JPH01173221A - Printing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To get collected results as a data file which can be reread in a different system by adding identification data to reception contents, status information, etc., from a host device by a control part to transmit them to the host side as necessary. CONSTITUTION:Data from a host device 1 is received by a reception part 3 and is sent to a control part 4. Since the identification information of the recording mode is sent from a switch part 5 at this time, the control part 4 adds identification data indicating a data part to reception data and transmits them to the device 1 through the reception part 3. The control part 4 converts data to such format that data can be easily converted to print data, and this converted data is stored in an internal data buffer. The identification information indicating a status part is added to status information of the processing result and they are transmitted to the device 1. After the processing of one-page components of data is terminated, data in the buffer is converted to print data and is sent to a printing part 6 and is printed. Identification information is added to information sent to the printing part 6 and the termination result from the printing part 6 and they are sent to the device 1. Thus, the host side gets collected results as a data file.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a printer device, and particularly to a printer device used as an output device in an information processing system.

[Conventional technology]

BACKGROUND ART In information processing systems, printer devices have traditionally been used as output devices for outputting processing results of host computers and other host devices on paper, and it is thought that the function of printing will not change in the future. In recent years, the data processed by computer systems has tended to expand to include various media such as characters and image graphs, and the data output by printers has inevitably become more diverse, and the data that controls printers has also become more complex. There is.

When using a printer device that requires complicated control in such a complicated system, there is a high probability that problems will occur with other devices in the system, the communication network, or the software used.

When a problem occurs in this type of printer, the means to collect information include adding an operation mode that converts the data received from the host device into a hexadecimal character code and printing, or adding an operation mode to the printer's internal A method of adding a function of printing the status on paper has been proposed.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, in any of the above conventional cases, it is necessary to manually analyze the data after collecting the information.
Furthermore, in order to actually operate and test the systems, it is necessary to make the system environment the same, but this cannot be easily achieved in the current situation where systems are diversifying.

On the other hand, in order to conduct tests in different system environments, it is necessary to input the data collected on paper one by one, and the so-called multimedia data containing a mixture of text, images, and graphic data is enormous. There is a problem in that the input work inevitably requires a great deal of time and effort.

[Purpose of the invention]

An object of the present invention is to improve the disadvantages of the conventional example and, in particular, to provide a relatively inexpensive printer device that allows information collection results to be obtained as a data file that can be reread by a different system. be.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention includes a receiving unit that receives print data from a host device, a control unit that has a function of temporarily storing received data after signal processing, and and a printing section that finally prints out the data stored in the control section on paper according to the printing command. The control unit is configured to have a two-way information transmission function that adds identification data to the received content, status information, etc. from the higher-level device as necessary and transmits it to the higher-level device. The aim is to achieve this.

[Embodiments of the invention]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG.

The embodiment shown in FIG. 1 includes a host device 1 and a printer device 2 as an output device of the host device WX.

The printer device 2 includes a receiving section 3 that receives data from the host device 1, a control section 4 that has a function of controlling an interface (not shown) with the host device 1 and controlling the overall operation of the printer device 2. It is comprised of a switch section 5 that selects the operation mode of the control section 4, and a printing section 6 that finally prints out data on paper in response to a print command from the control section 4.

Of these, the control unit 2 is actually a CPU (central processing element)
It is mainly configured with a microprocessor (not shown), and includes a data buffer (not shown) for temporarily storing data input through the receiving section 1 after predetermined processing.

The switch section 5 is for selectively setting the normal operation mode and the recording operation mode, and generates identification information for the normal operation mode and the recording operation mode.

This identification information is readable by the control unit 4.

Next, the overall operation of the above embodiment will be explained.

In the normal operation mode, data from the host device 1 is received by the receiving unit 3, like a normal online printer.
The control section 4 performs a first conversion into a format that is easy to convert into print data handled by the printing section 6, and then stores the data in a data buffer (not shown). After repeating these operations and completing the data processing for one page, the second conversion is performed in accordance with the completed data in the data buffer (not shown) in the control unit 4, that is, it is converted into print data, and then the printing unit 6 The print data is sent out and printed out on paper by the printing section 6.

On the other hand, in the storage operation mode, data from the host device 1 is received by the receiving section 3 and sent to the control section 4. At this time, since the recording mode identification information has been sent to the control unit 4 from the switch unit 5, the control unit 4 determines that the recording operation mode is selected and adds identification data indicating that the received data is a data section. , is transmitted to the host device 1 via the receiving section 3.

Next, as in the case of the normal mode described above, first conversion is performed in the control unit 2 to a format that is easy to convert into print data handled by the printing unit 3, and the data is stored in a data buffer (not shown) in the control unit 2. .

Next, status (ST) information as a processing result to be notified to the higher-level device 1 is added with identification data indicating that it is a status part, and is transmitted to the higher-level device. After repeating the above operations and completing the processing of one page of data, a second conversion is performed to convert the data into print data according to the data completed in the data buffer in the control unit 2, similar to 6-1 in the normal mode described above. After that, the print data is sent to the printing section 6, and the printing result is outputted on paper by the printing section 6. In this case, since the operation mode is the recording operation mode, the control section 4 sends the information sent to the printing section 6 and the completion result from the printing section 6 to the host device 1 with identification information added thereto.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, the control unit receives received contents and status information (ST
Since identification data is added to the data such as information) and transmitted to the higher-level device, the data sent from the printer device can be easily recorded in a file on the higher-level device side. Therefore, it is possible to provide an unprecedented and excellent printer device in which information collection results can be obtained as a data file that can be reread by a different system.

As described above, since the printer device of the present invention does not require any additional devices, the printer device has a simple structure and is relatively inexpensive.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention. 1... Host device, 3... Receiving section, 4... Control section,
6...Printing section.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A receiving unit that receives print data from a host device, a control unit that has a function of temporarily storing the received data after signal processing, and a printing command from the control unit that causes the data to be stored in the control unit. and a printing unit that finally prints out the received data on paper, and the control unit adds identification data to the received content, status information, etc. from the higher-level device as necessary, and transmits it to the higher-level device. A printer device characterized by having a bidirectional information transmission function.