JPH0352028A - Display controller for terminal equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the operability by constituting an interface control part with a 1st interface for character display control over a character display part and a 2nd interface except for the character display control. CONSTITUTION:Respective units 50 - 53 are connected by an address data bus 54 to constitute the 1st interface for the character display control over a display operation part 6. A buffer 55 is an interface which transmits signals S1 and S2 from an external host machine 7 to an engine control part 1 directly and a buffer 56 is an interface which transmits signals S4 and S5 from the engine control part 1 to the external host machine 7 directly; and they constitute the 2nd interface except for the character display control. Consequently, the 1st interface displays character on a character display part in the language of a country where a terminal equipment is used and the 2nd interface performs control except over the character display to improve the operability.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Industrial Technical Field) The present invention relates to a display control device for a terminal whose operation is controlled from an external host, and particularly relates to displaying the status of the terminal in characters. (Prior Art) When a terminal controlled by an external host, such as a printing device, is connected via a two-way communication interface, the printing device receives a status request command from the external host and then processes the command. is interpreted and information such as the current status of the printing device is sent to the external host machine, and the operator of the host machine can recognize the current status of the printing device. On the other hand, when connected using a unidirectional communication interface, even if a status request command is sent to the printing device from an external host machine, the printing device does not have the function to respond to the command. Therefore, commands from the external host machine cannot be executed and are ignored. Additionally, the operator on the external host machine cannot know the status of the printing device. In order to solve the drawbacks of the unidirectional communication method described above, a control unit is connected to an external host machine via a unidirectional communication interface, and a response to a status information request command sent from the external host machine to the control unit is provided. It is equipped with an information transmitting means for transmitting the results to the operator on the external host machine side (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 64-26924).
．． In addition, for printing devices, copying machines, etc. used as terminals for external host machines, the internal status of the device itself, such as when the copying machine runs out of copy paper or when a copy paper jam occurs, is displayed. Although multiple single indicator lamps are placed on a board, etc. to make them visible, and symbols and abbreviations are displayed, there is a limit to the amount of information that should be displayed on the indicator lamps. When displaying abbreviations, etc., it was necessary to refer to manuals, etc. to understand them, which was troublesome. In order to eliminate this inconvenience, simple characters are displayed to the operator of the copying machine, and in order to make it easier to operate and repair, the operator is required to perform operations, standby, or perform other actions. Means for detecting that the required state is present, and means for displaying in text the action to be requested of the operator in response to the detection signal from the detection means. There is also a copying machine equipped with a character display function (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 182652/1983). In addition, as another means, a copying machine has been proposed in which one of several languages is selected and displayed on the display as the language for displaying guidance messages, making it easier to operate and repair/inspect. (See No. 177857, 1983). (Problem to be Solved by the Invention) In the case of JP-A No. 64-26924, since there is only one interface between the external host machine and the printing device, display, status information, commands, etc. can be collectively transmitted through this interface. Therefore, the overall control speed decreases. Further, although it is possible to display the status response results from the external host machine to the printing device, the status of the printing device itself is not displayed, so the operability from the external host machine side is poor.

Further, in the case of the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 58-182652, the internal state of the copying machine itself can be displayed to provide convenient instructions to the operator of the copying machine regarding operations, repairs, inspections, etc. However, since it did not have an interface with an external host machine, the internal status of the copier could not be transmitted to the external host machine, making it difficult to operate from the external host machine. Further, in the case of the above-mentioned Japanese Utility Model Application No. 63-177857, the internal state of the copier itself can be displayed in characters selected from the national language of the country concerned. but,
There is a limit to the number of words that can be stored in the ROM of a copying machine, and it is disadvantageous in terms of cost to prepare each language in only a few languages. In addition, this also does not have an interface to transmit the internal state of the copier to the external host machine.
The operability from the external host machine side was poor. (Object of the Invention) The present invention provides for the above-mentioned printing device, copying machine, etc. used as a conventional terminal device to be automatically controlled by an external host device according to the internal state of the terminal device. The purpose is to enable control of character display and improve operability. (Structure and Operation) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes a character display section for displaying the status of the terminal, and an interface control section for displaying characters from an external host machine on the character display section. The interface control section is characterized by comprising a first interface for character display control with respect to the character display section and a second interface for purposes other than character display control. The present invention allows a first interface to display characters in the national language of the country in which the terminal is used in the character display section according to the internal state of the terminal by an operation from an external host device, and a second interface. The operability is improved by performing controls other than the above-mentioned character display.
The aim is to improve repair and inspection, etc., and to increase control speed. (Embodiment) Fig. 1 shows a block diagram of the case where the present invention is implemented in a laser printer. In the figure, l is the engine control section and the signal from input section 2? (signals from operation switches, detection sensors, etc.) are input, and the output section 3 (drive mechanism such as clutch, motor, etc.) and image output section 4 (laser output for printing images on recording paper, image timing signals, etc.) are input. Control. Reference numerals 5 and 6 denote an interface control section and a display/operation section that constitute the main parts of the present invention, and the interface control section 5 externally controls the engine control section 1, display/operation section 6, and the laser printer. Between the external host machine 7,
The connection structure is such that various signals S, to S6 are exchanged via a data bus (thick line arrow). The various signals 81 to S. Here, S■ is an engine control signal, S3 is an image signal, Sa is a display unit control signal, S4 is an engine status signal, S is an image timing signal, and S. is the operation unit signal. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the specific configuration of the interface control section 5 and display/operation section 6 shown in FIG.
In the figure. Is 5G an interface? A microcomputer (C
PU), a communication controller control signal S7 and a buffer control signal S.P which control the operation of the communication controller 52 and buffer 53 are transmitted.
Outputs . The communication controller 52
is used to send and receive signals S,,S, to and from the external host device 7, that is, to control character display on the display/operation section 6. The buffer 53 receives the signal S. is received and input to the CPU 50. 51 is a ROM in which programs necessary for the operation of the CPU 50 are stored. These units 50
53 are connected by an address/data bus 54, forming a first interface for controlling character display to the display/operation section 6. 55 and 56 are buffers;
The buffer 55 is an interface that directly transmits the signals S, S3 from the external host machine 7 to the engine control unit 1, and the buffer 56 directly transmits the signal SoS from the engine control unit 1 to the external host machine 7, respectively. This constitutes a second interface other than the one for character display control. The display/operation section 6 also has an operation section signal S. A switch 60 for exiting a signal to the external host machine 7 represented by , and a light emitting diode (LED) 61 for displaying the internal status of the laser printer by means of symbols or the like. A liquid crystal display diode (LCD) that displays the internal status of a laser printer in characters.
62 and a display/operation controller 63 that controls these
Consists of. Next, the operations of the interface control unit 5 and display/operation unit 6 configured as described above will be described according to the flowchart shown in FIG. Note that this flow is for the case where the status of the laser printer itself is automatically displayed in characters when the laser printer is turned on. Engine status signal S. from engine control unit 1. is transmitted from the buffer 53 by the address/data bus 54 to the signal S4.
is taken into the CPU 50, the parallel data is converted to serial data, and the display/operation controller 6 of the display/operation unit 6
3. Here, the engine status signal S4 is ? Status signal name S as illustrated in Figure 4.

(PES4-PESO) and state S , ■( S t
atus). For example, status signal name S. . but. "LLLLL" is notated, and state s41 means "engine driver CPU error." Also, "LLLHH" means "r photoconductor unit error." Similarly, in this example, the last " HHHH
Engine status signal names S, . up to "No error" of "H" are prepared. In this case, the status of the laser printer itself is displayed in the following cases. ■ If the external host machine 7 is a laser printer ■ When the external host machine 7 is connected to the laser printer, but the external host machine does not support the display control function. In both of the above cases, A predetermined code (TXD, RX described later in FIG. 6) is sent to the external host machine 7.
This can be confirmed by sending and receiving (D, CTS, RTS). That is, in the flow shown in FIG. 3, a predetermined command output (1) is output from the CPU 50 to the external host machine 7. Next, the CPU determines whether there is a response from the external host machine 7.
50 makes a judgment (FIG. 3 (2)), and if there is a response, it is further judged whether the response from the external pothos machine 7 is a predetermined code or not (3r!! IC3)). If it is a given code,
The CPU 50 sets the display control for the display/operation section 6 to a mode based on the display section control signal S from the external host device 7 (FIG. 3 (4)). That is, at this point, the external host machine 7 can display the internal state of the print by the first interface of the interface control section 5 in symbols and characters on the LED 51, I, and CD 62 of the display/operation section 6, respectively. Further, in the case of NO in the judgment steps shown in FIG. (Figure 3 (5)
). In other words, the display control of external host @7 has been removed. The flow shown in FIG. 3 above automatically grants display control rights to the CPU 50 of the interface control section 5.
Although we have shown an example in which settings are made using the external host 4l! Do you want to control the display from 7? The display may be controlled by the printer itself or displayed on the display/operation section 6. Furthermore, although FIG. 3 shows that the display control right is set when the printer's power is turned on, the display control right may be set from the external host device 7 when necessary. Improves operability. FIG. 5 shows a block diagram of a specific example of the display/operation section 6 shown in FIG.
Parts that are the same as those in the figure are given the same numerical numbers. The display/operation controller 63 is a microcomputer (
It consists of a CPU (CPU) and is equipped with a ROM 64 in which control programs for display processing and data for displaying message characters are stored. The display/operation controller 63
are connected to the CPU 50 of the ink face control section 5 via the serial bus 65, and according to the data sent from the CPU 50, the LED drivers 611. L
It drives the CD drivers 620 and 621 to perform various display processing such as operation display, warning display, and abnormality display on the LED 61 and LC:D62, and transmits data corresponding to the operation of the switch 60 to the CPU 50 via the serial bus 65. ing. The LCD driver 620 displays arbitrary characters, such as numbers, kanji, katakana, symbols, etc., and is used as a guidance message. The LCD driver 621 is also used to display fixed patterns, such as print magnification, number of prints, paper size for each paper feed system, symbol group indicating paper orientation, symbol group indicating various abnormalities and warnings, and display of various necessary modes. It will be done. In addition, the dip switch (Dip-SW) 66 is
This switch is used to select the message language displayed in a dot matrix on the CD62. The operation of each of these units is centrally controlled by the CPU of the display/operation controller 63, and here, in particular, the external host machine 7
An arbitrary character is displayed on the LCD 62 by the LCD driver 620 in response to the display control signal SN from the LCD driver 620. To explain this character display in detail, in FIG.
It is input to the address/data bus 54. The communication controller 52 converts a serial signal from the external host device 7 into a parallel signal, and the timing of the conversion operation is controlled by the communication controller control signal S. and address bus 54
The display unit control signal S3 introduced into the CPU
50 to the display/operation controller 63 (CPU) of the display/operation section 6 via the serial bus 65. Then, in the display/operation section 6, the display/operation controller 63 is operated, and as shown in FIG.
Information indicating the internal state of the laser printer sent from the engine control section 1 and the external host device 7 (FIG. 4) is displayed on the LCD 62 by the CD driver 620. By the way, in the above character display operation, the image timing signal Ss is a signal that determines the image area, timing, etc., and is not directly related to the above character display operation. It only relays with host machine 7. Similarly, the image signal S2 is also relayed between the external host device 7 and the engine control unit 1 via the buffer 55. Further, the engine control signal S1 controls engine conditions such as a print request signal and a paper feed tray select signal, and is relayed via the buffer 55 in the same manner as the image signal S3. FIG. 6 is a circuit diagram configuring the first interface shown in FIG. 2. Units that are the same as in Figure 2 are given the same numerical symbols. The communication controller 52 is . Communication controller control signals S, (I
C:1:/troll signal) TXD, RXD, CTS,
Sends and receives RTS signals to and from an external host machine. This operation timing is performed using the transmission clock TXD and the reception clock RXD based on the oscillation clock from the oscillation circuit 521. here. TXD is a signal for transmitting a serial signal to the external host device 7, and RXD is a signal for receiving a serial signal from the external host device 7. CTS is a control signal when there is serial data transmission from the printer or a permission signal when serial data is received from external host device 7. RTS is a control signal when serial data is received from external host device 7 or from printer. This is a permission signal when there is serial data transmission. The signal transmission speed of each of the above signals is adjusted via the buffer 70, and the signals are exchanged between the communication controller 52 and the external host machine 7. Further, between the CPU 50 and the display/control unit 6, FTXD, FRXD, and FCTS signals for the display/operation unit corresponding to the above-mentioned signals TXD, RXD, and CTS are exchanged between the CPU 50 and the display/control unit 6. This corresponds to the display unit control signal S1 shown in FIG. 1 and 2g above. Display section control signal S. from external host machine 7. teeth,
It is received by the communication controller 52 at a predetermined reception timing, and is transmitted via the address/data bus 54. It is taken into the CPU 50. In addition, the engine status signal S from the engine control unit 1 is also sent from the puffer 5.
Once received at step 3, the CP is sent via the address data bus 54.
Incorporated into U50. The operation of the CPU 50 is based on the upper addresses (A1 to A,) and lower addresses (A. to A,) of the ROM 51.
1. ) and is executed by reading data from a predetermined memory area. Above external host machine 7
The display unit control signal S. The parallel data is converted into serial data by the processing means of the CPU 50 stored in the ROM 51, and is outputted as characters to the display/operation unit 6 via the buffer 7l. In addition, CPU5
0. As each IC control signal of the communication controller 52, ALE is an address latch enable output signal for latching the lower byte signal of the address while accessing the external memory.
PEN is a read strobe signal (program store enable output) for external program memory. RD (RD) is a read strobe output (input) to external data memory. WR (WR) is the write strobe output (input) to external data memory. C/D is a signal that controls the communication controller 52, and the address/data bus 54 is a control signal. It is also an input signal that determines whether it is a data signal. Further, τd is a chip select signal for selecting the communication controller 52. Also. In the first interface shown in FIG. 6, since the address/data bus 54 is used for sending and receiving information, each IC (
51, 52, 53, 72, 73, etc.)? The timing of outputting information to the address/data bus 54 must be controlled so that each IC does not cross each other. The buffer 73 is used to generate an output so that one IC is selected at each predetermined timing determined by the upper address (po■ to Pea) of the CPU 50. FIG. 7 is a circuit diagram configuring the second interface shown in FIG.
) is connected to the engine control unit 1 side, and the right side is connected to the external host machine 7 side. FIGS. 7(1) and (2) show the image timing signal S. The image copying timing signal S,
is transmitted. This image timing signal is the basic evening lock W shown in FIG.
CLK (Click WCLK on the engine control section side,
(Hereinafter, the first ``cho'' refers to the engine control section.) Synchronization signal LSYNC that determines the reference position in the main scanning direction
(ELSYNC), and a line gate signal rττ-E (ELGATE) indicating the image area in the main scanning direction. FIG. 7(3) shows an interface for the image signal S3, in which the image signal S3 is transmitted from the external host device 7 to the engine control unit via the voltage-driven driver 81 (corresponding to the buffer 55 in FIG. 2). There is. This image copying signal is the image signal WDATa (Ew) shown in FIG.
oATA). FIG. 7(4) shows the engine status signal S. The engine status signal S. is sent from the engine control section 1 to the external host device 7 via a current-driven driver 80 (corresponding to the buffer 56 in FIG. 2).
is transmitted. This image copying signal has the status signal name PES shown in Figure 4.
O~PES4 (τ ding τ ding ▼~EPES4), signal PRDY (EPRDY) indicating the ready state of the printer, FGATE (indicating the number of lines that can be transferred to one page and the start of image writing (sub-scanning direction: Fig. 8) EFGATO) and the paper feed tray status. An engine control signal S is transmitted from the external host device 7 to the engine control unit 1 via the buffer 55 in the figure.
M No. P C S O ” P C S 2 (E
The control signal to the display/operation unit 6 is from the CPU 50 to the first interface, which is a serial interface, as shown in FIG. 6, and the other control signals are , as shown in Figure 7, is a second interface composed of parallel interfaces, each of which is separated.As a result, each can be operated at an appropriate control speed, and the configuration of the interface circuit is simplified. (Effects of the Invention) As explained above, the present invention is capable of transmitting and receiving signals separately from other controls in order to display the internal paper state of a terminal connected to an external host machine as a character. So,
It is possible to control each at an appropriate speed. The internal status of the terminal is then displayed in characters on the terminal in response to operation signals from the external host, improving operability on both the external host and the terminal. This character display is versatile because the external host machine can output any desired language to the display/operation section of the terminal.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the present invention applied to a laser printer, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the specific configuration of the interface control section 5 and display/operation section 6 of FIG. 1, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the operation flow of the engine status signal S. Figure 51 showing an example of
! I is a block diagram of a concrete configuration example of the display/operation section shown in Fig. 2, Fig. 6 is a circuit diagram configuring the first interface shown in Fig. 2, and Fig. 7 is a block diagram of the second interface shown in Fig. 2. Figure 8 is a diagram showing the image writing signals and image area of the laser printer. 1...Engine control section, 2...Input section, 3...
Output section, 4... Image output section, 5... Interface control section, 6... Display/operation section, 7.
...External host machine, 50. 63... Microcomputer (CPU), 51.64... ROM, 5
2... Communication controller, 53, 5
5, 56. 70～? 3, 80. 81... Buffer, 54... Address/data bus, 60... Switch, 6t... Light emitting diode (LED), 62...
・Liquid crystal display diode (LCD). 63...display/
Operation controller, 65... Serial path, 66...
・Dip switch (Dip-SW). 611・
...LED driver, 620, 621 -LCD driver, 82...inverter.

Claims (1)

[Claims] The interface control section includes a character display section for displaying the status of the terminal, and an interface control section for displaying characters from an external host device on the character display section, and the interface control section has a first control section for controlling character display on the character display section. interface and
A display control device for a terminal, comprising a second interface other than one for character display control.