JP3329120B2 - Printer 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 printer, and more particularly, to printing out data supplied from a host device such as a host computer and notifying an operator of the host device of information such as an error state when an error occurs. The present invention relates to a printer device capable of performing the following.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When an error such as a paper jam occurs in a printer device for printing out data received from a remote host computer, it is necessary to notify the host computer of the error. For example, JP-A-5-181
In the printer described in Japanese Patent No. 621, when an error occurs during printing, the following procedure is performed to notify the operator of the error.

[0003] First, the content of an error that has occurred is converted into transmission data. Next, while dialing a telephone registered in advance, the data indicating the content of the error is converted into an audio signal by an audio circuit. Then, the audio signal is transmitted to the line via the communication interface. According to this procedure, the operator who answers the called telephone can be notified of the error state. According to this printer, it is possible to notify the operator who is far away from the printer of the occurrence of the error and the content of the error.

[0004]

The printer described in the above publication has the following problems. First, since the person who answers the telephone called by the dial is not necessarily the operator who has supplied data to the printer and issued a print command, information may not be reliably transmitted to the operator. In addition, it is necessary to add an audio circuit for converting the data indicating the content of the error into an audio signal, so that the load is large.

[0005] Furthermore, in order to ensure notification, it is conceivable to use a facsimile function together. In this case, each time an error occurs, an image is developed by image processing,
Further, since the data must be compressed and transmitted by the facsimile communication compression method, there is a problem that the processing load increases.

On the other hand, there is a demand for a printer device that can not only notify the occurrence of an error but also prevent the occurrence of the error.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems, and can easily and surely notify an error occurrence to a desired destination, and can also respond to a demand for notifying an error occurrence beforehand. The purpose is to provide.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems and achieve the object, the present invention provides a state monitoring means for monitoring an operation state of a printing unit, and an error occurrence detected by the state monitoring means. The error type determining means for determining whether or not the error is a serious error according to the type of the error, and outputting an error type determining signal; and determining at least the number of occurrences of non-critical errors among the errors detected by the state monitoring means. A management table including a recording area for recording, a warning determination unit that outputs a warning determination signal when the number of times of occurrence of the error satisfies a predetermined error warning criterion, the error type determination signal indicating a serious error, and the warning When at least one of the determination signals is supplied, an e-mail creating method for converting an error notification message corresponding to each signal into e-mail data When is characterized in that comprises a communication means for transmitting said e-mail data in the notification destination of the event.

[0009]

According to the present invention, the occurrence of a serious error in the printing section can be detected by the error type determining means. Further, it is possible to determine whether or not the number of occurrences of non-serious errors satisfies a predetermined error warning criterion by the warning determination means. Then, when a serious error occurs, or when it is determined that the error warning criterion is satisfied and the error warning is required, e-mail data is created and an error message is transmitted to the scheduled notification destination.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of the printer device according to one embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a printer device (hereinafter simply referred to as “printer”) 1 is connected to a network 2 such as a local area network (LAN). A plurality of computers 3 are connected to the network 2, and the computers 3 transmit data to the printer 1 as upper devices of the printer 1. The printer 1 receives this transmission data, performs appropriate data processing, and prints out. The printer 1 includes the following components for the data processing.

The printer 1 has a CPU 5 connected to each component via a bus 4 such as a data bus. The program memory 6 is a memory for storing programs and constants necessary for the operation of the printer 1 by the CPU 5, and the working memory 7 is a memory for storing data temporarily required for controlling the printer 1. . The non-volatile memory device 8 is a memory having an area for storing print data transferred from the computer 3 and an area for storing information such as an operation state of the printer 1 and operation result information. Even in this case, the stored contents do not disappear.

The image memory 9 is a memory for storing bitmap data to be printed. The external communication interface 10 is a circuit for transmitting and receiving data to and from the computer 3 via the network 2. The image transfer interface 11 is a circuit for transferring the bitmap data stored in the image memory 9 to the printing unit 12. The internal communication interface 13 transmits an instruction for the operation of the printing unit 12, Is a circuit for receiving the information indicating the state of. The clock circuit 14 is a circuit for managing time, and the console panel 15 is a circuit for displaying an operation state of the printing unit 12 and an error, and a display for urging replenishment of consumables such as paper and toner. It is.

In the printer having the above configuration, print data transferred from the computer 3 via the network 2 is received by the external communication interface 10. The received data is stored in the nonvolatile memory 8 and the CP
U5 converts the received data into bitmap data according to the program stored in the program memory 6. This conversion work is executed by reading the received data into the work memory 7. The converted bitmap data is stored in the image memory 9. When a print start command is transmitted from the CPU 5 to the printing unit 12 via the internal communication interface 13, the printing unit 12 reads bitmap data from the image memory 9 via the image transfer interface 11 and performs printing. When the printing is executed normally, the normal end information is transmitted to the internal communication interface 13. This normal end information is registered as one piece of management information in a state storage area such as a management table set in the nonvolatile memory 8 in advance.

Next, the operation when an error occurs during printing in the printer 1 having the above configuration will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In the figure, in step S1, a printing operation is started based on a print request from the CPU 5. In step S2, it is determined whether one print has been completed. This determination is made based on a detection signal from a paper discharge detection sensor provided in the printing unit 12, a detection signal from a sensor indicating the rotation position of the printing drum, and the like. If it is determined that the printing has been completed by detecting the scheduled rotation of the sheet discharge sensor or the printing drum, the process proceeds to step S16 to determine the presence or absence of the next print request. If it is determined that the printing has not been completed, the process proceeds to step S3 to determine whether an error has occurred. If it is determined that an error has occurred, the process proceeds to step S4, and the type of the error is determined. The details of this determination will be described later with reference to FIG.
In step S5, it is determined whether the generated error is a serious error. If it is a serious error, the process proceeds to step S6, in which a scheduled error message is converted into electronic mail data to notify occurrence of the error. Step S7 is
The error message is transmitted by e-mail to the computer 3 currently executing printing. In step S8, the power supply is cut off and the printing operation is interrupted.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S5 that the error is not a serious error, the process proceeds to step S9. Step S
In step 9, the contents of the error and the recovery procedure are displayed on the console panel 15. In the case of an error for which the recovery procedure is known in advance, data of a message indicating the procedure can be prepared in the nonvolatile memory 8 in advance, and this message may be displayed. In step S10, it is determined whether or not the error has been dealt with and the normal state has been restored. When the state is restored to the normal state, the process proceeds to step S11, and processing (error warning determination) for determining whether or not it is necessary to issue an error warning is performed. The details of this processing are shown in FIG.
Will be described later. In step S12, step S1
Based on the determination in step 1, it is determined whether an error warning is necessary. If an error warning is required, the process proceeds to step S13, in which an error warning, that is, a message indicating that an error is likely to occur is converted into e-mail data, and the process proceeds to step S14. In step S14, the e-mail data is transmitted to one of the computers 3 that will execute the print job next.

If it is determined that there is no need for an error warning, the flow advances to step S15 to record the occurrence of an error in the management table of the nonvolatile memory 8. The content recorded here is used for the determination in step S11.

Next, the error type determination operation in step S4 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In step S100, it is determined whether or not the error that has occurred is an error due to a lack of consumables. For example, the consumables such as running out of toner need only be replenished with consumables. Therefore, it is determined that the error is not a serious error, the process proceeds to step S104, and the serious error flag F is set to “0”. If it is determined that the consumable is not exhausted, the process advances to step S101 to determine whether a paper jam error has occurred. If a paper jam error is determined, this error is not a serious error, and the recovery process can be easily performed. Further, if it is determined that there is no paper jam, the process proceeds to step S102,
It is determined whether or not an error is caused by the fact that unmounted print data is included in the print data. For example, if a code or command that is not implemented in the printer 1 is included, the code or command can be skipped or replaced with an arbitrary code and processed. Instead, the process proceeds to step S104. If neither of the above-mentioned errors is found, it means that an unexpected error has occurred, and it is not possible to take an immediate action, so that the process proceeds to step S103, and the serious error flag F is set to "1". In step S5, a determination can be made based on the serious error flag.

Next, the error warning judging operation in step S11 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In step S200, it is determined whether or not the number of error occurrences exceeds a predetermined number. For example, a management table that records the number of times of error occurrence is checked, and the result can be compared with the set number of times to make a determination. It is desirable that, when a serious error occurs, the number of times of error recorded in the management table is cleared once after the countermeasure, and counted from that point. If the determination in step S200 is affirmative, the process proceeds to step S204, and the error warning flag f is set to “1”. If the determination in step S200 is negative, the process proceeds to step S201.

In step S201, it is determined whether the number of error occurrences in the last hour has exceeded a predetermined number.
For example, in the management table for recording the number of times of error occurrence,
It is possible to provide a recording area for clearing the record of an old error that occurred one hour or more before each time, check this recording area, and compare the result with the set number of times to make a determination. If the determination in step S201 is affirmative,
Proceeding to step S204, the error warning flag f is set to "1".
Set to. If the determination in step S201 is negative, the process proceeds to step S202.

In step S202, it is determined whether or not the number of error occurrences in the latest one hour is greater than the number of error occurrences in the previous one hour. For example,
In the management table for recording the number of times of error occurrence, a recording area for recording the number of times of error occurrence (e2) in the last two hours, and the number of times of error occurrence in the last hour (e1)
) Is recorded. Then, it can be determined whether or not the number of errors (e1- (e2-e1)) is greater than the number of times of error occurrence based on whether or not the number of errors is positive. If the determination in step S202 is affirmative, the process proceeds to step S204 to set the error warning flag f to “1”. If the determination in step S202 is negative, the process proceeds to step S203, and the error warning flag f is set to “0”. In step S12, based on the error warning flag f,
The necessity of an error warning can be determined.

In this error warning determination, the criterion is 3
(Steps S200 to S202) are not limited to those that are determined for all,
One of them can be selected as an error warning judgment.

Next, main functions of the printer 1 for performing the above-described operation when an error occurs will be described with reference to a functional block diagram of FIG. Referring to FIG.
Monitors the printing state of the printing unit 12 and detects normal end of printing or occurrence of an error. State monitoring unit 16
When the error is detected in step (1), the error detection information d1 is notified to the error type discriminating unit 17, and when the normal end of the printing is detected, the normal end signal d0 is output to the management table 20. The management table 20 stores the information of each computer 3
Has a management area for each print job generated in
Upon receiving the normal end signal d0, the management information is deleted from the management area of the print job.

The error type determining section 17 determines whether the error that has occurred is a serious error based on the error detection information d1. In the case of a serious error, severe error detection information d2
Is output to the e-mail creation unit 18, and if the error is not a serious error, the error type information d 3 is output to the procedure storage unit 19. The procedure storage unit 19 stores the error type information d3
Data indicating a scheduled error recovery procedure is supplied to the console panel 15. If the error is not a serious error, the error detection signal d4 is output to the management table 20 and the warning determination unit 21.
Supplied to The management table 20 stores the error detection signal d4
, The data of the error occurrence recording area, that is, the number of times of error occurrence is updated.

On the other hand, the warning discriminating section 21 outputs an error detection signal d.
When "4" is input, the number of times of occurrence of errors in the management table 20 is checked to determine whether or not a predetermined standard for giving an error warning has been reached. The criterion is as described with reference to FIG. If it is determined that an error warning should be issued, the warning determination unit 21 outputs an error warning instruction d5 to the electronic mail creation unit 18. E-mail composer 18
Reads out message data corresponding to each information or instruction from the message storage unit 22 based on the serious error detection information d2 or the error warning instruction d5,
Create email data. The created e-mail data is transmitted to the scheduled computer 3 via the external communication interface 10. The scheduled computer 3 is the computer 3 that is the data transfer source that is currently performing printing, or the computer 3 that is the data transfer source that is scheduled to perform printing next. Which computer 3 to send the e-mail to is selected from the transfer source of the print data stored in the management table 20 depending on which of the serious error detection information d2 and the error warning instruction d5 is to send the e-mail. I do.

As described above, in this embodiment, when a serious error occurs, or when the error occurs frequently, the error occurrence or error prediction information is transmitted by e-mail. The content of the e-mail is not limited to the error occurrence and error type, but may include information for contacting a maintenance service organization of the printer 1 or a person in charge thereof. The destination of the e-mail is not limited to the computer 3 and may be the maintenance service organization or a person in charge, or a person who centrally manages the printer 1 or the computer 3. Further, in addition to the above destination, the same information as the electronic mail may be output to the console panel 15 of the printer 1. Further, information such as occurrence of a serious error is not limited to electronic mail, and can be transmitted in various data communication formats in accordance with a protocol held by the destination of the information.

[0026]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the first aspect of the present invention, when a serious error occurs in the printing unit or the number of times of occurrence of an error that does not result in a serious error is based on a predetermined error warning standard. If it is determined that there is a possibility that the error will recur in the near future, the corresponding error message can be notified by e-mail to a predetermined destination.

Therefore, unlike the related art, there is no need to provide a function for facsimile transmission, a voice circuit, or the like for notifying an error, so that an error can be notified with a simple configuration. Furthermore, since a state in which an error is likely to occur can be predicted and notified, maintenance or inspection can be performed with a margin.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a main part of a printer device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of a printer device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a general flowchart of an error generation process.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of error type determination.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of an error warning determination.

[Description of Signs] 3 ... Computer 10 ... External Communication Interface
12: printing unit, 16: status monitoring unit, 17: error type monitoring unit, 18: e-mail creation unit, 19: procedure storage unit, 20: management table, 21: warning determination unit,
22 Message storage unit

Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Yasuo Yonei 3-7-1, Fuuchi, Iwatsuki-shi, Saitama Examiner, Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. Satoshi Tanaka (56) References JP-A-6-348435 (JP, A) JP-A Heihei 6-83551 (JP, A) JP-A-3-10271 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 3/12

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A printer device having a printing unit for printing print data supplied from the outside, wherein: a state monitoring unit for monitoring an operation state of the printing unit; and when an occurrence of an error is detected by the state monitoring unit. To
Determine whether the error is a serious error based on the type of the error,
An error type determination unit that outputs an error type determination signal, a management table including a recording area that records the number of occurrences of at least errors that are not serious errors among the errors detected by the state monitoring unit, and the number of occurrences of the error is scheduled. When at least one of a warning determination unit that outputs a warning determination signal when an error warning criterion is satisfied, the error type determination signal indicating a serious error, and the warning determination signal is supplied, an error corresponding to each signal is provided. A printer device comprising: an e-mail creating unit that converts a notification message into e-mail data; and a communication unit that transmits the e-mail data to a scheduled notification destination.