JPH03250855A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain proper maintenance inexpensively as required by informing the period of maintenance and check automatically to a service center or the like depending on the frequency of use of each component of a facsimile equipment. CONSTITUTION:A discrimination means 1 discriminates whether or not a count of count means 4, 7 reaches an operating count stored in a storage means 11 and calling for maintenance. Message transmission means 1, 2, 12 read a telephone number from registration means 1, 8, 13 when the necessity of the maintenance is discriminated by the discrimination means 1, give the number to an automatic dial section 12 to make a phone call to a prescribed destination and send a message to a prescribed destination. Thus, the proper maintenance is implemented inexpensively as required.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 5. OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a facsimile machine, and particularly to a structure for notifying maintenance time.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, maintenance of a document reading section, a recording section for outputting data, etc. in a facsimile machine has been performed at regular intervals. For two reasons, maintenance is not performed on parts that are used very frequently and require maintenance before the specified period of time, or are used so infrequently that there is no need for maintenance even after the specified period has passed. Despite this, there were inconveniences such as maintenance and inspection. This is because the facsimile machine is not maintained in accordance with the frequency of use of each part. Therefore, in order to improve this problem, service personnel would have to frequently inspect and walk around the facsimile machines installed in various locations, which would require more manpower and increase maintenance costs. there were.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) Conventional maintenance of facsimile machines is performed uniformly on all parts at fixed intervals, regardless of the frequency of use of each part. Since it is impossible to immediately perform appropriate maintenance on the facsimile machine, this has caused problems such as malfunctions in the operation of the facsimile machine. However, in order to improve this problem, if service personnel were to frequently inspect the facsimile machines installed at various locations, there was a problem in that it would require more manpower and increase maintenance costs.

Therefore, the present invention eliminates the above-mentioned drawbacks, and automatically notifies a service center etc. of the time for maintenance inspection according to the frequency of use of each part of the facsimile machine, and performs maintenance as necessary. The present invention aims to provide a facsimile machine which can be operated at low cost.] (Means for solving the problem) The present invention provides a facsimile machine having an auto-dial function, in which the number of operations of a part to be maintained is reduced. a counting means for counting the number of operations required for maintenance of the part to be maintained, a storage means for storing the number of operations required for maintenance of the part to be maintained, and a count value of the counting means equal to the number of operations required for maintenance stored in the storage means; a determination means for determining whether or not a predetermined message has been reached; a message retention or generation means for retaining or generating a predetermined message;
a registration means for registering a predetermined telephone number; and when the determination means determines that maintenance is required, the telephone number is read from the registration means and given to the auto dial function to make a call to a predetermined destination. and message transmitting means for transmitting the message output from the message holding or generating means to the predetermined destination.

(Operation) In the facsimile apparatus of the present invention, the counting means counts the number of operations of the maintenance part.The storage means stores the number of operations that require maintenance of the maintenance part.The determining means counts the count value of the counting means. The registering means registers a message holding or generating means for holding or generating a predetermined message and a predetermined telephone number. When the judgment means determines that maintenance is necessary, the message transmission means reads the telephone number from the registration means and gives it to the auto dial function to make a call to a predetermined destination, and then A message output from the message holding or generating means is transmitted to the predetermined destination.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a facsimile apparatus of the present invention. 1 is a control unit that performs individual control such as communication control and maintenance control, and controls the entire device; 2 is a transmitting unit that performs calling, capturing and releasing lines, etc.; 3 is a reader that reads the contents of the document and converts it into image data. 4 is a counter unit that counts the number of operations of the reading unit 3; 3 is a receiving unit that receives calls, captures and releases lines; 6 is a recording unit that prints and outputs received data on recording paper; 7 8 is a counter section that counts the number of operations of the recording section 6, 8 is a telephone number storage section that stores the telephone number of the service center, and 9 is a maintenance request message (
10 is a count number storage section that stores the count number of the counter section 4.7, and 11 is a table that stores operation frequency values corresponding to the timing of maintenance requests for each component to be maintained. 12 is an auto-dial section connected to the transmitting section 2, and 13 is an input section for inputting hook information, dial information, etc.

Here, the counter section 4.7 serves as a counting means, the table storage section 11 serves as a storage means, the control section 1 serves as a determination means, the message storage section 9 serves as a message holding or generating means, the control section 1, the input section 13 and The telephone number storage unit 8 has a registration means,
The control section 1, the transmission section 2, and the auto-dial section 12 constitute message transmission means.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained. At the time of transmission, when the control section 1 receives off-hook information inputted from the input section 13, it activates the transmitting section 2, and then gives the subsequently inputted telephone number information to the transmitting section 2 to place a call to the other party. When the line is thereby connected to the other party, the control unit 1 activates the reading unit 3. As a result, the reading section 3 reads each page of the document that has been scanned in advance, and outputs image data to the control section 1.

In the second case, the counter unit 4 counts up each time the reading unit 3 reads one page of the original. The control section 1 encodes image data input from the reading section 3 and provides the encoded image data to the transmitting section 2 . The transmitter 2 modulates the input image data and then transmits it onto the line. At this time, the control section 1 overrides the current count value of the counter section 4 and writes it into the count number storage section 10 at a constant cycle.

Thereafter, when the transmission operation is completed, the control section 1 stores the operation number corresponding to the number of operations of the reading section 3 stored in the count storage section 10 and the maintenance of the reading section 3 stored in the table storage section 11. When the count value in the count storage section 10 exceeds the count value in the table storage section 11, the control section 1 performs a service stored in the telephone number storage section 8. The telephone number information of the center is read out and given to the auto dial section 12. Thereby, the auto-dial section 12 sends out a dial signal corresponding to the given telephone number information onto the line via the transmitting section 2, and makes a call to the service center.

After that, once the line is connected to the service center,
After carrying out a predetermined protocol communication, the control section 1 reads out the maintenance request message of the reading section 3 from the message storage section 9 and transmits it to a facsimile machine of a service center or the like. A service person at the service center sees the transmitted maintenance request message, goes to the facsimile machine that issued the maintenance request, and performs the necessary maintenance. It should be noted that the maintenance request message may include a maintenance part, that is, information on the reading section 3 in this case, or various information such as the current count value of the counter section 4, etc., and be sent to the maintenance request message. You can do both to make it easier.

At the time of reception, when a call arrives at the receiving section and the line is closed with the other party, the control section 1 receives the data after performing a predetermined protocol communication. The received data is demodulated by the receiving section 5, decoded by the control section 1, further converted into print data, and then sent to the recording section. The recording unit 6 prints the thus sent print data on recording paper page by page and outputs it. At this time, the counter unit 7 counts by 1 each time the recording unit 6 prints one page of received data.
Stubble.

Thereafter, when the receiving operation is completed, the control unit 1 stores the value corresponding to the number of operations of the recording unit 6 stored in the count storage unit 10 and the maintenance required period of the storage unit 6 stored in the table storage unit 11. If the count value in the count storage section 10 exceeds the count value in the table storage section 11, the control section 1 updates the service center telephone number information stored in the telephone number storage section 8. is read out and given to the auto dial section 12. Thereby, the auto-dial section 12 sends out a dial signal corresponding to the given telephone number information onto the line via the transmitting section 2, and makes a call to the service center I\. As a result, when the concave line is connected to the service center, the control unit 1 performs predetermined protocol communication, and then reads and compares the maintenance request message in the recording unit 6 from the message storage unit 9. , and send this to the service center facsimile.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the maintenance operation of the control section. In step 201, the count value of the counter section 4 or 7 is read out in a predetermined cycle and written into the count number storage section 10. In step 202, a value is sent to callan I of the counter section 4 or 7 stored in the count storage section 10 to indicate the time when maintenance of the part to be maintained currently being targeted is stored in the table storage section 11. It is determined whether the indicated number of operations has been reached, and if the number of operations has not been reached, the process returns to step 201; if the number of operations has been reached or exceeded, the process proceeds to step 204.

In step 204, the telephone number information of the service center is read from the telephone number storage section 8, and is given to the auto-dial section 12 to make a call to the service center. If it is closed between, the process proceeds to step 206. In step 206, a maintenance request message is read out from the message storage unit 10 and sent to the service center via the transmission unit 2. In step 207, the line with the service center is released, and in step 201 Return to However, it is assumed that the control section 1 performs the maintenance timing determination operation described above as the parts to be maintained such as the reading section 3 and the recording section 6 are operated.

According to this embodiment, the number of operations of each part requiring maintenance is counted, and when this count value does not reach the number of operations requiring maintenance, a call is automatically made to the service center to request maintenance. Therefore, maintenance can be performed at an appropriate time depending on the frequency of use of each part. In addition, since the maintenance request is automatically reported to the service center,
Since there is no need to increase the number of maintenance personnel or to have service personnel patrol the locations where facsimile machines are installed, the maintenance can be performed at low cost. Therefore,
It is possible to prevent the facsimile machine from breaking down due to poor maintenance and improve the operating rate and reliability of the machine.

In the above embodiment, the maintenance request message is sent to the facsimile of the service center, but the same effect can be achieved by sending the message as a voice message to the telephone of the service center.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the facsimile device of the present invention,
Depending on the frequency of use of each part of the facsimile machine, it is possible to automatically notify a service center, etc. when it is time for maintenance and inspection, so that maintenance can be carried out appropriately and inexpensively as necessary.
Wear.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the facsimile apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the control section shown in FIG. 1... Control section Death... Transmission section 3... Reading section 4.7... Counter section 8... Telephone number storage section 9... Message storage section 10... Count number storage section 11.・Table storage section 13...Input section...Auto dial section

Claims (1)

[Claims] A facsimile machine having an auto-dial function includes a counting means for counting the number of operations of a part to be maintained, a storage means for storing a number of operations for which maintenance of the part to be maintained is required, and a count value of the counting means is stored in the memory. A determination means for determining whether a number of operations stored in the means that requires maintenance has been reached, a message retention or generation means for retaining or generating a predetermined message, and a registration for registering a predetermined telephone number. means, and when the determination means determines that maintenance is necessary, reading a telephone number from the registration means and giving it to the auto-dial function to make a call to a predetermined destination, and then retaining or generating the message; 1. A facsimile apparatus comprising: message transmitting means for transmitting a message output from the means to the predetermined destination.