JP2003054089A - Composite digital copy machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a composite digital copy machine exhibiting a high executiveness in maintenance and management. SOLUTION: The composite digital copy machine is connected with a network through the Internet 3, a hard disc is provided in a printer 2, and a printer and a print function are provided. When a print job is sent from an arbitrary host 4, a printer driver is set such that the state data of the printer, e.g. the state of a tray or the used amount of a memory when the print job is sent, reception data of a host sending a job and of a job sent from the host, page image data generated from the reception data, and information concerning to the reception data can be stored in a hard disc. According to the arrangement, the state of a printer having a trouble can be stored on the user side. Since reception data having a trouble can also be stored and thereby the resulting page image can be stored, the state of the printer can be reproduced easily upon occurrence of a trouble in order to support a manufacturer and analysis or a countermeasure can be started quickly.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a composite digital copying machine, and more particularly to a printer connected to a network and a composite digital copying machine having a printing function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in recent years, a composite digital copying machine has been connected to a network to form a system.

Prior invention example 1 similar in technical field to the present invention
There is Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 09-169141. In the invention 1 of the prior application, in a printer equipped with a hard disk, when an error such as a jam occurs on the engine side, the received data after the error occurrence is stored in the hard disk, and the data from the hard disk is received after the error is released.
A method of performing print processing is disclosed.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 10-283131 of the invention 2 of the prior application.
The publication discloses a method in which a printer stores a printing history in a non-volatile medium such as a hard disk and informs the user that the maintenance work can be normally determined.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-129556 of Prior Invention Example 3
In the publication, in a printer equipped with a hard disk, a method is described in which print data and information about the print data are collectively stored in the hard disk, and reprinting is performed using the data saved by a user's instruction or a reprint instruction from a host. Disclosure.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 11-203093 of Prior Application Example 4
In the "printer system" of Japanese Patent Publication, a method is disclosed in which print data is cached on the printer side, and when the same print data is requested, the cached data is used, thereby speeding up print processing. is doing.

[0007]

However, in the above-mentioned prior art, when the intended user is using the printer, the system and emulation firmware of the printer do not print. Further, when a problem occurs such that the print result is different from the expected result, the user needs to make an inquiry by telephone or e-mail to the support center of the manufacturer. At that time, it is necessary to convey detailed settings such as the OS and application of the printed host, printer settings, and data actually sent. In addition, even if this information is transmitted, in many cases it is not reproduced by the manufacturer side, and the manufacturer has to ask the user again for information to reproduce, and as a result, analysis and countermeasures take time. Therefore, there is a problem in that it causes a great deal of trouble to the user.

In view of the above problems and the like, an object of the present invention is to provide a composite digital copying machine which has high executability of maintenance management.

According to the first aspect of the invention, the information necessary for reproduction by the manufacturer by storing print information (printer status, received data, page image, etc.) on the hard disk by setting the printer driver. It is possible to save. In addition, since it has the same function as a certain printer spool function as existing technology, it is possible to use it more conveniently not only when a printing problem occurs, but also in applications such as printing multiple copies of large amounts of data. To aim.

It is an object of the present invention to make it possible to download necessary data to the host side when inquiring the manufacturer's support center by accessing the hard disk in the printer from the host. .

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the print information (printer status, received data, page image) stored in the hard disk of the printer is sent to the support center of the printer maker by electronic mail, so that the maker side The purpose is to enable easy reproduction and quick response.

[0012]

In order to achieve the above object, a composite digital copying machine of the present invention is connected to a network, has a hard disk, has a printer and a printing function, and sends a print job from an arbitrary host. If the printer driver is set, the printer status data such as the tray status and memory usage at the time of sending, the host from which the data was sent and the received data of the sent job, and the received data were created. The page image data and the information related to the received data can be stored in the hard disk.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the composite digital copying machine according to the first aspect further includes a function of downloading the stored received data to the host.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the composite digital copying machine according to the second aspect, when the stored data is not printed normally, the downloaded data is
By sending it as an e-mail attachment via the Internet to the manufacturer's support center,
The maker's printer is characterized in that the user's problem is reproduced and support is possible.

[0015]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Next, embodiments of a composite digital copying machine according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, there is shown one embodiment of the composite digital copying machine of the present invention.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a system configuration to which this embodiment is applied. In FIG. 1, the system applied to the present embodiment is configured by connecting a printer system on the user side and a printer system on the manufacturer side via the Internet.

The printer system on the user side is provided with a host computer 1 and a printer 2, the printer system on the manufacturer side is provided with a host computer 4 and a printer 5, and the mutual systems are connected via the Internet 3.

The printer 2 on the user side is equipped with a hard disk, and information for executing printing is stored in this hard disk. For example, printer settings managed for each job, received data, page image data, and the like.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration example of print information transmitted from the printer system on the user side to the printer system on the manufacturer side. In FIG. 2, the print information applied to the present embodiment includes “save printer settings”, “save received data”, “save page image”, and “format: j”.
"peg / bmp / tiff". Note that each of the “OK”, “Cancel”, and “Apply” operation units for setting / transmitting these pieces of information is configured in the information selection setting unit.

Settings at the time of printing When the user prints, it is set on the screen of the printer driver whether to save the printer settings, received data, and page images. Since it always takes time to print the information if the information is saved, it is possible to select whether or not to save the information according to the user setting.

In the "printing process" as the process 1, data indicating whether or not to save the print information set by the printer driver is sent to the printer at the beginning of the print job.

In the "printer-side process" as the process 2, since information as to whether or not to save data is added to the beginning of the print job, the printer controller first receives the information, and print information / received data is received. -If any of the page images is to be saved, create a folder on the hard disk with the host and date and time the job was received.

When the printer settings are saved, the installed memory and memory usage at that time-the contents of the font cache (font name, characters, size) -tray status (paper size, paper type, paper remaining amount) are saved. Then, process 1 above
Save as print information in the folder created in.

When saving the received data, all the received data is saved as received data in the folder created in the above processing 1, and at the same time, the controller passes the data to the printer emulation to create a page image.

When saving a page image, after the emulation creates the page image and before sending it to the printer engine, if the data to be sent to the printer engine is saved as it is, the capacity becomes large, so the specified format (jpeg, bmp, tiff, etc.) and create a folder called page image in the folder created in step 1 above, and save the page image for each page in the lower layer.

If normal output is not obtained and printing is not performed, or if the output result is different from what is expected, the user accesses the printer from the host and downloads the data saved above to the host. It becomes possible to do. Note that the hard disk is limited, so if the disk becomes low, the FIFO (FirstIn
First Out) deletes the first (old) stored data.

When the user does not obtain a normal output when making an inquiry to the support center, the user makes an inquiry to the maker's support center or the like to request support. At this time, information on the host used (OS, application, etc.)
At the same time, it becomes possible to send the file group downloaded to the host and the application data created by the user as an attached file to an electronic mail.

The corresponding support center on the maker side transfers the received data to a predetermined department for analysis, and the print information makes it possible to create the same environment as that of the printer in which the user's problem has occurred. By sending the received data, it is possible to cause the same symptom, and it becomes easy to analyze and take countermeasures.

[0029]

As is apparent from the above description, the composite digital copying machine of the present invention, in the method of storing the printer status, the received data, and the page image, is the status of the printer in which a trouble occurs on the user side. Can be saved. In addition, since the received data with a failure can be saved and the resulting page image can also be saved, it is easy for the manufacturer to reproduce the printer status when a failure occurs, and analysis and countermeasures can be taken quickly. You can do it. Further, since the data spool function is provided, it is possible to easily reprint a large amount of print data.

In the method of downloading the data stored in the printer according to the second aspect, it is possible to easily obtain the information required by the maker and pass it to the maker when the user requests the support. It eliminates the need for frequent telephone and e-mail exchanges as before, eliminating the hassle on the part of the user and expecting even faster response.

The method of downloading the data saved in the printer according to claim 3 and sending it as a file attached to an e-mail to a support center or the like is the same as before, by requesting support by telephone or e-mail, and by the manufacturer accompanying it. Since there is no question to the user from the side and the necessary information can be sent to the maker at one time, there is no need for the user to be annoyed and time is wasted acquiring information for the maker to reproduce, and quick response is possible. Is possible.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram to which an embodiment of a composite digital copying machine of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration example of print information transmitted from a printer system on a user side to a printer system on a manufacturer side.

[Explanation of symbols]

Host computer on the user side 2 User side printer 3 Internet 4 Manufacturer's host computer 5 Manufacturer's printer

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. When a printer having a hard disk is provided, a printing function is configured, the printer is connected to a network, and a print job is sent from an arbitrary host, the tray status at the time of sending the print job is set by a printer driver. Printer status data such as memory usage, received data of a job sent from which host, page image data created by the received data, and information related to the received data, A compound digital copier that can be stored in a hard disk. 2. The composite digital copying machine according to claim 1, further comprising a function of downloading the stored received data to the host. 3. When the stored data is not printed normally, the downloaded data is sent to a support center of the manufacturer as an attached file of an e-mail by using the Internet, so that the manufacturer can send the downloaded data. 3. The composite digital copying machine according to claim 2, wherein the printer on the side reproduces the defect by the user to enable support.