Patent ID: 8104860

Claim:
An ink jet recording apparatus, comprising: a flow-passage unit including a plurality of pressure chambers, a plurality of nozzles provided so as to respectively correspond to the plurality of pressure chambers, and a plurality of individual ink passages through which the plurality of pressure chambers respectively communicate with the plurality of nozzles; a plurality of actuators including a plurality of individual electrodes provided so as to respectively correspond to the plurality of pressure chambers, a ground electrode which is disposed so as to face to the plurality of individual electrodes and to which a base potential is given, and a piezoelectric layer interposed between the plurality of individual electrodes and the ground electrode; a plurality of signal output circuits which are provided so as to respectively correspond to the plurality of actuators and each of which outputs a signal for giving a potential to a corresponding one of the plurality of individual electrodes; a power supply device which supplies, to the plurality of signal output circuits, an electric power for giving the potential to the plurality of individual electrodes; an electric current detecting device which detects an electric current with respect to the electric power supplied by the power supply device; and a control device which executes a control of the ink jet recording apparatus and which includes an abnormality judging portion which judges that there exists an abnormality among (a) at least one of the plurality of signal output circuits which corresponds to at least one test-target individual electrode that is at least a part of the plurality of individual electrodes and (b) at least one of the plurality of actuators which corresponds to the at least one test-target individual electrode, on the basis of a current change amount that is a difference between a first current value and a second current value, the first current value being detected by the electric current detecting device when each of the plurality of signal output circuits outputs a first signal for giving a first potential and the second current value being detected by the electric current detecting device when each of the at least one of the plurality of signal output circuits outputs a second signal for giving a second potential different from the first potential while each of the rest of the plurality of signal output circuits which excludes the at least one of the plurality of signal output circuits output the first signal.