JP2874766B2 - System unit control device - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a control device for a system in which a plurality of sub-devices centered on a main device are connected by, for example, a star connection.

2. Description of the Related Art In a system including a plurality of devices, a plurality of sub-devices (slave devices) around a main device (master device) are often connected by a star connection via a serial communication network. For example, in an example of a digital copying machine system, as shown in FIG. 6, a reading control device, a copying control device, and an operation device as sub-devices are connected to a system control device as a main device by a star connection.

In such a system composed of a plurality of devices,
When each device has a CPU (Central Processing Unit), the program starts and starts each operation when the power is turned on. However, since each sub-device is connected to the main device by a star connection, one sub-device (for example, a reading control device in the above example) checks the power-on status of another sub-device (for example, a copying control device). We cannot know directly. When the power of each device is turned on separately, the program of each device starts separately, and the control relationship with other devices is not smoothly performed. For example, if the power of one device is not turned on, the entire system is considered to have started, or the internal program processing is performed even if the power is turned on and the program has started. In some cases, the program for the entire system did not start.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-described inconvenience of a conventional control device including the above-described system including a plurality of devices. An object of the present invention is to provide a control device of a system device that performs communication and is controlled so that the system starts after all devices are ready.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a control device for a single system device in which a plurality of sub-devices are connected by, for example, a star connection, with a main device as the main device. Communication means for transmitting and receiving data to and from each other, and when the sub-device is ready, transmits a communication start signal from the sub-device to the main device, and the main device receives a communication start signal from all sub-devices In such a case, control is performed such that the ready signal of the system device is transmitted from the main device to all the sub devices.

Since the control device of the present invention is configured as described above,
When the power of each device is turned on separately, for example, when the main device starts up after the power of each sub device is turned on, the program of the sub device is started first, and the sub device becomes ready. After that, when the main unit is turned on,
The initial code is sequentially transmitted from the main device to the sub device,
When the sub-device receives this, the program is executed again from the start, and the sub-device transmits a ready code to the main device,
Put the secondary device in the ready state. When the main unit has received the ready codes from all the sub units, it transmits the system ready code to the sub units. When the secondary device receives the ready code of the system, it starts executing the main program.

Conversely, when the power is turned on in the main device before the sub device, the program of the main device is executed in the same manner as described above, and then the ready code is received from the sub device. It becomes ready and executes each program.

In this manner, the entire system can be operated smoothly regardless of the order of power on of the main device and the sub device.

Examples Hereinafter, examples of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a control device of a digital copying machine system.

This copier executes a reading device 100 as reading means for reading a document, an image information storage device 300 as a storage means for storing read document information, and executes a series of processes for copying the stored information to paper. Copy circuit 500, a system control device 302 for controlling them, and an operation device 400 as operation means for performing key input to the system control device 302.
And so on. The operating device 400 includes a display for displaying various information.

The detailed configuration of the system control device 302 is shown in FIG.
That is, it is mainly configured by a microprocessor (hereinafter, CPU) 303, and includes a ROM, a RAM, a clock signal generation circuit, a timer, an interrupt controller for interrupt processing, and the like. Further, the reading device 100, the image information storage device 300,
I / 0307 for exchanging information with copying circuit 500 and operating device 400
And serial communication controllers 304 to 306.

The operation device 400 includes an operation panel 402 and an operation control circuit 401. FIG. 4 shows the plane of the operation panel 402. The operation panel 402 has keys (mode clear, stop, start, numeric keys,
Character display (number of sets, number of copies, magnification), document insertion enabled display and document insertion direction display are provided for density adjustment, image quality adjustment, paper size, enlargement, reduction, memory number, and setting.

FIG. 1 shows an outline of the mechanical configuration of the reading device 100. When an operator inserts a document into roller 1, the document is
Is transported between the contact glass 2 and the reflection plate 3 in the sub-scanning direction in accordance with the rotation of the mirror. During this transport, the original surface is scanned in the main scanning direction by the light from the fluorescent lamp 4. The reflected light is
An image is formed on an image sensor (CCD) 6 via a lens 5, and document information is read. The original image formed on the CCD 6 is output as an analog signal in synchronization with a clock generated from the write synchronization control circuit 105, and is amplified by the image amplification circuit 101. The A / D conversion circuit 102 converts the amplified analog image signal into multi-valued digital image information for each pixel. The shading correction circuit 103 corrects distortion of digital image information due to noise in the original image, uneven light amount, contamination of the contact glass 2, uneven sensitivity of the CCD 6, and the like. Thereafter, the image is converted into digital recording image information by the image processing circuit 104. The digitally recorded image information is output to the image storage device 300 and written into one page memory of the image memory unit 301.

Digitally recorded image information stored in the page memory is
In the next copy circuit 500, the light is converted into laser light.

FIG. 2 shows an outline of a mechanical configuration of a copying apparatus 200 in which the image information storage device 300, the copying circuit 500 and the operating device 400 are incorporated.

The digitally recorded image information read from the page memory is received by the line driver circuit 501 and amplified by the laser driver circuit 502. The digitally recorded image information is a 1-bit (recorded / non-recorded) binary signal per pixel.
The laser driver circuit 502 activates the laser diode 503 to emit light in response to the binarized signal. The laser light emitted from the laser diode 503 is reflected by the rotating polygon mirror 11, passes through the polygon lens for correcting the tilt of the polygon mirror 12, passes through the f-θ lens 13, passes through the first mirror 14, the second mirror 15, and the third mirror. The light is reflected by 16 and is irradiated on the photosensitive drum 17 for image formation.
The rotating polygon mirror 11 is fixed to a polygon mirror driving motor 18 and a rotating shaft 19, and the motor 18 rotates at a constant speed, and the polygon mirror 11
Is rotated at a constant speed. By the rotation of the polygon mirror 11, the above-described laser light is scanned in a direction perpendicular to the rotation direction of the photoconductor drum 17, that is, in a direction along the drum axis.

The surface of the photoreceptor drum 17 is uniformly charged by a charger connected to a negative voltage high voltage generator. When the laser light emitted based on the digitally recorded image information is applied to the uniformly charged photoreceptor surface, the charge on the photoreceptor surface flows to the device ground of the drum 17 main body due to a photoconductive phenomenon and disappears. . Here, the laser is not turned on in a portion where the document density is low (the binarized signal is at the non-recording level), and the laser is turned on in a portion where the document density is high (the binarized signal is at the recording level). As a result, the portion corresponding to the light document density portion on the surface of the photoreceptor drum has a potential of -750 V, and the portion corresponding to the high document density portion has a potential of about -100 V. A latent image is formed. The electrostatic latent image is developed by the developing unit 20, and a toner image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 17. The toner in the developing unit 20 is negatively charged by stirring, the developing unit 20 is biased to about -500 by a developing bias generator, and the toner adheres to a place where the surface potential of the photosensitive drum 17 is higher than the developing bias. Then, a toner image corresponding to the document image is formed.

On the other hand, the recording paper is selected from any of the three paper feed trays 21, fed out by the paper feeding operation of the feed roller 22, cut into an appropriate size by the cutter 23, and At the timing, the toner image passes through the lower portion of the photosensitive drum 17, and the toner image is transferred onto the recording paper by the operation of the transfer charger 25 during this time. The transferred recording paper is then sent to a heat fixing unit 26, where the toner is fixed to the recording paper, and the recording paper is discharged to a paper discharge tray 27.

FIG. 3 is referred to again. The copying machine of this embodiment includes an image information storage device 300 in addition to the reading device 100 and the copying circuit 500. The storage device 300 includes an image memory unit 301 and a system control device 302. In this embodiment, the image memory unit 301, the system control device 302, and the operation device 400 are housed in the housing of the copying apparatus 200 shown in FIG. Reading device 100, copy circuit 500, image information storage device 30
0 and the operating device 400 are signal lines L1, L2, and L of the RS422 standard.
They are connected to each other by 3 and serial data transmission is performed between them at a transmission speed of 9600 bps.

FIGS. 7 to 10 show a flowchart of a main part of the control operation of the CPU 303 of the system control device 302. FIG. CPU303
After the power is turned on, the I / O interface unit and the RAM are cleared (702) and set to the initial state (703) (704).

Next, the program executes a three-second closed loop timer (705), further checks the presence or absence of the image memory unit (301) used in the system (706), and enables communication between the devices. Serial controller (304-306)
Is set (707).

Thus, the initialization of the system control device 302 is completed, and then the main program is executed. First, the CPU 302 checks whether there is data received from each device (the reading device 100, the copying circuit 500, and the operating device 400) (708).
If there is data, processing is performed according to the received code. Next, the presence or absence of an error is checked (709), and then the main monitor program (710) is executed. In the main monitor program, check the ready code and initial code received code from each sub-device, and if various signals are received, set the transmission bit to transmit signals to each sub-device according to the received code I do. Next, after checking bits necessary for transmission, data corresponding to the transmission bits is transmitted to each sub device (711).

FIGS. 11 and 12 show a main part of the control operation of the CPU in each of the sub-devices of the reading device 100, the copying circuit 500, and the operation device 400. After the power is turned on, the CPU executes the initial setting program in the same manner as the system control device 302 (1101 to 1106), and then sends an initial code to the system control device 302 (meaning that the sub device is initialized and executed from the beginning of the program). )
And a ready code (meaning that the sub device has been initialized and communication with the main device is possible), and then the main program is executed (1109 to 1115). First, an internal flag (FSLVRDY) indicating that the sub device has become ready is set, and then the data received from the system control device 302 is checked (1110). Further, after checking for an error (1111), the main monitor program (1112) is executed. The main monitor program checks flags used in the present system and monitors inputs and outputs necessary for drive control. Thereafter, when there is data to be transmitted to the system control device 302, the data is transmitted according to each transmission bit (1113). Next, the system ready status flag (FSYRDY) is checked. If the flag is not set, go to 1109. If the flag is set, drive control of the motor of the sub device is performed (1115). Then, jump to 1119 to execute the main program. return.

Now, it is assumed that the power is turned on separately for each device. For example, it is assumed that the main device (system control device 302) starts up after the power of each sub-device has started up.

At this time, first, the program of the sub device shown in FIGS. 11 and 12 is started. That is, the initial code and the ready code are transmitted from the sub device when the main device is not running. Next, the secondary device sets the flag (FSLVRDY) indicating that the initialization and the communication start program have been executed, and the preparation for executing the main program has been completed. When the power of the main device is turned on after the sub device is in the ready state in this way, when the initial code is sequentially transmitted from the main device to the sub device and the sub device receives the initial code, it can be seen from FIG. The program will be executed again from the start. Then, the sub-device transmits the ready code of the sub-device to the main device again to put the sub-device in the ready state. On the other hand, the main device receives the ready code and receives the ready code corresponding to the ready flag (FSLVRDY) of the sub-device. Set the flags (FSCRDEY, FPRRDY, FKBRDY) sequentially. When the ready codes have been received from all the sub devices, the system transmits a ready code of the system to the sub devices as shown in FIG. 9, and the main device sets a flag (FSYSRDY) indicating that the system is ready. On the other hand, when the sub-device receives the system ready code, it sets the system ready flag (FSYRDY) in the sub-device and starts execution of the main program.

Conversely, when the power of the main device is turned on before the sub device, the program of the main device is executed in the same manner as described above, and then the ready code is received from the sub device. It becomes ready and executes each program.

In this way, it can be seen that the entire system operates smoothly regardless of the order of power on of the main device and the sub device.

Advantages As described above, according to the present invention, in a system in which a main device and a sub device are connected by a communication network, the system can operate smoothly even when the power sources of the respective devices are differently started. For this reason, the system can be started without worrying about the order of turning on the power of each device, so that the operator can operate the system easily.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a schematic mechanical configuration of a reading device of a copying machine system to which the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2 shows a mechanical configuration of a copying machine in which an image information storage device, a copying circuit and an operation device are incorporated. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an embodiment of the control device of the copying machine system, FIG. 4 is a plan view of an operation panel thereof, and FIG. 5 shows a configuration of the system control device in detail. FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a system in which a sub device is connected to a main device by a star connection. FIGS. 7 to 10 are diagrams showing main parts of a control operation of the main device of the embodiment. Flowchart, FIGS. 11 and 12
The figure is a flowchart of the main part of the control operation of each sub-device of the embodiment. 1: Lens, 6: CCD 11: Rotating polygon mirror 12: Cylindrical lens 13: f-θ lens, 14: First mirror 15: Second mirror, 16: Third mirror 17: Photoconductor drum, 18: Motor 19: Rotary shaft, 20: developing unit 21: paper feed tray, 22: feed roller 23: cutter, 24: registration roller 25: transfer charger, 26: heat fixing unit 27: paper output tray, 100: reading device (sub device 200: Copying device (copying means) 300: Image information storage device 301: Image memory section (storage means) 302: System control device (main device) 304 to 306: Serial communication controller (communication means) 400: Operation device (sub device) Equipment) 500: Copy circuit (sub equipment)

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A control device for one system device, in which a plurality of sub devices are connected around a main device, comprising communication means for mutually transmitting and receiving data between the main device and the sub device, wherein the sub device is ready. When the status is changed, the communication start signal is transmitted from the sub device to the main device. When the main device receives the communication start signal from all the sub devices, the main device sends a ready signal of the system device to all the sub devices. A control device that controls so as to transmit the data.