JPH11249503A - Image forming system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) Abstract: An image forming system capable of obtaining information on a slave image forming apparatus from a master image forming apparatus. A plurality of image forming apparatuses each including an image memory for storing image data necessary for image formation and a command data memory for storing received command data, comprising: a communication unit for bidirectional image transfer; The image forming system is configured by being connected to the control of the apparatus and the bidirectional command data communication unit indicating the state,
Press the information acquisition button 102 on the operation display unit 100 of the master image forming apparatus, and then, press the information request buttons 103 and 10
By pressing 4, information on each slave image forming apparatus can be obtained from the master image forming apparatus.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a plurality of image forming apparatuses provided with an image memory for storing image data necessary for image formation and a command data memory for storing received command data. The present invention relates to an image forming system that is connected by a communication unit and a bidirectional command data communication unit that indicates control and status of the image forming apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There have been proposed various image forming systems constituted by connecting a plurality of digital image forming apparatuses. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-174969 discloses A, B,
The four stations C and D are connected as a tandem system, and mutually transmit image signals and control signals. In addition to the image signals generated by itself, image signals generated by other stations are stored in the page memory. There is disclosed a technique for selecting a station according to the environment setting of the station and transferring the image data.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 8-174970 discloses that a certain station in a tandem system including stations A, B, C, and D issues its own status transfer command at regular time intervals. There is disclosed a technique in which when there is a local copying station, the fact is visually displayed on another station.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 8-181802 discloses that a plurality of copiers are connected to stations A to D to perform a large amount of printing.
Transmits the appropriate number of prints and image data to the stations B to D, requests the status of each device, and each device that receives the status reports the status information of the device to the station A, such as a paper jam or an out of paper. And send back
A technique is disclosed in which a station A, upon receiving it, checks whether a setting for displaying it is made, and if not, displays a status from each device for each device.

Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 8-186670 describes that one image data is transmitted to a plurality of image forming apparatuses via a communication line to improve copy efficiency.

[0006]

In the above-described image forming system, data is transmitted and received between an image forming apparatus serving as a master image forming apparatus and a plurality of slave image forming apparatuses. In the conventional system, since the master image forming apparatus cannot acquire information (logging data and the like) on each slave image forming apparatus, there is a problem that the work efficiency by the service person is poor. In particular, when the slave image forming apparatus is located at a remote place, it takes time to grasp the state of the slave image forming apparatus.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming system capable of obtaining information on a slave image forming apparatus from a master image forming apparatus.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image memory for storing image data necessary for image formation and a command data memory for storing received command data. In the image forming system in which the plurality of image forming apparatuses are connected by a bidirectional image transfer communication unit and a bidirectional command data communication unit indicating control and status of the image forming apparatus, the master image forming apparatus The operation display unit of the apparatus includes an information requesting unit. When the information requesting unit is pressed, the main control unit of the master image forming apparatus sends a unique ID, a status, etc. to all the slave image forming apparatuses constituting the system. Is transmitted.

[0009] To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a second aspect.
According to the invention described in the first aspect, in the image forming system according to the first aspect, the master image forming apparatus can print out the acquired information of the slave image forming apparatus.

[0010] In order to achieve the above object, a third aspect is provided.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the image forming system according to the second aspect, when printing out information of the slave image forming apparatus, an ID of the slave image forming apparatus that has acquired the information is added.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a digital image forming apparatus, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an external device interface unit (hereinafter, external device I / F unit).

A schematic configuration of a digital image forming apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The operation display unit 100 includes a print start key for instructing the start of an image forming operation, a numeric keypad used to input the number of copies and an ID of the digital image forming apparatus, and an apparatus function setting for setting functions of the digital image forming apparatus. A key, a system function setting key for setting functions related to the image forming system, a liquid crystal touch panel for displaying set functions, data, and the like are provided.

The ADF 200 feeds the set original to the contact glass at a predetermined timing, and discharges the original at a predetermined timing. Scanner / IPU3
No. 00 irradiates the original set on the contact glass with light from a lamp, forms an image of the reflected light on a CCD via a mirror group, a filter, and a lens, amplifies the photoelectrically converted signal, and performs A / A D-convert to obtain digital image data. The digital image data is subjected to predetermined shading correction, gamma correction, and other processing. If the operation display unit 100 designates a scaling process, a processing process, and the like, these processes are also performed, and the digital image data of the effective image area is sent to the main control unit 600 at a predetermined timing.

The printer control unit 400 includes a main control unit 6
Gamma conversion or the like is performed on the digital image data sent from 00 to match the characteristics specific to the printer.
By the optical writing of D, an electrostatic latent image based on this is formed on the charged photoconductor. The latent image is visualized with toner, transferred to a transfer material such as paper, fused and fixed by a fixing device, and the transfer material is discharged out of the digital image forming apparatus. The sorter unit 500 sorts and discharges the discharged transfer material according to the mode set from the operation display unit 100.

The main control unit 600 includes an operation display unit 100
ADF 200, scanner / IPU 300, printer control unit 400, sorter unit 50 according to the function set from
0, a command is sent to the external device I / F unit 800, and digital image data sent from the scanner / IPU 300 is sent to the printer control unit 400 and the external device I / F unit 800 by switching the switch 601. The digital image data sent from the external device I / F unit 800 is sent to the printer control unit 400. In addition, a print start signal sent from the operation display unit 100 or the external device I / F unit 800, a polygon motor synchronization signal sent from the printer control unit 400, or the like causes an AD.
The document feed timing is transmitted to the F200, the scanner start signal is transmitted to the scanner / IPU 300, and various motors, clutches or LDs of the printer control unit 400 are driven to transfer the transfer material from the bank unit 700. Feeding, fixing the toner image on the transfer material, and
The control of the entire digital image forming apparatus, such as discharging at 00, is performed. It also has a non-volatile RAM, UP mode data,
The SP mode data, the registered copy mode, and the registered colors are read and written, and the nonvolatile RAM also stores a model-specific ID and the like.

The bank section 700 is a unit for storing various transfer materials (transfer materials of various sizes, plain paper, special paper, etc.) in dedicated cassettes and trays. When a predetermined transfer material is designated from the operation display unit 100, the transfer material is fed one by one from a cassette or a tray in which the transfer material is set.

The external device I / F unit 800, which will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 2, is an interface unit for exchanging data with another image forming apparatus.

The operation display unit 100, printer control unit 400, main control unit 600, external device I / F unit 800
Thus, the printer unit 1000 is configured. Between the units, a solid double-headed arrow indicates an image data line, and a broken double-headed arrow indicates a command data line.

Next, an external device I / F unit 800 shown in FIG.
Will be described. The external device I / F unit 800 includes a ROM 802 storing a program for controlling the entire external device I / F unit 800, a CPU 801 operating based on the ROM 802, and a RAM storing image data and the like.
803, an NVRAM 804 for storing and holding an ID, a system configuration and the like even when a main switch is turned off, a command data I / F 805 for transmitting and receiving command data and image data to and from the main control unit 600, and an image data I / F
806, an external command data I / F 807 for transmitting and receiving command data and image data to and from an externally connected device, and an external image data I / F 808.

The external device I / F unit 800 temporarily stores command data and digital image data sent from the main control unit 600 in the RAM 803, and configures the image data at a predetermined transfer rate in the image forming system. The external command data I / F 80
7. Transmission via external image data I / F 808,
Command data and digital image data sent from another digital image forming apparatus are transferred to external command data I /
F807, RAM via external image data I / F808
The data is temporarily stored in the main control unit 803 and transmitted to the main control unit 600 via the command data I / F 805 and the image data I / F 806 at a predetermined timing.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram showing a configuration example of the image forming system. In this example, four image forming apparatuses A (unique I
D01), B (unique ID02), C (unique ID03),
D (unique ID 04) is connected by the external device I / F unit 800. In addition, as shown in FIG. 4, an image forming apparatus unique ID, information about the apparatus (the number of times and place of JAM, the date and time of supply exchange, etc.), and information about data are written in the nonvolatile RAM of the main controller 600.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a first example of a display screen of the operation display unit. On a display screen 101 of the operation display unit 100, an information acquisition button 102 of the slave image forming apparatus is shown.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a command format used for transmitting and receiving data in the present invention.
The first field is a field indicating a data transmission destination, and usually stores an ID unique to the image forming apparatus to be the data transmission destination. The use of a wild card is permitted, and when the wild card is used, data is transmitted to all image forming apparatuses. The second field is a transmission source image forming apparatus unique ID, and is a non-volatile RAM of the master image forming apparatus.
The data stored in the unique ID area is stored.
The third field is a command storage area, and the received slave image forming apparatus analyzes the contents of the command field and executes each process. After the fourth field,
This is a data group, which depends on the transmission command.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the operation processing of the master image forming apparatus when acquiring information from the slave image forming apparatus. When the information acquisition button 102 shown in FIG. 5 is depressed, the main control unit 600 of the master image forming apparatus sends a message to all image forming apparatuses constituting the system in order to grasp the system configuration and the status of each slave image forming apparatus. Then, an image forming apparatus unique ID transmission request signal and an image forming apparatus state request signal are transmitted (S1).

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing the operation processing of the slave image forming apparatus which has received each signal (unique ID and state) from the master image forming apparatus. When the slave image forming apparatus receives the control command from the master image forming apparatus (Y in S11), the slave field forming apparatus compares the first field part (transmission destination address) of the command format with the unique ID of its own station (S12). S1 if the address matches
Move to 3. If it does not match the unique ID of the own station, the process proceeds to S14, where it is checked whether or not the destination address is a wild card.
Transfer the received data to another slave image forming apparatus (S
15).

If it is a wild card, the flow shifts to S16, where the source address in the second field of the command format is referred to and compared with the unique ID of the received slave image forming apparatus, and the unique ID and the source address are the same. If so, the transfer of the received data is stopped there (the system has been turned around once). If the unique ID and the transmission source address are different, the process shifts to S17 to copy the received data to the command data memory.

In S18, the received data is transferred to another slave image forming apparatus, and the process proceeds to S13. In step S13, the command in the third field of the command format is analyzed, and after the analysis, the process proceeds to step S19. In step S19, a response process is performed to the master image forming apparatus indicated by the source address with reference to the second field of the command format. The processing at the time of receiving the command ends.

Returning again to FIG. 12, the master image forming apparatus which has transmitted the connection image forming apparatus state request signal starts a timer, times out after a certain period of time, and receives a response within the time (Y in S2). Only the forming apparatus is recognized as the system configuration image forming apparatus, and the process proceeds to S3. Each received slave image forming apparatus ID is stored in a memory buffer in the master image forming apparatus. In S3, the unique ID and the job execution status of each slave image forming apparatus constituting the system are displayed on the operation display unit 100 based on the received response data.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a second example of the display screen of the operation display unit. Each slave image forming apparatus unique ID and the acquired information request button are shown. Reference numeral 103 denotes a JAM information request button for machine ID 1, and reference numeral 104 denotes a supply replacement date / time information request button for machine ID 1. When the buttons 103 and 104 are pressed, the operation display unit 100 notifies the main control unit 600 of the selected machine ID. Upon receiving the machine ID (Y in S5), the main controller 600 analyzes the received command (S5).
6) If it is a JAM information acquisition request, the process branches to S7, and if it is a supply exchange date and time acquisition request, the process branches to S8, and commands corresponding to each request are transmitted to the slave image forming apparatus (S).
9). In this way, various request commands are transmitted from the master image forming apparatus to the slave image forming apparatuses.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing the operation processing of the slave image forming apparatus which has received various request commands from the master image forming apparatus. The slave image forming apparatus that has received data from the master image forming apparatus (Y in S21) analyzes the received command (S22), and branches to S23 if the received command is a JAM information request. S2
3, the JAM information area of the nonvolatile RAM shown in FIG.
Acquire AM information and request source to master image forming apparatus JA
The M information is notified (S24). If the received command is J
If it is not AM information, the flow branches to S25, where the command analysis is performed again. If the request is a supply exchange date and time request, supply exchange date and time information is acquired in the same manner as described above (S26) and notified to the request source (S27).

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a third example of the display screen of the operation display unit. This figure shows the JA from the slave image forming apparatus.
The example which acquired M information is shown. The received data is analyzed from the data transmission format shown in FIG.
AM information is displayed. Further, the master image forming apparatus stores the received information in the memory buffer shown in FIG. In this way, the information of each slave image forming apparatus is obtained and displayed from the master image forming apparatus.

Next, an embodiment relating to printout of various types of acquired information will be described. Reference numeral 105 in FIG. 8 denotes a printout button. When this button 105 is pressed, the main control unit 600 sends a printout request signal of the data acquired and stored as described above to the scanner / I
Transmit to PU300. If the scanner / IPU 300 is in a printable state, the main control unit 600 outputs output data from the memory buffer to the scanner / IPU 3.
Send to 00. For example, when printing JAM information, the main control unit 600 notifies the scanner / IPU 300 of a JAM information printout request signal. If the scanner / IPU 300 is in a printable state, the main control unit 600 notifies the main control unit 600 of a print permission signal, and the main control unit 600 sends the item data (data stored in the memory buffer) to be printed out upon reception of the print permission signal to the scanner / IPU 300. Notify IPU 300. At this time, the slave image forming apparatus ID of the information source is also transmitted, and the scanner / IP
The U300 prints this ID on the upper right of the print paper, for example, so that the slave can be identified as the information of the slave image forming apparatus on which the printed paper is printed.

FIGS. 10 and 11 show examples of the I / F format used between the main control unit and the scanner / IPU. In FIG. 10, the first field indicates a command, and the second and subsequent fields indicate printout data. For example, the second field indicates the slave image forming apparatus ID, and the third field indicates the JAM at the JAM position A.
The number of times, the fourth field, the number of times of JAM at the JAM position B,..., The last field (ETX) indicates the end of the transmission data.

FIG. 11 shows transmission data relating to the supply replacement date and time. The first field and the second field indicate a command and a machine ID as in FIG. 10, for example, the third field indicates toner exchange, the fourth field indicates "month", and the fifth field indicates "day". I have.

[0035]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the device information of each slave image forming apparatus constituting the image forming system can be easily grasped from the image forming apparatus serving as the master image forming apparatus. Efficiency can be increased.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, in addition to the above effects, filing of device information and the like can be performed.
The management of the device can be made easier.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, in addition to the above effects, there is an effect that the information can be easily specified even when the information of a plurality of slave image forming apparatuses is printed out collectively.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a digital image forming apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the external device interface unit.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a configuration example of an image forming system.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a nonvolatile RAM data storage map.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a first example of a display screen of an operation display unit.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a command format used for data transmission / reception in the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a second example of the display screen of the operation display unit.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a third example of the display screen of the operation display unit.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a machine ID and a JAM position data area of a data storage buffer.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of an I / F format used between a main control unit and a scanner / IPU.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of an I / F format used between a main control unit and a scanner / IPU.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating an operation process of the master image forming apparatus when acquiring information of the slave image forming apparatus.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating an operation process of a slave image forming apparatus that has received a unique ID from a master image forming apparatus.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating an operation process of the slave image forming apparatus that has received various request commands from the master image forming apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 100 operation display section 200 ADF 300 scanner / IPU 400 printer control section 500 sorter section 600 main control section 700 bank section 800 external device I / F section 801 CPU 802 ROM 803 RAM 804 NVRAM 805 command data I / F 806 image data I / F F 807 External command data I / F 808 External image data I / F 1000 Printer unit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code FI H04M 11/00 301 H04M 11/00 301 H04N 1/00 107 H04N 1/00 107Z

Claims (3)

[Claims] An image forming apparatus comprising: an image memory for storing image data necessary for image formation; and a command data memory for storing received command data, comprising: a communication unit for bidirectional image transfer; In an image forming system connected to a bidirectional command data communication unit for controlling and controlling a state of a forming apparatus, an operation display unit of a master image forming apparatus includes an information requesting unit, and the information requesting unit is inputted. An image forming system wherein the main control unit of the master image forming apparatus requests all slave image forming apparatuses constituting the system to transmit information such as a unique ID and status. 2. The image forming system according to claim 1, wherein the master image forming apparatus can print out the acquired information of the slave image forming apparatus. 3. The image forming system according to claim 2, wherein the information of the slave image forming apparatus is printed out.
An image forming system characterized by adding an ID of a slave image forming apparatus that has acquired information.