JP3137433B2 - Facsimile machine - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus and, more particularly, to a facsimile apparatus for notifying a failure of the apparatus to a preset service station number.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a facsimile apparatus includes a scanner unit, a plotter unit, an I / O (Input / Output) control unit, an operation unit, a system control unit, a communication control unit, and the like. In a conventional facsimile machine, for example, when a failure or failure occurs in a scanner unit, a plotter unit, an I / O control unit, or an operation unit, the system control unit recognizes the failure and sets a preset service station number. Is known to send a failure notification report. As described above, the recovery of the device is speeded up by automatically notifying the service station of the occurrence of the failure.

[0003]

However, in the conventional facsimile apparatus, the system control unit recognizes a failure in the scanner unit, the plotter unit, etc. and notifies the user of the failure. If the device goes down, a failure occurs in which a failure cannot be found and no failure notification is given. The failure rate of the system control unit is usually low because it is only electronic components. However, as long as it is an electronic component, a failure occurs with a certain probability.

Accordingly, the present invention aims at recovering an apparatus more quickly when a system controller fails, by notifying the service station of the failure condition if the communication controller is normal. Is an issue.

[0005]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
In order to solve the above-described problem, a facsimile apparatus including a communication control unit that is provided between a system bus and a line and controls communication, and a system control unit that is connected to the system bus and controls an entire system of the apparatus, The communication control unit measures a command waiting time from the system control unit.
If the measured time exceeds a predetermined time, the system control unit
When it is determined that there is a failure and a failure of the system control unit is detected, a call is made to a preset service station number to notify the failure.

[0006]

[0007]

[Action] In the first aspect of the present invention, the communication control unit, cis
Measures the command waiting time from the system control unit and
If it exceeds, it is determined that there is a failure in the system control unit ,
When a failure in the system control unit is detected, a call is made to a preset service station number to notify the failure. Therefore,
System control by measuring command wait time
In addition to recognizing the failure of the unit and notifying the service station, even if the system control unit fails, quick recovery can be performed. Also,
By adjusting the command waiting time to judge
Thus, the time and accuracy until failure detection can be adjusted.

[0008]

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIGS. 1 to 16 show an embodiment of a facsimile apparatus according to the present invention, which is an example of a multi-port type. First, the configuration will be described.

In FIG. 1, reference numerals 1 and 2 denote first and second communication control units 1 and 2, which are located between a system bus and lines A and B and control communication. Reference numeral 3 denotes a system control unit. The system control unit 3 is connected to a system bus.
It controls the entire facsimile system. 4 is an I / O control unit, 5 is a scanner unit / plotter unit, and 6 is an operation unit.

The I / O control unit 4 and the first and second communication control units 1 and 2 have a function of compressing and reproducing image information, a function of scaling, a function of generating characters, and the like. The image information compression and reproduction functions include, for example, converting raw information input from a scanner unit into an MH (Modify) by the I / O control unit 4.
d Huffman), MR (Modified Re)
late Element address de
signate), MMR (Modified MR)
This is a function to perform compression or reverse processing. For example, the variable-magnification function uses A3 size as A
This is a function to transmit data after reducing it to 4 sizes. The character generation function is a function of converting code data into image data for facsimile.

The detailed configurations of the first and second communication controllers 1 and 2 are shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, respectively. 11 is CPU (Cent
ral Processing Unit), 12 is ROM (Read Only Memor)
y), 13 is a RAM (Random Access Memory), 14 is a communication LSI, 15 is a modem, 16 is a DPRAM, 17 is a first compression / reproduction unit, 18 is a scaling unit, 19 is a second compression / reproduction unit, 20 is a pattern generator, 21 is a voice guidance sending unit. The RAM 13 functions as a buffer for temporarily storing a program management area and image information. DP
The RAM 17 is used as an area for exchanging data between the system control unit 3 and the first and second communication control units 1 and 2. The first communication control unit 1 shown in FIG. 2 includes an analog method (G3 protocol) and a digital method (G for ISDN connection).
4 or a G4 protocol for DDX connection), and the second communication controller 2 in FIG. 3 is a communication controller of an analog system (G3 protocol). The block configuration of the voice guidance sending unit 21 is shown in FIG. 4, where 22 is a voice ROM, 23 is a voice synthesis LSI,
24 is an attenuator and 25 is a filter. FIG. 5 shows a procedure for transmitting image information through the first and second communication control units 1 and 2, FIG. 6 shows a flow of image information at that time, and FIG. 7 shows a receiving procedure. Since transmission and reception of these pieces of image information are already known, description thereof will be omitted.

Here, the first and second communication control units 1 and 2
The presence or absence of a failure in the system control unit 3 is detected, and when a failure in the system control unit 3 is detected, a call is made to a preset service station number to notify the failure. Specifically, the first communication control unit 1 notifies a failure of the system control unit 3 by sending a failure notification report for notifying the failure by the image information to the service station number. The second communication control unit 2
Notifies the failure of the system control unit 3 by sending voice guidance notifying the failure by voice information to the service station number.

Next, a control flow through the first communication control unit 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. Note that S _{1 to} S _{13 in} FIGS. 8 to 10 indicate the steps of each flowchart. In S ₁ in FIG. 8, when the transmission start command from the system controller 3 to the first communication control unit 1 is sent,
The first communication control unit 1 in S ₃ of FIG. 9 will call the destination station, after the response received from the destination station, responsive to the system control unit 3. Then, the next command from the system controller 3 in S ₄ is output, the process proceeds to the transmission processing of S _6. On the other hand, in S _5, the command waiting time becomes a predetermined time or more in the next command is not issued, that is, the first communication control section 1 determines that the failure of the system control unit 3, S ₁₂ in FIG. 10 To send a failure notification report to the service station.

Meanwhile, when there is an incoming call at S ₂ in FIG. 8, the process proceeds to S ₇ of FIG. 9, if already failure notification report sent, returns to S ₁ in FIG. 8, if not been transmitted, S ₈ Proceed to. When the system control unit 1 has an incoming call notification S _8, in S _9, S _10, if the system control unit 3 the next command is sent within a predetermined time, the process proceeds to the reception processing of S _11, if no , proceed to S _12, S ₁₃ in FIG. 10, the first communication control section 1 sends the failure notification report to the service station. Also in the reception process of the transmission processing and S ₁₁ of S ₆ in FIG. 9, even if the command from the system controller 3 is not issued within a predetermined time,
So that the process proceeds to S ₁₂ in FIG. 10. FIG. 11 shows a flow of detection of a transmission trigger of a failure notification report and a report transmission flow, and FIG. 12 shows a flow of image information when a failure notification report is transmitted. It should be noted that, by the time the signal is input from the pattern generator 20 of FIG.
A failure notification report is created by extracting data from the pattern generator 1 (bit pattern ROM).
FIG. 13 is an example of a failure notification report printed out at the service station.

On the other hand, the control flow through the second communication control unit 2 is the same as in FIGS. 8 and 9 except for the flow of FIG. 10, and the flow of FIG. 10 is replaced with the flow of FIG. FIG. 15 shows a voice guidance transmission trigger detection and transmission procedure, and FIG. 16 shows a voice transmission route. In the service station receiving the voice guidance, for example, “This is the transmission source FAX No. 0462
-28-1111. The system has failed due to an error in the system control unit. This is 0462-28-
It is 1111. "Can be recognized by voice.

[0017]

According to the present invention, the command waiting time is measured.
The system control unit recognizes the failure by
When the communication control unit detects a failure of the system control unit , it automatically calls a preset service station number and sends a failure notification report or voice guidance.
The failure can be promptly notified to the service station number side, and the device can be quickly restored . Also judge as failure
Failure detection by adjusting the command waiting time
Time and accuracy can be adjusted.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a control block diagram of an embodiment of a facsimile apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a first communication control unit in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a second communication control unit in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a voice guidance sending unit of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a view for explaining a transmission procedure of the apparatus in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a view for explaining the flow of image information in the transmission procedure of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a view for explaining a reception procedure of the apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a control flow of the apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a control flow following connectors 1 and 2 in FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a control flow following the connector 4 of FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a transmission trigger detection and transmission procedure of a failure notification report of the apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 12 is a view for explaining the flow of fault notification report data when the device of FIG. 1 transmits a fault notification report.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a print output at the service station side of a failure notification report sent from the apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 14 is a view showing a control flow following the connector 4 in FIG. 9;

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a voice guidance transmission trigger detection and transmission procedure of the apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 16 is a view for explaining a voice guidance transmission route when the apparatus of FIG. 1 transmits voice guidance.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 1st communication control part 2 2nd communication control part 3 system control part

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A facsimile apparatus, comprising: a communication control unit between a system bus and a line for controlling communication; and a system control unit connected to the system bus and controlling an entire system of the apparatus. Is a command from the system control unit.
When the waiting time is measured and exceeds a predetermined time, the system
A facsimile apparatus which determines that there is a failure in a system control unit and, when detecting a failure in the system control unit, calls a preset service station number and notifies the failure.