JP2706563B2 - Terminal device file control device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Summary] The present invention relates to a file control device of a terminal device for controlling a file device built in a terminal device having a cash drawer such as a POS terminal or an electronic cash register, and relates to an auxiliary for opening and closing the cash drawer. An object of the present invention is to provide a highly reliable file control device for a terminal device by greatly reducing an adverse effect on a storage device, wherein the terminal device has a built-in file device in a terminal device main body and has a cash drawer. And a file control means for suppressing access to the file device when the open state of the cash drawer is detected by the detecting means.

[Industrial applications]

The present invention relates to a file control device of a terminal device that controls a file device built in a terminal device having a cash drawer such as a POS terminal or an electronic cash register (hereinafter, referred to as “ECR”).

In recent years, POS terminals (POS terminals) and ECRs provided with cash drawers that are cash drawers have been put into practical use. Such POS terminals and ECRs are storing an enormous amount of transaction data generated at the transaction site in a file device as the intelligentization is promoted.
As such a file device, for example, an auxiliary storage device such as a floppy disk or a hard disk is used.

By the way, the above-mentioned auxiliary storage device generally reads / writes data while bringing the magnetic head close to the magnetic disk surface, and thus is generally vulnerable to impact. Therefore,
In the terminal device as described above, a means for removing the influence of the impact due to opening and closing of the cash drawer is desired.

In particular, recent POS terminals are mainly equipped with a floppy disk unit or a hard disk unit, and it is essential to eliminate the influence on the auxiliary storage device due to the impact of opening and closing the cash drawer.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, POS terminals with built-in auxiliary storage devices have an adverse effect on auxiliary storage devices due to opening and closing of cash drawers.
For example, in order to prevent a malfunction at the time of writing or reading, a structure is adopted in which the auxiliary storage device is surrounded by a cushioning material such as rubber to protect it from impact.

However, the adverse effect on the auxiliary storage device due to the impact due to the opening and closing of the cash drawer cannot be completely removed by the cushioning material alone, and a malfunction still occurs.

In particular, in the hard disk unit, the gap between the magnetic head and the magnetic disk is as small as several microns, and the magnetic head collides with the magnetic disk surface even with a slight impact.
A so-called head crash occurs. When this head crash occurs, the magnetic disk surface is damaged, and recorded data and system programs are destroyed. Further, even if a head crash does not occur, a read or write error occurs due to the movement of the magnetic head, and there is a problem that reliability is poor.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

According to the present invention, as described above, the conventional method using the cushioning material cannot completely prevent the adverse effect on the auxiliary storage device due to the impact of opening and closing the cash drawer, and does not cause a head crash or a head crash The purpose of this was to eliminate the problem of inferior reliability due to read or write errors caused by the movement of the magnetic head, and greatly reduced the adverse effect on the auxiliary storage device caused by opening and closing the cash drawer. It is an object of the present invention to provide a highly reliable file control device for a terminal device.

[Means for solving the problem]

As shown in principle in FIG. 1, the file control device for a terminal device according to the present invention is a terminal device having a file device 2 built in a terminal device main body 1 and having a cash drawer 3, wherein the cash drawer 3 is opened and closed. The apparatus comprises a detecting means 4 for detecting a state, and a file control means 5 for suppressing access to the file device 2 when the open state of the cash drawer 3 is detected by the detecting means 4.

[Action]

According to the present invention, in the terminal device having the file device 2 built in the terminal device main body 1 and having the cash drawer 3, when the file device 2 is accessed, the open / close state of the cash drawer 3 is detected by the detecting means 4, When the detecting means 4 detects that the cash drawer 3 is open, access to the file device 2 is suppressed.

As a result, the file device 2 is accessed only when the cash drawer 3 is in the closed state, that is, in the state where the cash drawer 3 is stored in the drawer. Therefore, the occurrence of a head crash, a read or write error can be greatly reduced.

〔Example〕

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

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a file control device of a terminal device according to one embodiment of the present invention, and the same or corresponding parts as those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a POS terminal main body as a terminal device main body, which has a configuration in which an FD drive 2a, an HD drive 2b, a file control section 5, and a main body control section 6 are built.

The POS terminal body constitutes a POS terminal integrally with a cash drawer 3 described later.

The FD drive 2a serving as the file device 2 drives a floppy disk. Data can be read from or written to the floppy disk while the floppy disk is mounted on the FD drive 2a.
The floppy disk mounted on the FD drive 2a has a portability because the floppy disk has portability.
Mainly, data generated in the field is stored.

The HD drive 2b as the file device 2 drives a hard disk, and data can be read or written in the HD drive 2b as it is.
The HD drive 2b is used for storing a system program and temporarily storing data generated at a transaction site.

In this embodiment, a case is described in which two FD drives 2a and two HD drives 2b are used as the file devices 2, but a configuration using only one of them may be used.
For example, when only the FD drive 2a is used, the floppy disk stores not only data but also a system program. On the other hand, in the case of only the HD drive 2b, the hard disk stores data in addition to the system program, but this data needs to be configured to be able to be taken out, for example, online.

The file control unit 5 includes an FD drive 2a or an HD drive 2b
The read / write of data to / from is controlled. The file control unit 5 performs an operation in accordance with an instruction from the main body control unit 6, and also notifies the main body control unit 6 of the end of the operation.

Further, the file control unit 5 sends a sense signal SG1 to the sensor 4 described later, and receives a state signal SG2 returned from the sensor 4 in response to the sense signal SG1. Then, depending on the state of this state signal SG2, the FD drive 2a or H
It is determined whether to access the D drive 2b. The operation of the file control unit 5 will be described later in detail.

The main body controller 6 controls the entire POS terminal. For example, it performs display control of a display device (not shown), key input control of a keyboard, reading control of a bar code reading device, and various other arithmetic processing. Also,
The opening control of the cash drawer 3 which is directly related to the feature of the present invention is also performed. The opening control of the cash drawer 3 is performed by giving a control signal SG3 to a driving mechanism (not shown) of the cash drawer 3.

The cash drawer 3 is, for example, a drawer for storing cash or the like, and as described above, the control signal from the main body control unit 6.
Opening is controlled by SG3. Usually, the POS terminal main body 1 is mounted on the cash drawer 3, and the cash drawer 3 and the POS terminal main body 1 are integrated to form a POS terminal device. Therefore, an impact caused by opening and closing the cash drawer 3 is transmitted to the FD drive 2a or the HD drive 2b housed in the POS terminal main body 1 and causes a malfunction.

The sensor 4 detects the open / closed state of the cash drawer 3. As the sensor 4, for example, a micro switch, a photo interrupter, or the like is used.

When a microswitch is used as the sensor 4, the switch is depressed in a state where the cash drawer 3 is closed (or opened), and the depressed state is transmitted as a state signal SG2 in response to the sense signal SG1 as a state signal SG2. Control unit 5
Return to.

When using a photo interrupter as the sensor 4,
When the cash drawer 3 is closed (or opened), light emitted from the light emitting element is blocked, and a photoelectric conversion signal from the light receiving element is transmitted to the state signal SG2 in response to the sense signal SG1.
Is returned to the file control unit 5.

The sensor 4 is not limited to the above-described microswitch or photo-interrupter, but may be any other sensor that can detect the open / close state of the cash drawer 3.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

When accessing the file device 2, first, a file access is instructed from the main body (step S1). That is,
A read / write access instruction is issued to the file control unit 5 from the main unit control unit 6 built in the POS terminal main unit 1. As a result, the file control unit 5 starts operating.

That is, the file control unit 5 first checks whether the cash drawer 3 is open (step S2). This is done by sending a sense signal SG1 to the sensor 4 and examining the status signal SG2 returned from the sensor 4 in response to the signal SG1.

When it is determined that the cash drawer 3 is open, the main controller 6 is notified that the access is prohibited (step S3), and thereafter, the process returns to step S2. Accordingly, access to the file device 2 is not performed, and the process waits for the cash drawer 3 to be closed while repeatedly executing the steps S2 and S3.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S2 that the cash drawer 3 is closed, file access is started (step S4). That is, the file control unit 5 starts the file device 2 and starts reading or writing data.

Next, it is checked again whether the cash drawer 3 is open (step S5). If it is determined that the file device 2 is opened, that is, if the cash drawer 3 is opened after the file device 2 is started, the currently executing access is interrupted, data necessary for resuming later is saved, and the cash drawer 3 is saved. 3 is notified to the main controller (step S6). Thereafter, the process returns to step S2, and waits for the cash drawer 3 to be closed as described above.

On the other hand, when it is determined in step S5 that the cash drawer 3 is closed, the file access is continued (step S7), and a series of file access operations is completed when reading or writing of the predetermined data is completed.

As described above, when the cash drawer 3 is open, the file access is not started, and when the cash drawer 3 is opened during the file access, the access is interrupted. Does not occur. Therefore, there is no shock during file access,
Neither a head crash nor a read or write error due to the impact occurs. Therefore, there is an effect that a highly reliable POS terminal device can be realized.

In the above embodiment, the case where the POS terminal is used as the terminal device has been described. However, it is needless to say that the present invention can be similarly applied to the ECR. In this case, the same operation and effect as described above can be obtained.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, a device that performs reading / writing using a magnetic head such as a floppy disk and a hard disk as a file device has been described. It works.

Furthermore, since the opening and closing of the cash drawer is detected not only before the file access is started but also during the file access, and the access is interrupted when the open state is detected, a more reliable POS terminal device can be provided. ing.

〔effect〕

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a highly reliable file control device for a terminal device by greatly reducing the adverse effect on the auxiliary storage device due to opening and closing of the cash drawer.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining the principle of a file control device of a terminal device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of FIG. In the figure, 1... Terminal device main body, 2... File device, 3... Cash drawer, 4... Detection means (sensor), 5... File control means (file control unit). In the drawings, the same reference numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts.

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A file control device for a terminal device having a file device built in the terminal device main body and having a cash drawer, wherein: a detecting means for detecting an open / closed state of the cash drawer; A file control device for a terminal device, comprising: file control means for suppressing access to the file device when a state is detected. 2. The file control device for a terminal device according to claim 1, wherein said file device is a device for recording / reproducing information with a magnetic head. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the file control means suppresses the start of the access when the open state of the cash drawer is detected before accessing the file device, and suspends the access when the open state of the cash drawer is detected during the access. 2. The file control device for a terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the file control device performs the control. 4. An access state of a cash drawer provided in the terminal device is detected at the time of accessing a file device built in the terminal device main body, and when it is detected that the cash drawer is in an open state, Is a file control method, wherein access to the file device is suppressed.