540 2001-08-20
There is thus a need to reduce the price limitations while improving the
operational
limitations of current sewing systems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention implements the use of high-speed communications to an external
network or
computer for control of a sewing machine. The high speed communication may
include an
Ethernet connection, USB or IEEE1394 (Firewire, iLink).
Accordingly, control electronics may be moved to a low cost PC system,
removing the
need for expensive embedded or integrated computers for operation and control
of the
machine. Thus considerable cost savings and increased system operation
flexibility can be
realized through the use of this high-speed communications.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The Sewing Machine with High Speed Interface for Personal Computer Control
consists of
an automated sewing or embroidery machine containing 1 ) the electronics
necessary for
machine control 2) a high speed connection in the form of an Ethernet
interface, a USB
interface, or a IEEE1394 interface. The machine electronics includes software
to receive
machine commands from an external source via the high speed connection and
send
machine control or status commands to an external computer system, be it a
host PC, a PDA
or another machine with an embedded CPU or host computer via the high speed
connection.
The machine operates as follows:
1 ) Being connected to a host controller as described above, the machine's
control
electronics will receive initialization and motion commands via the high-speed
connection.
2) The control electronics will execute machine operation based on received
commands
while monitoring machine functioning, responding to alarms provided by safety
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CA 02355540 2001-08-20
systems or machine operations sensors, providing machine operation or status
feedback to the host system
Of primary importance is the high-speed interface integrated with the
embroidery machine.
'This interface may be an Ethernet interface, a USB interface, or an IEEE1394
interface. 'This
interface will provide high-speed communications allowing for real time or
near real-time
control and/or monitoring of the machine by an external host computer, PDA or
other
machine.
Of secondary importance is sewing or embroidery machine. Its purpose is to
execute the
commands received and sew or cut out the desired design as specified by the
host.
The high speed bus allows the machine to have a distributed control system as
shown in
figure 1. For example each motor included in a machine includes a controller
having a
unique identification, for responding only to commands received with that
unique
identification. Thus the motors could be connected to a single bus and respond
only to
commands having their unique id while ignoring all others.
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Representative Drawing