JPH0441400B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an interface system between an electronic copying machine and its option, in which the option checks data sent from the electronic copying machine main body, In the case of abnormal data, the option does not send the data back to the copier, and the copier then sends the same data to the option again, ensuring that a normal signal is always sent to the target option. It is a control device that performs the interface.

[Conventional technology]

Recent electronic copying machines have become multi-functional and are equipped with many options (attached equipment) such as a sorter, a document feeder, and a display section for various displays. Control signals to these options are always sent unilaterally from the main body of the copying machine, and each option selects and receives the signal and performs the operation sent by that signal. The copier itself cannot check whether the correct signal is being sent to the desired option.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

There is no problem if the signal sent from the copier is correctly received by the option, but if the control signal from the copier is incorrectly transmitted due to noise etc., the option itself may malfunction or Alternatively, the signal may not reach the desired option or may become inconvenient, causing inconvenience to the user.

An object of the present invention is to provide electronic copying in which, when there is an error in the data transferred from the copying machine main body, the option side does not reply the data to the copying machine main body, thereby prompting the copying machine main body to resend the transferred data. This provides a machine data retransmission control device.

[Means and actions for solving problems]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in the electronic copying machine data retransmission control device of the present invention, when the option receives a control signal, it performs control based on the control signal and also sends a status signal indicating the status of the option back to the copying machine main body. If the copying machine main unit sends a control signal to the option and does not receive a reply from the option within a certain period of time, it resends the control signal to the option.

As a result, if the signal sent from the copier main body to the option is erroneously transmitted during transmission, for example due to noise, the option will not be able to receive the control signal correctly, and therefore the state will indicate the status of the reception result. Since no signal is returned, if the copier does not receive a response from the option after a certain period of time has passed after transmitting data to the option, it assumes that the transmitted data was not received correctly and retransmits the data. This allows the data to be transferred correctly to the option.

〔Example〕

Before describing the present invention in detail based on examples,
The outline of the present invention will be explained with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7. In FIG. 6, a control board 1-1 built into the main body 1 of the electronic copying machine is connected to each option 2-0, 2-1, 2-2, and 2-3 through a transmission line 3 and a reception line 4. Ru. Here, 2-0 is the sorter, 2-1 is the document feeder, and 2-
Reference numeral 2 represents a mini printer, and 2-3 represents an option such as an α/N display.A control signal A is transmitted from the copying machine body 1 to the option at a certain time period through a transmission line 3. Option side 2-0, 2-1, 2-2,
In 2-3, after inputting this control signal A, the option specified by the address part of the control signal checks whether this signal is correct or not, and if it is a normal signal, starts the operation specified by the signal. At the same time, a status signal representing the status of the option side is outputted to the copying machine main body 1 via the receiving line 4. The copying machine main body 1 receives this, knows that the signal A has been correctly transmitted, and sends the next new control signal.
On the other hand, as shown in Fig. 7, if the control signal A sent on the transmission line 3 is erroneously transmitted, the option side checks the received signal and recognizes that the received signal is erroneous. No operation is started, and therefore no status signal is returned on the receiving line 4 (dotted line in FIG. 7). After transmitting the control signal, the copying machine main unit 1 transmits the control signal to the receiving line 4 for a certain period of time T.
If there is no response, the data from one cycle before, that is, the control signal A that is exactly the same as before, is retransmitted at the next data transfer. If there is no error in the transmission, there is a response from the option on the receiving line 4 (solid line in FIG. 7), and the next new data control signal is sent after a certain period of time T.

In this way, the copier can always check whether the control signal from the copier to the option is being transmitted correctly to the option before sending the next control signal, which prevents system malfunctions. I can do it.

Next, one embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail based on FIGS. 1 to 5.

Fig. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is an example of a signal used in this embodiment, and Fig. 3 is a signal transfer when a normal signal is transmitted from the copier main body to the sorter. FIG. 4 is a diagram explaining the signal transfer procedure when the signal is retransmitted from the copying machine main body to the sorter, and FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operating state of the present invention. Fig. b shows the operating state of the sorter 2 side.

In FIG. 1, 1 is the main body of the copying machine, 2 is an option such as a sorter, 3 is a transmission line, and 4 is an option.
is the receiving line. Inside the copying machine body 1, there is a transmission circuit S including a transmission register 5, a parallel-to-serial conversion circuit 6, and a serial register 7, a serial register 9, and a serial-to-parallel conversion circuit 1.
0, a receiving circuit R comprising a receiving register 11;
A timer 8, a counter 12, a processor 13 such as a microprocessor, a memory 14 in which data D ₁ , D _{2 .} . . are held, and a program is stored.
A ROM 15 etc. are provided. The sorter 2 includes an error check circuit 16, a response signal output circuit 17,
A status signal generation section 18, a control section 19, etc. are provided.

Here, the transmitting circuit S outputs an output signal from the copying machine main body 1 to each option, and in FIG. 1, only the sorter 2 is shown as an option. In the transmission circuit S, when the processor 13 sets transmission data in parallel in the transmission register 5, this parallel data is converted into serial data by the parallel/serial conversion circuit 6.
The data will be sent to the sorter 2 via the serial register 7.

The receiving circuit R receives data sent from the option, and is connected to the serial register 9.
When data from the option is input to the serial/parallel converter circuit 10, the data is converted into parallel data and is held in the receiving register 11.
The receiving circuit R generates an interrupt to the processor 13 when data is set in the receiving register 11.

Further, the serial registers 7 and 9 sequentially output serial data starting from the LSB in response to a predetermined clock.

The timer 8 counts timings at fixed intervals, for example every 10 msec, using a reference clock obtained from an oscillator (not shown), and generates a cycle T for transmitting data.

There are multiple control signals sent from the copier main body 1 to each option. For example, the control signals sent to the sorter 2 include sorting, non-sorting,
There are multiple types of signals, such as a signal that specifies an operation such as stacking, a signal that notifies the sorter of an interrupt when an interrupt copy occurs during sorting, and a signal that initializes the bins. Similarly, there are multiple types of control signals for other options.

Options, for example, from sorter 2 to copying machine body 1
The status signal returned by the sorter 2 is not a response signal indicating that the sorter 2 has received the control signal from the main body 1, but is a signal indicating that the sorter bin is actually moving or sorting according to the control signal. This shows the operation.

The transmission signal sent from the copying machine main body 1 to the option, as shown in FIG. 2, first has a start bit "0", and the next bit _A0 is
This is a control bit indicating address control information or interface information. When bit A ₀ is “1”, it indicates address control information. In this case, the next bits A ₁ to _{A 3} indicate the destination option, and A ₄ to _{A 7} indicate the data length. show. When bit A ₀ is “0”, it indicates interface information, and the following A ₁ to _{A 7}
becomes the data. Then, interface information is sent out following the address control information, and there is no start bit in the interface information. For example, odd parity bits PV are added to each address control information and interface information in order to check their accuracy. When this serial data is not transmitted, it is set as a "1" (marking) pair.

When the option side receives this data, the transmission data is detected by detecting the start bit "0". On the option side, if the parity check of the received signal does not match, the data is not accepted as invalid. When the stopper bit is "0", it is considered a framing error and the data is not received.

As an option, the operation of the present invention shown in FIG.
An example of controlling the initialization of a sorter bin will be described.

When the user makes copies, it is necessary that the sorter bins be in the initialized position if the sorter 2 is not in a sorting or stacking operation. For this purpose, when the user enables the copying machine, for example, when the user presses a button from the power saving state to the copy ready state, data, which is the sorter bin initial signal, is sent from the processor 13 to the memory 14.
_D1 is read out, and this sorter bin initialization signal is transferred to the transmission register 5 to start transmission control of the transmission circuit S, which is sent to the sorter 2, and at the same time, the timer 8 is preset to time T.

When the transmission signal transmitted from the copying machine main body 1 is checked for errors by the error check circuit 16 of the sorter 2, if this data has no errors and is received correctly, the control section 19 decodes the transmission signal. , processing necessary to initialize the sorter bin, such as controlling the movement of the bin. Based on this, the status signal generator 18 of the sorter 2 generates a bin moving signal indicating that the sorter bin is moving, and this signal is sent onto the receiving line 4 by the response signal output circuit 17. Therefore, when the transmitted signal is normally received in the sorter 2, the status signal is transmitted to the generator 1 as shown in FIG.
The bin moving signal outputted from 8 is outputted to the receiving line 4, so this is sent to the copying machine main body 1.
The signal is transmitted to the reception circuit R of 1, and is set in the reception register 11 via the serial register 9 and the serial/parallel conversion circuit 10. As a result, the receiving circuit R generates a receiving interrupt to the process 13. Thus, the processor 13 checks the signal set in the receive register 11 and recognizes that the status signal has been returned.

This status signal is returned as shown in Figure 3.
If it is within the specified time, the processor 13 reads the next data _D2 from the memory 14 and transmits it to the sorter 2 via the transmitting circuit S as before. Then, timer 8 is preset to time T.

However, if the result of checking the transmitted signal is that, for example, a parity error exists, the control unit 19 of the sorter 2 will not perform any special control and no status signal will be output on the receiving line 4. Therefore, the timer 8 is set for the predetermined time T.
When the status signal is not returned to the receiving circuit R even after 30 seconds, the processor 13 sets the counter 12
1, and checks whether the count number, that is, the same data transmission circuit has reached the specified number of times.

If the predetermined number of times has not been reached, the old data, that is, the same data _D1 as last time, is successively outputted from the memory 14 and retransmitted to the sorter 2 by the transmitting circuit S in the same way. Then, at the same time as the retransmission, the timer 8 is preset. In response to this retransmission, if a status signal indicating that the bean is being moved is returned from the sorter 2, as shown in FIG. 4, the copying machine main body 1 transmits the next data _D2 in the same manner as described above. However, if no status signal is returned, this process will be repeated.

In such a state where there is no response, that is, when the number of times the same data is sent from the copier main body 1 reaches the specified number of times without a status signal being returned from the sorter 2, the copier main body 1 displays a malfunction such as an alarm. Stop that operation. This fault display allows the operator to detect the location of the fault.

FIG. 5b is a flowchart on the sorter side.

' Receive the data signal sent from the transmission circuit of the copying machine main body 1.

' The received signal is subjected to vertical parity check, horizontal parity check, framing error check (stop bit detection), and overrun/parity check in the same way as when received by the receiving circuit inside the copier main body.
An error check is performed using a method such as error checking to determine whether the control signal was transmitted correctly.

′ If the data was transmitted correctly,
The sorter bin starts moving in accordance with the instructions of the signal, and the response signal output circuit 17 sends a status signal of '1' during the sorter bin movement to the receiving line 4 to the copying machine main body 1.

As a result of the error check performed in step ``'', if it is determined that the signal was erroneously transmitted, no response is made from the sorter side. For example, if the sorter bin initialization signal ``1'' from the copying machine main body side is erroneously sent to ``0'' due to noise or the like, an error can be determined by vertical and horizontal parity checks.
Therefore, the sorter side waits for the next data to be sent without returning the status signal.

In the above description, an example has been described in which a sorter is used as an option, but the same applies to other options.

〔Effect of the invention〕

In the present invention, data is sent from the copying machine to the option, and if there is no reply from the option after a certain period of time, the same data is retransmitted, so that the data can be accurately passed through the copying machine, which has many noise sources such as the corotron. If the same data is not transmitted, the same data is repeatedly retransmitted, thereby preventing system malfunction.

Furthermore, even if the copying machine has a plurality of options, the main body always checks whether signals are being sent to the options accurately.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of the configuration of one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
The figure shows the signals used in the embodiment, Figures 3 and 4 are diagrams showing the signal transfer procedure, Figure 5 is a flowchart showing the signal transfer procedure, and Figure 6 is a schematic diagram of the copying machine and each option. The configuration diagram, FIG. 7, is a diagram showing a signal retransmission procedure. 1...electronic copying machine, 1-1...control board, 2...sorter, 2-1...document/
Feeder, 2-2...Mini printer, 2-3...
...α/N display, 3... Transmission line, 4...
...Receive line, 5...Transmit register, 6...P/
S conversion circuit, 7... Serial register, 8... Timer, 9... Serial register, 10... S/P
Conversion circuit, 11...Reception register, 12...Counter, 13...Processor, 14...Memory, 1
5...ROM, 16...Error check circuit, 1
7...Response signal output circuit, 18...Status signal generation section, 19...Control section.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In an electronic copying machine in which the copying machine main body and an option are connected by a control signal line, the copying machine main body is provided with a timer and a data holding section for holding transmitted data, and the option is equipped with an error check circuit that checks whether there is an error in the received signal. If there is an error in the data sent from the copying machine, the option will not respond to the copying machine, and the copying machine will not respond from the option within a certain period of time measured by the timer after sending a signal to the option. 1. An electronic copying machine data retransmission control device, which optionally retransmits the same signal when