JP3165298B2 - Wireless print data transfer device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wireless print data transfer apparatus, and more particularly, to a wireless print data transfer apparatus, in which data is wirelessly transferred from a computer to a printer. The present invention relates to a wireless print data transfer device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When data is transferred between computers or between peripheral devices, the data is usually transferred by connecting the both by a cable and by wire. With the spread, wireless data transfer without the need to connect cables each time has been attempted. In addition, there is a growing demand to share high-speed devices such as laser printers with multiple computers and to process print data and other data in a batch, and to avoid complicated wiring, transfer data using radio waves or light. Has also been proposed.

[0003] In such a system that communicates data by radio (including not only radio waves but also optical communications), it is customary to detect errors in data transfer in order to ensure reliability. For example, the data is grouped for each predetermined number of bytes, and data for error detection is added to the data to form a packet. Each time one packet is transmitted, the receiving device uses the data transferred using the error detection data for each packet. It detects whether there is any error and sends it back to the sender.

[0004]

However, in the case of wireless data transfer, the receiving state greatly differs depending on the positional relationship between the transmitting device and the receiving device and the environment, and it is not always easy to perform stable data transfer. There was a problem. Among radio systems, in the case of using radio waves, if a radio having a relatively large output is used, transmission and reception will be good, but a radio station license is required from the viewpoint of publicity of radio waves. On the other hand, when using a weak radio wave that does not require a license, a high-sensitivity receiving device is required, and there has been a problem that the device becomes large and expensive.

[0005] When an error occurs in data transfer, the reliability of the data is kept constant by retransmission of the data, but the data is retransmitted many times, so that unnecessary time is required for the data transfer. There were cases. In such a case, even if good data transfer is possible with a slight movement of the transmission device, the user may not notice that the rate of occurrence of abnormality in the data transfer is high in the first place, and the user is left as it is, It could hinder efficient operation of the entire system including the data transfer device.

The wireless print data transfer device of the present invention has been made to solve the above problems and to facilitate the data transfer from the computer to the printer, and has the following configuration.

[0007]

A wireless print data transfer device according to the present invention is a wireless print data transfer device for wirelessly transferring data from a computer to a printer.
A transmitting device connected to a computer for receiving and transmitting print data from the computer, and a plurality of antennas connected to a printer for receiving a radio signal from the transmitting device; receiving data from the transmitting device; It consists of a receiving apparatus for outputting to the printer, to the receiving device, in case of any abnormality in the reception of data from the transmitting device, and the abnormality occurrence storage means for storing the occurrence of the communication abnormality, the plurality of The transmitting apparatus, comprising: a receiving state detecting unit that switches an antenna to detect a side having a good receiving state; and a state notifying unit that notifies the transmitting apparatus of the occurrence of the communication abnormality and the receiving state. Output means for wirelessly outputting print data output by a computer, and a predetermined operation in the computer, which is different from the processing being executed. A transmission status display means for displaying a window on the display device of the computer, and displaying at least a communication error occurrence state and a reception state in the window based on the notification from the state notification means of the reception apparatus. The point is to prepare.

Here, the transmitting device may be housed in a housing separate from the computer and connected to the computer by a cable, or may be directly mounted in an expansion slot of the computer. In the latter case,
The antenna may be housed inside the slot, but a housing protruding outside from the expansion slot may be prepared, and the transmitting antenna may be provided here.

Further, the transmission status display means can be realized by a program resident in the internal memory of the computer and started by a predetermined key combination. Further, it is preferable that the transmission status display means includes means for displaying, on a display device of the computer, a moving direction of the transmission device in which the reception state becomes better.

[0010] It is also desirable that the transmitting device or the receiving device is provided with print data storage means for storing print data, and a function as a buffer is added.

The term “wireless” in the present invention means that it is not a wired system directly connected by a cable, and is not limited to specific low-power communication, and may be weak communication or communication using other bands. Optical communication using infrared rays, far infrared rays, microwaves, or the like can also be used.

[0012]

In the wireless printing data transfer apparatus according to the present invention, the receiving apparatus has a plurality of antennas, which are switched to detect a side having a good reception state and to receive a signal from the transmitting apparatus. When an error occurs in data reception, the occurrence of a communication error is stored. Then, the transmitting device is notified of the receiving state and the occurrence of the transmission abnormality. On the transmitting device side, along with the transfer of the print data, a window different from the process currently being executed is displayed on the display device of the computer, and based on the notification from the receiving device side, at least the occurrence state of the communication abnormality is displayed. The receiving status is displayed in the window.

Therefore, according to the wireless print data transfer apparatus of the present invention, the user can easily grasp the state of the data transfer and easily take measures to improve the communication state.

[0014]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In order to further clarify the structure and operation of the present invention described above, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an installation state of a print data transfer device as one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a data transmission device 1, and FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of a data reception device 10. is there.

As shown in FIG. 1, the data transmitting apparatus 1 is mounted in an expansion slot of a computer 2 and a part thereof is exposed to the outside. On the upper surface of the housing 3 exposed to the outside,
An antenna 8 is provided. On the other hand, the data receiving device 1
0 has two antennas 9a and 9b, and a printer 6 is connected to its output connector by a cable.

In this embodiment, the print data is sent from the computer 2 to the printer 6 via the data transmitting device 1 and the data receiving device 10, so that the data transmitting device 1 serves as a master and the data receiving device 10 serves as a slave. Although each functions, the data receiving device 10 to the data transmitting device 1
It is also possible to transfer data to Also in this embodiment,
Data is sent from the data receiving device 10 to the data transmitting device 1 to notify whether or not data transmission by a packet has been performed without error. The actual data transfer will be described later.

As shown in FIG. 2, the data transmitting device 1
An expansion connector provided in an expansion slot of the computer 2 including a serial input / output unit (SIO) 4 for converting parallel data from the computer 2 into serial data and a transmission / reception unit 5 for converting serial data into a wireless output of a specific frequency. 7 is connected. When outputting the print data, the application program attempts to execute a process of outputting the data to the printer port. This process is started by a predetermined interrupt process (INTxx) if the application program operates under the OS. Therefore, a wireless printer buffer device driver that intercepts this interrupt is installed in the OS in advance. As a result, as shown in the memory map of FIG.
When trying to call the IOS, this device driver intercepts it and activates the wireless printer buffer device driver.

The wireless printer buffer device driver sequentially stores data prepared as print data by the application program in a buffer area of the wireless printer buffer. When the print data is stored in the buffer area, the print data is sequentially output to the SIO 4 as transfer data TxD by interrupt processing based on the state of the transmission / reception register of the SIO 4 of the data transmission device 1.

The SIO 12 having received the print data converts the print data transmitted as a parallel signal into a serial signal, and outputs the serial signal to the transmission / reception unit 14. The communication method is
This is character synchronization (BISYNC synchronization) communication, and SIO12
Outputs the data to be communicated with a synchronization character. The transmission / reception unit 14 transmits the serial signal to the outside from the antenna 8 with the frequency of the channel assigned in advance. In the present embodiment, data is transmitted by the simplex method, and the maximum number of channels that can be used by the transmission / reception unit 14 is 10, and channel 0 is used as a control channel. Data exchange between the SIO 12 and the computer 2 is performed using a predetermined interrupt. When the data transmitting apparatus 1 receives the data, the data is similarly transferred to the printer buffer device driver as received data RxD and stored in a specific area of the buffer area.

The transmission / reception unit 14 conforms to the standard of the radio equipment for data transmission of the specified low power radio station 400 MHz band, the communication system is a simplex system, the total number of channels used is 10, and the modulation system is a binary FSK modulation. Method, modulation speed is 4
800 bps. The transmission / reception unit 14 in the present embodiment performs carrier sense, and performs transmission and reception using a channel in which no interference occurs according to the instruction.

Next, the internal configuration of the data receiving apparatus 10 will be described. As shown in FIG. 3, the data receiving apparatus 10 includes an 8-bit microprocessor (hereinafter, referred to as an MPU) 11, an SIO 12 that converts data output from the MPU 11 into a serial signal, and a transmission / reception connected to the SIO 12. The unit 14 and the MP
The memory controller 20, the IO decode circuit 22, the transmission / reception unit controller 25, and the like are connected to the data bus 16, the address bus 17, and the like of U11. The data input / output of the memory 27 is also connected to the data bus 16. Further, a switch 26 for switching between the two antennas 9a and 9b provided in the data receiving device 10 is provided, and the switch 26 is connected to be switchable by a transmission / reception unit controller 25.

The data receiving device 10 includes the transmitting / receiving unit 1
4. The print data received via the SIO 12 is sequentially stored in the memory 27 using the memory controller 20.
When the print data is stored, the MPU 11 sends the data to the printer 6.

When the data receiving apparatus 10 having the same configuration as the data transmitting apparatus 1 receives the packet by the transmitting / receiving unit 14, the packet is transmitted to the MPU 11 via the SIO 12.
Output to The MPU 11 receives the reception interrupt Rx and
O12 is accessed, the received data is read, and the data is sequentially stored in the memory 27. After that, the data configured on the memory 27 is output to the printer 6 and printing is performed.

Next, transmission / reception processing executed by the data transmitting apparatus 1 and the data receiving apparatus 10 will be described with reference to FIGS.
This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When the print data is prepared, the print driver operating in the computer 2 starts the data transmission processing routine shown in FIG. 5, and first performs the connection processing with the partner station (step S100).

The connection process is performed as follows. The transmitting / receiving unit 14 of the data transmitting apparatus 1 that is to transmit data is called a calling station, and the transmitting / receiving unit 14 of the data receiving apparatus 10 that receives data from the calling station is called a called station. FIG. 6 shows an example of the connection procedure. FIG.
Is a procedure in the case of simplex system and fixed / manual channel switching. As shown in the figure, the calling station searches for a free data channel, confirms the availability of the control channel, calls using the control channel, and searches for a call name, which is a channel number, as a control signal and the call name. A connection request signal including the specified free data channel designation information is transmitted. After receiving the control signal, the called station confirms the availability of the control channel, and then returns a signal which is a connection response signal using the control channel, thereby connecting the line through the designated channel. When the connection with the partner station is completed (step S110), a process for generating a packet is performed (step S120).

That is, transmission data of a predetermined number of bytes includes:
A packet is formed by adding a status code SC indicating the status and number of the packet and an error detection code EC. For example, as shown in FIG.
The state code SC and the error detection code EC are added before and after the packet P1 to form the packet P1. As the status code SC, there is a code "CNT" indicating that a packet is further continuous after the packet, or a code "END" indicating that the packet is not continuous after the packet. Various codes are known as the error detection code EC. In this embodiment, a cyclic code CRC is used.

Subsequently, the generated one packet data is output (step S130), and a process of receiving a reply from the data receiving device 10 receiving the data is performed (step S140). The received data is stored in a predetermined area of the memory (step S150), and the process exits from "NEXT" and temporarily ends the routine.

Next, processing on the data receiving apparatus 10 side for receiving this data will be described. After the connection is completed, the data receiving device 10 first receives data (step S200),
This is repeated until one packet is completed (step S
210). When the data of one packet is received, the CRC of the print data PD included in this packet is calculated, and a process is performed to determine whether or not there is an error by comparing the CRC with the error detection code EC added at the end (step). S2
20).

If the two are the same, it is determined that there is no error in the received data, and a process of returning a normal response signal ACK is performed (step S230). If it is determined that the two do not match and an error has occurred, retransmission is performed. Is output (step S240).

After these processes, the controller 9 controls the transmission / reception unit controller 25 to switch the antennas 9a and 9b, and performs a process of measuring the electric field strength in a state where the respective antennas 9a and 9b are used (step S250).
The switching of the antenna is performed by switching the switch 26, and the electric field strength is measured by the transmission / reception unit 14. As shown in FIG. 9, when there are a plurality of antennas provided in the data receiving device 10, any of the antennas is used depending on the positional relationship with the data transmitting device 1 because the antenna has directivity. The electric field strength differs depending on the above. Therefore, by switching the antennas and measuring the electric field strength, it is possible to determine which antenna is used for more stable reception. Data receiving device 1
0 always uses the antenna with the stronger electric field strength.

After the above processing, processing for outputting the reception state information determined from the electric field strength is performed (step S26).
0), and then exit to "NEXT" and end this routine. As described above, the data receiving apparatus 10 outputs the reception state information to the data transmitting apparatus 1 in addition to the retransmission request when an error occurs.
It is possible to grasp the occurrence state of the error in the data transfer and the reception state information based on the electric field strength.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the computer 2 transmitting the data notifies the user of the data transfer status using the reception status information. That is, when the user inputs a specific key combination of the keyboard of the computer 2, for example, “CTRL” + “GRP
When "H" + "HELP" or the like is simultaneously pressed, the pop-up window processing of FIG. 10 is started. When this processing is started, as shown in FIG. 11, a dedicated window WD pops up on the display DP of the computer 2 irrespective of the display by the application that is currently executing the processing.

The computer 2 reads out the reply data stored previously (FIG. 5, step S150) (step S300), and determines what percentage of the print data being transmitted has been transmitted, and the occurrence of a transmission error. A process for displaying a rate or the like is performed (step S310). Subsequently, it is determined whether or not the transmission error occurrence rate is greater than a predetermined value α (step S320). If the error rate is high, an indication of the moving direction is displayed in a margin below the bar graph indicating the error rate. Perform (step S330). This indication of the moving direction is for notifying the user that the computer 2 is to be moved to the side where the electric field strength is higher, based on the reception state information (step S270 in FIG. 8) received earlier. . In the embodiment, as shown in FIG. 11, a graphic is displayed so that the moving direction can be intuitively understood.

If the error rate is very small, there is no need to move the computer 2 equipped with the data transmission device 10, so this display is not performed. After the above processing,
The process exits from "NEXT" and ends this routine.

According to the above-described print data transfer apparatus of the present embodiment, a compact structure that can be installed in the expansion slot of the notebook computer 2 eliminates the need for troublesome cable connection and disconnection, and furthermore, the application program. The print data can be reliably sent to the printer 6 wirelessly without altering the print data. Moreover, the computer 2 transmitting the print data
The side can grasp the transfer status of the print data, for example, the ratio of the transmitted data and the error rate, etc., and when a situation such as the occurrence of an error or the frequent retransmission of the packet occurs, the situation can be grasped promptly. Can be.

Further, the data receiving apparatus 10 of the embodiment
The antennas 9a and 9b are provided, and not only the antenna having the better reception condition is used, but also the electric field strength is measured.
An instruction can be given to move the data transmission device 1 to a side where data transfer can be performed more stably. Therefore, users can not only easily understand the status of data transfer,
The situation of data transfer can be positively improved.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment, and it is needless to say that the present invention can be implemented in various modes without departing from the gist of the present invention. It is. For example, a configuration in which a plurality of packets are continuously transmitted and only packets having an error are retransmitted, and a configuration in which a popup window WD is automatically opened to notify a user of a transfer status when an error occurrence rate exceeds a predetermined value. Etc. are also possible. It also detects the frequency of error in packet transmission, and if the frequency of error is high, shortens the length of data contained in the packet to prevent a drop in transfer efficiency due to data retransmission due to the error. It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which Furthermore, it is also possible to add an error correction code instead of the error detection code. In this case, for the range that can correct the error,
There is no need to request retransmission of data. In addition, a configuration using a band of 1.2 GHz or 2.4 GHz as the transmission frequency of the transmission / reception unit 14 can be considered.

[0038]

According to the wireless print data transfer apparatus of the present invention constructed as described above, the receiving apparatus is provided with a plurality of antennas, and the antennas are switched to detect the side having a good receiving state, and the transmitting apparatus is provided with a plurality of antennas. When an abnormality occurs in the reception of the data, the occurrence of the communication abnormality is stored, and the transmitting device is notified of the reception state and the occurrence of the transmission abnormality. On the transmitting device side,
Along with the transfer of the print data, a window different from the currently executing process is displayed on the display device of the computer, and based on the notification from the receiving device side, at least the communication error occurrence status and the reception status are displayed. Display in a window.

Therefore, according to the wireless print data transfer apparatus of the present invention, the user can easily grasp the state of data transfer and can easily take measures to improve the communication state. It has excellent effects. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a data transmitting device 1 and a data receiving device 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of the data transmission device 1.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of the data receiving device 10;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the operation of a printer driver.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a data transmission processing routine.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing the entire control up to data communication between two wireless stations.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a configuration example of a packet.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a reception processing routine.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing a state of measuring electric field strength for two antennas.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing processing of a pop-up window. .

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a pop-up window.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Data transmission apparatus 2 ... Computer 3 ... Case 4 ... SIO 5 ... Transmission / reception unit 6 ... Printer 8 ... Antenna 9a, 9b ... Antenna 10 ... Data reception apparatus 11 ... MPU (microprocessor) 12 ... SIO 14 ... Transmission / reception unit 16 ... Data bus 17 ... Address bus 20 ... Memory controller 22 ... IO decode circuit 25 ... Transceiver unit controller 26 ... Switch 27 ... Memory 29 ... Cable 30 ... Connector

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-4-58312 (JP, A) JP-A-4-282922 (JP, A) JP-A-4-205224 (JP, A) Jpn. Microfilm (JP, U) photographing the contents of the specification and drawings attached to the application for No. 124422 (Japanese Utility Model No. 4-80144) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04B 7 / 24-7/26 102 H04Q 7/00-7/38 G06F 3/12 G06F 13/00 351

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] A wireless print data transfer device for wirelessly transferring data from a computer to a printer, comprising: a transmission device connected to a computer for receiving print data from the computer and transmitting the print data; and a printer connected to the printer. A plurality of antennas for receiving a radio signal from the transmitting device, a receiving device for receiving data from the transmitting device and outputting the data to the printer. When an error occurs in reception,
And abnormality occurrence storage means for storing the occurrence of the communication abnormality, by switching the plurality of antennas, and the reception state detecting means for detecting the good side of the receiving state, and a state of the reception and generation of the communication error A status notifying unit that notifies the transmitting device side, the transmitting device includes: an output unit that wirelessly outputs print data output by a computer; and a process being executed by a predetermined operation in the computer. Displays another window on the display device of the computer, and displays at least a communication error occurrence state and a reception state in the window based on the notification from the state notification unit of the reception apparatus. Wireless print data transfer device comprising: 2. The wireless print data transfer device according to claim 1, wherein the transmission device is directly mounted in an expansion slot of the computer, and includes a transmission antenna in a housing protruding outside from the expansion slot. A wireless print data transfer device, wherein the transmission status display means is resident in an internal memory of a computer, and is realized by a program activated by a predetermined key combination. 3. The wireless print data transfer device according to claim 1, wherein said transmission status display means includes means for displaying, on a display device of said computer, a moving direction of said transmission device at which a reception state becomes better. 4. The wireless print data transfer device according to claim 1, further comprising print data storage means for storing print data in the transmission device or the reception device.