JPH01143068A - Printing controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a satisfactory printing controller by discriminating whether the cause of abnormality is the abnormality at a power-off time or a peculiar trouble when the abnormality is generated in recorded data. CONSTITUTION:When the data are already written to an FDD part 5 or the data are started to be written from now on, a specified command is inputted to show 'the writing processing of the data' from a keyboard part 8. When the completion of data writing operation is detected by a CPU1, a specified pattern is written to show the completion to a non-volatile memory part. Simultaneously, the display of 'power-off OK' is executed in a CRT display part 7. When the sudden power-off is generated by the abnormality of a power source, the display of power-off sequence abnormality is executed and the writing processing is immediately stopped. Then, the operation is re-executed from a beginning. When the abnormality is generated in the data to be recorded to the FDD part, since whether the cause is the abnormality at the power-off time or the peculiar trouble can be discriminated, extreme convenience can be obtained on a work.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a printing control device, and more particularly, to a printing control device that controls a power-on/off sequence of a power source.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, a printing control device equipped with disks such as a floppy disk drive (hereinafter referred to as FDD) and a hard disk (hereinafter referred to as HD), when the power is turned off,
Even if data is being written to a predetermined memory in the disk, control is performed according to a sequence in which the entire power is turned off when the power switch is turned off.

[Problem to be solved by the invention] However, if the power is turned off in the middle of writing to a disc, the contents of the disc that are being written are often destroyed. It was not easy to judge the extent of the destruction from the outside.

Therefore, when a defective disk phenomenon occurs, it is very difficult to determine whether the cause is due to a defective disk itself or an abnormality when the power is turned off.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems and achieve the purpose, a print control device according to the present invention is a print control device that can be connected to at least a display section and can instruct display, At least a first step that detects specific human data before a predetermined process is completed.
a second detection means for detecting the completion of a predetermined process based on the detection by the first detection means; and a memory storage means for storing and retaining the detection by the second detection means as data; The present invention is characterized by comprising a determining means for determining whether the data is detected by the second detecting means when the system is started up, and a display means for instructing the display unit to display the determination result of the determining means.

[Operation] According to the above configuration, when specific input data is detected before the predetermined process is completed, the completion of the predetermined process is detected. The detection of completion of this predetermined process is stored and held as data. When the system is started up, it is determined whether the stored data is the data that detected the completion of a predetermined process, and the display section is instructed to display the determination result.

In this way, after the system is started up, a good print control device is provided that allows you to know whether or not the power is turned off after the predetermined processing is reliably completed.

[Embodiments] Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing the configuration of a printing apparatus according to this embodiment.

In the figure, 1 is CPt1 which controls the entire printing apparatus of this embodiment. 2 is a program for controlling CPtJl, a program for error handling, and is shown in Fig. 2 (a), which will be described later.
, (b) is a ROM that stores programs for executing the flowcharts shown in (b). 3 is a RAM used as a working area when executing various programs stored in ROM 2 and a temporary save area during error processing.
It is.

Reference numeral 4 indicates an interface section 1 to which an interface cable is connected from an external device such as a host computer and input/output data.5 indicates an FDD device that functions as an external storage device using a floppy disk; and 6 indicates an HD section mounted inside the printing device. It is. 7 is a CRT display that displays various display contents during execution, and 8 is a keyboard section provided with various keys such as control keys and numeric keys.

Reference numeral 9 represents a switch section for switching power on/off of the power supply, and reference numeral 10 represents a page buffer section for expanding data input from an external device page by page. Reference numeral 11 denotes a font memory section that converts the data output from the page buffer section 10 from code data to dot data, and reference numeral 12 denotes a bitmap memory section that develops the dot data output from the font memory section 11 in units of pages.

Reference numeral 13 denotes a printer unit that performs printing based on data in the bitmap memory unit 12, and reference numeral 14 denotes a volatile memory for writing and reading a specific pattern for determining whether or not there is an abnormality in the power-off sequence of the power source.

Next, the operation of the printing apparatus of this embodiment configured as described above will be explained below.

First, in accordance with the input of a predetermined command from the keyboard section 8, a data input operation from an external device (not shown) is started,
Data is input manually from the interface unit 4 via an interface cable (not shown). This input data is CP
When a predetermined analysis process is performed by the UI and the page data is reconstructed in page units, the page buffer section 1o
will be expanded to. The page buffer section io may include a plurality of page buffers in order to improve the efficiency of printing processing.

Next, the font memory section 11 is accessed to convert the page data developed in the page buffer section 10 from code data to dot data. This dot data is developed in the bitmap memory section 12 in page units. On the other hand, when the printer section 13 becomes ready, the printer section 13
The dot data is sent from the bitmap memory 12 to the printer 11 for predetermined printing while being synchronized with the human power signal from the bitmap memory 12.

The CRT display unit 7 also displays the communication status with external devices, the communication status with the printer unit 13, the internal status of the printer unit 13, such as the size of the paper feed cassette, the presence or absence of recording paper, the presence or absence of abnormalities such as jams, etc. is displayed. Furthermore, various form information and various font patterns necessary for business can be registered in the HD section 6, and new registration is also possible. Various data can be written to the FDD section 5 as logging information to the HD section 6.

For example, when printing a desired job, the start time of the job, job name, time of error occurrence, error details, etc. are recorded in a predetermined memory of the FDD unit 5.

Therefore, when turning off the power of the printing device and the FD
In order to avoid overlapping data writing processes to the D unit 5, the CPU operation in the power-off sequence up to the display of a message indicating that power-off is possible is performed in a second manner.
This will be explained according to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, when data has been written to the FDD section 5 or when data will be written to the FDD section 5 from now on, a specific command indicating "data write processing" is inputted from the keyboard section 8.

The CPU analyzes whether the manual command is a specific command for "data writing processing" and if the analysis result is "data writing processing", it waits until the data writing processing in the FDD unit 5 is completed. It is held (step S2). Further, if the manual command is not a specific command, normal processing is performed.

In the case of a specific command, when the completion of the data write operation in the FDD unit 5 (or the HD unit 6) is detected, a specific pattern indicating that the data write has been successfully completed is displayed in the abnormality check column of the nonvolatile memory 14. is written (step S3). Then, the address in the abnormality check column is incremented by one, and "1" is added to the contents. Step S4
), the address is decremented by one and the address is returned to the abnormality check column (step S5).

Further, a message "Power off OK" is displayed on the CRT display section 7 as a message indicating that power off is possible (step S6).

As described above, from the time when "power off OK" is displayed, the power supply can be turned off by the switch section 9 without any problem in data writing.

Next, the power-on sequence of the operation of the CPU 1 when the switch unit 9 turns on the power source is shown in FIG.
) will be explained below according to the flowchart.

When the power is turned on, data is first read from the abnormality check column of the nonvolatile memory unit 14 (step S1).
, it is determined whether this data is a specific pattern (step S2). If a specific pattern has been written, the specific pattern data written in the abnormality check field is cleared (step 513). Then, the address in the abnormality check column is incremented by one, and "1" is added to the contents of the address (step 514). That is,
This address functions as a counter that records the number of times a specific pattern has been written into the nonvolatile memory section 14. Further, by displaying the number of times of writing by inputting a predetermined command from the keyboard section 8, it is possible to know the lifespan of the nonvolatile memory 14.

Further, after step 314, the address is decremented by one and the address is returned to the abnormality check column (step 515).

On the other hand, if a specific pattern is not written in the nonvolatile memory section 14, the data stored in the HD section 6 will be
The message “Power-off sequence abnormality” is read out and displayed on the screen of the CRT display section 7 (Step 5).
16).

If the power supply is unexpectedly turned off due to an abnormality in the power supply, etc., the above “power-off sequence abnormality” will occur.
It is sufficient to stop the job writing process at the time when this message is displayed, and restart the job writing process from the beginning.

In particular, the message is not limited to the above-mentioned "power off OK" or "power off sequence abnormality", but any message that can accurately grasp each situation may be used.

Furthermore, in the above-described power-off sequence, when a specific command is input by the CPUI, a message indicating that the power supply cannot be turned off is displayed on the CRT display section 7, thereby making it possible to write data even more safely.

According to the above explanation, according to this embodiment, the FDD section or H
If an abnormality occurs in the data recorded in section D, check whether the cause of the abnormality is due to an abnormality at power off or whether the
This is very convenient for services because it can be clearly determined whether the problem is caused by a problem inherent in the DD section, HD section, or the like.

Furthermore, if the logging data is destroyed due to an abnormality during power-off, the abnormality can be confirmed immediately and the job can be re-executed, thereby eliminating any hindrance to the smooth flow of business.

Now, this embodiment can be modified in various ways without departing from the spirit of the invention. Therefore, other embodiments will be described below.

First, at least two switch units are provided that enable power-off input, and when power-off is input by one of the switch units, the same operation as when inputting a specific command from the keyboard unit 8 occurs. make them do That is, the second
Similarly to the flowchart in the figure, the FDD unit 5 or HD unit 6
After completing writing to the nonvolatile memory unit 14, a specific pattern is written to the nonvolatile memory unit 14. Then, a message such as "Power off OK" is displayed on the CRT display section 7, and after the message is displayed, the power is turned off manually using the other switch. In this way, even if the power of the printing apparatus is completely turned off, the same functions and effects as in this embodiment can be obtained.

Further, without depending on the switch section 9, all operations up to turning off the power supply may be performed by inputting a command from the keyboard section 8. Of course, it is not necessary to provide a switch section at all, and if the data to be written to the FDD section or the HD section is long, the write processing time will be long, so a power-off process may be performed once in the middle.

Alternatively, in the power-off sequence of the power supply, if the non-volatile memory unit 14 stores the date and time of power-off, it becomes easy to distinguish it from power-off during an abnormality.

Furthermore, when the power is turned on, the number of times data has been written to the nonvolatile memory may be displayed on the CRT display unit 7.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a convenient print control device that can reliably determine whether or not an abnormality in recorded data has occurred during power-off.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing the configuration of the printing apparatus of this embodiment, and FIGS. 2(a) and 2(b) are flowcharts illustrating the power-on/power-off sequence of this embodiment. In the figure, 1...CPU, 2...ROM, 3...RA
M. 4...Interface section, 5...FDDli, 6.
...HD section, 7...CRT display section, 8...
Keyboard section, 9... Switch section, 10... Page buffer section, 11... Font memory section, 12...
Bitmap memory section, 13...Printer section, 14.
...This is a non-volatile memory section. ll Figure 1!2vlI(b)

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) A printing control device that is connected to at least a display unit and can instruct display, and includes at least a first detection unit that detects specific input data before a predetermined process is completed, and the first detection unit a second detection means for detecting the completion of a predetermined process based on the detection of the second detection means; a memory holding means for storing and retaining the detection of the second detection means as data; 1. A printing control apparatus comprising: a determining means for determining whether the data is detected by the determining means; and a display means for instructing the display unit to display the determination result of the determining means. (2) The printing control device according to claim 1, wherein a nonvolatile memory is used as the memory holding means. (3) The printing control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the memory holding means includes a counting means for storing and holding the number of times the completion of a predetermined process is detected.