JP2008272942A - Image forming apparatus and diagnostic program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming apparatus which carries out self-diagnosis of hardware without affecting processing of communication with a host device, and to provide a diagnostic program. <P>SOLUTION: When data is received from the host device while an ordinary diagnosis part executes ordinary diagnosis, data for simple diagnosis is acquired from a nonvolatile memory, and data for diagnosis among the acquired data for simple diagnosis is added to the received data. The received data is edited to carry out image data expansion of characters designated by printing character designation code information to a position designated by printing position designation address information. The edited received data is expanded to image data. Image data of the data for diagnosis included in the image data is compared with a data image for diagnosis. The function of the hardware is diagnosed to be normal when both are equal to each other. The ordinary diagnosis part executes ordinary diagnosis on hardware not yet passing through ordinary diagnosis. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and a diagnostic program.

  In recent years, due to the high functionality of devices, a phenomenon has occurred that requires a lot of time for hardware self-diagnosis tests at power-on.

  As a method of hardware self-diagnosis, for example, there is a self-diagnosis method of an electronic computer that performs hardware self-diagnosis in an idle state without performing hardware self-diagnosis when power is turned on (see, for example, Patent Document 1). ).

In addition, there is a terminal device having self-diagnosis means that diagnoses only the minimum functions of the controller when the power is turned on and diagnoses all the functions of the controller in the idle state (see, for example, Patent Document 2).
JP-A-9-62534 JP-A-5-88931

  An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus and a diagnostic program that perform hardware self-diagnosis without affecting communication processing with a host apparatus.

  In order to achieve the above object, an invention according to claim 1 is directed to image data expansion means for expanding print target data into image data in a format that can be formed on a print medium, and hardware for operating the image data expansion means. First diagnostic means for directly diagnosing the function, storage means for storing diagnostic data and diagnostic data image developed from the diagnostic data into image data, and diagnostic data for the image data developing means A second diagnostic unit configured to develop the image data, compare the developed image data with the diagnostic data image, and diagnose the function of the hardware based on the comparison result. And

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, when the print target data is received during the diagnosis by the first diagnostic unit, the diagnostic control unit starts the diagnosis by the second diagnostic unit. Further, the second diagnosis means acquires the diagnosis data and the diagnosis data image from the storage means, adds the acquired diagnosis data to the print target data, and the image data expansion means The image data of the diagnostic data included in the image data of the expanded print target data is compared with the image data of the diagnostic data. If they are equal, the hardware function is diagnosed as normal. If they are not equal, the hardware function is Characterized by diagnosed with normal.

  The invention of claim 3 is the invention of claim 1, wherein the storage means stores diagnosis management information indicating whether or not diagnosis by the first diagnosis means is performed for each hardware, The first diagnosis means is a hardware that has not been diagnosed by the first diagnosis means based on the diagnosis management information after the second diagnosis means diagnoses that the function of the hardware is normal. It is characterized by directly diagnosing the function of the wear.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a hardware function for causing a computer incorporated in an image forming apparatus that expands print target data into image data in a format that can be formed on a print medium, and operates the expansion of the image data. A first diagnostic process for directly diagnosing the image, and developing from the diagnostic data stored in advance to the hardware into image data, the expanded image data and the diagnostic data stored in advance A diagnostic data image developed on the image data is compared, and a second diagnostic process for diagnosing the function of the hardware based on the result of the comparison is executed.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the fourth aspect of the invention, when the print target data is received during the first diagnostic process, the second diagnostic process is started and the diagnostic data is printed. The image data of the diagnostic data included in the image data of the expanded print target data is expanded from the print target data in which the diagnostic data is added to the hardware and the diagnostic data is added to the hardware. And when the two are equal, the hardware function is diagnosed as normal, and when the two are not equal, the hardware function is diagnosed as abnormal. And

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the fourth aspect of the present invention, after the hardware function is diagnosed by the second diagnostic processing, the hardware is stored in advance for each piece of hardware stored in advance. A hardware function for which the first diagnosis process is not performed is directly diagnosed based on diagnosis management information indicating whether the first diagnosis process is performed or not.

  According to the first and fourth aspects of the present invention, it is possible to indirectly diagnose hardware functions.

  The inventions according to claims 2 and 5 can diagnose hardware functions without affecting communication processing.

  The inventions according to claims 3 and 6 can restart the diagnosis of hardware interrupted by the communication process.

  Embodiments of an image forming apparatus and a diagnostic program according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In this embodiment, a configuration in which a diagnostic program according to the present invention is installed in an image forming apparatus will be described as an example.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of the image forming apparatus 1.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the image forming apparatus 1 controls the entire image forming apparatus 1 and develops various electronic information into image data capable of image formation. The controller 2 develops image data developed by the controller 2 on a sheet or the like. And a printer engine 3 for forming an image.

  The controller 2 includes a CPU 4 that performs the main control of the controller 2, an ASIC 5 that is an integrated circuit for a specific application, a program ROM 6 that stores a diagnostic program and other various programs, a font ROM 7 that stores various fonts, and a host A host IF 9 that controls communication with the apparatus 8, a RAM 10 that is used as a buffer area of a work area necessary for program execution, an engine IF 11 that mediates exchange with the printer engine 3, and a panel that is a user interface of the image forming apparatus 1 A panel IF 12 that mediates exchanges with the apparatus and an option IF 13 that mediates exchanges with various optional devices are provided. In the present embodiment, for example, a nonvolatile memory 14 is connected as a storage device that does not require power to hold data via the option IF 13.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of the image forming apparatus 1.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the controller 2 includes, as its function, an intermediate data editing unit 15 for developing data received from the host device 8 into image data, an image data developing unit 16, and an image data storage unit 17. The

  As shown in FIG. 2, the diagnostic program 18 includes a data processing unit 19, a diagnostic control unit 20, a normal diagnostic unit 21, and a simple diagnostic unit 22 as its functions.

  The data processing unit 19 receives the data transmitted from the host device 8, processes to notify the diagnosis control unit 20 that the data has been received when the data is received, and after receiving the notification, the diagnosis control unit 20 When the simple diagnosis data is received from the controller 2, a process of passing the simple diagnosis data to the controller 2 together with the received data is performed.

  The diagnosis control unit 20 performs control so that the diagnosis by the normal diagnosis unit 21 is performed when the power of the image forming apparatus 1 is turned on, and data is received from the host device 8 while the normal diagnosis unit 21 performs the diagnosis. Is received, control is performed so that the diagnosis by the simple diagnosis unit 22 is performed.

  The normal diagnosis unit 21 performs processing (hereinafter referred to as normal diagnosis) for diagnosing the hardware (CPU 4, ASIC 5, RAM 10, etc.) of the controller 2 when the image forming apparatus 1 is powered on. The normal diagnosis unit 21 updates the diagnosis management information 23 shown in FIG. 3 stored in advance in the nonvolatile memory 14 every time diagnosis for each hardware is completed. Specifically, the hardware to be diagnosed by the normal diagnostic unit 21 as the diagnostic management information 23, the diagnostic contents for each hardware, and the flag (“1” for each hardware) has been implemented. "0" is not executed) is stored. For example, when the diagnosis of the CPU 4 is completed, the normal diagnosis unit 21 sets the executed flag corresponding to the CPU 4 in the diagnosis management information 23 to “1”, and the ASIC 5, the RAM 10, and the like are similarly processed.

  When the normal diagnosis unit 21 receives data from the host device 8 while the normal diagnosis unit 21 performs normal diagnosis, the simple diagnosis unit 22 performs processing for diagnosing hardware based on the simple diagnosis data 24 prepared in advance ( Hereinafter, this is referred to as simple diagnosis).

  Here, the simple diagnosis will be described.

  The non-volatile memory 14 stores simple diagnosis data 24 in advance. The diagnostic data 24 includes diagnostic data and a diagnostic data image. The diagnostic data includes print position designation address information for designating the print position address of the print character and print character designation for designating the print character code. Contains code information.

  When data is received from the host device 8 (hereinafter referred to as reception data) while the normal diagnosis unit 21 performs normal diagnosis, the simple diagnosis data acquisition unit 25 included in the simple diagnosis unit 22 is nonvolatile. The simple diagnostic data 24 is acquired from the memory 14, and the diagnostic data of the acquired simple diagnostic data 24 is passed to the data processing unit 19. The data processing unit 19 adds the diagnostic data to the received data and adds the diagnostic data to the controller 2. To the intermediate data editing unit 15.

  The intermediate data editing unit 15 edits the received data so that the character designated in the print character designation code information is developed at the position designated in the print position designation address information, and the image data development unit 16 is edited. The received data is expanded into image data, and the expanded image data is stored in the image data storage unit 17. With these operations, the CPU 4, the ASIC 5, the program ROM 6, the font ROM 7, and the RAM 10 operate.

  The image data acquisition unit 26 included in the simple diagnosis unit 22 acquires image data from the image data storage unit 17, and the data comparison unit 27 included in the simple diagnosis unit 22 includes image data of diagnostic data included in the image data, Compare with diagnostic data image.

  If they are equal, it is diagnosed that the hardware function is normal, and the image data deletion unit 28 deletes the image data of the diagnostic data from the image data, passes the image data to the printer engine 2, and the printer The engine 2 forms an image of the image data on a sheet. When the simple diagnosis is completed, the normal diagnosis unit 21 performs normal diagnosis on hardware that has not been subjected to normal diagnosis. For example, when the simple diagnosis is performed in the state of the diagnosis management information shown in FIG. 3, the normal diagnosis unit 21 reads the R / W of the system area in the RAM whose execution flag is “0” and the R / W of the general-purpose area in the RAM. Perform W.

  If they are not equal, it is diagnosed that there is an abnormality in the hardware function, the image data deletion unit 28 deletes the image data, and the normal diagnosis by the normal diagnosis unit 21 is performed.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 4, when the print position designation address information is (X, Y) = (0, 0) and the print character designation code information is (“A” = 41H), the image data of the character “A” Is developed at the position (0, 0), and a simple diagnosis is performed by comparing the image data of the character “A” developed together with the received data with the diagnostic data image of the character “A”. Become.

  Next, an example of the flow of processing performed by the diagnostic program will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

  When the image forming apparatus is powered on (S501), the normal diagnosis unit performs normal hardware diagnosis (S502).

  The data reception unit does not receive data from the host device (NO in S503), and the normal diagnosis unit updates the diagnosis management information in the nonvolatile memory for each piece of hardware for which diagnosis has been completed (S504). When the normal diagnosis ends (YES in S505), the image forming apparatus shifts to an idle state (S506), and the processing procedure ends.

  If the data reception unit receives data from the host device while the normal diagnosis unit is performing normal diagnosis (YES in S503), the simple diagnosis data acquisition unit acquires the simple diagnosis data from the nonvolatile memory ( In S507), when the data receiving unit finishes receiving the data (S508), the image data developing unit develops the diagnostic data into image data together with the received data (S509), and the data comparing unit is included in the image data of the received data. The image data of the diagnostic data and the diagnostic data image are compared (S510).

  If they are equal (YES in S511), the image data deletion unit deletes the image data of the diagnostic data from the image data of the received data (S512), and the printer engine performs image formation of the image data of the received data (S513). ), The image forming apparatus shifts to an idle state (S514), and the normal diagnosis unit performs an unexecuted normal diagnosis based on the diagnosis management information (S515), and returns to S503.

  In S511, if they are not equal (NO in S511), the normal diagnosis unit performs normal diagnosis (S516), performs error processing (S517), and ends the processing procedure. During the normal diagnosis in S516, a message indicating that the diagnosis is being performed because the hardware function of the panel device is abnormal may be displayed.

  The diagnostic program 18 can be provided by being stored in a storage medium such as various memories or optical disks, and can be distributed via a communication line such as a network.

2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of an image forming apparatus. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of an image forming apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of diagnostic management information. It is a figure explaining simple diagnosis. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the flow of the process which a diagnostic program performs.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image forming apparatus 2 Controller 3 Printer engine 4 CPU
5 ASIC
6 Program ROM
7 Font ROM
8 Host device 9 Host IF
10 RAM
11 Engine IF
12 Panel IF
13 Option IF
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 14 Nonvolatile memory 15 Intermediate data edit part 16 Image data expansion | deployment part 17 Image data storage part 18 Diagnostic program 19 Data processing part 20 Diagnosis control part 21 Normal diagnosis part 22 Simple diagnosis part 23 Diagnosis management information 24 Simple diagnosis data 25 Simple diagnosis Data acquisition unit 26 Image data acquisition unit 27 Data comparison unit 28 Image data deletion unit

Claims (6)

Image data expansion means for expanding print target data into image data in a format that can be formed on a print medium;
First diagnostic means for directly diagnosing the function of hardware that operates the image data expansion means;
Storage means for storing diagnostic data and diagnostic data image developed from the diagnostic data into image data;
The image data expansion means expands diagnostic data into image data, compares the expanded image data with the diagnostic data image, and diagnoses the function of the hardware based on the comparison result An image forming apparatus comprising: a second diagnostic unit. A diagnostic control unit that starts diagnosis by the second diagnostic unit when the print target data is received during the diagnosis by the first diagnostic unit;
The second diagnostic means includes
Obtaining the diagnostic data and the diagnostic data image from the storage means;
Adding the acquired diagnostic data to the print target data;
The image data expansion means expands the image data from the print target data to which the diagnostic data is added,
Comparing the image data of the diagnostic data included in the image data of the expanded print target data with the diagnostic data image;
If they are equal, the hardware function is diagnosed as normal,
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein if the two are not equal, the hardware function is diagnosed as abnormal. The storage means
Storing diagnosis management information indicating whether diagnosis by the first diagnosis means is performed for each hardware;
The first diagnostic means includes
Directly diagnosing hardware functions not diagnosed by the first diagnostic means based on the diagnostic management information after the second diagnostic means diagnoses that the hardware functions are normal. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1. In a computer built in an image forming apparatus that develops data to be printed into image data in a format that can be formed on a print medium,
A first diagnosis process for directly diagnosing the function of hardware that operates the expansion of the image data;
The diagnostic data stored in advance for the hardware is expanded into image data, the expanded image data, and the diagnostic data image expanded from the diagnostic data stored in advance into the image data; And a second diagnostic process for diagnosing the function of the hardware based on the result of the comparison. When the print target data is received during the first diagnosis process, the second diagnosis process is started,
Adding the diagnostic data to the print target data;
The image data is expanded from the print target data in which the diagnostic data is added to the hardware,
Comparing the image data of the diagnostic data included in the image data of the expanded print target data with the diagnostic data image;
If they are equal, the hardware function is diagnosed as normal,
The diagnostic program according to claim 4, wherein if the two are not equal, the hardware function is diagnosed as abnormal. Diagnostic management information indicating whether or not the first diagnostic processing is performed for each piece of hardware stored in advance after the hardware function is diagnosed by the second diagnostic processing. The diagnostic function according to claim 4, wherein a hardware function that has not been subjected to the first diagnostic processing is directly diagnosed based on the above.

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