JP4219693B2 - Barcode handy terminal - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a bar code handy terminal, and more particularly to data protection when a power supply is inadvertently down for some reason.
[0002]
[Prior art]
The barcode handy terminal is a mobile device that is carried by an operator and used to read a barcode attached to a product or a slip in a factory or warehouse, and is therefore driven by a battery. Here, the battery includes a dry battery (for example, an alkaline primary battery) and a rechargeable battery (for example, a lithium ion secondary battery).
[0003]
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-236871
This publication discloses a barcode handy terminal in which a battery holder in which two AA batteries are arranged in series is detachably attached to a grip portion of the handy terminal.
[0005]
This type of bar code handy terminal moves to the emergency stop process if the battery is dropped from the main body for some reason or the user inadvertently removes the battery before sending the accumulated data to the host computer. Designed to.
[0006]
Here, the emergency stop process includes the following process.
(1) Shift to self-refresh for a memory that needs to be recharged (refreshed) before the internal capacitor is completely discharged and data is lost to retain the memory contents, such as DRAM Send a command.
(2) When the handy terminal is restarted, a predetermined value is written in the memory so that the resume operation for returning to the state immediately before the previous power-off can be performed.
(3) When the process is shifted to the emergency stop process while data is being written to the flash ROM, the writing is completed with respect to the data currently being processed.
(4) The CPU is shifted to the low power consumption mode.
[0007]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
When a battery is dropped from the barcode handy terminal, the time that can be spent on the emergency stop process depends on the total amount of charge accumulated in the capacitance component represented by the capacitor present on the handy terminal circuit. The In other words, after the battery is removed, only the electric charge accumulated in the circuit can be relied on, and the emergency stop process must be continued and terminated by the electric charge accumulated in the circuit.
[0008]
The handy terminal is usually equipped with an auxiliary battery for the purpose of retaining the memory contents even when the battery (main battery) for driving the terminal is exhausted. Since it is intended to retain the contents, it cannot supply a large amount of power until the CPU or the like is driven.
[0009]
If the charge accumulated in the circuit is exhausted before the emergency stop process is completed and the CPU cannot operate, the data stored in the memory until then will be destroyed, and the user will suffer damage caused by data loss. There is a problem that the resume function cannot be executed when the handy terminal is restarted and the convenience of the user is impaired.
[0010]
The following two methods are conceivable as methods for ensuring the emergency stop process. The first method increases the amount of charge stored in the circuit. The second method reduces the power consumed during the emergency stop process.
[0011]
Regarding the first method, since the amount of charge accumulated in the circuit is determined by the capacity of the capacitor mounted in the circuit, increasing the capacity of the capacitor increases the size of the handy terminal body. Will be invited. This is contrary to the recent demand for miniaturization, and it is difficult to increase the amount of electric charge accumulated in the circuit.
[0012]
Regarding the second method, if the operation of a device with high current consumption (built-in high-power device) such as a backlight, scanner, LED, buzzer, vibrator, etc. can be suppressed at the moment when the emergency stop process starts, it accumulates in the circuit. Consumption of the generated charges can be suppressed.
[0013]
However, as shown in FIG. 1, since the process for forcibly stopping the operation of the built-in high-power devices 1 to 5 has been performed by software, a certain amount of time is required for the CPU 6 to stop the process. there were. A signal line with an arrow from the CPU 6 to the built-in high power devices 1 to 5 means a plurality of signal lines. That is, the built-in high-power devices 1 to 5 have enable terminals, and the CPU 6 performs fine enable control on the individual devices 1 to 5 to suppress current consumption. Delay time until the detection circuit 8 detects that the main battery 7 is disconnected from the handy terminal main body, and the CPU 6 receives a battery disconnection signal and stops the operation of the individual high power devices 1 to 5. When a large amount of electric charge is consumed during this period, the electric charge accumulated in the circuit may be exhausted during the emergency stop process.
[0014]
In addition, referring to FIG. 2, in the conventional handy terminal, writing data to the flash ROM (step S7) is performed by a user such as pressing and holding the power key switch (step S6) when turning off the power of the handy terminal. Explicitly requires an explicit operation, but the user writes to the volatile RAM when the handy terminal is in normal use (steps S1 to S5). For example, the handy terminal There is a risk that data may be lost due to accidents such as dropping data. Even when data is written to the flash ROM (step S7), if data is written as it is, it takes time to write data, and the operability of the handy terminal may be deteriorated. Furthermore, when the main battery is removed during writing to the flash ROM (step S7), it is assumed that data is not normally written to the flash ROM.
[0015]
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a barcode handy terminal that can ensure execution of emergency stop processing when a main battery is disconnected for any reason.
[0016]
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a barcode handy terminal that can ensure execution of emergency stop processing by preserving a large amount of charge in a circuit that can be spent on emergency stop processing. .
[0017]
A further object of the present invention is to provide a barcode handy terminal capable of ensuring the execution of an emergency stop process by reducing the amount of data to be written in a memory and reducing the data writing time.
[0018]
A further object of the present invention is to set the default data write memory to the flash ROM, which is a nonvolatile memory, so that even if the emergency stop process fails or the power of the auxiliary battery is insufficient, The object is to provide a bar code handy terminal that allows protection.
[0019]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
According to the first aspect of the present invention, this technical problem is
In the barcode handy terminal that performs emergency stop processing using the charge accumulated inside the barcode handy terminal body when the main battery is removed from the barcode handy terminal body,
A high-power device built in the barcode handy terminal and consuming a large amount of power,
A CPU for controlling the high power device ;
Power is supplied from the main battery, a power line for supplying power to the high-power device and the CPU ,
A switch interposed in the power line;
Providing a barcode handy terminal comprising: a battery disconnection detection circuit that detects that the main battery has been detached from the handy terminal body and turns off a switch interposed in the power line. Is achieved.
[0020]
According to the second invention of the present invention,
In the barcode handy terminal that performs emergency stop processing using the charge accumulated inside the barcode handy terminal body when the main battery is removed from the barcode handy terminal body,
A high-power device built in the barcode handy terminal and consuming a large amount of current,
An enable terminal provided on the high-power device,
A logic element connected to the enable terminal;
Power is supplied from the main battery, and a power line for supplying power to the high power device,
A battery removal detection circuit that detects that the barcode handy terminal is disconnected from the main body;
When the battery removal detection circuit detects that the main battery has been detached from the handy terminal body, a battery removal signal is output from the battery removal detection circuit to the logic element, and the high power device is disabled. This is accomplished by providing a barcode handy terminal characterized by
[0021]
In the embodiment of the present invention,
The barcode handy terminal is
First memory means for temporarily storing the read field data;
Second memory means for storing record data established by a plurality of field data,
In the emergency stop process, when the record data is established, the record data is written to the second memory means using this as a trigger.
[0022]
In the emergency stop process, preferably, when writing to the second memory means, only the difference between the record data written last time and the record data written this time is written to the second memory. .
[0023]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
In the first preferred embodiment of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 3, from the main battery 10 through the power supply circuit 11, a scanner 12, an LCD backlight 13, a motor 14 as a vibration source of a vibrator, a buzzer 15, and an LED 16 are provided. A switch 18 is interposed in a power supply line 17 that supplies power to a device that consumes a large amount of current. The battery removal signal from the battery removal circuit 19 that detects that the main battery 10 has been detached from the handy terminal body is input to the CPU 20 as in the prior art, and the CPU 20 outputs the signal to the enable terminals of the built-in high power devices 12-16. An enable signal is output.
[0024]
Further, the battery removal signal from the battery removal circuit 19 is directly input to the switch 18, and when the main battery 10 is detached from the handy terminal main body, the switch 18 is forcibly turned off. Turn off power to 12-16. According to the first embodiment, when the main battery 10 is detached from the handy terminal body, the switch 18 is turned OFF to supply power to the built-in high-power devices 12 to 16 without depending on the processing of the CPU 20. Since it is forcibly stopped, the built-in high power devices 12 to 16 can be turned off substantially without delay time after the battery removal circuit 19 detects that the main battery 10 has been removed.
[0025]
In the second embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, logic elements 21 to 25 are provided at the enable terminals of the built-in high-power devices 12 to 16, and the logic elements 21 to 25 are connected to the battery removal circuit 19 and the CPU 20. Then, a power OFF signal is input. The logic elements 21 to 25 are AND circuits.
[0026]
According to the second embodiment, when the main battery 10 is detached from the handy terminal body, the enable terminals of the built-in high-power devices 12 to 16 are disabled by hardware without depending on the processing of the CPU 20. Therefore, the operation of the built-in high-power devices 12 to 16 can be stopped substantially without delay time after the battery removal circuit 19 detects that the main battery 10 has been removed. In the second mode, unlike the first mode, it is necessary to add logic elements 21 to 25. However, since the power to the built-in high-power devices 12 to 16 is not turned off, the devices 12 to 16 There is an advantage that no problem is caused even if a control signal is supplied to.
[0027]
According to the first and second embodiments described above, the built-in high-power devices 12 to 16 are turned off or operated substantially without delay time after the battery removal circuit 19 detects that the main battery 10 has been removed. Since it can be stopped, the amount of charge consumed by the built-in high-power devices 12 to 16 can be significantly reduced compared to the prior art. The charge accumulated in the circuit can be stored and used for an emergency stop process over a long period of time, whereby a transition command to self refresh can be transmitted to the memory 26 such as a DRAM. Then, emergency stop processing such as writing of a predetermined value for the resume operation at the time of restart can be executed.
[0028]
The third embodiment can be employed instead of or together with the first and second embodiments described above. First, a flash ROM is designated by default as a storage location of input data in the handy terminal, and input data is stored in record units. Here, one record consists of a plurality of fields.
[0029]
Referring to FIG. 5, the field data read in step S10 is temporarily stored in the RAM (step S11). Since it is the data established as a record that is important by the user, when all the field data are prepared, the process proceeds from step S12 to step S13, and is stored in the flash ROM in step S13. That is, writing to the flash ROM is executed with the timing when the record data is established as a trigger. Thereby, the amount of data written to the flash ROM during the emergency stop process can be reduced.
[0030]
As illustrated in FIG. 6, when the user inputs “work”, “model number”, and “quantity” as information of one record, when this is established as one record, “date” “time” inside the handy terminal. “Terminal ID” is added. Therefore, the data to be stored in the flash ROM is as shown in FIG. 7, and the size of the data is 354 bytes.
[0031]
When writing data to the flash ROM, it is preferable to write only the difference between the record data written last time and the current record data. That is, compared with the previous data, as illustrated in FIG. 8, the same data is stored in the flash ROM after being converted to a repetition symbol (in FIG. 8, “@” is used as the repetition symbol). In the data simplification example of FIG. 8, the time is divided into hours, minutes and seconds. In the example of FIG. 8, the data size is 167 bytes.
[0032]
By performing data simplification in this way, it is possible not only to write a large amount of data in a shorter time than writing all data to the flash ROM, but also to shorten the writing time. Can be improved. When the data writing is completed in step S13, the handy terminal is turned off (step S14).
[0033]
If the power is inadvertently turned off due to the main battery being removed during erasing or writing of the flash ROM, the erase is suspended if the flash ROM is being erased. If writing is in progress, data writing is continued with the charges stored in the circuit according to the first and second embodiments described above until writing of the data currently being written is completed. The power of the handy terminal can be turned off after completion. When the power is turned on again, the record data can be guaranteed by always continuing erasing and writing of the flash ROM.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a conventional control circuit diagram when a main battery is detached from a handy terminal body.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a conventional method related to writing data to a flash ROM.
FIG. 3 is a control circuit diagram of the first embodiment when the main battery is detached from the handy terminal main body.
FIG. 4 is a control circuit diagram of the second embodiment when the main battery is detached from the handy terminal main body.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart relating to writing of data to a flash ROM according to a third embodiment;
FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining an example of field data input by a user.
FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining data to be stored in a flash ROM as one record.
FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining that data is simplified and stored in a flash ROM.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Main battery 12-16 Built-in high power consumption device 17 Power supply line 18 Switch 19 Battery missing detection circuit 20 CPU
21-25 logic element 26 memory

Claims (4)

In the barcode handy terminal that performs emergency stop processing using the charge accumulated inside the barcode handy terminal body when the main battery is removed from the barcode handy terminal body,
A high-power device built in the barcode handy terminal and consuming a large amount of power,
A CPU for controlling the high power device ;
Power is supplied from the main battery, a power line for supplying power to the high-power device and the CPU ,
A switch interposed in the power line;
A bar code handy terminal , comprising: a battery disconnection detecting circuit that detects that the main battery is detached from the handy terminal body and turns off a switch interposed in the power line . In the barcode handy terminal that performs emergency stop processing using the charge accumulated inside the barcode handy terminal body when the main battery is removed from the barcode handy terminal body,
A high-power device built in the barcode handy terminal and consuming a large amount of current,
An enable terminal provided on the high-power device,
A logic element connected to the enable terminal;
Power is supplied from the main battery, and a power line for supplying power to the high power device,
A battery removal detection circuit that detects that the barcode handy terminal is disconnected from the main body;
When the battery removal detection circuit detects that the main battery has been detached from the handy terminal body, a battery removal signal is output from the battery removal detection circuit to the logic element, and the high power device is disabled. Barcode handy terminal characterized by becoming. The barcode handy terminal is
First memory means for temporarily storing the read field data;
Second memory means for storing record data established by a plurality of field data,
The emergency stop process, when the record data is established, a bar code according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said that the writing of the record data is performed in said second memory means by this to trigger handy terminal.   4. The barcode handy terminal according to claim 3, wherein when writing to the second memory means, only a difference between record data written last time and record data written this time is written to the second memory. .

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