Patent ID: 7521880

Claim:
A recording apparatus comprising: a recording head unit having a plurality of actuators and operable to perform a dot recording operation using a plurality of recording materials that are ejected by activation of said actuators; a main circuit operable to output a plurality of sets of drive waveform signals for controlling ejection of the recording materials, each of said plurality of sets including a plurality of drive waveform signals having respective waveforms different from each other; and a head driver unit operable to receive said plurality of sets of drive waveform signals outputted from said main circuit, generate a drive signal based on one of said drive waveform signals that is selected from among one of the received sets of drive waveform signals, and supply the generated drive signal to each of said plurality of actuators, wherein said main circuit supplies said plurality of sets of drive waveform signals to said head driver unit, by transmitting a single set of waveform data signals containing data representative of said plurality of sets of drive waveform signals, to said head driver unit, such that the single set of waveform data signals includes a set of merged signals into each of which at least two drive waveform signals including a corresponding one of the drive waveform signals of one of said plurality of sets of drive waveform signals and a corresponding one of the drive waveform signals of another of said plurality of sets of drive waveform signals are merged, wherein said main circuit transmits, in addition to said single set of waveform data signals, a plurality of reference signals to said head driver unit, and wherein said head driver unit includes a waveform signal retriever operable to retrieve said plurality of sets of drive waveform signals from said single set of waveform data signals, with reference to said reference signals, so that said head driver unit receives said plurality of sets of drive waveform signals.