JP4888066B2 - Recording medium creation control device and creation control method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a recording medium creation control device for controlling a plurality of data recording devices to record data on a DVD, CD, or other optical recording media, and a creation control method thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to a recording medium creation control device and a creation control method thereof that can autonomously handle a failure when a data recording device fails.

Recently, requests for centralized management of data recording on optical recording media such as CDs and DVDs, and recording of digital music data or digital image data on optical recording media from requests for confidentiality management for personal information, trade secrets, etc. The demand for is growing. In addition, there is a growing need for creating and dubbing a relatively small amount of optical recording media of about 10 to 100 sheets for distribution at exhibitions and exhibitions. For this purpose, there has been proposed an apparatus for recording various data such as digital data, image data, music data, etc. on an optical recording medium (various media) such as DVD and CD at high speed and printing the recorded contents on the label surface. For example, a recording medium creation device for business use includes a holder for storing an unused CD, a CD recording unit, a label printer unit, and a recorded CD holder. A recording medium creating apparatus that records on an optical recording medium and prints an identification label on a label surface is disclosed (see Patent Document 1).
JP 2002-58649 A

  However, as the capacity of optical recording media has increased due to technological advances, when the amount of write data is large, the writing process requires a relatively long time. Therefore, when creating tens to hundreds of optical recording media, for example, set the writing process to the optical recording medium before returning to work, execute the optical recording medium creation process at night, etc. It is desirable to be able to write in an unattended state. However, the writing mechanism of a data recording apparatus that performs writing to an optical recording medium has a precise structure, and is less durable than a general machine or apparatus, and has a relatively high failure probability. Therefore, the possibility that a failure will occur during unattended processing is higher than other devices.

  If a write error occurs during the write operation, in normal error processing, an error message is output to wait for the operator's response processing, or the job is not completed as a job failure. finish. However, if the data recording device breaks down during unattended operation without an operator (for example, at night), nothing is input even when waiting for the operator's response processing. Accordingly, the remaining writing process is stagnated while the recording medium creating apparatus is stopped, and the time after the occurrence of the failure is wasted. The same applies to the case where the job at the time of failure is forcibly terminated in an incomplete state because the processing has failed, and the night time allocated for executing the job is wasted.

  The present invention autonomously handles a failure of a data recording apparatus and a handling process in a recording medium creation apparatus that controls a plurality of data recording apparatuses, writes designated data to an optical recording medium, and performs label printing as necessary. An object of the present invention is to provide a recording medium creation control apparatus and its creation control method for efficiently processing an unprocessed job with the remaining resources.

  The present invention controls a plurality of data recording devices and writes to an optical recording medium to create a desired recording medium, and monitors the operation status of the data recording device to determine whether or not there is a failure. When it is determined that one of the data recording devices is out of order, the above-mentioned problem is solved by selecting another substitutable data recording device and executing the remaining jobs efficiently and reliably.

The recording medium creation control apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention separately operates the conveyance control unit that controls conveyance of an optical recording medium that records various data and the operations of a plurality of data recording apparatuses that write data. A write control unit for controlling, an error monitoring unit for monitoring an operation state of each data recording device, and counting the number of operation errors based on an output from the error monitoring unit, and the same operation of the data recording device When any one of the number of consecutive errors and the cumulative number of operation errors generated within a predetermined period reaches the first threshold, the data recording device is recognized as a failure and registered as a failure, A failure handling unit that stops subsequent use of the data recording device, and, when the failure is registered, can respond to an unprocessed job write request from the data recording devices that are not registered for the failure De Select data recording apparatus, characterized by comprising a an operation control unit for controlling the progress of the subsequent process.

  According to this aspect, when the operation error exceeds a predetermined threshold value, it is recognized as a failure, the use of the device is stopped, and the job is continued by another device. As described above, even if an inoperable error occurs in some devices, the job is efficiently processed using the remaining resources without stopping the entire job. Thereby, even when the operator cannot handle such as during unmanned operation, it is possible to efficiently utilize resources without stopping the apparatus.

The recording medium creation control apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention is characterized in that the failure handling unit includes a medium verification unit that verifies whether the operation error is caused by a defect in the recording medium. .
According to this aspect, it is possible to determine whether the data recording apparatus is defective or the optical recording medium is defective. A writing error also occurs due to a defect in the optical recording medium. According to this aspect, it is possible to solve the problem of erroneously stopping the data recording apparatus as a failure even though the optical recording medium is defective.

In the recording medium creation control device according to the aspect of the present invention, the medium verification unit accumulates the number of times that the same operation error of the writing process with respect to the same optical recording medium has continuously occurred and the operation errors that have occurred within a predetermined period. When one of the times reaches a second threshold value that is smaller than the first threshold value, the optical recording medium in which the operation error has occurred is ejected, and a new recording medium is set in the same data recording device. When the writing process is executed and no operation error occurs, the operation error count value is cleared.

  According to this aspect, the error of the data recording apparatus is recognized only when a writing error occurs continuously not only in one optical recording medium but also in another new optical recording medium. Since the probability that the two optical recording media continue to fail is low, it is possible to identify the failure of the data recording apparatus with high accuracy.

In the recording medium creation control device according to an aspect of the present invention, the medium verification unit may record a recording medium in which either one of the same operation error count and the cumulative count exceeds the first threshold as another data recording The data recording apparatus is transferred to the apparatus to execute a writing process, and when the writing process is successful, a failure registration of the data recording apparatus is performed.

  According to this aspect, when the optical recording medium in which writing is defective is also written in another data recording apparatus, and no writing error occurs, the data recording apparatus is not defective but the data recording apparatus has failed. Failure registration. Thereby, the failure of the data recording apparatus can be recognized with high accuracy.

Recording medium production control device according to the embodiment of the present invention may further include a mode switching means for switching between the normal operation mode or unattended operation mode, the troubleshooting unit, the fault register and medium verification only in the unattended mode The process by a part is performed.

A recording medium creation control method according to a first aspect of the present invention includes a plurality of data recording devices, and a recording medium creation control device that creates desired optical recording media by writing desired data on the recording media.
(A) a counting step of monitoring the operation of each data recording device and counting the number of operation errors when an operation error occurs;
(B) A data recording apparatus in which an operation error has occurred when one of the number of consecutive occurrences of the same operation error and the cumulative number of operation errors that have occurred within a predetermined period exceeds a first threshold. Including a failure registration step of registering a failure, a failure handling processing step of stopping the subsequent use of the data recording device ;
(C) a writing process step of stopping the use of the data recording apparatus registered as a failure and continuing the writing process of the subsequent unprocessed job using the remaining data recording apparatuses;
In the failure handling process step (b), either one of the number of times that the same operation error of the writing process on the same optical recording medium has occurred continuously or the cumulative number of operation errors that have occurred within a predetermined period is When the second threshold value smaller than the first threshold value is reached, the optical recording medium whose operation error has reached the second threshold value is ejected, and a new recording medium is set in the same data recording device. When the writing process is executed and no operation error occurs, the operation error count value is cleared, and either the number of the same operation error or the cumulative number exceeds the first threshold. The recording medium is transferred to another data recording apparatus to execute a writing process, and when the writing process is successful, a medium verification step (b-1) for registering the failure of the data recording apparatus;
It is characterized by providing.

  According to the present invention, when performing a write process on an optical recording medium by controlling a plurality of optical recording devices by unmanned operation, the state of any data recording device is automatically determined and recognized as a failure. However, the remaining jobs can be executed using the remaining resources without stopping the processing. As a result, even if a failure occurs during continuous processing in an unattended state (during automatic operation), useless stop time is eliminated and resources can be used efficiently during the period allocated as the unattended operation period. . In addition, even during normal operation, the operator may not be aware of the occurrence of an error. In the present invention, since the failure handling process is executed even in such a case, useless stop time is eliminated, and the apparatus can be operated efficiently.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an optical recording medium creation control device 10 and a recording medium creation device 90 controlled thereby according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the recording medium creation control device 10 is composed of a host device such as a PC or a server and software installed therein. The host device 10 such as a PC is composed of a CPU, a memory such as a RAM / ROM, a hardware such as a logic circuit, and various software, and can operate on various general-purpose OSs such as Windows (registered trademark). The recording medium creation apparatus 10 will be described by breaking it down into more functional blocks. An application unit 20 that provides a basic function for creating an optical recording medium, and recording data and print data according to data received from the application unit 20 A data conversion unit 30 that creates and temporarily stores, an integrated control unit 40 that schedules a series of processes for creating an optical recording medium based on a control signal from the data conversion unit, and controls an operation procedure of each unit; The device control unit 50 includes various drivers for controlling the operation of the recording medium creating apparatus 90 and a USB interface 54.

  The recording medium creation device 90 includes a USB hub 91 and two data recording devices 92 and 93 connected thereto, an autoloader 94 that conveys an optical recording medium to each part in the recording medium creation device 90, and a label printer 95. At the same time, writing processing can be performed on two optical recording media. More data recording devices 92 and 93 and more printers 95 may be provided to allow more parallel processing. When data writing is completed, label printing can be performed by the printer 95. The autoloader 94 moves the optical recording medium between the devices 92, 93, 94.

  First, the function of each unit of the recording medium creation control device 10 will be briefly described, and then the procedure for creating the optical recording medium will be described. First, the application unit 20 provides a user interface for specifying a data file for which data recording is desired, label printing contents and format, and the like. For example, the setup unit 21 provides a function for initially setting the specifications of the recording medium creation device 90, and the monitor unit 22 provides a function for displaying and confirming the recorded contents of the optical recording medium to be created and the contents of label printing. . The disc creation unit 23 includes a disc editor unit 25, a disc publisher unit 26, and a label editor unit 27, and edits recorded contents and label printing. The template stored in the template unit 24 can be used for editing the label printing.

  The contents edited by the application unit 20 are output to the data conversion unit 30, and are temporarily stored as recording data 32 and label data 33 via the disk library 31, graphic device interface (GDI) 61, and image processing unit 62. 34 is temporarily stored until the job is completed.

  The integrated control unit 40 controls the processing procedure of each device in order to execute the job stored in the temporary storage unit 34. The integrated control unit generates a job schedule that determines a processing procedure for executing each job stored in the temporary storage unit. When the job schedule is generated, the integrated control unit 40 controls the device control unit 50 according to the generated job schedule, so that the operation status of each device (device) 92 to 95 of the recording medium creation device 90 is determined. The operation of each device (device) 92 to 95 is controlled for each job. Specifically, by controlling each device driver 51, 52, 53 and the print input / output control unit 63, an unrecorded optical recording medium is taken out for each job, the optical recording medium is transported, data is written, and label printing is performed. The operations of the devices (devices) 92 to 95 are controlled so that the operations of the devices (devices) can be carried out without interfering with each other. Thereby, a plurality of optical recording medium creation jobs are sequentially executed while using resources efficiently.

  Next, the processing procedure of the optical recording medium in the recording medium creating apparatus 90 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining the cooperative operation of each unit of the recording medium creating apparatus 90. Although not shown in FIG. 1, the recording medium creating apparatus 90 includes an unused recording medium storage unit that stores an unrecorded optical recording medium, and a written recording that stores a written optical recording medium that has been recorded. A medium storage unit is provided. In the example of FIG. 2, two unused recording medium storage units 96a and 96b that store the unused recording medium 97a and two written recording medium storage units 96c and 96d that store the written optical recording medium 97c. It has.

  The job is started by (1) taking out the unused recording medium 97a from the unused recording medium storage unit 96a or 96b by the autoloader 94 and setting it in either the data recording device 92 or the data recording device 93. The autoloader 94 has a function of taking out an optical recording medium from a storage unit or a device and carrying it, and transporting it to each designated part in the recording medium creating apparatus 90. Whether the unused optical recording medium is to be taken out from when the writing is started can be determined at the current position of the pick-up carrier (not shown) of the autoloader 94, even if the priority order is determined in advance. You may comprise so that it may take out from the near side. Each of the storage units 96a to 96d is provided with a sensor, and it is desirable that the storage units 96a to 96d be configured to detect when the storage units 96a to 96d are empty or full.

  In addition, which data recording device 92 or 93 is used to perform the writing process differs depending on the operation status at that time. When both can be used, the priority is determined in advance. Further, when the writing speed and density are different depending on the data recording device, or when the writing method is different, a data recording device corresponding to the designated writing format is selected. When the unused recording medium 97a is set in the data recording device 92 or 93, the recording data stored in the temporary storage unit 34 is written through the data recording device driver 51 based on the control of the integrated control unit 40. Thus, the optical recording medium 97b in which only data writing is completed is obtained.

  When the data recording is completed by the data recording device 92 or 93, (2) the optical recording medium 97b in which the data has been written is taken out from the data recording device 92 or 93 by the pickup carrier of the autoloader and conveyed to the printer 95. The In the printer 95, label printing designated by the job is executed on the label surface of the optical recording medium. When the optical recording medium 97b is set in the printer 95, the label print data stored in the temporary storage unit 34 is stored in the optical recording medium via the print input / output control unit 63 based on the control of the integrated control unit 40. Printed on the label side. As a result, the optical recording medium becomes an optical recording medium 97c in which data writing and label printing have been completed.

  When the label printing is completed, (3) the optical recording medium 97c for which writing has been completed and label printing has been completed is taken out by the pickup carrier of the autoloader 93 and conveyed to the written recording medium storage unit 96c or 96d. Stored.

  In the above description, an example of a job in which label printing is performed after data writing and then transported and stored in the written storage unit 96c or 96d is shown. However, depending on the job, the label may be printed when data writing is completed. It is also possible to convey and store in the writing storage unit without printing.

  The integrated control unit 40, which is the central part of the recording medium creation control apparatus according to the present invention, will be described. FIG. 3 shows a functional block diagram according to an embodiment of the integrated control unit 40. In FIG. 3, only the function of the part relevant to the present invention is shown. The sequence control unit (or “operation control unit”) 41 generates a job processing procedure (job sequence) stored in the temporary storage unit, and sequentially controls the recording medium creation apparatus 90 according to the procedure.

  Control of the recording medium creating apparatus 90 is sequentially controlled according to the job sequence by the control units 42 to 44 of the apparatuses 92 to 95. The conveyance control unit 42 controls the operation of the autoloader 94 via the autoloader driver 53. The write control unit 43 controls the operations of the data recording device 92 and the data recording device 93 via the data recording device driver 51. The print control unit 44 controls the operation of the label printer 95 via the print input / output control unit 63.

  The error monitoring unit 45 monitors the operation of each of the devices 92 to 95 of the recording medium creation device 90 and counts operation errors. When the operation error of the data recording device 92 or the data recording device 93 by the error monitoring unit 45 continuously exceeds a predetermined threshold, the failure handling processing unit 46 breaks down the data recording device 92 or 93 in which the operation error has occurred. And register the failure status.

  Here, various conditions can be set for the predetermined threshold value that is recognized as a failure. For example, the number of operation errors that is an allowable limit is set. When the same operation error occurs continuously for a predetermined number of times, or even if it does not continue, if a large number of errors occur within a predetermined period, the cumulative number of errors that can be allowed may be set as a threshold. it can.

  In the above description, it is described that “the number of allowable operation errors is set” as the threshold value. However, even in normal error processing, for example, when a write error occurs, retry is performed a predetermined number of times, and error processing such as issuing a write error message only when a write error still occurs is performed. In the threshold setting according to the present invention, it is desirable to set different and more severe conditions different from the error recognition in such normal error processing.

  For example, a case where a write error occurs as an operation error is assumed. When such a writing error occurs during automatic operation and writing is not possible even after a predetermined number of retries, even if an error message is simply output as in the normal operation mode and an operator input instruction is waited for, In the unattended state, there is no operator who can respond, so the problem is not solved. Therefore, when such a writing error occurs, the data recording device is recognized as a failure, the use is stopped, and the processing is continued by executing the writing process with another data recording device.

  Further, since the writing error may be caused by a defect in the optical recording medium, it may not always be preferable to immediately cause a failure of the data recording apparatus. Therefore, it is desirable not to immediately cause a failure of the data recording apparatus even if writing is not possible after a predetermined number of retries. For example, first, an optical recording medium in which a writing error has occurred is discharged as a defective writing recording medium. Thereafter, a new optical recording medium is set in the data recording apparatus in which the writing error has occurred and writing is performed again. If the writing error still occurs, the data recording apparatus is recognized as a failure. As described above, it is preferable to certify the failure of the data recording apparatus by eliminating as much as possible the possibility of errors caused by defective optical recording media or accidental clogging of dust.

  Further, as another method for confirming whether or not the operation error of the data recording devices 92 and 93 is due to an optical recording medium defect, the optical recording medium in which the operation is defective may be replaced with other unregistered data. A configuration may be adopted in which the data recording apparatus in which the writing error has occurred is recognized as a failure when the writing process is carried out by being conveyed to the recording apparatus and the writing is normally performed.

  As described above, in the automatic operation mode, instead of normal error processing such as output of error messages, a threshold for device failure recognition is provided to determine whether or not a failure has occurred and It is desirable to register a failure state for the data recording apparatus and execute a failure handling process as described below. Further, since the operator may not be able to deal with error processing even during the normal operation mode, such a failure handling process may be configured not only in the automatic operation mode but also in the normal operation mode.

  If any data recording device is recognized as a failure and the failure is registered, the use of the registered data recording device is stopped, and only the non-failed data recording device is used as a writing data recording device. The When three or more data recording devices are provided, the job schedule is changed so that the remaining data recording devices can operate efficiently.

  It is preferable that the data recording apparatus is simply assigned to the remaining jobs at the time of failure registration. For example, it is desirable that all remaining unprocessed jobs be executed equally by all non-failing data recording devices. For this purpose, it is necessary that the data recording device that is not in failure has the same or higher function as the data recording device that has failed. More preferably, all data writing devices are preferably the latest high-performance data writing devices.

  However, in reality, it is difficult to always arrange all the data recording devices with the latest high-performance data recording devices. Therefore, how to allocate the data recording device when executing the unprocessed job after failure depends on the type of data recording device that has not failed and the type of unprocessed job remaining at the time of failure certification. become.

  An example of how to process a remaining unprocessed job when all the non-failed data recording devices do not have the function of the failed data recording device will be described. For example, if a data recording device having a high-speed writing function fails and there is no normal data recording device having an equivalent function, a lower-speed data recording device is assigned to the process. In this case, although the writing speed is slow, there is no problem with the quality of the optical recording medium to be created, so this is preferable to stopping the entire job.

  On the other hand, for example, when a data recording device fails during execution of DVD recording, if the remaining data recording devices do not have a DVD writing function, the job is canceled in principle. Alternatively, when a job execution condition includes a condition that CD recording may be performed at the time of failure, the job may be executed by CD recording. Even if the DVD writing process is canceled because the DVD writing cannot be performed, if a job other than the DVD remains as a subsequent job, the subsequent job other than the DVD writing is executed to execute a free job. Make effective use of time.

(Explanation of processing procedure by flowchart)
A recording medium writing process procedure of the optical recording medium creation control apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention and a processing procedure at the time of failure of the data recording apparatus will be described using a flowchart. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of the write processing procedure of the optical recording medium according to the present invention, and FIG. 5 shows the selection processing procedure of the data recording device performed at the start of the write processing or error processing of each job of the present invention. It is a flowchart which shows an example. FIGS. 6 to 8 are flowcharts showing first to third examples of the failure handling processing procedure of the writing process according to the present invention, respectively.

(Basic processing procedure for writing optical recording media)
In the process of creating an optical recording medium, the number of the same optical recording medium to be created in the job is specified, and every time the optical recording medium is removed, the creation of the scheduled number of sheets specified in the job is completed Whether or not (S101). When the writing of the scheduled number of sheets is completed (S101: Yes), the job writing process ends. If the scheduled number of sheets has not yet been reached (S101: No), a data recording apparatus suitable for the job is selected to execute writing (S102). When the data recording apparatus is selected, the unused recording medium 97a is taken out from the unused recording medium storage unit by the autoloader 94 and conveyed to the selected data recording apparatus (S103). When the optical recording medium 97a is set in the selected data recording apparatus, the writing process is executed under the control of the writing control unit 43 (S104). When the writing is successful (S105; Yes), the creation of one optical recording medium is completed, and the number of completed creations is incremented by one (S106). Next, the autoloader 94 completes the writing of the optical recording medium 97b. Is transferred to the printer 95 when label printing is necessary, and to the written recording medium storage portions 96c and 96d when label printing is unnecessary (S107). Then, it is confirmed whether or not the writing to the optical recording medium has reached the number of sheets to be created (S101), and the same processing is repeated.

(Data recording device selection processing procedure)
The data recording device selection step (S102) will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. First, the first candidate data recording apparatus is selected (S201). At the time of selection, only the data recording device whose data recording device has the function requested by the job is selected. When there are a plurality of data recording apparatuses that satisfy the function requested by the job, they are selected according to a predetermined priority order. If there is no data recording apparatus that satisfies the function requested by the job due to a failure or the like, a data recording apparatus having an alternative function specified as the job processing condition is selected. If there is no data recording device that satisfies the job processing conditions, the job is canceled.

  When a data recording device is selected, it is confirmed whether or not the data recording device is in use (S202). If it is not currently in use (S202; No), then the data recording device is registered as a failure. It is confirmed whether it is not (S203). If it is not currently in use or malfunctioning (S203; No), the selected data recording device is selected as the next data recording device to be used (S204). If it is currently in use (S202; Yes) or in failure (S203; Yes), the data recording device cannot be used at least at that time, so another data recording device is selected ( S205). This selection criterion is also the same as the selection of the first data recording apparatus.

  When another data recording device is selected, it is similarly checked whether the device is not in use or in failure, and if it is available, it is selected as the next device to be used. In this way, after the data recording device to be used in the job is determined, the optical recording medium is conveyed to the device (S103), and the writing process is executed (S104).

(Example of error handling procedure in writing process 1)
A first example of the error handling processing procedure in the writing processing step (S104) will be described with reference to FIG. When the optical recording medium is set in the selected data recording apparatus, a writing process is executed under the control of the writing control unit 43 (S301). When the writing is completed without any problem (S302: Yes). The process proceeds to writing success (S105; Yes) in FIG. 4 and the number of completed sheets is checked (S101). If necessary, writing to the next optical recording medium is started.

  When a write error occurs (S302; No), 1 is added to the number of errors (S303), and the number of errors is compared with a predetermined threshold (first threshold) (S304). Here, the writing process is retried until the number of errors reaches a predetermined threshold (S304; No). When the writing error is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold (S304; Yes), the optical recording medium is ejected as a failed optical recording medium (S305). Thereafter, the data recording device is registered as a failure (S306), and the process proceeds to the writing failure (S105; No) in FIG. 4 to start a writing process to a new optical recording medium.

  Although not shown in the flowchart, the optical recording medium ejected in S305 is transported to another data recording apparatus that is not registered for failure and the writing process is performed. A configuration may be adopted in which a data recording apparatus in which an error has occurred is registered as a failure.

(Error handling procedure example 2 in the writing process)
FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a second example of the error handling processing procedure in the writing processing step (S104). Although not shown in detail in FIG. 7, the write execution step (S401) of the second example retries the number of times specified by a predetermined threshold (second threshold) when a write error occurs. However, this is different from the write execution step (S301) of the first example. Therefore, when the retry is successful and the writing is successful, the subsequent writing process is OK.

  If a write error occurs even after retrying the number of times specified by the second threshold value (S402; No), the error count value is incremented by 1 (S403), and then the error number is compared with the first threshold value. The It is assumed that “2” is set as the first threshold value. If the data recording apparatus fails to write for the first time this time, the number of errors is now 1. At this stage, the number of errors does not reach the first threshold value (S404; No), and the optical recording failed to be written. Only the medium is ejected (S405), and it is processed as the writing failure of FIG. 4 (S105; No). Therefore, a new optical recording medium is set again, and writing processing is performed in the same manner (S101 to S104).

  In the writing process (S104) using the new optical recording medium, the process shown in FIG. 7 is executed again (S401). Here, when the writing process fails again (S402; No), the error count is incremented by 1 to “2”. As a result, the number of errors becomes the same as the first threshold (S404; Yes), and this data recording apparatus is registered as a failure state (S406). As described above, the fact that a large number of writing errors occur in the two optical recording media is not an error caused by the optical recording medium, but more reliably identifies the failure of the data recording apparatus. Is possible.

  If writing is successful with the second optical recording medium, the first writing error is likely due to a defect in the optical recording medium. Therefore, although not shown in FIG. 7, when the write result is OK, the number of errors may be cleared. Thereby, it is possible to delete the error count due to the defective optical recording medium and more accurately determine the subsequent optical recording medium defect.

  In the example of FIG. 7, in the error counting step (S403), the entire number of retry processes specified by the second threshold is set as one write process, and the number of failures is counted. Therefore, the failure count is not the number of write errors. When the first threshold is designated as “2”, the actual number of errors reaches the first threshold when “the number of failures designated by the second threshold × 2” errors occur. Therefore, the number of failures may be replaced with the number of errors. In this case, in the counting step (S403), the number of errors specified by the second threshold is added every time the step is passed. In addition, when writing is successfully performed on the second optical recording medium, the cumulative error due to the optical recording medium is cleared by subtracting the number of errors specified by the second threshold value from the cumulative number of errors.

(Example 3 of error handling procedure in writing process)
A third example of the error handling processing procedure in the writing processing step (S104) will be described with reference to FIG. The difference between the third example and the second example is that an error handling process similar to that of the second example is performed only in the automatic operation mode when a write error occurs. That is, in the case of writing failure (S502; No), it is confirmed whether or not it is in the automatic operation mode (S503), and in the automatic operation mode (S503; Yes), the same as the second example shown in FIG. Execute the process. If it is not the automatic operation mode (S503; No), an error message is output (S508), and an error handling input instruction from the operator is awaited (S509; No). If there is an error handling input (S509; Yes), the process proceeds to the processing routine corresponding to the instruction.

  In the example of FIG. 1, the recording medium creation device is connected to a host device such as a PC by USB. However, the connection form of the host device may be a serial cable or a wireless LAN. In FIG. 1, the host device is provided with a control unit for controlling the creation of the optical recording medium in the host device. However, these control devices are provided in the recording medium creation device, You may perform schedule control etc. of a creation process. Further, FIG. 1 shows an example in which the recording medium creation device includes two data recording devices, one autoloader, and one printer, but more data recording devices, printers, etc. You may have.

1 is a functional block diagram illustrating an optical recording medium creation control device 10 and a recording medium creation device 90 controlled thereby according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram for demonstrating cooperation operation | movement of each part of a recording medium production apparatus. It is a functional block diagram of the integrated control part concerning one Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the write-in procedure of the optical recording medium concerning this invention. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the selection processing procedure of the data recording device performed at the time of the write-in process start of each job of this invention, or an error process. It is a flowchart figure which shows the 1st example of the failure handling process procedure at the time of the write process concerning this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the 2nd example of the failure response processing procedure at the time of the write processing concerning this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the 3rd example of the failure handling process procedure at the time of the write processing concerning this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Recording medium production control apparatus 20 Application part 30 Data conversion part 40 Integrated control part 41 Operation control part (sequence control part) 42 Conveyance control part 43 Write control part 44 Print control part 45 Error monitoring part 46 Fault handling processing part 50 Device control Unit 60 Printer driver 90 Recording medium creation device 92, 93 Data recording device 94 Autoloader 95 Printer 96a, 96b Unused medium storage unit 96c, 96d written storage unit 97a Unused recording medium 97b Written medium 97c Written and printed medium

Claims (2)

A transport control unit for controlling transport of an optical recording medium for recording various data;
A write control unit for individually controlling the operations of a plurality of data recording devices for writing data;
An error monitoring unit for monitoring the operating state of each data recording device;
The number of operation errors is counted based on the output from the error monitoring unit , and either one of the number of consecutive occurrences of the same operation error of the data recording device or the cumulative number of operation errors generated within a predetermined period one is certified as a failure of the data recording device failed registration upon reaching the first threshold, and a troubleshooting unit to stop further use of the data recording apparatus,
When the failure is registered, a data recording device that can respond to an unprocessed job write request is selected from the data recording devices that are not registered for failure, and the progress of subsequent processing is controlled. An operation control unit,
Mode switching means for switching between normal operation mode and unattended operation mode;
Equipped with a,
The failure handling unit is configured such that either the number of times that the same operation error in the writing process for the same optical recording medium has occurred continuously or the cumulative number of operation errors that have occurred within a predetermined period is greater than the first threshold value. When the second threshold value is reached, the optical recording medium in which the operation error has occurred is ejected, a new recording medium is set in the same data recording apparatus, and the writing process is executed, so that no operation error occurs. In such a case, the count value of the operation error is cleared, and the recording medium in which one of the number of the same operation error and the cumulative number exceeds the first threshold is transferred to another data recording device. When the writing process is successful, a media verification unit for registering the failure of the data recording device is provided, and the failure registration and processing by the media verification unit are performed only in the unattended operation mode. Perform
A recording medium creation control apparatus characterized by the above . In a recording medium creation control device comprising a plurality of data recording devices and writing desired data on a recording medium to create a desired optical recording medium,
(A) a counting step of monitoring the operation of each data recording device and counting the number of operation errors when an operation error occurs;
(B) A data recording apparatus in which an operation error has occurred when one of the number of consecutive occurrences of the same operation error and the cumulative number of operation errors that have occurred within a predetermined period exceeds a first threshold. Including a failure registration step of registering a failure, a failure handling processing step of stopping the subsequent use of the data recording device ;
(C) a writing process step of stopping the use of the data recording apparatus registered as a failure and continuing the writing process of the subsequent unprocessed job using the remaining data recording apparatuses;
In the failure handling process step (b), either one of the number of times that the same operation error of the writing process on the same optical recording medium has occurred continuously or the cumulative number of operation errors that have occurred within a predetermined period is When the second threshold value smaller than the first threshold value is reached, the optical recording medium whose operation error has reached the second threshold value is ejected, and a new recording medium is set in the same data recording device. When the writing process is executed and no operation error occurs, the operation error count value is cleared, and either the number of the same operation error or the cumulative number exceeds the first threshold. The recording medium is transferred to another data recording apparatus to execute a writing process, and when the writing process is successful, a medium verification step (b-1) for registering the failure of the data recording apparatus;
A recording medium creation control method comprising:

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