Patent ID: 7213897

Claim:
An ink jet recording apparatus comprising: a recording head that jets ink drops to record, a carriage adapted to be loaded with a plurality of detachable ink containers each of which stores ink to be fed to said recording head, wherein said carriage reciprocally moves with said recording head, and a communication unit including a single antenna for communicating with storage elements which are provided with said ink containers, respectively, said communication unit being able to communicate with said storage elements provided with said ink containers not only when said ink containers are loaded on said carriage, but also when said ink containers are not loaded on said carriage, wherein in a state that one ink container of said ink containers is loaded on said carriage, said communication unit is able to communicate with one storage element of said storage elements for said one ink container only when said one storage element is brought close to said communication unit, said communication between said communication unit and said one storage element ink being enabled at least during a portion of said reciprocal movement and, wherein in a state that said one ink container is not loaded on said carriage, said communication unit is able to communicate with said one storage element only when said one storage element is brought close to said communication unit to such a distance that said one storage element is able to communicate with said communication unit in the state that said one ink container is loaded on said carriage.