JP3147829B2 - Communication repeater - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication repeater for relaying data communication between two devices, and more particularly, to a communication repeater between an electronic measuring instrument and a personal computer. The present invention relates to a communication repeater suitable for being incorporated in an electronic measuring instrument so as to intervene or perform communication with a personal computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There are electronic measuring instruments having a function of communicating with external devices such as personal computers and printers, and communication relays for relaying between electronic measuring instruments and external devices.

An electronic measuring instrument or a communication repeater having such a communication function normally communicates with an external device in one predetermined data format.

[0004]

For this reason, the data measured by the electronic measuring instrument is
When the data is sent to a personal computer for processing, it is necessary to switch the personal computer to a special format other than the normal format of the electronic measuring instrument or communication repeater.

[0006]

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a personal computer with which data measured by an electronic measuring instrument is sent directly or via a communication repeater to a personal computer for processing. In addition, when it is necessary to switch to a special format other than the normal format of the communication repeater, it has a function to notify the personal computer that is the communication partner of the fact and to switch the function of the communication side, and It is another object of the present invention to provide a communication repeater that can output measurement data in a format suitable for it and can directly input the measurement data to the specific application software of the personal computer.

[0008]

The communication repeater of the present invention comprises:
This is a communication repeater to a personal computer having a function of starting a specific application software by inputting preset data and enabling input in a format used by the specific application, and represents an embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, a data input unit 1, a data output unit 2, a data analysis unit 3, a data generation unit 4, and a data conversion unit 5 are provided, and when the repeater starts, an instruction is provided by a switch provided separately. Is input, when the data analysis unit 3 determines that specific data has been input from the data input unit 1, or when the first data has been input from the data input unit 1 after activation, the data generation unit 4 Generates preset data and outputs the data to the personal computer via the data output unit 2. Moni, thereafter, the data converter 5,
It is characterized in that data input from the data input unit 1 is converted into a predetermined data conversion format (hereinafter, referred to as a data format) and output to the personal computer via the data output unit 2.

Here, the repeater of the present invention can be incorporated as a communication functional device into an electronic measuring instrument.

According to the present invention, the repeater is activated, an instruction from a separately provided switch is input, specific data is input to the data input unit 1, or the repeater is activated first. In the case where the data is input, first, automatically generate preset data and supply it to the personal computer on the receiving side. Thereafter, the data output from the data output unit 2 is converted into a predetermined format. Convert to

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of a communication repeater according to the present invention. In FIG. 1,
Although the device is shown in a block diagram for each function, it is actually configured mainly with a CPU and its peripheral devices,
It operates according to a program whose operation is shown in a flowchart described later.

The data input unit 1 is connected to, for example, an output port of an existing electronic measuring instrument M, and inputs data output from the electronic measuring instrument M. The data output unit 2 is connected to, for example, a personal computer P. here,
The output data of the electronic measuring instrument M connected to the data input unit 1 is in the format A. The function of the personal computer P connected to the data output unit 2 is switched by inputting preset data (notification data described later). It is assumed that the program has been programmed so that the input of the format B can be performed.

The input data from the data input unit 1 is first introduced into the data analysis unit 3, and whether the input data is the first data input after the start of the communication repeater or the data format is changed from A to B It is determined whether the command data is for switching the data format from B to A. Whether or not the data is the first data input after the activation can be determined by, for example, introducing a detection signal from the activation detector 3a for detecting the ON / OFF state of the activation switch.

The data analysis unit 3 supplies an instruction to the data generation unit 4 and the data conversion unit 5 in accordance with the result of discrimination of the input data, to generate prescribed data as described below, or to convert the input data into a predetermined format. And output from the data output unit 2.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment of the present invention. The data inputted to the data input unit 1 is discriminated by the data analysis unit 3 as to which of the above types and the above, or if the condition is satisfied, the data generation unit 4 is set in advance. The notification data is generated, the notification data is output from the data output unit 2 to an external device, and a flag is set thereafter.

In a state where the flag is set, that is, after input of data satisfying the above condition,
Until data that satisfies the above condition is input, the input data of the format A input from the data input unit 1 is converted to the format B by the data conversion unit 5, and then output from the data output unit 2.

As described above, the personal computer P connected to the data output unit 2 starts specific application software by inputting notification data, and can input format B data. The format B data is processed by the application software.

In this state, when data that satisfies the condition (1), that is, a command for switching the data format from B to A, is input to the data input unit 1, notification data is output and the flag is turned off. The output data from M, that is, the data of format A is output from the data output unit 2 as it is.

According to such an embodiment of the present invention,
The function of the personal computer P on the receiving side is automatically switched by data (notification data) transmitted from the communication repeater, and thereafter, data in a format matching the function is transmitted. Therefore, even if the electronic measuring device M can output only the data of the format A,
For example, it is possible to directly access specific application software of the personal computer P.

Here, in the present invention, the command for switching the data format from A to B is the command data for switching the format from A to B after inputting the first data after the start-up as in the above embodiment. In addition to the input of, it can be configured to automatically occur when the present apparatus is started or when an external switch attached to the present apparatus is operated.

Here, the term "external switch" means not only a normal mechanical switch but also a switch such as a non-volatile memory which can switch its state electronically.

Further, the present invention may be applied to a communication repeater as exemplified above, or this configuration may be directly incorporated into an electronic measuring instrument to form an integrated electronic measuring instrument with a communication function.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, an example in which two types of data formats, A and B, are shown,
Furthermore, it can be configured to be able to convert to one or more types of formats. In this case, notification data may be determined for each data format, and conditions for converting the data format may be set for each format.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention, when the first data is input after the start, when the command data for format switching is input, when the apparatus is started, or when the external When the switch is operated,
A notification that the data format is automatically switched is transmitted to automatically switch the function of the receiving personal computer, and thereafter, the data is output in a data format that matches the function. This makes it possible to directly supply and process measurement data to a specific application software, thereby greatly increasing the degree of freedom of communication between an electronic measuring instrument and a personal computer.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 data input unit 2 data output unit 3 data analysis unit 3a activation detector 4 data generation unit 5 data conversion unit

Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-6-37845 (JP, A) IEICE Technical Report HCS 96-24, "Current Status of Serial Keys and Trial Production of Serial Key Devices", (1996-9), p. 13-16 "General Input Device Evaluating Interface (GIDEI) Proposal DRAFT Version 2.0" (1994) (58) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04L 29/06

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A communication repeater for a personal computer having a function of starting a specific application software by inputting preset data and enabling input in a format used by the specific application, A data input unit, a data output unit, a data analysis unit, a data generation unit, and a data conversion unit, and when the repeater is started, when an instruction from a separately provided switch is input, the specific data is When the data analysis unit determines that the data is input from the input unit, or when the first data after startup is input from the data input unit, the data generation unit generates the preset data, and the data Is output to the personal computer via the data output unit, and thereafter, the data Data conversion unit, the communication repeater and outputting to the personal computer through the data output unit converts the data input from the data input unit into a predetermined data conversion format.