JP2002290694A - System and method for management and control program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make the cause of a radio communication error to be found easily. SOLUTION: A management system is provided with slave equipment connected to an imaging device and master equipment connected to a host computer and collects and manages the information on the imaging device by performing radio communication between the slave equipment and master equipment. The slave or master equipment prestores the information on radio communication history and displays the information on a display device connected to the slave or master equipment.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a system for managing an image forming apparatus using wireless communication, and more particularly to a technique for acquiring the cause of a wireless communication error.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been known a system for managing an image forming apparatus by collecting status information such as error information of the image forming apparatus by wireless. In this type of system, generally, a communication control device functioning as a slave is connected to the image forming device, and status information of the image forming device is wirelessly transmitted from the communication control device to a central management device functioning as a master, The status information is transmitted from the central management device to the host computer via a public line. In this case, wireless communication between the slave unit and the master unit is generally performed based on the PHS standard.

[0003]

However, in the conventional system, even if a radio communication error occurs due to various factors, it is difficult to specify the cause of the radio communication error.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems in the related art, and an object thereof is to make it possible to easily find the cause of a radio communication error.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention comprises a slave unit connected to an image forming apparatus and a master unit connected to a host computer, wherein the slave unit and the master unit are connected. A management unit that collects and manages information of the image forming apparatus by performing wireless communication with the slave unit, wherein the slave unit or the master unit stores communication history information of wireless communication, and the storage unit Output control means for outputting the communication history information stored in the storage device.

Further, the present invention has a slave unit connected to an image forming apparatus and a master unit connected to a host computer, and performs wireless communication between the slave unit and the master unit to perform the wireless communication. In a management method for collecting and managing information on an image forming apparatus, the slave unit or the master unit stores and outputs communication history information of wireless communication.

Further, the present invention has a slave unit connected to an image forming apparatus and a master unit connected to a host computer, and performs wireless communication between the slave unit and the master unit to perform the wireless communication. A control program that is applied to a management system that collects and manages information of an image forming apparatus, and is executed by the slave unit or the master unit, and has a content of storing and outputting communication history information of wireless communication. I have.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing a configuration of a management system of an image forming apparatus to which the present invention is applied. An image forming apparatus 100 such as a printer for printing a document, a copying machine for copying, and the like is connected to a communication control apparatus 101. These image forming apparatuses 100 and the communication control apparatus 101 are used especially in a large place such as an office. Many are installed.

[0010] The communication control apparatus 101 includes the image forming apparatus 10.
Centralized management device 1 for status information etc.
Send to 05. The central management apparatus 105 transfers status information and the like of the image forming apparatus 100 collected from the communication control apparatus 101 to the host computer 104 via the public line 102 and the modem 103.

Note that the communication control device 101 is
00, has a wireless slave station 710, and the central management device 106
Radio base station 1110, management control device 1100, modem 1
106, the details of which will be described later.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of the image forming apparatus 100. The CPU 200 controls the image forming apparatus 100. RAM 201 is CPU2
It is used as a working area of 00 and a storage area for control data. The ROM 202 stores a control program executed by the CPU 200. Sensor I / O
Reference numeral 203 and a motor I / O 204 are I / Os for performing a sensor check and a motor drive, respectively.
Reference numeral 205 denotes an I / O for performing communication with the communication control apparatus 101.
O.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a software configuration of the image forming apparatus 100. The real-time monitor 300
It manages the simultaneous execution of multiple tasks. The paper transport task 301 is a task for controlling paper transport,
A series of transport controls from paper feeding to paper discharging are performed. The sequence control task 302 is a task for managing overall control of the image forming apparatus 100. The communication task 303 is a task for communicating with the communication control device 101.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration of a paper transport unit provided inside image forming apparatus 100. Transport roller 40
1 transports the paper 400 in the direction of the arrow. Upstream sensor 4
02 and the downstream sensor 403 are sensors for detecting the transport position of the paper 400.

Next, a jam detecting process in the image forming apparatus 100 will be described with reference to a flowchart of FIG.

The CPU 200 first executes step S50 according to the control program stored in the ROM 202.
In step 1, the drive motor for driving the transport roller 401 is turned on. Next, in step S502, a first timer for monitoring the upstream sensor 402 is started, and in step S5
At 03, a second timer for monitoring the downstream sensor 403 is started.

After a predetermined time, it is determined whether or not the upstream sensor 402 has been turned ON (step S504). As a result, when the upstream sensor 402 is turned on, that is, when the paper 400 reaches the position of the upstream sensor 402,
In step S505, it is determined whether the first timer has expired. As a result, if the first timer times out, that is, if the sensor 402 does not change from ON to OFF within the time specified by the first timer, it means that a stagnant jam has occurred, Jump to the jam handling routine.

On the other hand, if the first timer has not expired, the flow proceeds to step S504 to determine whether or not the paper 400 has passed the position of the upstream sensor 402 and the upstream sensor 402 has changed from ON to OFF. Return to

In step S504, when it is determined that the upstream sensor 402 has been turned OFF, that is, the upstream sensor 402 has been turned off within the time specified by the first timer.
If 2 has changed to OFF, the process proceeds to step S506, and it is determined whether the sheet 400 has come to the position of the downstream sensor 403 and the downstream sensor 403 has been turned ON. As a result, if the downstream sensor 403 remains OFF and the paper 400 has not yet arrived at the position of the downstream sensor 403, it is determined in step S507 whether the second timer has expired. As a result, if the second timer times out, it means that a delay jam has occurred, and the process jumps to the jam processing routine.

On the other hand, if the second timer has not expired, the process returns to step S506 to determine whether or not the downstream sensor 403 has been turned on within the time specified by the second timer. As a result, if the downstream sensor 403 is turned on within the time specified by the second timer, it means that the paper 400 has been normally conveyed to the paper discharge port, and the drive motor 401 is turned off after a predetermined time. Then (step S508), the process ends.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the configuration of the jam code. As shown in FIG. 6, the jam code is composed of a jam occurrence unit, a cause, and a sensor number.
Is stored.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of the communication control apparatus 101. The control device 700
The PU 701 serves as a core for performing various communication controls, and includes a RAM 702 used as a working area when the CPU 701 operates, and a ROM 703 storing programs executed by the CPU 701.
The RAM 707 stores various types of counter values such as jam information, wireless communication error information (history information of wireless communication described later), and the number of times of copying, and is backed up by a battery.

Further, control device 700 includes communication I / O 704 for transmitting and receiving data to and from image forming apparatus 100, and wireless communication I / O 70 for performing data communication with wireless slave station 710.
5. Display communication I / O 706 for connecting to display device 106 to be described later, Timer IC 70 for managing time
8. It has a printer I / O 709 for connecting to a printer.

The wireless slave station 710 performs wireless communication with the CPU 711 as a core. The wireless slave station 710 uses a communication path corresponding to one PHS wireless communication line (32 kbps) to perform communication 29.2.
PIAFS control CPU 712, RAM 713, EEPROM 71 for performing data communication at an execution speed of kbps
4. A wireless unit 715 having a wireless unit 715 for transmitting and receiving wireless communication and a control unit communication I / O 719 for communicating with the control device 700
Is composed of a transmitting unit 716, a receiving unit 717, and an antenna 718.

The wireless slave station 710 can detect a received signal and convert it into a digital signal, or convert a digital signal into wireless data and transmit it. That is, when the host computer 104 requests the status information or the like of the image forming apparatus 100, the receiving unit 717 in the wireless unit 715 detects the request signal received via the central management device 105 and converts the request signal into a digital signal. Convert and control device 7
Notify the CPU 701 in 00.

When transmitting status information or the like of the image forming apparatus 100 from the communication control apparatus 101 to the host computer 104, the transmitting section 716 in the wireless section 715
Converts status information and the like as a digital signal into wireless data and transmits the wireless data to the central management device 105. The status information and the like are transferred to the host computer 104 via the central management device 105.

FIG. 8 shows an example of a communication command transmitted from the image forming apparatus 100 to the communication control apparatus 101. The ID indicates the type of command, and the length indicates the data length. Sum is a checksum for detecting a communication error. The communication command shown in FIG. 8 is transmitted to the corresponding communication control device 101 when a count pulse (ID = 1) at the time of paper ejection and a jam (ID = 2) occur in the image forming apparatus 100. As described above, by transmitting the count pulse at the time of paper ejection, the number of copies is known on the communication control device 101 side, and in the case of a jam, the type of the jam is known from the jam code.

FIG. 9 shows the CPU 70 of the communication control device 101.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of software executed by No. 1. The real-time monitor 900 manages simultaneous execution of a plurality of tasks. Status monitoring task 90
1 constantly monitors the state of the image forming apparatus 100.
The wireless communication monitoring task 902 controls the wireless slave station 710 to enable transmission and reception. Send task 90
Reference numeral 3 is for transmitting data to the central management device 105.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the processing of the status monitoring task 901 executed by the communication control device 101. This status monitoring task 901 is stored in the ROM 703
CPU 701 according to the control program stored in
Is executed by

First, the CPU 701 determines in step S100
In step 1, it is determined whether a jam has occurred in the image forming apparatus 100. If a jam occurs, step S
In step 1002, a counter value indicating the number of copies is obtained from the image forming apparatus 100, and in step S1003, the current time is obtained.

Next, a jam code and the like are recorded in the jam recording table on the RAM 707 in association with the counter value and the current time obtained in steps S1002 and S1003, respectively (step S1004). Thereafter, in step S1005, it is determined whether or not the number of jams stored in the jam recording table has reached a predetermined value. If the number of jams recorded in the jam recording table has reached the specified value, the transmission task 903 is activated in step S1006, and a call is automatically made to the host computer 104 via the central management device 105. Then, after transmitting the data content recorded in the jam recording table, the process returns to step S1001. The step S
If the number of jams recorded in the jam recording table has not reached the prescribed value in step 1005, step S5 is executed.
Return to 1001.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the centralized management apparatus 105. The management control device 1100
RAM 11 controlled by PU 1101 and used as a working area when CPU 1101 operates
02, a ROM 1103 for storing a program executed by the CPU 1101, a wireless base station communication I / O 1104 for transferring data to the wireless base station 1110, and a modem 11
And a modem 1106 for performing data communication with the host computer 104 via a public line.

The management control device 1100 also has a display communication I / O 1107 for connecting the display device 106 and a printer connection I / O 1108 for connecting a printer.

The radio base station 1110 is controlled by the CPU 1111 and operates for one PHS radio communication line (32
PIAFS communication control CPU for performing data communication at an execution speed of 29.2 kbps using a communication path of
It has a controller 1112, a RAM 1113, an EEPROM 1114, a controller communication I / O 1115 for exchanging data with the management controller 1100, and a wireless unit 1116 for wirelessly communicating with the communication controller 101. Radio unit 111
6 is a transmitting unit 1117, a receiving unit 1118, an antenna 11
19.

Radio base station 1110 of central control device 105
Transmits a notification signal in the standby mode, and the communication control device 10
The first wireless slave station 710 detects the received broadcast signal and enters a state where data can be transmitted and received. It is also possible to convert the received data into a digital signal and convert the digital signal into wireless data and transmit it.

The central management device 105 also manages a plurality of tasks by a real-time monitor similarly to the communication control device 101, and includes a modem control task for enabling data transmission / reception and a wireless communication monitoring task for monitoring wireless communication. And a transmission task for transmitting data to the host computer 104 (not shown). Data transmission from the central control device 105 to the host computer 104 is performed by using a ROM.
According to the control program stored in 1103, the CP
This is executed by U1101.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the processing of the transmission task 903 for transmitting data from the communication control device 101 to the host computer 104 via the central management device 105.

The transmission task 903 is executed by the CPU 701 according to a control program stored in the ROM 703.

First, the CPU 701 proceeds to step S120.
In step 1, a wireless call is made from the communication control device 101 to the central management device 105. Next, in step S1202, it is determined whether the wireless connection has been normally performed. As a result, when the wireless connection is normally performed, the central control device 1 is determined in step S1203.
05. Make a wired phone call to the host computer. Further, in step S1204, it is determined whether or not the wired connection is normally performed.

As a result, when the wired connection is normally performed,
In step S1205, the password is checked, and in step S1206, it is determined whether the password check is OK. If the password is OK, step S
The contents stored in the jam record table in 1207 are transferred to the host computer 1 via the central control device 105.
04.

After completing this data transmission, step S
At 1208, a line disconnection process is performed, and a normal code is written to the RAM 702 of the communication control device 101 and the RAM 1102 of the central control device 105 as a code indicating the reason for disconnecting wireless communication, which will be described later.
In the line disconnection process, after the wired line of the central control device 105 is disconnected from the host computer 104 first, the wireless line of the communication control device 101 is disconnected from the central control device 105.

If it is determined in step S1206 that the password is not OK, the process proceeds to step S1206.
Proceeding to step S1208 skipping step 1207, the line disconnection processing is performed, and a normal code as a code indicating the reason for disconnection of the wireless communication is stored in the RAM 702 and RAM1.
This is written in 102, and this processing operation ends.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S1202 that the wireless connection is not established normally, the process proceeds to step S12.
At step 09, 1 is added to the retry counter in the communication control apparatus 101, and an abnormal code is written in the RAM 702 as a code indicating the reason for disconnecting the wireless communication. Then, in step S1210, it is determined whether the number of retries is five or less. As a result, if the number of retries is five or less, the process waits for a predetermined time in step S1211, and then returns to step S1201.

If it is determined in step S1210 that the number of retries is not less than 5, the process ends without performing any process. Step S
If the wired connection is not performed normally in step 1204, the central management apparatus 105 disconnects the wireless connection with the communication control apparatus 101 in step S1212. In this case, the wired connection between the central management device 105 and the host computer 104 has failed, but the communication control device 101 and the central management device 10 have failed.
Since the wireless connection with wireless communication No. 5 has been successful, the communication control apparatus 101 writes a normal code into the RAM 702 and the RAM 1102 as a code indicating the reason for disconnecting the wireless communication.

Next, after adding 1 to a retry counter in the communication control apparatus 101 in step S1213, it is determined in step S1214 whether the number of retries is 5 or less. If the number of retries is 5 or less, the process returns to step 1201 after waiting for a predetermined time in step S1211. If the number of retries is not equal to or less than 5 in step S1214, the process ends without performing any processing.

Also, during the processing after the wireless communication after step S1203 is established (S1203 to S1207)
As a result, the radio communication is cut off during data transmission due to the deterioration of the radio wave condition, and the host computer 1 normally operates.
If the data is not transmitted to the RAM 04, the abnormal code is written to the RAM 702 and the RAM 1102, and
Go to step 13.

The codes indicating the reason for disconnection are the same as those for the normal code at the time of normal disconnection.
1 RAM 702 and RAM 1 of the central management device 105
Written to 102. The wireless slave station 710 in the communication control device 101 or the wireless base station 11 in the central management device 105
If any one of the callers 10 makes a call and the other cannot receive the call, an abnormal code is written in the RAM of the caller. In addition, after the wireless communication is established, if the communication is disconnected due to the influence of the radio wave condition, an abnormal code is written in the RAM 702 and the RAM 1102.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the host computer 104. The CPU 1300 controls the entire host computer 104. RAM
A program and data for the CPU 1300 to diagnose the image forming apparatus 100 are loaded from the hard disk 1302 and stored in 1301. The hard disk 1302 stores received data and the like, and jam data and the like received from the image forming apparatus 100 are stored in the hard disk 1302.

The keyboard 1303 is used by an operator to give various instructions, and the display device 13
In 04, various processing contents of the host computer 104 are displayed. The serial port 1305 is used to transmit and receive data to and from the outside via the modem 103 and the public line 102 shown in FIG.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing the processing of the host computer 104. This processing is performed in the RAM 1
CPU according to the control program loaded in 301
1300.

Normally, the host computer 104 waits for an incoming signal from the modem 103.
At 1401, it is determined whether or not there is an incoming signal from the modem 103. If there is an incoming signal from the modem 103, a password check is performed in step S1402, and it is determined in step S1403 whether the password is OK.

As a result, if the password is OK, the jam data is received in step S1404. After the data reception is completed, the line disconnection processing is performed in step S1405, and the jam data is stored in the hard disk 1302 in step S1306. After storing the jam data, the image forming apparatus 100 is diagnosed based on the jam data in step S1407. Then, step S140
It is determined whether the diagnosis result at step 7 has reached the warning level (step S1408).

As a result, if the warning level has been reached, warning information is displayed on the display 1304 in step S1409 to notify the operator, and then the processing proceeds to step S1.
Return to 401. On the other hand, if the diagnosis result based on the jam data has not reached the warning level, the process skips step S1409 and returns to step S1401. If it is determined in step S1403 that the password is not OK, after performing a line disconnection process in step S1410,
It returns to step S1401.

As described above, when a jam occurs in the image forming apparatus 100, the jam data indicating the fact is transmitted to the host computer 104 to perform the diagnosis. Information is similarly transmitted to the host computer 104 and diagnosed. Also,
Information of various counters of the image forming apparatus 100 can also be transmitted to the host computer 104.

As described above, since the data transmission from the communication control device 101 to the central management device 105 uses wireless communication, it is easily affected by the radio wave condition. For example, if the radio wave condition deteriorates during data transmission, control is performed to switch the communication channel, but if the radio channel condition of the switching destination communication channel is also poor, the line is abnormally disconnected during communication. Could be Further, when the communication channel is congested, there is a problem that a call cannot be received.

Communication control device 101 and central management device 105
When the line cannot be connected to the image forming apparatus as shown in FIG. 12, the communication control apparatus 101 performs the line connection by performing five retries. 100 jam data, other error data, and various counter data may not be transmitted to the host computer 104. In such a case, the administrator of the image forming apparatus 100 needs to appropriately perform a measure such as failure recovery in pursuit of the cause of the wireless communication error.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, the history of wireless communication can be known using the display device 106 as shown in FIG. That is, the communication control device 10
1. As shown in FIGS. 7 and 11, the central control device 105 includes display communication I / Os 706 and 1107 as I / Os for communicating with the display device 106. These display communication I / Os 706 1107 connector (not shown)
And the connector 1502 of the display device 106, the history information (disconnection reason code) of the wireless communication can be displayed on the display unit 1501 of the display device 106.

When the display device 106 is connected to the communication control device 101 or the central control device 105 as described above, and an arrow up key or a down key is pressed, an ERROR is displayed on the display unit 1501.
LOG (history information of wireless communication) is displayed.
By pressing the NT key, a disconnection reason code is displayed.
By pressing the arrow up key or the arrow down key while the disconnection reason code is displayed, the past disconnection reason code can be viewed.

FIG. 16 shows a disconnect reason code displayed on the display device 106. As shown in FIG. 16, the disconnection reason code includes a reason code indicating the reason for disconnecting the wireless communication, and the date and time when the wireless communication was performed. The disconnection reason code is transmitted to the communication control device 101 and the central management device 10 every time wireless communication is performed, as described above.
5 is created and stored. Further, the disconnection reason code also includes a normal code in the case of disconnection after transmitting data normally, as described above.

Although the above is the embodiment, the present invention is not limited to this.
1 and a printer I / O 709 (FIG. 7), 1108 for connecting a printer (not shown) to the central control device 105.
By providing (FIG. 11), it is also possible to print wireless communication history information (wireless communication disconnection reason code and the like) on a sheet.

The wireless communication disconnection reason code can be transmitted from the communication control apparatus 101 to the image forming apparatus 100 and can be printed out by the image forming apparatus 100.
Can be transmitted to the host computer 104 and output. Even with such a configuration, the serviceman can know the cause of the wireless communication error, and can take measures according to the cause.

[0062]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The cause of the wireless communication error can be easily known.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram illustrating a configuration of a management system of an image forming apparatus to which the present invention has been applied.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of the image forming apparatus.

FIG. 3 illustrates a software configuration of the image forming apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a paper transport unit in the image forming apparatus.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a jam detection process of the image forming apparatus.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a jam code.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a communication control device.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating communication contents between an image forming apparatus and a communication control apparatus.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a software configuration of the communication control device.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating processing of a status monitoring task of the communication control device.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a centralized control device.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating processing of a transmission task.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a host computer.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating processing of a host computer.

FIG. 15 is an external view of a display device.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a wireless communication disconnection reason code.

[Explanation of symbols]

 100: Image forming apparatus 101: Communication control device 102: Public line 104: Host computer 105: Central management device 106: Display device 700: Control device 701, 1101: CPU 702, 1102: RAM 703, 1103: ROM 706, 1107: Display communication I / O 709, 1108: Printer I / O 710: Wireless slave station 1100: Management control device 1110: Wireless base station

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Masaaki Ino 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo F-term in Canon Inc. (reference) 2C061 AP01 HH03 HJ08 HK05 HN02 HN05 HN15 5B021 AA01 AA05 AA19 BB10 CC06 5C075 AB06 CA14 CF09 FF90 5K101 KK01 KK12 KK15 LL11 LL12 LL14 MM07 NN18 NN19 NN21 PP03 PP05 VV03 VV04

Claims (16)

[Claims] An image forming apparatus includes a slave unit connected to an image forming apparatus and a master unit connected to a host computer, and performs wireless communication between the slave unit and the master unit. In a management system that collects and manages information, the slave unit or the master unit includes a storage unit that stores communication history information of wireless communication, and an output control unit that outputs communication history information stored in the storage unit. A management system comprising: 2. The management system according to claim 1, wherein the output control unit outputs the communication history information to a display device connected to the slave unit or the master unit. 3. The management system according to claim 1, wherein the output control unit outputs the communication history information to a printing device connected to the slave unit or the master unit. 4. The management system according to claim 1, wherein said output control means outputs said communication history information to an image forming apparatus connected to said slave unit. 5. The management system according to claim 1, wherein the communication history information is transferred to the host computer via the master device. 6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information to be collected is status information of the image forming apparatus.
5. The management system according to any one of 5. 7. An image forming apparatus comprising: a slave unit connected to the image forming apparatus; and a master unit connected to a host computer, and performing wireless communication between the slave unit and the master unit. A management method for collecting and managing information, wherein the slave unit or the master unit stores and outputs communication history information of wireless communication. 8. The management method according to claim 7, wherein the communication history information is output to a display device connected to the slave unit or the master unit. 9. The management method according to claim 7, wherein the communication history information is output to a printing device connected to the slave unit or the master unit. 10. The management method according to claim 7, wherein the communication history information is output to an image forming apparatus connected to the child device. 11. The management method according to claim 7, wherein the communication history information is transferred to the host computer via the master device. 12. The information processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the information to be collected is status information of the image forming apparatus.
12. The management method according to any one of claims 11 to 11. 13. A slave unit connected to the image forming apparatus, and a master unit connected to a host computer. The wireless communication between the slave unit and the master unit allows the slave of the image forming apparatus to communicate with the master unit. A control program that is applied to a management system that collects and manages information and is executed by the slave unit or the master unit, the control program having contents for storing and outputting communication history information of wireless communication. program. 14. The control program according to claim 13, wherein the communication history information is output to a display device connected to the slave unit or the master unit. 15. The control program according to claim 13, wherein the communication history information is output to a printing device connected to the child device or the parent device. 16. The control program according to claim 13, wherein said communication history information is output to an image forming apparatus connected to said slave unit.