JP2000251185A - Data transmission/reception method between external equipment and electronic scale - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a data transmission/reception method by which transmission and reception of data between a remote location and an electronic scale can be performed by using the general purpose software of a personal computer. SOLUTION: The server function part of a local area network(LAN) is provided integrally with an electronic scale device 1 and a homepage for making external equipment transmit and receive the data (unit price data, sum-up data, error history data and the specification data of electronic scale, etc.), to and from the electronic scale is stored in a memory managed by the server function part. The external equipment such as a personal computer is connected through the Internet or by dial-up connection to the electronic scale or the LAN connected to the electronic scale, the homepage is accessed by a browser for the Internet and the data are transmitted to and received from the electronic scale through the homepage.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic balance, and in particular, to an article file or a weighing apparatus in which unit prices and unit weights of articles are stored for each article to be weighed (commodity in the case of a charge scale, parts in the case of a counting scale). The present invention relates to a data transmission / reception method for an electronic balance including a tally file in which result data is classified and stored.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A recent electronic weigher generally stores an article file or weighing result data in which unit prices and unit weights of the articles are stored for each article to be weighed (commodity in the case of a charge weigher, parts in the case of a counting weigher). It has an aggregation file for classifying and storing. Further, in order to confirm the sales status of the electronic balance at a destination or to change the unit price from the destination, there is a case where it is desired to transmit / receive data to / from a remote location using a personal computer or the like. For example, when a store owner checks the current sales situation at an office or home, checks / changes the stored contents of product data, or when a store scouting another store, Since it is cheaper than the unit price of, it is assumed that it is urgently changed to compete.

[0003]

However, in the case described above, conventionally, in order to transmit and receive data from an electronic balance to a remote place using a personal computer or the like, an electronic balance using a modem and a public line, or this electronic balance. It was necessary to connect the dial to a host computer that manages the balance online, and start up software dedicated to sending and receiving electronic balance data.
For this reason, it is necessary to develop software exclusively for transmitting and receiving electronic balance data, and it is necessary to carry a personal computer on which the software is installed or carry an FD or the like in which the software is recorded, which is very troublesome.

The present invention has been made in view of such a background, and it is possible to transmit and receive data to and from an electronic balance from a remote place using general-purpose software provided as a standard in a normal personal computer. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a data transmission / reception method that can carry a personal computer on which dedicated software is installed, or eliminate the need for an FD or the like in which the software is recorded.

[0005]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a local area network (LA) is connected to an electronic weighing device.
N), a server function unit is integrally provided, and a homepage for external devices to transmit and receive data to and from the electronic scale is stored in a memory managed by the server function unit. The external device such as a personal computer is connected to the LAN to which is connected via the Internet or by a dial-up connection, and the homepage is accessed by a browser for the Internet, and data is transmitted / received to / from the electronic balance via the homepage. A method for transmitting and receiving data between an external device and an electronic balance is provided.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the data transmitted from the external device to the electronic balance is unit price data,
The data between the external device and the electronic balance according to claim 1, wherein the electronic balance, when receiving unit price data from the external device, calculates a price based on the unit price data received at an appropriate timing thereafter. Provide a transmission / reception method.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the electronic balance is L
One of a plurality of electronic scales connected to the AN, wherein the server function unit has a management function of managing each electronic scale;
When receiving the unit price data from the external device, at an appropriate timing thereafter, the received unit price data is transmitted to the managed electronic balance, and the electronic balance stores the received unit price data in its own memory. 3. A method for transmitting and receiving data between an external device and an electronic balance according to claim 2.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the data transmitted from the electronic balance to the external device is total data of the electronic balance, and the data between the external device and the electronic balance is set. Provide a data transmission / reception method.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the data transmitted from the external device to the electronic balance is specification data of the electronic balance, and when the electronic balance receives the specification data from the external device, 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method operates based on the specification data received at an appropriate timing.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the data transmitted from the electronic scale to the external device is error (malfunction, erroneous operation) history data of the electronic scale. And a method for transmitting and receiving data between an external device and an electronic balance.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a data transmission / reception method using a metering system network in the case of a dial-up connection according to an embodiment of the present invention. An electronic weighing device 1 having a server function unit in FIG. 1 includes an electronic weighing device 2 for face-to-face sales, a main board 3 for data transmission, and a hub (Hub) 4.
The main board (server board) 3 includes a CPU 5, an R
An interface unit 8 and a modem 9 are mounted on a computer unit including the OM 6 and the RAM 7.

The interface unit 8 is connected to the face-to-face sales electronic scale 2 and a plurality of face-to-face electronic scales 11 provided outside via the hub 4 via an Ethernet channel. Further, a hub (Hub) 12 is provided outside the interface unit 8 by an Ethernet channel, and a plurality of weighing label printers 13 and personal computers 14 are connected to the hub 12. Up to 16 terminals can be connected to the hub 4 and the hub 12, respectively, and a unit client of the metering system network is formed by these device configurations.

FIG. 2 is an external view of the electronic weighing device 1. As shown in FIG.
FIG. 2A is a front view, and FIG. 2B is a left side view. The main board 3 is integrally formed with the hubs 4 and 12 for client connection at the lower part of the electronic weighing apparatus 2 for a face, and is configured to operate by being supplied with power from the electronic weighing apparatus 2 for a face. Hereinafter, an electronic balance (electronic balance device 1) provided with the main board 3 will be referred to as a parent device, and an electronic balance that does not have the same will be referred to as a child device. For reference, the electrical configuration of the slave unit is shown in FIG. 3, but the description is omitted.

The interface unit 8 shown in FIG. 1 has two Ethernet channels and one RS232C channel, and up to 16 terminals can be connected to each Ethernet channel via the hub 4 and the hub 12, respectively. . The main board 3 functions as a file server for clients connected via the hubs 4 and 12, and has software for a web server installed therein, and has a function as a web server. Therefore, in the RAM 7 of the main board 3, a PLU file (product file) storing the unit price of each product used by each electronic balance (including a weighing label printer), a total file storing sales data of each product, a member A file such as a member file for storing data of the customer is stored.

The main board 3 is configured to function as a web server as described above, and the RAM 7 stores home page data described in a flowchart described later in an HTML format.
It is remembered. This homepage has a predetermined URL (U
niform Resourse Location) is accessed by the client. The RAM 7 of the main board 3 stores an ID number and a password issued to a person who is permitted to use the homepage.

The data stored in the RAM 7 is backed up by a battery so that the stored contents are not erased even when the power of the electronic balance (master) is turned off. In addition, the said homepage is an electronic balance device 1.
It has a function to send and receive the data of the weighing system from outside.

The RS232C of the interface unit 8
A modem 9 is connected to the channel. The modem 9 is connected to a telephone line network 21 via the modem 9 so that remote access from outside is possible. To remotely access the server function unit (main board 3) of the electronic weighing apparatus 1 from the outside, the personal computer 31 is connected to the main board 3 via the telephone network 21 via the modem 32. When the telephone line is ISDN, the modem 9 and the modem 32 are not required, and the telephone line is connected via a device such as DSU or TA.

The personal computer 31 can use software of a browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, or the like) that can browse a home page provided in most personal computers as standard. The plurality of weighing label printers 13 connected to the weighing system network weigh the products, calculate the prices, and issue price labels, and display the products with the labels attached to the store ( Face-to-face sales are weighed-in, but in this case they are pre-weighed.) The personal computer 14 connected to the weighing system network is provided for managing various data, for example, for printing and displaying total data (the server function unit is an operation unit and a display unit only with the board). Because there is no
Create your homepage, enter your ID and password, and enter your entry on this PC.)

Next, FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing an outline of the data transmission / reception processing by remote access to the above-mentioned metering system network, which will be described below. This flowchart mainly describes operations and screens displayed on a personal computer (PC) that remotely accesses the system from the outside. On the homepage specified by the URL of the web server, screen data displayed in this operation flow is described and stored in the HTML format.

First, at the start, turn on the power of the PC,
Make your PC available and connect the modem to the telephone line. Next, in step SP1 (hereinafter referred to as SP1...), Software for dial-up connection is started, and dial-up connection is made to the web server (main board 3). SP2: When dial-up connection is established, browser software such as Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator is started.

SP3: Input the URL of the homepage. SP4: The home page specified by the URL is transmitted from the web server and displayed. FIG. 5 shows a display example.

SP5: Input a user ID and a password. Specifically, each data is input and [Login]
Click. Thereby, the input ID and password are transmitted to the web server. SP6: When the transmitted ID and password are confirmed to be correct to the web server, the PC transmits screen data requesting input of the type of file and data type desired to be received to the PC, and this screen is transmitted to the PC. Is displayed. FIG. 6 shows a display example before data input.

SP7: Input of file type and data (code). (See FIG. 7) In the “file type”, the operator of the PC inputs the type of file desired to be viewed. File types include PLU
There are files (product files), tally files, special sale files, member files, and the like. Clicking on the corresponding location displays the types of viewable files in a pull-down menu. The default value of the file type is PL
U file is selected. "Code" specifies the data in the selected file, and is a product code (product number) in the case of a PLU file or a total file.
In the case of a member file, it is a member code (member number).
Further, depending on the type of the selected file, inputting of code data may not be necessary.

Note that "1" is selected as the default value of the code. When a single number is input, a single code is input. For example, when "1-50" is input, "1" to "50" are input. After inputting the "file type" and "code", clicking "OK" sends the input file type and code to the web server. Now, it is assumed that a PLU file is input as “file type” and “15” is input as “code”.

SP8: The input data is transmitted to the web server, which reads out the data specified by the received data (product code "15" of the PLU file) and transmits it to the PC, and the PC displays the received data. I do.
The display items include a product name, a unit price, a tare, a group code, a label format, a bar code format, and the like. These data can be rewritten, and the code “15” cannot be rewritten. SP9 when rewriting display data
If no rewriting is performed, the process of SP11 is performed.

SP9: Data rewriting. For example, to change the unit price from 250 yen to 200 yen, move the cursor to the top of the unit price data column, delete “250”, and enter “200”. Clicking on the corresponding label label and bar code format displays a list of formats, so that the desired format can be selected.

SP10: Transmission of rewrite data. When the user clicks [Send], an inquiry message “Rewrite data is OK?” Is displayed. Click [OK]. (If it is not [OK], click [Cancel]
Click. As a result, all the data of the displayed code 15 is transmitted to the web server, and the web server transmits its own PL.
The data of the code 15 of the U file is rewritten to the received data. Then, each electronic balance performs a weighing process based on the data rewritten thereafter. That is, thereafter, the unit price of the product code 15 is changed from “250 yen” to “200 yen”.
Is changed to

SP11: Determination as to whether or not to end the processing.
If the processing is to be ended, the processing of SP12 is performed.
The process moves to the process of P7. SP12: Terminate the browser software.

SP13: Turn off the dial-up connection. End: Turn off the power of the personal computer.

FIG. 8 shows an example of a screen when the total file code 15 is selected in SP7. Note that the total data cannot be rewritten and data cannot be input, and [Send] is not displayed.

The operation of one embodiment of the present invention has been described above in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment, and a design change or the like may be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. The present invention is also included in the present invention. For example, the modem 9 may not be built-in and may be connected to the outside, or the hubs 4 and 12 may be connected.
The number of clients that can be connected to is not limited to the embodiment.

In the above embodiment, the web server of the weighing system network is connected by a dial-up connection. With this configuration, access is not possible unless the telephone number is known, so the security function is excellent, but access may not be possible because the telephone number is not known. Therefore, for example, as shown in FIG.
May be connected to the Internet 52 via this server. It is also conceivable to access the homepage of the web server from the external personal computer via the Internet 52.
When connecting via the Internet, the connection is easy, but you need to pay attention to security. Further, in the above-described embodiment, the data to be remotely accessed are the product file and the aggregation file, but may be other data such as a member file.

In recent electronic balances, the specifications of the apparatus are set in a maintenance mode, and the specification data is stored in a RAM as a specification file. (Specifications include, for example, whether or not to use an auto-zero function, unit price. The quote price of 1
00 gram unit, 10 gram unit, etc.)
The specification data may be rewritten.
With this configuration, the specifications of the electronic scale can be appropriately set from a remote place, so that the setting of the specifications can be changed without a service person going to the site.

Some recent electronic balances store history data of failures (errors) (log files).
This log file may be viewed by remote access. With such a configuration, the service person can grasp the current state of the error without going to the site, and in a simple case, can handle the error by telephone, and can consider a countermeasure before going to the site.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, each electronic balance uses the PLU data of the server in real time and transmits the actual data in real time. However, a PLU file and a tally file are provided in the RAM of each electronic balance, and each electronic balance has a PLU file in its own RAM,
A file using a tally file may be used. Then, in this case, when the PLU data of the server is changed, the server transmits the changed PLU data to each electronic balance, and each electronic scale replaces the transmitted PLU data.

Further, when the server is requested for the total data, the server may issue a request to transmit the total data to each electronic balance, and collect the total data. With this configuration, each electronic balance can perform the weighing process without any trouble even when the server goes down.

As a modification of this system, each electronic balance stores the same data as the PLU of the server (when the PLU data of the server is changed, it is rewritten by the above-mentioned method), but the server operates normally. If so, the PLU data of the server is used. And only when the server goes down, it uses the PLU data in its own RAM,
The performance data may be recorded in its own tally file, and the data of the tally file may be transmitted to the server when the server is restored.

A weighing label printer is also a kind of the electronic weigher of the present invention, and the main board may be provided in the weighing label printer instead of the face-to-face electronic weigher.

[0039]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, an electronic balance is connected to an electronic balance using a browser for a homepage on the Internet, which is general-purpose software provided as a standard in a normal personal computer. Since data can be transmitted and received from a remote place, there is an advantage that it is not necessary to carry a personal computer with dedicated software installed or carry an FD in which software is recorded as in the related art.

Also, since the server function unit is integrated with the electronic balance, there is an advantage that it is not necessary to separately prepare a personal computer or the like for data transmission and reception.

According to the second aspect, the unit price data can be appropriately changed from the outside, and the unit price can be changed quickly and accurately as required (the person in charge is not in the shop, If the unit price needs to be changed urgently, the responsible person can change the unit price at home or on the road using a normal personal computer).

According to the third aspect, since the unit price is stored in each electronic balance, an effect is obtained that the weighing process can be continued even if the server goes down. Further, according to the fourth aspect, an effect is obtained that the total data can be confirmed at home or on the road using a normal personal computer as needed.

According to the fifth aspect, it is possible to obtain an effect that the service technician can easily change the setting of the specification of the electronic scale without going to the store where the electronic scale is installed.

Furthermore, according to the present invention, the serviceman can easily check the error status of the electronic scale without going to the store where the electronic scale is installed, and prepare for measures beforehand before going to the store. The effect that it becomes possible to do so is obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a data transmission / reception method using a weighing system network according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an external view of an electronic weighing apparatus 1 including the server function unit of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an electric configuration of a slave unit having no server function.

FIG. 4 is an operation flowchart of data rewriting by remote access.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a display example in which a homepage specified by a URL is transmitted from a web server.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a display example of a screen requesting data input.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a display example during rewriting of data in a PLU file.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a display example during rewriting of data of a total file.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a connection via the Internet via a communication server.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Electronic balance apparatus provided with server function part 2 ... Electronic balance for face-to-face sales 3 ... Main board 4 ... Hub (Hub) 5 ... CPU 6 ... ROM 7 ... RAM 8 ... Interface part 9 ... Modem 11 ... Electronic for face-to-face sales Balance 12 Hub 13 Metering label printer 14 Personal computer 21 Telephone network 31 Personal computer 32 Modem 33 Remote access device 51 Communication server 52 Internet 53 Provider

Claims (6)

[Claims] An electronic weighing device is provided with a server function unit of a local area network (LAN) integrally therewith.
A homepage for an external device to transmit and receive data to and from the electronic scale is stored in a memory managed by the server function unit, and the external scale such as a personal computer is connected to the electronic scale or a LAN to which the electronic scale is connected. Connecting the device via the Internet or via a dial-up connection, accessing the home page with a browser for the Internet, and transmitting and receiving data to and from the electronic scale via the home page. How to send and receive data. 2. The data transmitted from the external device to the electronic balance is unit price data. When the electronic balance receives unit price data from the external device, the electronic balance receives a price according to the unit price data received at an appropriate timing. The method for transmitting and receiving data between an external device and an electronic balance according to claim 1, wherein the calculation is performed. 3. The electronic balance is one of a plurality of electronic balances connected to a LAN, the server function unit has a management function for managing each electronic balance, and receives unit price data from the external device. In this case, at appropriate timing thereafter, the received unit price data is transmitted to the electronic balance being managed, and the electronic balance stores the received unit price data in its own memory. The data transmission / reception method between the external device and the electronic balance described in the above. 4. The data transmission / reception method according to claim 1, wherein the data transmitted from the electronic balance to the external device is total data of the electronic balance. 5. The data transmitted from the external device to the electronic balance is specification data of the electronic balance. When the electronic balance receives specification data from the external device, the data received at an appropriate timing thereafter. The method according to claim 1, wherein the method operates based on specification data. 6. The data between the external device and the electronic balance according to claim 1, wherein data transmitted from the electronic balance to the external device is error (malfunction, malfunction) history data of the electronic balance. Transmission / reception method.