JP2003098912A - Memory communication control in multicolor image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To shorten, in a multicolor image forming device having cartridge memories, the communicating time by enabling consecutive communications in such a manner that in case when an error occurs during communication in any one of the cartridge memories when consecutive accesses to the cartridge memories are tried, an access to the cartridge memory where an error has occurred is retried after accesses to the other cartridge memories to communicate with are completed. SOLUTION: The device has the cartridge memories. The communications between the main body and each of the cartridge memories are carried out in a form of serial communication using digital modulation. Also, switching from one cartridge memory to another cartridge memory to be communicated is enabled by an antenna selection signal.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a configuration of a multicolor image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to communication control between a main body and a non-volatile memory attached to a cartridge in an electrophotographic multicolor image forming apparatus. Is.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 9 shows a multicolor image forming apparatus provided with image forming means for four colors, that is, cyan C, yellow Y, magenta M and black K. In FIG. 9, 1 is removable. Developing unit (a, b, c, d are C,
(For Y, M, and K)), which includes a photosensitive drum for forming an electrostatic latent image and a toner storage unit for storing toner. Each developing unit stores various information. A non-volatile memory for doing so is installed. This non-volatile memory is located in the address space of the CPU on the main board, and when the CPU writes data to the corresponding address of the non-volatile memory or reads data from the corresponding address of the non-volatile memory, it uses serial communication. Data is read and written. The communication means from the CPU to the non-volatile memory (hereinafter referred to as “memory”) on the developing device unit 1 is configured as shown in FIG. The CPU 11 integrates a register as an external address space and a part of a digital control circuit of the multicolor image forming apparatus on one chip to realize an ASIC (Application S).
specific Integrated Circuit
When the data to be transmitted is set in t) and the start bit (START) is turned on at a predetermined timing, read / write
The write IC 13 sends the transmission clock (CLK) to the ASIC
12 and sends the data to the selector 14 while receiving the transmission data from the ASIC 12. Selector 1
Reference numeral 4 designates the data transmitted from the read / write IC 13 according to the select signals (/ CS1 to / CS4) set by the CPU 11 and output from the ASIC 12.
The data is sent to a predetermined output circuit. The data sent from the selector 14 is superimposed on the carrier frequency by the output circuit 15, and then transmitted to the antenna 18 through the tuning circuit board 17. The transmission to the memory 19 is performed by causing the capacitance of the tuning circuit 17 and the wire and the inductor of the antenna 18 to cause LC resonance. When the memory 19 completes the reception, the reply is started, the antenna 18 receives the data transmitted from the memory 19 on which the carrier frequency is superimposed, the demodulation circuit 16 demodulates the data, and the selector 14
Also, the received data is stored in the register of the ASIC 12 through the read / write IC 13. When the reception is completed, the ASIC 12 notifies the CPU 11 of the completion of the reception, and the CPU 1
1 reads this data at a predetermined timing. CPU
The reference numeral 11 determines from the read data whether or not the communication is normally completed. If the communication is normally completed, the communication with the next communication target is started, and if the communication is not normally completed, the same communication is performed. Retry communication with the target.

Reference numerals 6a to 6d are motors for driving the developing device units 1a to 1d, respectively. Reference numeral 2 is a scanner unit for exposing according to an image signal to form an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum of the developing device unit 1. Reference numeral 3 is an endless conveyance for sequentially conveying the paper to the image forming portion of each color. A belt 4 is a driving roller connected to a driving means including a motor and a gear to drive the conveyor belt 3, 6e is a motor for driving the driving roller 4, and 5 is a fused image of the transferred image transferred to the sheet It is a fixing device for doing.

Data to be printed is sent from the host computer (not shown) to the printer, and when the image formation according to the printer engine system is completed and the printer is ready for printing, the paper is supplied from the paper cassette. The supplied paper reaches the conveyor belt 3 and is sequentially conveyed by the conveyor belt 3 to the image forming units of the respective colors. The image signal of each color is sent to each scanner unit 2 in synchronism with the sheet conveyance by the conveyor belt 3, and an electrostatic latent image is formed on the photosensitive drum 1. The latent image is developed by a developing device and visualized, and then transferred onto a sheet at a transfer section. In FIG. 9, C,
Images are sequentially formed in the order of Y, M, and K, but it goes without saying that there is no problem even if the color order is changed. After that, the sheet on which the developed image is transferred is separated from the conveyor belt 3 and is discharged to the outside while fixing the transferred image by the fixing device 5.

[0005]

However, in the above conventional example, since communication is performed with respect to one communication target until the communication is normally completed, communication cannot be performed while an error is being determined. Therefore, as the capacity of the memory increases and the time required for communication with one communication target increases, for example, writing to the memory 19 must be completed before the main body becomes completely inoperable after the power is turned off. There is a drawback that the frequency of not being able to finish all writing becomes high when it has to be finished.

[0006]

In view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional example, the present invention has the following structure in order to shorten the time required for communication as much as possible.

(1) A plurality of developing device units, a memory provided in each developing device unit, a communication device for communicating with the memory, and a carrier superimposing device for superimposing a carrier which is a carrier wave on digital data. A tuning circuit / antenna / demodulation circuit and communication object switching means for switching communication objects, error detection means for detecting communication errors, and error detection result storage means for storing results detected by the error detection means. Communication with each memory is performed by non-contact serial communication, and has communication procedure changing means for changing to a communication procedure capable of continuous communication according to the result obtained by the error detecting means. Is characterized by.

(2) In the configuration of (1) above,
The communication procedure changing means is characterized by making a change to incorporate a communication retry to the communication target in which an error has occurred after communicating with all the communication targets.

(3) In the structure of (1) above,
The communication procedure changing means is characterized in that a communication retry to the communication target in which an error has occurred is incorporated after communication with at least one different communication target.

(4) In any one of the above configurations (1) and (3), the communication procedure changing means changes the communication order according to the frequency of communication errors for each communication target.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The present invention will be described below in detail based on the illustrated embodiments.

(First Embodiment) The configuration of the multicolor image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention is the same as that shown in FIG.

In the figure, developing unit units 1a to 1d
Communication between the above nonvolatile memories 19a to 19d and the main board is controlled by the communication procedure of the present invention.

The other structure and operation are the same as those of the conventional example, and the description thereof will be omitted.

Next, the communication procedure in this embodiment will be described with reference to the flow chart of FIG. 1 and FIGS.

When a communication request is generated and the CAE signal is turned on, the processing of the communication module is executed. First, in step 1 (S1), transmission / reception with the memory selected by the chip select signal is started based on the communication start signal (START). In step 2 (S2), it is determined whether there is a communication error based on the previous communication result. If there is an error, the process proceeds to step 4 (S4), and if there is no error, step 3 (S3)
Process shifts to. Here, when the communication module is executed and the first transmission / reception is performed, there is no previous result, and therefore the process inevitably shifts to S3. When the process shifts to S4, the process of storing the error information and incorporating the communication retry to the communication target in which the error occurred after the communication target to be communicated last is performed. Step 3
In (S3), it is determined whether the transmission / reception of the communication protocol for one cycle is completed, and when the transmission / reception is completed, the process proceeds to step 5 (S5). In S5, it is determined whether or not all the communication to be communicated by the communication module is completed, and if all the communication is normally completed, the processing of the communication module is completed, and the communication processing including the retry is not completed. In order to communicate with the next communication target, the antenna switching is performed in step 6 (S6), and then the process proceeds to S1.

FIG. 2 is an example of a timing chart when the communication procedure in the normal operation is performed, and FIG. 3 is an example of a timing chart when an error occurs in the communication with the communication object selected by / CS2. .

(Second Embodiment) A second embodiment of the present invention will be described.

The configuration of the multicolor image forming apparatus of this apparatus is the same as that of the first embodiment, and therefore its explanation is omitted.

Communication is performed in the same procedure as in the first embodiment except that the process in S4 in the flowchart of FIG. 1 is different from that in the first embodiment.

The processing in S4 in the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is an example of a timing chart when an error occurs in the communication with the communication target selected by / CS2.

When the communication with the communication target selected in / CS2 is completed and the antenna is switched to start communication with the communication target selected in / CS3 in S6, next S
In 1, the transmission / reception with the communication target selected in / CS3 is started, and the communication result with the communication target selected in / CS2 is read. Here, if there is an error in the communication result,
A process is incorporated to retry communication with a communication target selected in / CS2 after completion of communication with a communication target selected in / CS3 that is proceeding at the same time. The same process is repeated, and when the communication with all communication targets is completed normally, the communication module is exited.

(Third Embodiment) A third embodiment of the present invention will be described.

The configuration of the image forming apparatus of this apparatus is the first and the second.
The description is omitted because it is the same as the embodiment. FIG. 5 shows the third
3 is a schematic configuration example of a memory control system in the embodiment of FIG. As shown in FIG. 5, there is a non-volatile memory 20 on the main board 10, and the non-volatile memory 20 can store the frequency of retries for each communication target. The configuration is the same as that of the embodiment other than the above. Next, the communication procedure in this embodiment will be described using the flowchart in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7.

When a communication request is generated, step 11 (S1
In 1), the CPU 11 reads out the information of the communication error up to the time when the communication request is generated last time from the non-volatile memory 20, and determines the communication procedure so that the communication is performed in the order of the communication target having the largest number of error occurrences. Here, the communication order is determined in descending order of the number of error occurrences.If an error does not occur from the start of communication and an error occurs in the last communication target, retry the communication after the error determination is completed. This is because the communication must be performed, and as a result, continuous communication cannot be performed, and there is a risk that the time required for communication will increase. When the communication order is determined in S11, the process proceeds to S1. From S1, communication is performed in the same communication procedure as in the second embodiment, and communication is performed with the memory selected by the chip select signal in S1, that is, communication with the communication target to be initially communicated determined in S11. Start signal (STA
Start from RT). In S2, it is determined whether or not there is a communication error based on the previous communication result. If there is an error, the process proceeds to S4, and if there is no error, the process proceeds to S3. Here, when the communication module is executed and the first transmission / reception is performed, there is no previous result, and therefore the process inevitably shifts to S3. When the processing shifts to S4, the error information is stored and the processing is performed to retry the communication with the communication object that has been determined to be error after the communication with the next communication object that is being performed at the same time as the error determination is completed. Incorporate. In S3, it is determined whether the transmission / reception of the communication protocol for one cycle is completed, and when the transmission / reception is completed, the process proceeds to S5. In S5, it is determined whether or not all the communication to be communicated by the communication module is completed, and if all the communication is normally completed, the processing of the communication module is completed, and the communication processing including the retry is not completed. In order to communicate with the next communication target, after performing antenna switching in S6, S1
Process shifts to.

In FIG. 7, the number of occurrences of communication error until the last communication request occurs is / CS2> / CS3> / CS1.
It is an example of a timing chart at the time of normal operation when> / CS4 is large.

[0027]

As described above, according to the invention of the present application, when an error occurs, a retry of transmission / reception to / from a communication target in which an error has occurred is performed once with all communication targets. By adopting a communication procedure to be performed later, continuous communication becomes possible and the communication time required between the main body and the cartridge memory can be shortened. Further, the communication time can be further shortened by changing the communication retry to the communication target in which the error has occurred after incorporating the communication retry with at least one different communication target. Furthermore, the communication time can be shortened by making it possible to change the communication order based on the frequency of occurrence of communication errors. With the above communication procedure changing method, the amount of writing at the same time increases, and it becomes possible to use a larger size memory. Further, since the writing time for the memories of the same size can be shortened, it is possible to increase the margin when writing must be performed within a limited time such as when the power is turned off.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a communication procedure between a main body and a cartridge memory according to the first and second embodiments.

FIG. 2 is a timing chart showing a communication procedure when an error occurs in the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a timing chart showing a communication procedure during normal operation.

FIG. 4 is a timing chart showing a communication procedure when an error occurs in the second embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a memory control system according to a third embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a communication procedure between a main body and a cartridge memory according to the third embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a timing chart showing a communication procedure during normal operation according to the third embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a memory control system.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an entire multicolor image forming apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Developer unit 2 laser scanner 3 Conveyor belt 4 drive roller 5 fixing device 6 motor 10 main board 11 CPU 12 ASIC 13 Read / Write IC 14 Selector 15 Output circuit 16 Demodulation circuit 17 Tuning circuit 18 antenna 19 memory 20 Non-volatile memory

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) G03G 21/14 G03G 15/08 507K F term (reference) 2C087 AA15 AB05 AC08 DA09 2H027 DA01 DA27 DA48 EA04 EC06 EC07 EC10 EC10 EC18 EC19 ED08 EE01 EE02 EE07 EE08 EE10 EF09 EK01 EK11 EK15 HA02 HA04 HA10 HA12 HA17 HA19 HB13 HB15 HB17 ZA07 2H030 AA07 AB02 AD01 AD17 BB02 BB36 2H077 BA09 DA05 DA15 DA24 DA42 DA58 DA81 DA86 DB86

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of developing device units, a non-volatile memory provided in each developing device unit, and a communication means for communicating with the non-volatile memory, for superimposing a carrier wave as a carrier wave on digital data. Carrier superposition means, tuning circuit / antenna / demodulation circuit, communication target switching means for switching communication targets, error detection means for detecting communication errors, and error detection results for storing results detected by the error detection means The communication with each non-volatile memory, which is composed of storage means, is changed to a communication procedure capable of continuous communication according to the result obtained by the error detection means in the memory communication control performed by non-contact serial communication. Communication control in a multicolor image forming apparatus having communication procedure changing means for 2. The multi-color image forming method according to claim 1, wherein the communication procedure changing unit changes the communication retry to the communication target in which an error has occurred after communicating with all the communication targets. Memory communication control in equipment. 3. The multicolor according to claim 1, wherein the communication procedure changing means makes a change to incorporate a communication retry to a communication target in which an error has occurred after communicating with at least one different communication target. Memory communication control in image forming apparatus. 4. The memory communication control in a multicolor image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the communication procedure changing unit changes the communication order according to the frequency of communication errors for each communication target.