JP2001236242A - Electronic equipment system and method for controlling the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic equipment system equipped with an IEEE1394I /F capable of performing transition to a service mode with excellent operability, cost performance, and safety and a method for controlling this electronic equipment system. SOLUTION: This image forming system being this operational configuration is constituted so that plural image forming devices can be connected to the same IEEE1394 bus, and a host device 2 for operating remote control to a target device 1 is connected. The target device 1 performs transition to a service mode based on a specific packet or a packet column from the host device 2, and plural image forming devices 3 other than the target device 1 can perform communication by using the IEEE1394 bus as usual even in the middle of a maintenance work or diagnostic work. Also, the target device 1 itself can perform communication with the image forming devices 3 other than the host device 2 regardless of the normal operational configuration. Therefore, it is possible to appropriately control transition to the service mode without generating the deterioration of operability due to any complicate key input or the increase of costs due to the support of any additional circuit or special protocol.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic apparatus system and a control method therefor, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus, a facsimile apparatus, and the like, which has a service mode function and performs a service mode for various settings and inspections in a manufacturing process and a repair section. The present invention relates to an electronic device system having a function of shifting to an electronic device and a control method thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an apparatus provided with a service mode (maintenance mode, diagnosis mode) for initial setting in a manufacturing process, setting change in an operation / operating place, firmware update, failure diagnosis, and the like, a normal mode is used. A transition from the operation mode to the service mode is known.

[0003] For example, a "diagnostic function setting device for an electrophotographic apparatus" disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 01-257974 is disclosed in
The transition to the service mode is appropriately controlled by inputting a predetermined password from the numeric keys on the operation panel.

The "image forming apparatus" disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 05-035033 considers not only the order in which the keys are pressed but also the time during which the keys are pressed, and switches to the service mode. Is appropriately controlled.

On the other hand, an apparatus having a small number of keys and buttons for performing an operation or an apparatus not having a display means such as a display panel sufficient for displaying information in a service mode is provided with an external interface. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 09-297503 and 09-297508 disclose a technique for solving the problems of operability and display capability by connecting devices for maintenance via a computer. A maintenance management system is known.

[0006]

However, in an apparatus provided with a service mode (maintenance mode) for initial setting in a manufacturing process, setting change in an operation / operating place, failure diagnosis, and the like, a normal operation mode is changed. If a specific key operation is performed to switch to the service mode, there is a risk that a general user may accidentally switch to the service mode during normal use, and to prevent this, key operation is performed at the expense of operability. However, it is necessary to prevent the problem by complicating the system or mounting an additional circuit or the like on the device at the expense of cost.

On the other hand, in an apparatus having a small number of keys and buttons for performing an operation or an apparatus not having a display unit such as a display panel sufficient for displaying information in a service mode, the operation of the apparatus body is performed in the first place. The transition to the service mode and the operation itself in the service mode are difficult, and a problem similar to the transition to the service mode by a key operation also occurs when performing maintenance or the like using an external interface. In other words, during normal communication, it is necessary to have a procedure that does not accidentally shift to the service mode.

[0008] For this reason, it is conceivable to use a communication system that does not conform to the standard of the interface to be used. However, an additional circuit for that purpose is required, or an additional protocol must be implemented in firmware. This is disadvantageous in terms of development / manufacturing costs.

[0009] Regardless of an interface such as RS-232C or Centronics interface in which devices are connected point-to-point, IE
When other devices are connected on the same bus or network, such as EE1394, USB, and Ethernet, it is difficult to select a nonstandard communication method in consideration of the influence on other devices. There was such a problem.

[0010] Furthermore, there is a problem that maintenance work cannot be performed while the interface itself is operated via a point-to-point connection-type interface.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and has been made in an electronic apparatus having an IEEE 1394 interface, and is capable of transitioning to a service mode excellent in operability, cost, and security, and operating the service mode. It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic device system and a control method for realizing the same.

[0012]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of electronic devices are connected to an IEEE standard.
In an electronic device system constructed by being connected to a communication control bus of the 1394 interface specification, an arbitrary electronic device receives a specific packet or a packet sequence transmitted from another electronic device, and receives the packet by a receiving unit. And a state switching unit that switches the state of an electronic device based on a result of the determination by the determination unit.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the state switching means switches the state of any electronic device from the operation mode to the service mode, or from the service mode to the operation mode. It is characterized by the following.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the first or second aspect.
In the described invention, the specific packet is an asynchronous lock request packet.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the third aspect of the invention, an arbitrary electronic device has destination address reference means for externally referring to a destination address of the asynchronous lock request packet. .

The invention according to claim 5 is the invention according to claim 3 or 4.
In the described invention, the asynchronous lock request packet includes authentication information.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the invention of any one of the third to fifth aspects, the asynchronous lock response packet corresponding to the asynchronous lock request packet includes operation information at the time of operating in the service mode. It is characterized by having been done.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in any one of the second to sixth aspects of the present invention, an arbitrary electronic device is operated from the operation mode to the service mode or from the service mode by the switching means. When switching to the mode, the I / O of another electronic device that is the packet transmission source
It has a collating unit for collating D information, and determines a switching operation by the switching unit based on a collation result by the collating unit.

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the seventh aspect, the ID information of the packet transmission source is ID information unique to each electronic device connected to the communication control bus.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of controlling an electronic equipment system constructed by connecting a plurality of electronic equipments to a communication control bus conforming to the IEEE 1394 interface specification. A receiving step of receiving a specific packet or a packet sequence transmitted from the electronic device, a determining step of determining the specific packet or the packet sequence received in the receiving step, and a state of any electronic device based on a determination result of the determining step And a state switching step of switching the state.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the ninth aspect of the invention, in the state switching step, the state of any electronic device is switched from the operation mode to the service mode, or from the service mode to the operation mode. It is characterized by the following.

According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, in the ninth or tenth aspect, the specific packet is an asynchronous lock request packet.

According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, in the invention of the eleventh aspect, any electronic device has a destination address reference step for externally referring to a destination address of the asynchronous lock request packet. .

According to a thirteenth aspect, in the eleventh or twelfth aspect, the authentication information is included in the asynchronous lock request packet.

According to a fourteenth aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to any one of the eleventh to thirteenth aspects, operation information at the time of service mode operation is included in an asynchronous lock response packet corresponding to the asynchronous lock request packet. It is characterized by having been done.

According to a fifteenth aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to any one of the tenth to fourteenth aspects, an arbitrary electronic device is operated from the operation mode to the service mode or from the service mode by the switching step. To the mode,
A switching step of collating the ID information of another electronic device that is the packet transmission source, and determining the switching operation by the switching step based on the collation result of the collation step.

According to a sixteenth aspect, in the fifteenth aspect, the ID information of the packet transmission source is ID information unique to each electronic device connected to the communication control bus.

[0028]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, an electronic apparatus system and a control method thereof according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 to FIG. 5 show an embodiment of an electronic apparatus system and a control method thereof according to the present invention. As an embodiment of the present invention, a case where the above system is applied as an image forming system is shown, but the present invention is not limited to this.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration in a normal mode of an image forming system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, in an image forming system according to an embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of image forming apparatuses have the same IEEE
Connected to an E1394 bus,
Here, the service mode switching control of an arbitrary image forming apparatus (hereinafter, referred to as target apparatus 1) will be described in detail.

It should be noted that a plurality of image forming apparatuses 3 other than the target apparatus 1 may exist on the same IEEE 1394 bus, or a plurality of target apparatuses 1 may exist. This is because each node is uniquely identified by a node ID dynamically assigned to each image forming apparatus, and the node ID becomes a part of an address used for a communication packet.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration in the service mode of the image forming system according to the embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 2, a host device 2 for remotely controlling the target device 1 is newly connected.

The target device 1 transits to the service mode based on the packet or the packet sequence transmitted from the host device 2, and performs a maintenance operation or a diagnostic operation even if the target device 1 is not in operation. The plurality of image forming apparatuses can perform communication using the IEEE 1394 bus as usual. Further, the target device 1 itself can communicate with the image forming devices other than the host device 2 in the same manner as in the normal operation mode.

In the above-described image forming system, when the target device 1 is shifted to the service mode, the host device 2 is operated to transmit a predetermined packet to the target device 1.

This packet must not be transmitted to the target apparatus 1 by another image forming apparatus 3 on the IEEE 1394 bus, and must be transmitted to the IEEE 1394 bus.
Any type and size may be used as long as they completely conform to the 1394 standard. Hereinafter, a case where an asynchronous lock request packet is used as this packet will be described.

The host device 2 responds to a predetermined offset address of the target device 1 or an offset address obtained by acquiring information embedded in a directory in the configuration ROM of the target device 1 in advance. , Send an asynchronous lock request packet.

Normally, when issuing a lock request,
Since the request source is highly likely to issue a read request to the destination offset address of the request and obtain the contents in advance, the target device 1
For a read request for this offset address, the subsequent lock request can be suppressed by returning an address error as a response or returning an address error as an acknowledgement.
As a result, there is almost no possibility of receiving an asynchronous lock request from a device other than the host device.

As the offset address, the offset address itself may be directly embedded in the directory, or a method of calculating the offset address from the embedded version information or the like may be used.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a first format of a lock request packet in the embodiment of the present invention. “Arg” in the data field of the asynchronous lock request packet sent from the host device 2 to the target device 1
Authentication information such as an ID and a password is embedded in the “_value” and “data_value” portions, and the target device 1 transitions to the service mode only when the authentication information is desired.

If the authentication information is invalid, an address error is returned as a response, or an address error is returned as an acknowledgment. As a result, the IEEE
It is possible to avoid a situation in which an illegal asynchronous lock request packet is received due to a runaway of another device connected to the E1394 bus and the device unexpectedly transitions to the service mode.

Further, it is possible to further enhance the security by confirming whether or not the transmission source of the packet is the intended host device 2 before shifting to the service mode. For example, when receiving an asynchronous read request addressed to a predetermined offset address, the host device 2 returns ID information that can be identified by the target device 1 as a response. The target device 1 can read the contents of the offset address of the host device 2 and determine whether or not the host device 2 is a host device sufficient to make a transition to the service mode.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a format of a bus info block according to the embodiment of the present invention. As the above-described ID information, node unique IDs (node_vendor_id, chip_id_hi, and chip_id) in a bus information block “Bus_Info_Block” of the configuration ROM are used.
id_lo).

Upon transition to the service mode, the target device 1 enables remote control from the host device 2 by, for example, dynamically mapping registers required for operation in the service mode onto IEEE 1394 addresses. .

The host device 2 operates the target device 1 by using a standard transaction specified by IEEE 1394 and operating these register groups, thereby collecting various settings, collecting internal information and logs, and real-time processing. The monitoring of the target device 1 is executed.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a first format of a lock request packet in the embodiment of the present invention. The target device 1 may map these register groups onto a predetermined offset address. For example, the target device 1 embeds the offset address information in the data field (old_value portion) of the response packet and transmits the information to the host device. This allows more flexible operation of the service mode.

The above-described embodiment is a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and can be variously modified and implemented without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the transition to the service mode of the image forming apparatus is described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be sufficiently applied to computers or home appliances. can do.

[0046]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the electronic apparatus system and the control method thereof of the present invention, the operability is reduced by complicated key input, and the cost is reduced by supporting additional circuits and special protocols. Without ascending,
The transition to the service mode can be appropriately controlled.

Further, according to the electronic equipment system and the control method of the present invention, the service mode is executed by remote control from the host device via the IEEE1394 interface, so that the display capability and operability of the device are reduced. Regardless, a high-performance service mode can be realized.

Further, according to the electronic equipment system and the control method of the present invention, since it is completely compatible with the IEEE 1394 standard, there is no need to support an additional circuit or a special protocol and coexist with other protocols. Since it is possible, it is possible to prevent the influence on other devices connected on the same bus.

Further, according to the electronic equipment system and the control method of the present invention, even if the IEEE 1394 interface of the electronic equipment is operating for normal use, it is possible to switch to the service mode and to operate the electronic equipment. It is also possible to realize a maintenance operation such as monitoring the internal information of the electronic device in real time via the same interface.

Further, according to the electronic equipment system and the control method of the present invention, the ID of the electronic equipment is transmitted from the host device side.
Since the information, the version number, and the like can be obtained, a highly flexible diagnosis and maintenance environment can be realized without depending on the system configuration, such as the same host device supporting a plurality of types of target devices.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing a normal state of an electronic device system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a system configuration diagram showing an operation state of a service mode of the electronic device system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a first format of an asynchronous lock request packet in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a format of a bus info block in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a second format of an asynchronous lock request packet according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Target apparatus 2 Host apparatus 3 Image forming apparatus 4 IEEE1394 port 5 Connection cable

Claims (16)

[Claims] In an electronic device system constructed by connecting a plurality of electronic devices to a communication control bus of IEEE 1394 interface specification, an arbitrary electronic device transmits a specific packet or a packet sequence transmitted from another electronic device. Receiving means for receiving; determining means for determining the specific packet or packet sequence received by the receiving means; state switching means for switching a state of the arbitrary electronic device based on a determination result by the determining means; An electronic device system comprising: 2. The electronic device according to claim 1, wherein the state switching unit changes a state of the electronic device from an operation mode to a service mode or from a service mode to an operation mode.
The electronic device system according to claim 1, wherein the electronic device system is switched. 3. The electronic device system according to claim 1, wherein the specific packet is an asynchronous lock request packet. 4. The electronic device system according to claim 3, wherein the arbitrary electronic device has destination address reference means for externally referring to a destination address of the asynchronous lock request packet. 5. The authentication method according to claim 3, wherein the asynchronous lock request packet includes authentication information.
Or the electronic device system according to 4. 6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein operation information during service mode operation is included in an asynchronous lock response packet corresponding to the asynchronous lock request packet. Electronic equipment system. 7. The ID of the other electronic device that is the packet transmission source when the arbitrary electronic device switches from the operation mode to the service mode or from the service mode to the operation mode by the switching unit. The electronic device system according to any one of claims 2 to 6, further comprising matching means for matching information, wherein a switching operation by the switching means is determined based on a matching result by the matching means. 8. The electronic device system according to claim 7, wherein the packet transmission source ID information is ID information unique to each electronic device connected to the communication control bus. 9. A control method for an electronic device system constructed by connecting a plurality of electronic devices to a communication control bus of IEEE 1394 interface specification, wherein an arbitrary electronic device includes a specific electronic device transmitted from another electronic device. A receiving step of receiving a packet or a packet sequence; a discriminating step of discriminating the specific packet or the packet sequence received in the receiving step; and switching a state of the arbitrary electronic device based on a discrimination result of the discriminating step. A method for controlling an electronic device system, comprising: a state switching step. 10. The state switching step includes: changing a state of the arbitrary electronic device from an operation mode to a service mode, or from a service mode to an operation mode.
10. The method for controlling an electronic device system according to claim 9, wherein: 11. The method according to claim 9, wherein the specific packet is an asynchronous lock request packet. 12. The control method for an electronic device system according to claim 11, wherein the arbitrary electronic device has a destination address reference step for externally referring to a destination address of the asynchronous lock request packet. 13. The method according to claim 11, wherein the asynchronous lock request packet includes authentication information. 14. The information processing apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the asynchronous lock response packet corresponding to the asynchronous lock request packet includes operation information in a service mode operation. Control method of electronic equipment system. 15. The electronic apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, in the switching step, when switching from the operation mode to the service mode or from the service mode to the operation mode, the ID of the other electronic device that is a packet transmission source is changed. The electronic device system according to any one of claims 10 to 14, further comprising a collation step of collating information, wherein the switching operation in the switching step is determined based on a collation result in the collation step. Control method. 16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the ID information of the packet transmission source is ID information unique to each electronic device connected to the communication control bus.