Programming and display systems for an embroidery machine

Claim 1

An embroidery machine comprising: stitch forming means for forming stitches on a fabric; a fabric holding means which holds said fabric with embroidery hoops and moves on a plurality of rails provided on a sewing table; driving means having a driving unit using the driving force of the sewing motor for vertically reciprocating the stitch forming means, a first moving means for moving the fabric holding unit along one of said rails and a second moving means for moving the fabric holding unit along the other rail; pattern determining means comprising a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a ROM (read-only Memory) which stores a control program defining a series of control procedures to be executed by the CPU, a random access storage which stores temporarily the results of various operations performed by the CPU, a basic ROM, which previously stores a plurality of geometric patterns formed by straight lines and curves to be selected in accordance with input signals given by means of the keyboard, a character pattern ROM, which stores block letters, Gothic letters and English capital letters, a video RAM which reads and stores the information of determined patterns at predetermined addresses thereof, and a CRT controller (Cathode-Ray Tube controller) which controls a CRT to display the contents of the video RAM in accordance with the commands given by the CPU; and means for displaying on the CRT a pattern, two-dimensionally and an input unit for feeding a pattern element to be displayed on the CRT, a keyboard which functions as an input unit with which a pattern is created and control signals based on the created pattern are fed into the control system and a cathode-ray tube, namely, a two-dimensional display unit, which visually displays a pattern which is substantially the same as a pattern created by operating the keyboard and to be formed actually on the fabric when a pattern is created or the created pattern is changed or corrected in accordance with the input information given by means of the keyboard; wherein said keyboard includes function keys for facilitating numeric input operation, operation keys each marked with a specific arrow symbolizing the operation of the control system and LEDs (Light Emission Diodes) which are turned on for the visual indication of permission to perform the input operation of the operation keys; and wherein said microprocessor includes zero adjustment means, base indicating means, character style selecting means, pattern element selecting means, pattern element rotating means and stitching means which are executed in accordance with said control programs; and each said means includes means to be processed by means of the CRT and the keyboard; and a motor controller including an x-y motor controller which controls stepping motors properly for the normal or the reverse rotation in accordance with commands given by the CPU to move the fabric holding means and a sewing motor controller which controls the sewing motor in accordance with commands given by the CPU to reciprocate the stitching means vertcially.