JP2000001022A - Image formation system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image formation system which can actually measure a warm-up time from a power save mode to a normal mode and determine a timing for carrying out a warm-up accurately and simply. SOLUTION: This image formation system has a printer 1 which starts printing data after returning to a normal mode from a power save mode in response to a data input from a network, a host apparatus 2 connected on the same network as the printer 1, a time measurement part 3 for measuring a warm-up time from the power save mode to the normal mode of the printer 1, and a measured time memory part 4 for storing the warm-up time measured by the time measurement part 3. The warm-up time is measured by inputting data not to be actually printed by the printer 1. When data is to be sent from the host apparatus 2 to the printer 1 in the power save mode, a shift order from the power save mode to the normal mode of the printer 1 is generated from the host apparatus 2 prior to the sending of data by the warm-up time of the printer 1 stored in the measured time memory part 4.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an image forming system in which a host device and an image forming apparatus having a power saving mode function are connected via a network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, there has been a demand for sharing a database. For this reason, personal computers of each person are connected via a network, and image forming apparatuses such as printers as output devices are also connected to the same network. Forming systems have been commonly used. On the other hand, since energy saving has been strongly screamed, not only personal computers but also image forming apparatuses tend to switch to a power saving mode as much as possible during the idle time. In particular, many image forming apparatuses such as a laser printer and an electrophotographic copying machine that use an electrophotographic method consume a large amount of electric power, and therefore, are often switched to a power saving mode automatically when a data reception waiting time exceeds a certain time. Can be seen. In order to send print data to the image forming apparatus in such a power saving mode and start printing, the image forming apparatus needs to execute a warm-up operation for shifting from the power saving mode in the energy saving state to the normal mode in which printing is possible. Therefore, in order to minimize the warm-up wait time, when transmitting print data from a personal computer to an image forming apparatus via a network, the transfer time of received print data and the processing time for developing the print data are reduced. 2. Description of the Related Art There is known an image forming apparatus that predicts a required time and determines a timing at which warm-up is performed (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-30 / 1990).
No. 079).

[0003]

However, as described above, in the method of estimating the required time and determining the timing of executing the warm-up, the warm-up time from the power saving mode to the normal mode is estimated and performed. Since the warm-up time greatly varies depending on the type of the image forming apparatus, it is difficult to predict the warm-up time. In addition, when a new image forming apparatus is connected due to an increase in the amount of print processing, or when a used image forming apparatus breaks down and another type of image forming apparatus is connected,
The warm-up time may be significantly different from the predicted time, and it is difficult to predict the warm-up time suitable for the actual situation. Therefore, in a network in which various image forming apparatuses having different warm-up times are connected, the warm-up time of the selected image forming apparatus is longer than expected, and the time until the printing is started after the transmission of the print data is started. I had to wait for hours. Therefore, a problem to be solved by the present invention is to accurately grasp the warm-up time, which is the time required for the image forming apparatus to transition from the power saving mode to the normal mode, and determine the timing at which the image forming apparatus performs warm-up. An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming system that can easily and accurately determine an image.

[0004]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an image forming system according to the first aspect of the present invention returns from a power saving mode to a normal mode by inputting data from a network and starts printing data. An image forming apparatus, a host device connected to the same network as the image forming apparatus, a time measuring unit for measuring a warm-up time of the image forming apparatus from a power saving mode to a normal mode, and measurement by the time measuring unit. Measurement time storage means for storing the warm-up time obtained. According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the image forming system of the first aspect, the warm-up time of the image forming apparatus is measured by inputting data that is not actually printed by the image forming apparatus. It is characterized by: According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the image forming system according to the first or second aspect, when data is transmitted from the host device to the image forming apparatus in the power saving mode, the data is stored in the measurement time storage unit. Before sending data for the warm-up time of the image forming apparatus, the host apparatus issues an instruction to shift the image forming apparatus from the power saving mode to the normal mode. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming system according to the second or third aspect, the data which is not actually printed by the image forming apparatus is a NULL (null) code. According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming system according to the second or third aspect, the data which is not actually printed by the image forming apparatus is SP (space),
And BSP (backspace).

In the image forming system according to the first aspect of the present invention, the image forming apparatus returns from the power saving mode to the normal mode by sending data from the host apparatus to the image forming apparatus via the network. ,
The warm-up time, which is the return time, is measured by the time measuring means, and the measured value is stored by the measuring time storage means. Therefore, any image forming apparatus connected to the network can easily calculate the warm-up time. Can be measured. According to the image forming system configured as in claim 2, in addition to the invention of the image forming system configured as in claim 1, the data executed by the image forming apparatus for measuring the warm-up time is also provided. Since the processing is data that is not actually printed, it does not affect the feeding or printing of the printing paper. Further, according to the image forming system configured as in claim 3, in addition to the invention of the image forming system configured as in claim 1 or 2, the image forming apparatus can perform more than data reception. Since the shift instruction from the power saving mode to the normal mode can be received earlier by the warm-up time, the printing operation can be started simultaneously with the data reception. According to the image forming system configured as in claim 4, in addition to the invention of the image forming system configured as in claim 2 or 3, the image forming apparatus processes a NULL code. Allows the warm-up time to be measured, so there is no need to reset the image forming device,
The warm-up time can be easily grasped. According to the image forming system configured as in claim 5, in addition to the invention of the image forming system configured as in claim 2 or 3, the image forming apparatus includes SP and B
By processing the two SP codes, the image forming apparatus can measure the warm-up time in its original state, so that the warm-up time can be easily reduced without having to reset the image forming apparatus. You can figure out.

[0006]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows an example of an image forming system in which a printer 1 as a representative example of the image forming apparatus 1 and a host device 2 such as a personal computer are connected on the same network. In this figure,
In order to efficiently control the plurality of printers 1 and the host device 2, a print server 20 is connected in the middle. Further, detailed configurations of the print server 20 and the printer 1 are shown in FIGS. Since the detailed operations of the host device 2 and the printer 1 on the network are known, the operation according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In FIG. 1, a host device (NO
1) The print data is transmitted over the network from among 2a and the host device (NO2) 2b,. The print data transmitted from the host device 2 is temporarily stored in the print server 20. In the print server 20, FIG.
Is stored in the print spool 25 in a file format based on the management of the queue management service unit 24 shown in FIG. The queue management service unit 24 constantly monitors the print spool 25, and when the spool process is completed, the presence of the job can be detected. The print server 20 and the printer 1 are connected so as to be capable of bidirectional communication, and the status of the printer 1 can be monitored from the information management service unit 21 of the print server 20. The inside of the printer 1 is configured as shown in FIG.
Thus, the status of the printer 1 and the status of the printer engine 12 can be monitored via the status management unit 13. The monitored status of the printer 1 is described in the information table 2
2 when the print data is transferred to the printer 1, the state of the printer 1 stored in this table is referred to. At the time of printing, a print job is extracted from the print spool 25 in response to a request from the data transfer service unit 23, a protocol on the LAN with the partner is established by the protocol processing unit 26, and the print data is transmitted from the LAN interface 27 to the network via the LAN interface 27. To a predetermined printer 1.

On the printer 1 side in FIG. 3, the contents of the received print data are sent to a printer command processing unit 16.
The print data is divided into command data and print data, and the print data is passed to the print processing unit 11. Further, the print processing unit 11 processes the received data, converts the data into a dot pattern, and transfers the data to the printer engine 12.
The printer engine 12 prints on recording paper based on the received dot pattern. Here, if the printer 1 continues to wait for print data for a certain period of time or more,
If the print data is not received for a certain period of time, the mode is automatically switched to the power saving mode because the power consumption is wasted and the life of the motor and the heater is shortened. Further, in the power saving mode, a part of the power supply 14 may be kept in a state where the power supply is suppressed under the control of the power supply controller 15. Here, the printer 1 in the power saving mode can be set to the normal mode in which printing can be performed by receiving a predetermined signal for mode transition from the print server 20 or receiving data relating to printing. In particular, data relating to the latter printing includes codes that do not actually cause a printing operation, such as NULL (null), SP (space), BSP (backspace), SO (shift out), SI (shift in), and BEL (bell). It does not matter. Therefore, for example, when a NULL code is sent from the print server 20 to the printer 1 in the power saving mode, the printer 1 shifts from the power saving mode to the normal mode after a warm-up time. The point in time when the mode transition of the printer 1 changes can be known by grasping information of the status management unit 13 from the print server 20. The warm-up time of each printer 1 is measured by the time measurement unit 3 of the print server 20 and stored in the measurement time storage unit 4.

Accordingly, the warm-up time of the printer 1 measured as described above does not change unless the setting conditions of the printer 1 change significantly. An instruction signal for switching to the normal mode is sent from the print server 20 earlier by the warm-up time stored in the storage unit 4. As a result, the printer 1 is in the normal mode in which printing is possible from the moment the print data is received, so that the waiting time for warm-up after receiving the print data can be completely eliminated. In the above description, the print server 20 is inserted between the host device 2 and the printer 1. However, a format in which the host device 2 and the printer 1 are directly connected via a network may be used. . In that case, a code that does not cause a printing operation is sent from the host device 2 to the printer 1, the warm-up time is measured by the time measuring unit 3 existing in the host device 2, and the measured time storage unit 4 in the host device 2 is measured. Will be stored. The time measuring unit 3 and the measuring time storage unit 4 are connected to each printer 1.
It is also effective that the host device 2 takes out the warm-up time from the measured time storage unit 4.

FIGS. 4 and 5 show the main operation of the image forming system of the present invention described above. First, FIG. 4 asks whether the warm-up time corresponding to the target printer 1 is stored in the measurement time storage unit 4 (step 1). If the warm-up time has already been measured, (S1 Yes), and exits this routine as it is. If the measurement has not been performed yet (S1 No), it is determined whether or not the printer 1 is in an idle state that is not in use (S2). If the printer engine 12 is not in the idle state (S2 No), the process returns to step S2 where the printer waits for the idle state. (S3). If not in power save state (S
3 No), the process returns to step S2, and waits until the power save state occurs in the idle state. If it is in the power save state (S3 Yes), the process proceeds to step S4. Next, in step S4, a code that does not actually cause a printing operation is sent from the host to the printer 1 (S4).
4). When the printer 1 receives the code, the printer 1 cancels the power saving mode.
The state changes from the power-saving state to the power-up state (S5), and then changes from the power-up state to the normal state in which printing is possible (step S6). Therefore,
No from PowerSave state by time measurement unit 3
The warm-up time up to the rmal state is detected (S
7) Then, it is stored in the measurement time storage unit 4 (S8), and the present routine ends. FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the main operation of the invention according to claim 4. The difference from the operation in FIG. 4 is that a NULL code is sent to the printer 1 for measuring the warm-up time in step S14 instead of step S4. Other operations are the same as those in FIG. Although an operation example of the invention according to claim 4 is not shown, two codes of SP and BSP may be sent instead of sending a NULL code in step S14 of FIG. After executing the two code processes of SP and BSP, the state returns to the state before the first operation is started.

[0010]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the warm-up time when the image forming apparatus shifts from the power saving mode to the normal mode is measured by sending data from the host apparatus, and the measured time is stored in the measured time storage means. Any device that stores and connects to a network can easily measure the warm-up time, so various image forming devices with different warm-up times can be installed on the network. Even if connected, an image forming system capable of individually managing the warm-up time can be provided. According to the second aspect of the invention, in addition to the image forming system of the first aspect, the warm-up time of the image forming apparatus does not affect the feeding or printing of the printing paper. This eliminates the need for setting, making it possible to provide an image forming system that can easily and practically measure the warm-up time. According to the third aspect of the present invention, in addition to the image forming system of the first or second aspect, the image forming apparatus can start the printing operation at the same time as receiving the data. It has become possible to provide an image forming system that completely eliminates the waiting time for up. According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, in addition to the image forming system of the second aspect, the warm-up time is measured by processing the NULL code, and the warm-up time can be easily set without the need to reset the image forming apparatus. Since the up time can be measured, it is possible to provide an image forming system that completely eliminates the warm-up waiting time. According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, in addition to the image forming system of the second aspect, by processing two codes of SP and BSP, the image forming apparatus has a warm-up time in an apparently original state. Can be measured, so that an image forming system that completely eliminates the warm-up waiting time can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a main part of an image forming system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a main part of a print server including a time measuring unit and a measured time storing unit according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a main part of a printer connected to a network.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing main operations of the image forming system of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a main operation of the image forming system according to the fourth aspect of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: printer (image forming apparatus), 2: host device, 3:
Time measurement unit (time measurement unit), 4: measurement time storage unit (measurement time storage unit), 11: print processing unit, 12: printer engine, 13: status management unit, 14: power supply device, 15: power supply controller, 16 : Printer command processing unit, 20: print server, 21: information management service unit, 22: information table, 23: data transfer service unit, 24: queue management service unit, 25, print spool, 26, protocol processing unit, 27: LAN interface.

Claims (5)

[Claims] An image forming apparatus that returns from a power saving mode to a normal mode and starts printing data in response to data input from a network; a host device connected to the same network as the image forming apparatus; An image forming system comprising: a time measuring unit that measures a warm-up time from a power saving mode to a normal mode; and a measuring time storage unit that stores a warm-up time measured by the time measuring unit. . 2. The image forming system according to claim 1, wherein the warm-up time of the image forming apparatus is measured by inputting data that is not actually printed by the image forming apparatus. 3. The image forming system according to claim 1, wherein when data is sent from the host device to the image forming apparatus in the power saving mode, the image forming apparatus stored in the measurement time storage unit is used. An image forming system, wherein an instruction to shift the image forming apparatus from a power saving mode to a normal mode is issued from the host device before sending data for a warm-up time. 4. The image forming system according to claim 2, wherein the data that is not actually printed by the image forming apparatus is a NULL code. 5. The image forming system according to claim 2, wherein the data that is not actually printed by the image forming apparatus is two codes, SP and BSP.