JP2003072197A - Imaging apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an imaging apparatus in which a control program can be rewritten from a host computer regardless of whether a machine is under operation or not by separating the receiving operation of the control program from the rewriting operation thereof. SOLUTION: An imaging apparatus comprising means 11 storing a control program and capable of rewriting the stored control program by receiving a rewrite control program from a host computer 2 based on a rewrite instruction therefrom is further provided with means 10 for making a decision whether the machine is under operation or not when a rewrite instruction is delivered from the host computer 2, and means 12 for temporarily storing the rewrite control program wherein the rewrite control program is stored temporarily in the storing means 12 when a decision is made that the machine is under operation.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly to an image forming apparatus in which mechanical operation does not affect rewriting of a control program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a facsimile machine, a printer and a multifunction machine having these functions is
A control program for controlling each machine unit is stored in a storage device such as a memory in the main body.

The above-mentioned image forming apparatus can easily update its function by rewriting the control program from the host computer via various communication means.

To rewrite the control program, the program sent from the host side is once stored in the image memory, after all the programs have been received, it is confirmed that the programs have been correctly received, and then the FLASH memory is erased. The control program is rewritten, the machine is automatically restarted after the rewriting of the control program is completely completed, and the operation is started by the rewritten control program.

The rewriting operation of the control program in the conventional image forming apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. 7. First, a program rewriting request is received from the host computer (S20), and it is determined whether or not the machine is operating. (S21) If it is determined that the machine is operating, the host computer is notified that the rewriting cannot be performed (hereinafter, also referred to as an error) (S22). Also, S2
If it is determined in 1 that the machine is not operating, the control program is received (S23) and the control program is rewritten (S24). When the rewriting of the control program is completed, the machine is restarted (S25) to update the new control program.

However, when the image forming apparatus is in mechanical operation (during copying, printing, correction, etc.), all rewriting operations including reception of the control program are prohibited. When trying to rewrite the control program, the rewriting command is not accepted and an error occurs. When an error occurs, the host computer has to perform communication for inquiry again to the image forming apparatus main body in order to confirm when the control program can be rewritten.

If the power is turned off while the control program is being rewritten, the program will be destroyed because the program is being rewritten, and the machine will no longer operate. Therefore, all operations are locked and the power is turned off or turned on. Operation was prohibited. In other words, if you want to operate the power of the device OFF or ON, but the control program is being rewritten, you cannot operate the power of the device OFF or ON, and wait for the completion of rewriting the control program to power Had to do.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to separate a control program receiving operation and a control program rewriting operation from each other so as to control from a host computer without depending on whether the machine is operating or not. An object is to provide an image forming apparatus in which a program can be rewritten.

Another object of the present invention is to enable the power-off operation even while the control program is being rewritten by setting the power-off reservation state when the power is turned off during rewriting of the control program. An object is to provide an image forming apparatus.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an image in which the power-on operation can be performed even while the control program is being rewritten by setting the power-on reservation state when the power is turned on while the control program is being rewritten. To provide a forming apparatus.

[0011]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and the invention according to claim 1 is a control program storing means in which a control program is written and which can be rewritten. An image forming apparatus capable of receiving a rewriting control program from the host computer based on a rewriting command from the host computer and rewriting the control program written in the control program storage means. When there is a rewriting command from the computer, it has a judgment means for judging whether or not the machine is in operation, and a storage means for temporarily storing the rewriting control program, and when the judgment means judges that the machine is in operation. In the image forming apparatus, the rewriting control program is temporarily stored in the storage means.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, when the determining means determines that the machine is operating, the machine operation ends, and immediately when the determining means determines that the machine is not operating, the The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control program in the control program storage means is rewritten to a rewriting control program.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the control program is written, the control program storage means is rewritable, and the rewriting control program is received from the host computer based on a rewriting command from the host computer. An image forming apparatus capable of rewriting a control program written in the control program storage means by a power supply switch being turned off while rewriting the control program in the control program storage means. The image forming apparatus is characterized by having a power supply control unit that controls powering off when rewriting of a program is completed.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the control program is written, the control program storage means is rewritable, and the rewriting control program is received from the host computer based on a rewriting command from the host computer. An image forming apparatus capable of rewriting a control program written in the control program storage means by a power supply switch being turned on while the control program in the control program storage means is being rewritten. The image forming apparatus is characterized by having a program restarting unit that restarts with the control program after the rewriting of the program when the rewriting of the program is completed.

[0015]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below.

First, the image forming apparatus of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of an image forming apparatus of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 is an image forming apparatus, which is a judgment means 10, a control program storage means 11, a storage means 12, and a power switch 13. , The power supply 14, the power supply control means 15, and the restart means 16, 2 is the image forming apparatus 1
Is a host computer communicatively connected to the computer, stores a rewrite control program, and 3 is a connection unit that connects the image forming apparatus 1 and the host computer.

The judging means 10 judges whether or not the image forming apparatus is in mechanical operation when a rewriting command is given from the host computer.

In the present invention, the mechanical operation means various operations of the image forming apparatus 1 itself, such as a copy operation if the image forming apparatus 1 is a copying apparatus, a FAX operation if it is a FAX apparatus, and a printing operation if it is a printing apparatus. That is.

The control program storage means 11 stores a control program for controlling the machine operation. The machine operation of the image forming apparatus 1 is controlled according to the control program stored in the control program storage means 11. The control program storage means 11 may be provided for each part that performs each machine operation, or one for the image forming apparatus 1.
One may be provided.

The storing means 12 temporarily stores the rewriting control program when the judging means 10 judges that the machine is operating.

The power switch 13 is turned on by the user.
The input means is for inputting to switch between ON and OFF.

The power supply 14 supplies electric power to the image forming apparatus 1. When the power supply 14 is turned on, power is supplied to the image forming apparatus 1, and the power supply 14 is turned off.
When the power is turned off, the image forming apparatus 1 is not supplied with power.

The power supply control means 15 turns on or off the power supply 14 based on the input of the power switch 13. When the power switch 13 is turned off,
When the control program of the control program storage means 11 is being rewritten, the power OFF is reserved, that is, the control is turned OFF when the rewriting of the control program is completed.

When the power switch 13 is turned on while the control program in the control program storage means 11 is being rewritten, the restart means 16 uses the rewritten control program when the rewriting of the control program is completed. Reboot.

In the present invention, restart means to restart the control program in the control program storage means 11 from the beginning.

The host computer 2 has a rewriting control program. When an input for rewriting the control program is given, the host computer 2 issues an instruction for rewriting the control program to the image forming apparatus 1 and executes the rewriting control program. Send.

The connection means 3 connects the image forming apparatus 1 and the host computer 1 so that they can communicate with each other. The connecting means 3 may be any means capable of communicating information between the host computer 2 and the image forming apparatus 1, and may be a network means such as a telephone line, LAN, WAN, or internet, but is not particularly limited.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram specifically showing the image forming apparatus of the present invention. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 4 denotes a multifunction machine, which is an example of the image forming apparatus of the present invention.

Reference numeral 40 denotes an operation unit board which controls an operation unit for inputting in order to determine the operation of the multifunction machine 4.

Image control board 41, printer control board 4
2. The finisher board 43 corresponds to the control program storage means of the present invention and stores a control program for controlling each machine operation.

The ADF 44 is a device for feeding a document in order to sequentially read the document on which the image to be read is arranged when the image is read by the multifunction machine 4. HDD4
Reference numeral 5 temporarily stores the rewriting control program and corresponds to the storing means of the present invention.

Reference numeral 5 denotes a host computer, which corresponds to the host computer of the present invention, stores a rewriting control program, and transmits the rewriting control program to the image forming apparatus via the modem 6 and the communication line 7.

The image control board 41 controls an image formed by the multi-function peripheral 4, and is provided with a flash memory 41a for storing operation section display data and a flash memory 41b for storing an image control / operation section control program. . The operation unit 4 is stored in the operation unit display data storage FLASH memory 41a.
Display data that can be displayed at 0 is stored. A control program for controlling the operation unit 40 is stored in the image control / operation unit control program storage flash memory 41b.

The printer control board 42 performs various controls during printing and has an ADF control program storing flash memory 42a and a printer control program storing flash memory 42b.

The document feeding device control program storage flash memory 42a stores a control program for controlling the document feeding device 44. The printer control program storage flash memory 42b controls the printing operation.

The finisher substrate 43 has a Z-folding control program storing flash memory 43a and a finisher control program storing flash memory 43b.

The Z-folding control program storage flash memory 43a stores a control program for controlling the Z-folding operation. The finisher control program storage flash memory 43b stores a control program for controlling the operation of the finisher.

Next, the operation of the first mode of the image forming apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 3 and 4.

The image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment has a judgment means 10, a control program storage means 11, and a storage means 12.
And at least.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing an example of the operation of the image forming apparatus of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing another example of the operation of the image forming apparatus of the present invention.

First, when the host computer 1 inputs a rewriting control program for rewriting the control program of the image forming apparatus 4 to perform rewriting, the program shown in FIG. 3 is activated.

When a program rewriting request is received from the host computer 1 (S1), the determining means determines whether or not the machine is operating (S2).

If it is determined in S2 that the machine is not operating, the program receiving process is executed (S
3) Then, the control program is rewritten (S)
4).

On the other hand, if it is determined in S2 that the machine is operating, program reception processing is performed (S
5) The received rewriting control program is temporarily stored in the storage means (S6).

Further, in the image forming apparatus of the present invention, when the mechanical operation is completed, a program as shown in FIG. 4 is activated.

It is confirmed that the machine operation is completed (S
10) It is determined whether or not the rewriting control program is stored in the storage means (S11), and if it is determined that the rewriting control program is not stored, the process ends.

On the other hand, if it is judged that the rewriting control program is stored, the rewriting control program is rewritten (S12), and after the rewriting is completed,
The machine is restarted (S13).

According to the first aspect, by separating the receiving operation of the control program and the rewriting operation of the control program, it is possible to rewrite the control program from the host computer without depending on whether the machine is operating or not. A device can be provided.

Next, the operation of the second mode of the image forming apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

The image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment has a control program storage means 11, a power switch 13, and a power supply 14.
And at least power supply control means 15.

FIG. 5 is a timing chart showing the operation of the image forming apparatus of the present invention.

In FIG. 5, each timing chart shows the power switch, program communication, program rewriting, and power state transition in order from the top.

When the power switch 13 is turned off during program communication or program rewriting, the power control means 1
5, the power supply 14 is not turned off, and a reserved state of power supply off is set.

However, when the communication is completed and the rewriting of the program is completed, the power supply control means 15 turns the power supply 14 off.
Controlled by FF.

According to the second aspect of the invention, when the power is turned off during the rewriting of the control program, the power of OF is turned off.
By setting the reserved state of F, it is possible to provide an image forming apparatus that can be turned off while the control program is being rewritten.

Next, the operation of the third mode of the image forming apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

The image forming apparatus of the third aspect includes the control program storage means 11, the power switch 13, and the power supply 14.
And a restart means 16 at least.

FIG. 6 is a timing chart showing the operation of the third aspect of the image forming apparatus of the invention.

In FIG. 6, each timing chart shows the power switch, program communication, program rewriting, and power state transition in order from the top.

When the rewriting control program is sent from the host computer side by a program rewriting command and the power is off, the power is controlled to be turned on and the rewriting sent from the host computer. The control program for use is received, and then the program is rewritten.

When the rewriting control program is received and the power switch 13 is turned on while the program is being rewritten subsequently, the rewriting of the control program is completed with the power source 14 kept on. After doing
The control program rewritten by the restarting means 16 restarts.

According to the third aspect of the invention, when the power is turned on while the control program is being rewritten, the reserved state of the power is turned on so that the power can be turned on even while the control program is being rewritten. An image forming apparatus can be provided.

[0064]

According to the invention described in claims 1 and 2,
By separating the control program receiving operation and the control program rewriting operation, it is possible to provide an image forming apparatus in which the control program can be rewritten from the host computer regardless of whether the machine is operating.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, when the power is turned off during the rewriting of the control program, the reserved state of the power is turned off so that the power is turned off even during the rewriting of the control program. It is possible to provide an image forming apparatus capable of performing the above.

According to the fourth aspect of the invention, when the power is turned on while the control program is being rewritten, the power is turned on.
By setting the reservation state to N, it is possible to provide an image forming apparatus that can be turned on while the control program is being rewritten.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of an image forming apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram specifically showing the image forming apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the first aspect of the image forming apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing another example of the operation of the first aspect of the image forming apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a timing chart showing the operation of the second aspect of the image forming apparatus of the invention.

FIG. 6 is a timing chart showing the operation of the third aspect of the image forming apparatus of the invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of the conventional image forming apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: Image forming apparatus 10: Judgment means 11: Control program storage means 12: Storage means 13: Power switch 14: Power supply 15: Power supply control means 16: Restart means 2: Host computer 3: Connection means 4: Multifunction machine 40: Operation unit board 41: Image control board 41a: Flash memory 41b for storing operation unit display data: Flash memory 42 for storing image control / operation unit control program: Printer control board 42a: Flash memory 42b for storing document feeder control program Control program storage flash memory 43: FNS substrate 43a: Z-fold control program storage flash memory 43b: Finisher control program storage flash memory 44: Document feeder 45: HDD 5: Host computer 6: Modem 7: Communication line

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Takaaki Sakai             2970 Ishikawa-cho, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo Konica stock             Inside the company F-term (reference) 2C061 AP03 AP04 AP07 HJ10 HN21                       HS07                 5B021 AA01 AA05 AA19 CC05 CC06                 5C062 AA02 AA05 AA14 AB38 AB42                       AC21 AE16 AF00 BA04

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A control program is written in the control program storing means, which has a rewritable control program storing means, receives a rewriting control program from the host computer based on a rewriting command from the host computer, and stores the control program in the control program storing means. An image forming apparatus capable of rewriting a written control program, a judgment means for judging whether or not a machine is in operation when a rewriting instruction is given from the host computer, and temporarily storing a rewriting control program. An image forming apparatus comprising: a storage unit, wherein the rewrite control program is temporarily stored in the storage unit when the determination unit determines that the machine is operating. 2. The control program stored in the control program storage means immediately after the machine operation is completed when the judgment means judges that the machine is in operation, and immediately after the judgment means judges that the machine is not in operation. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the rewriting control program is rewritten. 3. A control program is written in the control program storing means, which has a rewritable control program storing means, receives a rewriting control program from the host computer based on a rewriting command from the host computer, and stores the control program in the control program storing means. An image forming apparatus capable of rewriting a written control program, when the power switch is turned off while the control program in the control program storage means is being rewritten, when the rewriting of the control program is completed. Power off
An image forming apparatus having a power supply control means for controlling the operation. 4. A control program is written and has a rewritable control program storing means, which receives a rewriting control program from the host computer based on a rewriting command from the host computer and stores the rewriting control program in the control program storing means. An image forming apparatus capable of rewriting a written control program, wherein a power switch is turned on while the control program in the control program storage means is being rewritten, when the rewriting of the control program is completed. The image forming apparatus, further comprising a program restarting unit that restarts the control program after the rewriting.