JPH03128570A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily obtain the reception of communication management information at a remote location by transferring new communication management information to a memory area for polling transmission automatically when the memory area for the communication management information is occupied and storing the communication management information separately from a text data for the polling transmission. CONSTITUTION:A memory section 5 has a communication management area 11 storing a communication history to manage the communication state of a facsimile equipment 1 and communication management information such as a cause to a communication error and a polling transmission wait file (polling area) 12 storing a text data for polling transmission, the communication history or an error log in the communication management area 11 is transferred to the polling transmission wait file (polling area) 12 and subject to polling transmission to a terminal equipment or the like of the service center with the polling transmission processing. The history of the data is stored as a series of character codes every time communication or an error takes place and an address starting the data description in the succeeding communication is represented by a pointer data 'FFbeta. whether or not the communication management area is occupied is discriminated depending whether the pointer data 'FF' reaches the final address.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a facsimile device, and more particularly, to a facsimile device that stores communication management information in a polling standby storage area and can transmit the communication management information using a polling function. Regarding equipment.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, in facsimile machines, communication history, communication errors, etc. are stored in a predetermined memory as communication management information. It is now possible to make and receive calls from a location (such as a service center).

For example, if a user sends a message to a service center saying, ``I tried to send a message to a certain location, but a communication error occurred, and no matter how many times I tried to make a call, the error occurred.'' It is possible to read out the communication error history and clarify the cause, and it is also possible for a service person to immediately go to the user, output the communication error history from the plotter of the terminal, and reply to the user.

A factor ξ communication system having such a diagnostic function by remote control from an outside line is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 58-691.
There is one described in Publication No. 61.

This facsimile communication system enables diagnosis of the factor ξ device by remote control using a unique communication protocol.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, in such a conventional factor ξ error device, when the memory that stores communication management information overflows, new communication management information is overwritten on the same memory. Because of this configuration, a problem arises in that the previous communication management information is automatically deleted, which hinders the investigation of the cause of the communication error.

Furthermore, in the method of reading communication management information using a unique communication protocol, the communication control becomes complicated and the burden on the facsimile machine side becomes heavy.

(Object of the Invention) Therefore, the present invention automatically transfers new communication management information to the memory area for polling transmission when the memory area for communication management information is filled, and the message data for polling transmission is It is an object of the present invention to provide a facsimile machine that can easily receive maintenance information by storing the information separately and using a conventional polling function to easily receive communication management information at a remote location.

(Structure of the Invention) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a storage means having a polling area for accumulating message data for polling transmission, a communication management area for accumulating communication management information such as communication history and communication error history, etc. and transmits message data and communication management information stored in the storage means in response to a polling transmission request or a communication management information transmission request from an external facsimile terminal, wherein the communication management area is a communication management area. When the area is filled with information, communication management information to be stored thereafter is transferred to the polling area and stored separately from the message data.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be specifically explained based on examples.

1 to 4 are diagrams showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a facsimile machine, and the facsimile machine 1 includes a system control section 2, a printer part 3,
Scanner part 4, memory part (storage means) 5, Kanji ROM
6, a data conversion section 7, a communication control section 8, etc., and each section is connected to a bus 9.

The system control unit 2 includes a CPU, ROMSRAM, etc., and the CPU executes a sequence as the factor ξ calculation device 1 according to a program stored in the ROM, and also performs communication management information transfer processing and polling transmission processing, which will be described later. Execute.

As the plotter part 3, for example, a thermal recording device using a thermal element is used, and the plotter part 3 records directly on thermal recording paper or indirectly on ordinary recording paper via an ink sheet.

As the scanner part 4, for example, COD (Charge
An image reading device using a coupled device (Coupled Device) is used, and the scanner part 4 reads and outputs the image information of the document line by line.

As shown in FIG. 2, the memory unit 5 has a polling area and a communication management area 11 that stores communication management information such as communication history and causes of communication errors (hereinafter referred to as error log) for managing the communication status of the facsimile device 1. It has a polling transmission standby file (polling area) 12 that accumulates message data for transmission, and communication history and error logs in the K management area 11 are transferred to the polling transmission standby file 12 by a transfer process described later. At the same time, the data is polled and transmitted to terminals at the service center through polling transmission processing.Furthermore, an example of the accumulation state of communication management information in the communication management area 11 is shown in Fig. Each time a message occurs, its history is accumulated as a series of character codes, and the address (in this case, "74FFFJ") is used to start writing data in the next communication.
('') is indicated by the pointer data "FF". Whether this communication management area is full is determined by whether the pointer data "FFo" has reached the final address.

The kanji ROM 6 stores bitmap data of kanji, alphabets, numbers, etc. corresponding to character codes.

The data conversion unit 7 converts the input character code data into bitmap data for facsimile ξυ.
bitmap data corresponding to the character code is read from the OM6), and this data conversion is performed during polling transmission processing to be described later.

The communication control unit 8 transmits and receives facsimile data (bitmap data) according to a facsimile communication protocol.

Next, the effect will be explained.

First, the process of transferring the communication management information from the communication management area 11 to the polling transmission standby file 12 will be explained.

When the pointer data ``FF'' reaches the final address in the communication management area 11 and it is determined that the address is filled with communication management information, the subsequent communication management information is automatically polled as the transmission standby file 1 as character code data.
Transferred to 2. At the time of this transfer, the series of character code data is divided into units of one A4 page, and headings and the like are added. An example of data transferred to the polling transmission standby file 12 is shown in FIG. In order to distinguish the series of character code data transferred to the polling transmission standby file 12 from the message data for polling transmission, the series of character code data is stored in a separate area from the message data area within the polling transmission standby file 12, and is stored in a special area. A polling ID (for example, 4 digits) is added. Note that this polling ID needs to be known in advance by both the user and the other party.

Next, polling transmission processing will be explained.

When attempting to obtain communication management information within the facsimile device 1 through polling reception from an external facsimile terminal such as a service center, the operator transmits a polling transmission request instruction and also transmits the polling ID.

When a polling transmission request and a polling ID are designated in the device 1 with a factor ξ, a series of character code data to which the polling ID is added is sequentially read out from the polling transmission standby file 12 in the memory unit 5. , the character code data is kanji ROM
6 and the data converter 7 convert the facsimile data (
bitmap data) and sent from the communication control unit 8 to the line. Polling transmission standby file 12
When the data transmission in the communication management area 1 is completed, the communication management area 1
A series of character code data stored in the file 12 is sequentially transferred and stored in the polling transmission standby file 12 according to the transfer processing procedure described above, and the polling ID
is added, the data is immediately converted into facsimile data (bitmap data) by the kanji ROM 6 and the data converter 7, and sent from the communication controller 8 to the line. After this polling transmission process is completed, the communication management area 11
And the communication management information accumulated in the polling transmission standby file 12 is deleted.

Therefore, by simply adding a function to transfer the communication management information in the communication management area 11 to the polling transmission standby file 12, it is possible to retrieve the communication management information from an external facsimile terminal using the conventional polling function. All files necessary for maintenance can be easily obtained without any special communication protocol.

(Effects) According to the present invention, when the memory area for communication management information is filled, new communication management information is automatically transferred to the memory area for polling transmission, and is separated from the message data for polling transmission. By using the conventional polling function, communication management information can be easily received at a remote location, and facsimile machine maintenance information can be easily and reliably obtained.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 to 4 are diagrams showing an embodiment of a facsimile device according to the present invention, in which FIG. 1 is a block diagram of its overall configuration, and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the internal configuration of the memory section of FIG. 1. , 3rd
This figure shows an example of the data file in the communication management area of FIG. 2, and FIG. 4 shows an example of the data in the polling transmission standby file of FIG. 3. 1...Facsimile machine, 2...System control section, 3...Part of plotter, 4...Part of scanner, 5... Memory section (storage means), 6...
Kanji ROM. 7... Data conversion unit, 8... Communication control unit, 9... Bus, 11... Communication management area, 12... Polling File waiting to be sent (polling area).

Claims (1)

[Claims] Equipped with a storage means having a polling area for storing message data for polling transmissions and a communication management area for storing communication management information such as communication history and communication error history, and is capable of handling polling transmission requests from external facsimile terminals and communication management information. A facsimile device that transmits message data and communication management information stored in the storage means in response to a transmission request from the storage means, and when the communication management area is filled with the communication management information, the communication management information to be stored thereafter is A facsimile device, wherein the facsimile device transfers the data to a polling area and stores it separately from the message data.