JP2011086974A - Control device, processing device and control program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To cause no trouble in processing of a printer engine or the like, by not reducing the processing capability of a network control unit for control over communication when the load of control over communication with the outside becomes large. <P>SOLUTION: The network control unit communicates with the outside through a network and controls the printer engine and a scanner, directly by itself. When the load of network processing by the network control unit exceeds a predetermined extent (Y in step S1), the network control unit 15 is made to disconnect the communication with the outside through a network 4 while the communication can be restarted afterward (step S2). <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a control device, a processing device, and a control program.

  2. Description of the Related Art An electrophotographic image forming apparatus having a copy function, a print function, a scan function, and the like is known.

  In such an image forming apparatus, a control device (microcomputer) in the image forming apparatus performs communication control for communicating with the outside via a communication line such as a network, and at the same time, a copy function, a print function, and a scan function. For example, device control for controlling devices such as a printer engine may be executed.

JP 2000-122819 A JP 2004-015497 A

  An object of the present invention is to prevent a problem in processing of a processing unit when the processing load of an execution unit that executes control of both a processing unit that performs a requested process and a communication unit that communicates with the outside increases. Is to do so.

  The invention according to claim 1 relates to control of the processing means for performing the requested processing and control of the communication means for communicating with the outside, and control of the processing means and the communication means in the execution means. When the level of the processing load exceeds a predetermined level, the control device includes a stopping unit that stops the communication by the communication unit.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, the control device according to the first aspect further includes resuming means for resuming communication with the outside when a predetermined condition is satisfied.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the control device according to the second aspect, the resuming unit performs the resumption when a predetermined time has elapsed after the suspension.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the control device according to the third aspect further comprises setting means for accepting the setting of the length of time and setting the length of the time to the accepted length.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the control device according to the second aspect, the resuming unit performs the resumption in response to receiving a resumption instruction from a user.

  The invention according to claim 6 is the control device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, further comprising storage means for storing data received from the outside by the communication means, wherein the stopping means is When the amount of the data stored in the storage unit exceeds a predetermined level, the processing of the communication unit by the execution unit is stopped.

  The invention according to claim 7 is the control device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, further comprising storage means for storing data received from the outside by the communication means, If the execution means is occupied by the execution of various processes exceeds a predetermined degree, and the amount of the data stored in the storage means exceeds a predetermined degree, the execution The processing of the communication means by means is stopped.

  According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the control device according to any of the first to seventh aspects, when the cancellation is made by the cancellation unit, a notification unit that notifies the fact of the cancellation is further provided.

  The invention according to claim 9 is a processing means for performing the requested processing, a communication means for communicating with the outside, an execution means for executing control of the processing means and the communication means, and the processing in the execution means. And a means for stopping the communication by the communication means when the degree of the processing load related to the control of the means and the communication means exceeds a predetermined degree.

  The invention described in claim 10 relates to control of the processing means for performing the requested processing and control of the communication means for communicating with the outside, and control of the processing means and the communication means in the execution means. When the degree of processing load exceeds a predetermined level, the computer-readable control program causes the computer to execute a stop unit that stops the communication by the communication unit.

  According to the first, ninth, and tenth aspects of the invention, even when the processing load of the execution unit that executes control of both the processing unit that performs the requested processing and the communication unit that communicates with the outside increases, Compared with the case where this configuration is not provided, it is possible to reduce the possibility of problems in the processing of the processing means.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, the canceled communication can be resumed thereafter.

  According to the third aspect of the present invention, it is possible to resume communication that has been stopped when time has elapsed even if no instruction is given.

  According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to set various times for resuming communication that has been stopped.

  According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, communication that reflects the user's intention can be resumed.

  According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, the load on the control of the communication means is determined based on the accumulated amount of data received from the outside by the communication means without confirming the extent to which the execution means is occupied by the execution of various processes. It can be determined whether the degree exceeds a predetermined degree.

  According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, when it is determined that the degree of load of the communication means control exceeds a predetermined degree, the degree that the execution means is occupied by the execution of various processes is large, and This can be limited to the case where the amount of data received from the outside by the communication means is large.

  According to the eighth aspect of the invention, it is possible to notify the user that communication has been stopped.

1 is a block diagram of electrical connection of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is explanatory drawing explaining the structure of the control program of the image forming apparatus of one Embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing explaining the structure of the control program of the image forming apparatus of one Embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing explaining the processing priority of each program of the image forming apparatus of one Embodiment of this invention. 5 is a flowchart of processing executed based on load monitoring software in the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. 6 is a flowchart of setting processing in the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present disclosure. It is a block diagram of electrical connection of an image forming apparatus as a comparative example. It is explanatory drawing explaining the structure of the control program of the image forming apparatus used as a comparative example. It is explanatory drawing explaining the processing priority of each program of the image forming apparatus used as a comparative example.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram of electrical connection of the image forming apparatus of the present embodiment.

  The image forming apparatus 1 implements the processing apparatus of the present invention, and includes a printer engine 2 that forms an image by an electrophotographic method or the like, and a scanner 3 that reads an image of a document, and includes a copy function, a print function, and a scan. Perform the function. That is, the printer engine 2 and the scanner 3 serve as processing means for executing processing of a copy function, a print function, or a scan function requested by the user.

  The image control unit 7 performs various calculations and centrally controls each unit, a ROM 13 that stores a control program 12 executed by the CPU 11, a memory 14 that is a work area of the CPU 11, and the network 4. A network control unit 15 serving as a communication unit that communicates with the outside via an operation panel communication unit 16 that communicates with the operation panel control unit 5 is connected by a bus 17. The operation panel control unit 5 receives various operations from the user and controls the operation panel 6 that displays various messages on the display.

  The control program 12 may be set up in the ROM 13 in the image forming apparatus 1 from the beginning. However, the control program 12 is read by a reader from a storage medium in which the control program 12 is stored later, and a magnetic storage device or a non-volatile memory of the image forming apparatus 1. You may make it set up to a memory (none is shown). Alternatively, it may be downloaded from the Internet or the like and set up in the magnetic storage device or non-volatile memory of the image forming apparatus 1.

  A plurality of printer components 21 provided in the printer engine 2 and a plurality of scanner components 22 provided in the scanner 3 are various actuators and sensors of the printer engine 2 and the scanner 3, respectively. 4 is connected.

  The image control unit 7 is a one-board microcomputer that implements the control device of the present invention, and the CPU 11 directly controls the network control unit 15, the printer engine 2, and the scanner 3 without using another microcomputer. ing.

  FIG. 7 is a block diagram of electrical connection of an image forming apparatus as a comparative example.

  In this image forming apparatus 101, circuit elements having the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 1 are the same circuit elements as those of the image forming apparatus 1 described above, and detailed description thereof is omitted.

  The image forming apparatus 101 is different from the image forming apparatus 1 in that a scanner control unit 102 and a printer control unit 103 are provided. Each of the scanner control unit 102 and the printer control unit 103 performs various calculations and centrally controls each unit, a ROM 113 that stores various control programs executed by the CPU 111, and a work area of the CPU 111. A communication line 117 is connected to the memory 114 and the communication unit 115 that performs communication via the image control unit 4 and the communication units 121 and 122. The printer component 21 and the scanner component 22 are connected to the scanner control unit 102 and the printer control unit 103 via the port 118.

  Each of the scanner control unit 102 and the printer control unit 103 is a one-board microcomputer, and each printer component 21 and each scanner component 22 of the printer engine 2 and the scanner 3 are directly controlled by the scanner control unit 102 and the printer control unit 103, respectively. Be controlled.

  The image control unit 4 of the image forming apparatus 101 directly controls the network control unit 15, but only indirectly controls the printer engine 2 and the scanner 3 via the scanner control unit 102 and the printer control unit 103.

  With such a hardware configuration, the image control unit 4 of the image forming apparatus 101 has the printer engine 2 and the scanner 3 compared to the configuration of FIG. 1 even if the processing load on the CPU 111 increases due to an increase in communication traffic. Problems in the control of the printer parts 21 and the scanner parts 22 are less likely to occur. The printer component 21 and the scanner component 22 are directly controlled by the CPU 111 of the scanner control unit 102 and the printer control unit 103, not the CPU 111 of the image control unit 4.

  On the other hand, in the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, when the processing load on the CPU 11 of the image control unit 4 increases due to an increase in communication traffic or the like, each printer component 21 and each scanner component 22 of the printer engine 2 and the scanner 3. Therefore, the possibility of a malfunction in the operation of the actuators that are the printer component 21 and the scanner component 22 is higher than in the comparative example of FIG. This is because the CPU 11 of the image control unit 4 directly controls the printer component 21 and the scanner component 22.

  Hereinafter, means implemented in the image forming apparatus 1 in order to reduce such problems will be described.

  2 and 3 are explanatory diagrams illustrating the configuration of the control program 12 of the image forming apparatus 1.

  The control program 12 includes an operating system 31, printer component control software (SW) 32 that controls the printer engine 2, scanner component control software (SW) 33 that controls the scanner 3, and an operation panel 6. Operation panel control software (SW) 34 for controlling, copy function control software (SW) 35 for controlling the copy function, scan function control software (SW) 36 for controlling the scan function, and print function for controlling the print function Control software (SW) 37, network control software (SW) 38 that controls the network control unit 15, and load monitoring software (SW) 39 that monitors the processing load on the CPU 11 of the network control unit 15 are included. .

  In the example of FIG. 2, the load monitoring software 39 operates on the operating system 31 independently of the operating system 31. However, as shown in the example of FIG. 3, the load monitoring software 39 is included in the operating system 31. May be.

  FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the processing priority of each program.

  In the image forming apparatus 1, the processing priority of the load monitoring software 39 is set to the highest as in the operating system 31, and the processing priority of the network control software 38 is set to the lowest. Therefore, the CPU 11 executes the process of the load monitoring software 39 with the highest priority, but executes the process of the network control software 38 most lately.

  FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the configuration of the control program 12 of the image forming apparatus as a comparative example, and FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the processing priority of each program of the image forming apparatus as a comparative example. .

  8 and 9, the software having the same reference numerals as those in FIGS. 2 to 4 is the same as the software of the image forming apparatus 1 in FIGS. In this comparative example, the network control software 38 is included in the operating system 31, and the processing priority of the network control software 38 is higher next to the operating system 31.

  If the processing priority of the network control software 38 is high as in this comparative example, the CPU 11 allocates much processing capacity to the processing in the network control unit 15 due to an increase in communication traffic in the network control unit 15, and the printer engine 2 and Since the processing capability of the scanner 3 tends not to be much avoided, the image forming apparatus 1 of the present embodiment has a software configuration as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 with the network control software 38 as shown in FIG. The processing priority is lowered.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart of processing executed based on the load monitoring software 39 in the image forming apparatus 1.

  For the processing of FIG. 5, it is desirable that the processing priority of the network control software 38 is low as shown in FIG. 4, but the processing priority may be high.

  First, based on the load monitoring software 39, the CPU 11 determines whether or not its processing load exceeds a predetermined level (step S1). That is, the performance of the CPU 11 such as the number of packets received by the image forming apparatus 1 via the network 4 while controlling the printer component 21 and the scanner component 22 of the printer engine 2 and the scanner 3, and the bus 17 In view of the performance, it is determined whether or not the operation of the printer component 21 and the scanner component 22 is likely to cause problems.

  When the processing load of the CPU 11 exceeds a predetermined level (Y in Step S1), the network control unit 15 is disconnected in a state where communication performed outside via the network 4 can be resumed later (Step S1). S2). Then, a predetermined process (described later) to be performed when communication is temporarily disconnected is performed (step S3).

  Thereafter, when a predetermined condition for resuming the communication disconnected in step S2 is satisfied (Y in step S4), the network control unit 15 restarts communication performed outside via the network 4 (step S5). ). If there is a processing request for printing or the like to be processed in the image forming apparatus 1 (Y in step S6), the processing request processing is executed (step S7), and the process returns to step S1.

  In the above processing, any of the following methods 1 to 3 can be used as specific means for determining the processing load on the CPU 11 in step S1.

(1) Method 1
This method is more accurate than the method 2 in determining whether or not the processing load of the CPU 11 exceeds a predetermined level. That is, the time during which each of the control software occupies the CPU 11 is monitored, the value of how much the CPU 11 is operating per unit time for the processing of each control software is obtained, and this value is obtained for each control software By adding and comparing with a predetermined threshold value, it is determined whether or not the threshold value is exceeded. In this case, when the aforementioned added value momentarily exceeds the threshold value, or when the cumulative value of the time when the added value exceeds the threshold value exceeds a predetermined reference value, the processing load of the CPU 11 is predetermined. It can be judged that this is because it exceeds the prescribed level.

(2) Method 2
This method is lighter than the method 1 in determining whether the processing load on the CPU 11 exceeds a predetermined level. That is, processing requests such as printing received from the outside by the network control unit 15 via the network 4 are accumulated in a buffer prepared in a predetermined memory space of the memory 14. When the amount of data stored in the buffer exceeds a predetermined threshold, it is determined that the processing load on the CPU 11 exceeds a predetermined level. If the amount of data stored in the buffer exceeds a predetermined threshold value, the CPU 11 devotes processing power to control the printer component 21 and the scanner component 22, and processing for a request received from the outside seems to be delayed. Can be predicted. In other words, this is a technique that uses this because it is a measure of the high processing load on the CPU 11.

(3) Method 3
This method limits the case where it is determined that the processing load of the CPU 11 exceeds a predetermined level as compared with the methods 1 and 2, and the communication is not easily disconnected (step S2). It is to make. That is, the above-described method 1 and method 2 are used in combination. More specifically, the value of how much the CPU 11 is operating per unit time for each control software process exceeds the predetermined threshold (method 1), and the buffer is stored in the buffer. When the accumulated data amount exceeds a predetermined threshold, it is determined that the processing load on the network 4 by the network control unit 15 exceeds a predetermined level.

(4) Method 4
This method makes it easier to determine that the processing load of the CPU 11 exceeds a predetermined level as compared with the methods 1 and 2, so that there is a possibility that the control of the printer component 21 and the scanner component 22 may be defective. Is reduced. That is, the above-described method 1 and method 2 are used in combination. Specifically, when the value of how much the CPU 11 is operating per unit time in the processing of each control software exceeds the predetermined threshold (method 1), and the buffer It is determined that the processing load of the CPU 11 exceeds a predetermined degree in at least one of the cases where the amount of data stored in the memory exceeds the predetermined threshold.

  The communication disconnection in step S2 is performed as follows. That is, it is possible to intentionally not accept a communication packet transmitted by a communication partner (a reply indicating that a certain communication packet has been received is not transmitted to the partner). Alternatively, a notification that the line is to be disconnected can be explicitly transmitted to the other party.

  If there is data being received, the data being received is discarded when the communication is disconnected, and subsequent reception is rejected. In this case, when a processing request for execution of printing is being received from an external user's personal computer or the like, for example, when the second page of document data requested to be printed is received, the first page is started. All data may be discarded, or the received first page may be printed and the second page data discarded. Also, when disconnecting the communication, the client terminal device that is the source of the data that was disconnected during the communication is in a data discard state, for example, all data has been discarded from the first page, or received The completed first page may be printed and notification of whether the second page data has been discarded.

  As a predetermined condition for resuming communication (step S4) and a predetermined process to be performed when communication is temporarily disconnected (step S3), the following methods a to c are used. Either can be used.

(1) Method a
As a process of step S3, a message to the effect that the image forming apparatus 1 has disconnected communication with the outside is displayed on the display of the operation panel 6 to notify the user of that fact. This notification is performed as the process of step S3 also in the case of the following methods b and c.

  The condition of step S4 in method a is to resume communication when the user gives an instruction to resume communication. That is, communication is resumed when the user instructs to resume communication through a predetermined operation on the operation panel 6.

(2) Method b
The condition of step S4 in the method b is that the communication is resumed even if the user does not give an instruction to resume the communication. That is, the elapsed time after disconnection of communication is counted, and communication is resumed on the condition that a preset time has elapsed.

  In this case, as a process in step S3, a timer that counts the elapsed time after disconnection of communication is started. In this case, the user can set various times for the timer to count up.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart of this setting process.

  Only the administrator of the image forming apparatus 1 can perform this setting process. First, the operation panel 6 is used to authenticate whether or not the user is an administrator by inputting a password (step S11). When the setting screen is displayed on the display of the operation panel 6 (step S12) and the user who is an administrator operates the operation panel 6 and inputs a desired time as a time for the timer to count up (step S13) Y), the time is set as the time for the timer to count up (step S14).

(3) Method c
The condition of step S4 in the method c is that all processing requests (or most processing requests) from the user such as print processing stored in the buffer area of the memory 14 of the image forming apparatus 1 are completed. Communication is resumed.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image forming apparatus 2 Printer engine 3 Scanner 12 Program 21 Printer part 22 Scanner part 39 Load monitoring mechanism software

Claims (10)

Execution means for executing control of the processing means for performing the requested processing and control of the communication means for communicating with the outside;
When the degree of processing load related to the control of the processing means and the communication means in the execution means exceeds a predetermined degree, a stopping means for stopping the communication by the communication means,
A control device comprising:   The control device according to claim 1, further comprising restarting means for restarting communication with the outside when a predetermined condition is satisfied.   The control device according to claim 2, wherein the restarting unit performs the restarting when a predetermined time has elapsed after the cancellation.   The control device according to claim 3, further comprising a setting unit that receives the setting of the length of time and sets the length of the time to the received length.   The control device according to claim 2, wherein the restart unit performs the restart in response to receiving a restart instruction from a user. Further comprising storage means for storing data received from the outside by the communication means;
The said cancellation | release means stops the process of the said communication means by the said execution means, when the amount of the said data which the said accumulation | storage means accumulate | stores exceeds a predetermined grade, The one of Claims 1-5 The control device according to item. Further comprising storage means for storing data received from the outside by the communication means;
The canceling means is such that the execution means is occupied by the execution of various processing exceeds a predetermined degree, and the amount of the data stored in the storage means exceeds a predetermined degree. The control device according to claim 1, wherein the processing of the communication unit by the execution unit is stopped in the event of a failure.   The control device according to claim 1, further comprising notification means for notifying the fact of cancellation when the cancellation is made by the cancellation means. Processing means for performing the requested processing;
A communication means for communicating with the outside;
Execution means for executing control of the processing means and the communication means;
When the degree of processing load related to the control of the processing means and the communication means in the execution means exceeds a predetermined degree, a stopping means for stopping the communication by the communication means,
A processing apparatus comprising: Execution means for executing control of the processing means for performing the requested processing and control of the communication means for communicating with the outside;
When the degree of processing load related to the control of the processing means and the communication means in the execution means exceeds a predetermined degree, a stopping means for stopping the communication by the communication means,
A computer-readable control program for causing a computer to execute.

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