Patent ID: 8434851

Claim:
A printing apparatus comprising: a cartridge mounting unit in which one or more printing material cartridges are mounted; and a control circuit which includes a mounting detection circuit that detects a mounted state of the printing material cartridge in the cartridge mounting unit, wherein the printing material cartridge has an electric device and a plurality of terminals used for detecting the mounted state of the corresponding printing material cartridge in the cartridge mounting unit, the electric device is connected between two first terminals from among the plurality of terminals of the printing material cartridge, and two second terminals disposed adjacent to the two first terminals are connected via a wiring line to each other, and the mounting detection circuit outputs a first mounting inspection signal to one of the two first terminals, outputs a second mounting inspection signal having a different signal waveform from that of the first mounting inspection signal to one of the two second terminals, performs mounting inspection to determine whether or not the printing material cartridge is mounted depending on whether or not a second mounting response signal can be received as a response signal of the second mounting inspection signal via the other of the two second terminals, and performs leakage inspection of determining whether or not there is a leakage between the first and second terminals by examining at least one of whether or not the second mounting response signal is influenced by the first mounting inspection signal and whether or not a first mounting response signal is influenced by the second mounting inspection signal.