Abstract:
An input device for an automatic sewing machine having an easel for tracing a pattern and numeric and function keys. A liquid crystal display prompts the operator to select an input mode and then to input numerical data. The selection and numerical input is performed by touching a cursor pen to selected ones of the keys. The liquid crystal displays the inputted data.

Description:
This is a continuation, of application Ser. No. 06/925,055, filed 10/30/86, now abandoned. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     This invention relates to a means for preparing sewing data for an automatic sewing machine in which sewing data for controlling the cloth feeding of the automatic sewing machine is written in a storage medium. 
     2. Background Art 
     As is well known in the art, many industrial electric sewing machines include an automatic sewing mechanism having a memory which stores programmed sewing data for automatically controlling the cloth or sewing needle according to a predetermined sewing pattern based on stored sewing data, to thereby allow automatic sewing of the cloth in a desired pattern. The sewing data is written in a storage medium in the memory. The storage medium is replaceable with another storage medium such that different sewing patterns can be easily selected as desired for sewing operations. As a result, the sewing machine can save labor and can be operated at an increased speed. The storage medium may be a semiconductor memory such as a PROM or a magnetic card on which a desired sewing pattern, sewing speed and other control data are stored in the order of sewing operations. 
     Namely, the sewing data is composed of control commands such as an amount of relative displacement between the sewing needle and the cloth for each stitching, a sewing speed and other movement. Control information for a single sewing pattern is composed of a collection of control commands, each for one stitching sequence. For automatic sewing of a desired pattern on an automatic sewing machine of the type described, it is therefore necessary to prepare and then enter such sewing data in a given storage medium. 
     A conventional technique of preparing such data has included the steps of lighting or flashing light emitting diodes displaying the operation order, contacting a stylus pen or cursor to a pattern input section in the order according to the display of the diode, and preparing the sewing data according to a given sewing pattern. Such a conventional technique is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,446,520 to Shigeta et al, incorporated herein by reference, of which the present invention can be considered an improvement. 
     The conventional technique, however, is deficient in that the space of the display section becomes large as it is required to display the numerous operation sequences. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     An object of this invention is to solve the above problem and to provide a sewing machine data input device which requires little space for its display. 
     The sewing machine data input device according to the invention comprises a liquid crystal display to indicate the operation order to an operator. The operation orders are sequentially displayed on the liquid crystal display. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the invention. 
     FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the main operation of the CPU in FIG. 1. 
     FIGS. 3(a) to 3(f) show the displays of the liquid crystal display in FIG. 1. 
     FIG. 4 is the plan view of the input tablet board. 
     FIG. 5 (a) to (c) are flow charts showing the detailed operation of the step 109 in FIG. 2. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the invention. In the figure are shown a CPU 1, a ROM 2, a RAM 3, a input tablet board 4, an address decoder 5, and a liquid crystal display 6. The ROM 2 is a PROM or more particularly an EPROM so that it is programmable. As is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,446,520, a stylus pen 4a is used to trace a sewing pattern on a pattern input easel 8 (FIG. 4) of the input tablet board 4. A program, whose flow diagram is shown in FIG. 2, is written into the CPU 1 outputting data to a data bus and an address bus. An operation order is displayed on the liquid crystal display 6 by using the data and decoded address data provided by the address decoder 5. A stylus pen 4a is used to write on the input tablet board 4. A data reading section for reading the data of an EPROM 2 is not shown in FIG. 1. Also, a data writing section for writing the data onto the EPROM 2 is not shown in FIG. 1. 
     In this embodiment, after an initializing operation of step 100 shown in FIG. 2 is performed, the mode display of step 101 is displayed on the liquid crystal display 6, in the form shown in FIG. 3(a). In FIG. 3(a), &#34;1&#34; shows a pattern input data, &#34;2&#34; shows data reading from the written PROM 2, &#34;3&#34; shows pattern data writing to the PROM 2, and &#34;4&#34; shows the setting of numerous functions. The functions can be selected by pushing the stylus pen 4a to a selecting button mounted on the input tablet board 4. 
     FIG. 4 shows the input tablet board 4. The selecting buttons, composed of numeric buttons 4 0  to 4 9  and function buttons 4 10  to 4 16  are mounted on the upper portion of the board surface. The afore-mentioned selection of &#34;1&#34; to &#34;4&#34; is performed by pushing the stylus pen 4a to one of the numeric buttons 4 1  to 4 4 . In FIG. 4, the functions of the buttons 4 0  to 4 16  are as shown in the next table. 
     
                       TABLE 1______________________________________BUTTON CHARACTER  FUNCTION______________________________________1                 Numerical Data2                 &#34;3                 &#34;4                 &#34;5                 &#34;6                 &#34;7                 &#34;8                 &#34;9                 &#34;FEED              Idle data input commandTRIM              Thread cutting data input             commandRTN               Original point returning             commandEND               Data finishing commandCHNG CMD          Input display changing             commandFUNC              Numerous kinds of             function data are             commanded during             data inputRESET             Clear command of             all data and             operations______________________________________ 
    
     When the stylus pen 4a is pushed to one of the numeric buttons 4 1  to 4 4 , data are read at step 102 shown in FIG. 2, and the number of the input key (button) is judged at the step 103 by using the read data. Then, the tests of the steps 104 to 107 are performed in accordance with the selected key, and one condition of the testing steps 109 to 112 is set in accordance with the tests. Step 109 is a pen input operation to write and prepare the sewing data. Step 110 is the reading operation to read the sewing data from the PROM 2. Step 111 is the writing operation to write the sewing data to the PROM 2. Step 112 is the selecting operation to select one of the functions of the buttons 4 10  to 4 15  shown in FIG. 4. The processing returns to step 102 after the operation of steps 109 to 112, or when the reset key 4 16  is not pushed at step 108. The processing returns to step 100 when the reset key 4 16  is pushed. 
     Next, operation of the step 109 will now be described with reference to FIGS. 5(a) to 5(c). In the operation of step 109, page 1-1 is displayed, as shown in step 200 and, as a result, the display shown in FIG. 3(b) is displayed on the liquid crystal display 6. In FIG. 3(b), a magnification is inputted with the numeric button 4 0  to 4 9 , the RESET button 4 16  and the &#34;CHNG CMD&#34; button 4 14  in the portion indicated by &#34;SCALE&#34; and a stitch length is similarly inputted in the portion indicated by &#34;STITCH&#34;. This data is read at step 201 shown in FIG. 5(a), and is tested at step 202. The button operations except for the numerals 0 to 9, &#34;RESET&#34;, and &#34;CHNG CMD&#34; are not received for this data. When the &#34;RESET&#34; button 4 16  is not pushed at step 203, and &#34;CHNG CMD&#34; button 4 16  is not pushed at step 204, then as shown in step 205, the data is displayed on the liquid crystal display 6 and the data of the magnification and stitch length are also sorted in the ROM 3 of FIG. 1. Next, when five characters have not been previously inputted, at step 206 a character number counter INCHR is incremented at step 207 by one count, and then the operations of the steps 200 to 205 are repeated. When the number of the inputted characters is five or &#34;CHNG CMD&#34; is detected at step 204, the character number counter INCHR is initialized at step 208 to zero, and page 1-2 designated at the step 209 is displayed. 
     The display of page 1-2 is used to select sewing speeds as shown in FIG. 3(c), where &#34;1&#34; represents a high speed, &#34;4&#34; represents a low speed, and &#34;2&#34; and &#34;3&#34; represent intermediate speeds. Processes are previously described for steps 201 to 205 are performed at steps 210 to 214. The signals from the numeric buttons &#34;1&#34; to &#34;4&#34;, the &#34;RESET&#34; button and the &#34;CHNG CMD&#34; button are received at step 211. The speed data are processed and stored at step 214. 
     Next, step 1-3 is displayed at the step 215 in the flowchart shown in FIG. 5(b). The input method selection display (FIG. 3(d)) is displayed on the liquid crystal display 6. When the input method is selected, the processes of steps 216 to 220 are performed. At step 217, signals are not received except from the numeric buttons &#34;1&#34; to &#34;3&#34;, the &#34;RESET&#34; button and the &#34;CHNG CMD&#34; button. 
     Thereafter, page 1-4 (FIG. 3(e)) is displayed at step 221 and page 1-5 (FIG. 3(f)) is displayed at step 227. The input starting display as shown in FIG. 3(e) is used to determine whether the input operation is to be started or not. The input operation is started when &#34;1&#34; is selected. The operation is returned to the page 1--1 display when &#34;2&#34; is selected. The set input conditions previously set are displayed as shown in Fig. 3(f). In FIG. 3(f), the magnification is displayed in part A, the stitch length is displayed in part B, the sewing speed is displayed in part C, and the input method is displayed in part D. 
     As shown in FIG. 5(c), the processes of step 228 to 232 are performed, and the total number of the needles is displayed in part E of the display of FIG. 3(f). 
     In the step 229, however, when it is determined that the data have not been stored in the sewing area of the PROM 2, the data is inserted in the sewing area by performing the processes of steps 233 to 242. At step 217, signals are not received except from the numeric buttons &#34;1&#34; to &#34;3&#34;, the &#34;RESET&#34; button and the &#34;CHNG CMD&#34; button. At step 223, the signals except from the numeric buttons &#34;1&#34; and &#34;2&#34; and the &#34;RESET&#34; button are not received. In FIGS. 2 and 5(a) to 5(c), the steps indicated by double bars on the sides, namely steps 109 to 112, 201, 202, 205, 210, 211, 214, 216, 217, 220, 222, 223, 228, 230, 231, 233, and 240 to 243 are subroutines. 
     As described above, according to the invention, since necessary items such as the operation orders are sequentially displayed on the liquid crystal display, much information can be displayed in a limited space, and the economy of labor can be improved.