Patent ID: 8444247

Claim:
A liquid ejection device comprising: a plurality of nozzles arranged to eject a liquid; an ejection testing portion arranged to perform ejection testing of the liquid from each of the nozzles; and a controller arranged to eject the liquid from the nozzles to print an image onto a medium, and to perform a flushing operation when printing on the medium is not being performed, the ejection testing portion being arranged to perform the ejection testing of each of the nozzles during the flushing operation, the controller being arranged to terminate the flushing operation in midcourse when results of the ejection testing for the nozzles are normal; a plurality of first switches provided individually to the piezoelectric elements, the first switches being arranged to switch between applying and not applying the drive signal to one terminal of each of the piezoelectric elements, and a second switch provided in common to the piezoelectric elements, the second switch being arranged to switch between applying a prescribed voltage to the other terminals of the piezoelectric elements and outputting a voltage at the other terminals of the piezoelectric elements to the ejection testing portion, the drive signal being constant for the testing period, and when the flushing operation is performed, the controller being arranged to control the first switches and the second switch such that during a period prior to the testing period, the drive signal is applied to the one terminal of each of the piezoelectric elements and the prescribed voltage is applied to the other terminals of the piezoelectric elements, and during the testing period, the drive signal is applied to the one terminal of at least one of the piezoelectric elements corresponding to at least one of the nozzles to be tested while the drive signal is not applied to terminals of the piezoelectric elements corresponding to the nozzles not to be tested, and such that the voltage at the other terminals of the piezoelectric elements is output to the ejection testing portion.