KR100242010B1 - Indicated method of printing state of multi-function product connected a computer - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention provides a total print quantity receiving step of receiving protocol data including total print quantity information from a computer, and after the total print quantity receiving step, a current print number variable is initialized to output a current print quantity on a display means. A print number output step of outputting the received total number of prints and a current print number to a display means after the print number initialization step, the current print number initialization step, and outputting the received print data after the print number output step A data printing step.

According to the present invention, when a multifunction device connected to a computer performs a print job, the total number of prints to be printed and the number of prints currently being printed are output to the panel unit, thereby causing unnecessary work that occurs when an unspecified number of users use a single multifunction device. It can minimize the waiting time and increase the efficiency of using the all-in-one.

Description

How to display the output status of the all-in-one connected to the computer.

The present invention relates to a multifunction device, and more particularly, to a method of displaying a total number of prints to be printed and the number of prints currently being output on a liquid crystal display of a panel unit when printing data in a multifunction device connected to a computer. .

In general, a multifunction device, as is well known, is a multi-function terminal made by combining terminals existing as individual components such as a facsimile machine, a scanner, a printer, a copier, and having a function of interworking with a computer, that is, a computer-interface. Refers to Multi Functional Peripherals (MFPs) with added functionality. As the trend of multifunction devices increases and the penetration rate of personal computers increases, it is well known that general users prefer products with enhanced computer-interface functions.

In the general computer system configuration, the printing method performs input / output control that manages the flow of information of the input / output bus in the central processing unit, and receives the input / output control command from the program memory through the input / output bus for computer input / output control and interprets the interface. By printing a control signal to the printer controller, printing to the printer was performed, and the user was notified of the use of the printer by only displaying 'printing' on the panel unit attached to the printer during the printing.

However, in the conventional output method, when a printer or a multifunction printer prints, the computer user can know the current printing situation, but the progress of the printer or multifunction device cannot be known. Therefore, when a third user wants to use the printing function of the multifunction device while printing to the printer is in progress, there is an inconvenience in not knowing exactly when the current print job will be terminated. On the other hand, in the case of a multifunction device that supports only a single job without supporting multiple jobs in order to implement a low cost multifunction device, the use of a scanner and a facsimile is limited. In addition, since the multifunction apparatus can be used as a network printer in a small office, there is a disadvantage of causing more inconvenience in use.

Therefore, the present invention was devised to solve such problems, and an object of the present invention is to prevent unnecessary waste of time when waiting for the use of the multifunction device and a plurality of users can make full use of the multifunction device, thereby ultimately increasing work efficiency. The purpose of this is to be able to display the output status of a multifunction device connected to a computer.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a multifunction apparatus connected to a computer according to the present invention.

2 is an exemplary view showing a panel structure and an operation example according to the present invention;

3 is a flowchart illustrating an output status display step according to the present invention.

<Description of the code | symbol about the principal part of drawing>

10 control unit 20 modem

30: Network Control Unit (NCU)

40: printer 50: memory unit

60: scanner 70: panel (OPE: Operational Panel)

71: Operation Key 72: Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)

80: sensor unit 90: interface unit

100: all-in-one 110: computer

The output status display method of the multifunction apparatus connected to the computer of the present invention for achieving the above object is a total number of prints receiving step of receiving protocol data including the total number of prints information from the computer, and after the total number of prints receiving step, display A total number of prints to the means, a total number of print variables to output the current number of prints, a print number variable initialization step of initializing a current print number variable, and after the print number variable initialization step, the received total number of prints and the current And a print number output step of outputting the print number to the display means, and a data print step of outputting the received print data after the print number output step.

Preferably, the total print quantity information is transmitted to the multifunction apparatus in addition to the protocol prior to data transmission in the printer control program of the computer.

Preferably, the total print quantity information added to the protocol is displayed on the head portion of the protocol.

Preferably, the initialization value of the current print quantity variable is one.

Hereinafter, the objects, features, and advantages of the present invention described above will be described in detail with reference to preferred embodiments of the present invention shown in the accompanying drawings.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a multifunction apparatus connected to a computer according to the present invention.

As shown, the control unit 10 for controlling the multifunction apparatus as a whole according to the set program, and the work content related to the transmission and reception of program data, protocol data and text data are stored and is controlled by the control unit 10. A memory unit 50 for accessing or storing data and a plurality of keys so as to generate key data of the multifunction device, and when the key data is generated, it is inputted to the controller 10 and progressed for various tasks of the controller 10. A panel unit (OPE) including a display device for displaying display data such as situation and system information, and the controller 10 after scanning the data of the document and converting the data into digital image data. Under the control of the scanner 60 and the control unit 10 provided to the controller, the output data of the control unit 10 is modulated and output in analog form, Modem 20 for demodulating and outputting the signal is operated under the control of the control unit 10 to form a call loop of a public switching telephone network (consisting of Ring and Tip). Network control unit (NCU) 30 for interfacing a signal of a general telephone network, a printer 40 for printing data received by a control signal from the controller 10, and a remaining amount of recording paper. The computer 110 detects an original and scans the original data scanned by the scanner 60 or the fax data received through the public line network under the control of the sensor unit 80 and the control unit 10. It is composed of an interface unit 90 for connecting to each other using a protocol so that the computer 110 and the multifunction device 100 can communicate with each other by sending information from the computer 110 to the multifunction device 100. .

2 is an exemplary view showing an operation example of a panel unit according to the present invention.

As shown in the drawing, the panel portion includes an operation key 71 for various operations and a liquid crystal display 72 for displaying the operation status and output status of the multifunction apparatus.

3 is a flowchart showing an output status display step according to the present invention.

First, it waits for input of a command (step: S100).

After the wait, it is determined whether a computer print command has been received (step S110).

After the determination, if a computer print command has been received, protocol data is received (step S120).

After receiving the protocol data, the total number of print information is detected from the received protocol data.

After detecting the total number of prints, the total number of prints and the current number of prints are initialized (step S140).

After the initialization, the total number of prints and the current number of prints are displayed on the panel. (Step S150).

After the display, the received print data is printed (step S160).

After printing the one page, it is determined whether there is a next page to be printed. (Step S170)

After the determination, if there is a next page to be printed, the current print quantity variable is increased by one (step: S180).

An operation of the present invention having such a configuration will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3.

Here, since the information on the total number of prints is not standard protocol between terminals currently interfaced with a computer, its implementation simply adds one piece of data to the head of the protocol to transfer the information on the total number of prints to the data transmission. You can inform the terminal earlier.

First, the control unit 10 of the multifunction apparatus 100 determines whether a computer print command has been received in the standby mode (S100) (S110), and receives the protocol data to be output if the print command is performed in the computer (110) (S120). do. The information on the total number of prints obtained by the printer control program from the received protocol data is detected at the head portion of the protocol data (S130). After detecting the total print quantity information, the detected total print quantity information is copied to a preset total print quantity variable, and the current print quantity variable is initialized to 1 (S140). After the initialization, the set two variables are displayed on the liquid crystal display device 72 so that the user can easily grasp the printing status of the printer (S150). After the display, the control unit 10 of the multifunction apparatus 100 transmits a control signal to the printer 40 to print the received print data to the printer (S160), and checks whether there is a page to be printed next (S170). If there is a print page, the total number of prints is maintained, but the current number of prints will change, so that the number of print pages that is output to the liquid crystal display 42 is increased by 1 (S180) until there are no print pages. It is displayed on the liquid crystal display device 42.

Although a preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail above, those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains may make various changes without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. It will be appreciated that modifications or variations may be made. Therefore, changes in the future embodiments of the present invention will not depart from the technology of the present invention.

As described above, according to the present invention, when the multifunction device performs a print job, the total number of prints to be printed and information about the number of prints currently being printed are output to the panel unit so that an unspecified number of users use one multifunction device. Unnecessary work waiting time can be minimized and the efficiency of the equipment can be increased.

Claims (4)

In the method of displaying the output status of the multifunction device connected to the computer, A total print quantity receiving step of receiving protocol data including total print quantity information from a computer; A print number variable initialization step of initializing a total number of prints on the display means, a total number of prints to output the current number of prints, and a current number of print variables after the total number of prints receiving step; A print number output step of outputting the received total number of prints and the current number of prints to a display means after the print number variable initialization step; And And a data printing step of outputting the received print data after the print number outputting step. The method of claim 1, And outputting the total print quantity information to a multifunction printer in addition to the protocol prior to data transmission in a printer control program of the computer. The method of claim 2, The total print quantity information added to the protocol is displayed on the head portion of the protocol output method of the multifunction device connected to the computer. The method of claim 1, And an initialization value of the current print quantity variable is 1.

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