JPH04116571A - Color copying device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To use an usable section even if an abnormal section occurs and time to be recovered, effectively by providing a deciding means deciding an effective instructing range on an instructing means according to the contents of abnormality inside and an explicit means pointing out the instructing range decided by the deciding means. CONSTITUTION:When the abnormal section is given input with respect to selecting keys 300 - 307 displayed on the region 311 of a liquid crystal display part 300 and the input of a selecting key 342 for instructing the completion of a color mode, are checked. When the input of the selecting keys 300 - 307 is given, the selecting key selected is reversely displayed. Thus, even if the abnormal section relating to the color mode occurs, the selection of color not influencing on the abnormal section can be carried out. Moreover, printing with the selected color is carried out. Thus, the abnormal section can be effectively used as a section not having the abnormality till the abnormal section is recovered.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a color copying apparatus, and for example, to control of a color copying apparatus having a self-check function.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, this type of copying apparatus has a self-check function, and if an abnormal section is found, a warning message is immediately issued, and the copying apparatus is often controlled so as not to be permitted to perform a copying operation.

For example, when checking the remaining amount of developer such as toner, if the remaining amount is less than a specified amount, the printing operation is not permitted. Even in color printers with multiple developing machines,
If there is a developing station that is running out of developer,
Control is provided to alert the operator to replenish the desired developer and to disallow printing operations.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the conventional example described above, if an abnormal section exists in even one place, a copy operation is not permitted even in a mode that does not use the abnormal section. For example, there is a restriction that "the black monochrome mode cannot be used when there is no toner in the magenta color developing station in a color copying apparatus."

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional example, and its purpose is to make available sections usable even when an abnormal section occurs, and to make effective use of the time until recovery. The objective is to provide a color copying device that can

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems and achieve the purpose, a color copying apparatus according to the present invention includes an instruction means for instructing operations related to reading and recording an original image, and the instruction means. A color copying apparatus comprising an input means for reading the original image and inputting an image signal according to instructions from the instruction means, and a forming means for forming a visible image based on the image signal input by the input means according to instructions from the instruction means. , a detecting means for detecting an internal abnormality, a determining means for determining an effective instruction range of the indicating means according to the content of the internal abnormality detected by the detecting means, and clearly specifying the instruction range determined by the determining means. It is characterized in that it includes a means for indicating that.

[Operation] According to this configuration, the detecting means detects an internal abnormality, the determining means determines the effective indication range of the indicating means according to the contents of the internal abnormality detected by the detecting means, and the clarifying means is the determining means. Clarify the determined instruction range.

[Embodiments] Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

First Embodiment FIG. 1 is a side view showing the internal structure of a first embodiment of a color copying apparatus according to the present invention.

In Figure 1, this device reads the three primary color components of R and GB of a document image as electrical signals using a solid-state image sensor, calculates and generates M, C, Y, and Bk image data from these electrical signals, and sequentially prints them on paper. Output. 201 is a reading manuscript;
Place the platen glass (original platen glass) 2 with the reading surface facing down.
02 and is pressed from above by a document holding cover 203. The original 201 is illuminated by an original illumination lamp 203, and the reflected light is reflected by reflection mirrors 204, 205,
206, an imaging lens 207, and is divided into three optical paths by a pair of beam splitters 208 and 209. The light that has passed through the first optical path passes through a mirror 210 and an R component passing filter 211, and then passes through the R CCD 21.
The image is formed on 2. Further, the light passing through the second optical path passes through a G component passing filter 213 and is imaged on a G CCD 214 . Furthermore, the light passing through the third optical path is directed to a mirror 215.
and B#ICCD2 through the B component pass filter 216.
17.

These CCD 212. which are color image reading sensors.
Reference numerals 214 and 217 each consist of a line-shaped CCD (charge-coupled device), and are electrically scanned in the line direction (hereinafter referred to as main scanning) by a COD driver (not shown). Further, the above-mentioned illumination lamp 203 and mirror 204 are integrally driven by the motor 216 in the sub-scanning direction at a speed V, and at the same time, the mirrors 205 and 206 are both driven at a speed 1/2.
By driving in the same direction at 2 V, the document is mechanically scanned (sub-scanning) in a direction perpendicular to the main scanning direction of the CCD (sub-scanning direction).

In this way, the image signals output from the C0Ds 212, 214, and 217 are transmitted to the electrical processing section (image processing section) 219.
After processing, the semiconductor laser 220 is driven based on the processed image signal, and the polygon mirror 221
A laser beam is scanned over the photoreceptor drum 223 by the reflective mirror 222 to form a latent image, and the latent image is developed by the developer unit 226 .

On the other hand, a sheet of paper previously fed from the sheet cassette 224 is pasted onto the transfer drum 225, and the developed toner image is transferred onto the sheet. At this time, the developing device unit 226 is composed of four developing devices, each of which is M.

Toner of any one of C, Y, and Bk colors is replenished in order, and by sliding these four developing devices left and right, the toners of the four colors are sequentially switched and color development is performed.

A full-color image is formed on the paper pasted on the transfer drum 225 using four color toners during four rotations, and the paper is separated from the transfer drum 225, conveyed, and fixed in the fixing device 227, and then transferred to the outside of the apparatus. It is ejected onto the ejection tray.

Various settings are performed through the operation section 228 provided at the upper left of the device in FIG.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the control section of the first embodiment. In the figure, the control section 13 includes a CPU 22 which is a microcomputer, and controls the video signal control, the lamp driver 21 for exposure and scanning, the stepping motor driver 15, and the operation panel 20 through respective signal lines 508 (buses). ,504,503
program ROM 23 to obtain the desired copy via the
It is controlled according to RAM24 and RAM25. RAM25
is backed up by a battery 31, and non-volatility is guaranteed.

A signal line 503 is a signal line through which the CPU 22 instructs the motor driver 15 about scanning speed, distance, forward movement, backward movement, etc. The motor driver 15 sends predetermined pulses to the stepping motor 14 according to instructions from the CPU 22. input and give motor rotation operation. Serial I/F29,3
0 is a general one realized by a serial I/F LSI such as Intel Corporation 8251, and although not shown, the printer section 2. The motor driver 15 also has a similar circuit.

The controller section 13 and the printer section 2 communicate through the serial I/F 2, and constantly send the status of the printer to the controller section 13 side.

Even if there is an error such as no toner, this serial I/F
The control unit 13 can be informed via 29.

In addition, SL and S2 are document exposure and scanning units (not shown).
Sl detects the home position of the exposure scanning unit, and the white level correction of the image signal is performed at this position. S2 is a sensor that detects the presence of the original exposure scanning unit at the leading edge of the image, and this position serves as the reference position for the leading edge of the original.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the appearance of a specific operation panel of the operation panel 20 shown in FIG. In No. N, 301 is a copy start key, and a copying operation can be started by operating this key. 302 is a reset key;
By pressing this key, various settings can be returned to their initial values when the power is turned on. 304 is a numeric keypad, and this 30
3 is a clear/stop key, which is used to stop the copying operation, reset the number of copies, etc. 3
05 is a display device, LCD (liquid crystal display)
It consists of a panel, etc., and displays the set operating mode by text, dot matrix image display, etc. Further, the surface of the table hanger 305 is covered with a transparent touch panel, and is configured so that coordinate values when pressed with a finger or the like are input into a microcomputer (not shown).

305 to 307 are enter keys for setting the zoom mode, color mode, and movement mode, respectively.

Each mode key has an LED on the key top.

Figures 4(a), (b), (c), and (d) show the operation panel 2.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display on a liquid crystal display section on a computer. Figure 4 (a
), (b), (c), and (d), 300 indicates the liquid crystal display section. Normally, if there is no abnormality, the display will be as shown in FIG. 4(a). When the color mode key 306 on the operation panel 20 is pressed, a display as shown in FIG. 4(b) is displayed. On this screen, select the option keys 300 to 308, 312 to determine the color mode. When the magenta toner becomes insufficient, the display changes as shown in FIG. 4(C) instead of FIG. 4(a). That is, the area indicated by 310 is used as a display area for equipment error messages, etc., and the area indicated by 311 is used as a display area for a selected color corresponding to pressing of color mode key 306. At this time, when the color mode key 306 on the operation panel 20 is pressed, a display as shown in FIG. 4(d) is displayed. As shown in area 311, there is a shortage of magenta toner, so color modes using magenta toner (red, blue,
Magenta, 3 colors, 4 colors) cannot be used and are not displayed in the options. However, other color modes can be selected, and copying operations are also permitted.

Next, the operation of the first embodiment will be explained.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the sequence when the CPU 22 is abnormal according to the first embodiment.

First, an initial display screen on the liquid crystal display section 300 of the operation panel 20 is formed (step 551). If an abnormal section is detected, and the abnormal section is a newly generated abnormal section, the process proceeds to step S54, and if the abnormal section has already been detected, the process proceeds to step S53.

In step S54, the newly generated abnormal section is first stored, and the display data is changed. The process then returns to step S51, and the display is changed. A specific example is the process of changing the display state of area 310 in FIG. 4(a) to the display state of area 310 in FIG. 4(c).

Further, in step S53, the key force on the operation panel section 20 is checked, and if there is no key force, step S51
When the process returns to step S5 and there is key human power, the process returns to step S5.
5, the type indicated by the input key is determined.

The input key includes a copy key 30 as shown in FIG.
3. Clear/stop key 302. Reset key 304
．． Enter key 305 (color mode), numeric keypad 30
1. Enter key 307 (move mode), enter key 3 o 5 (zoom mode), and corresponding to each input key, copy processing, clear/stop processing, reset processing, color mode processing, numeric key processing, movement processing,
Zoom processing is instructed. In this way, when the process corresponding to the input key is executed (step S56 to step S
62), the process proceeds to step S51 in order to return to the display screen corresponding to the processing result.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating the color mode sequence of the CPU 22 according to the first embodiment.

Step S59 shown in FIG. 5 will be explained according to FIG. 6. First, a section related to the color mode is checked from the abnormal sections stored in the RAM 24 or 25 (step 5601). However, since other abnormalities may occur while examining the abnormal section stored in the RAM 24 or 25, it is also possible to detect the abnormal section (not shown) and check the abnormal section. , it is essential to change the displayed data.

Therefore, if there is an abnormal section, the display data is changed to exclude the display of option keys that correspond to the abnormality.
Only option keys of available colors are displayed (steps 5602 and 5603). That is, to give a specific example, the display shown in FIG. 4(b) is normally performed, but if magenta cannot be used due to an abnormality, the display shown in FIG. 4(d) is displayed.
), the display is performed without the option keys related to magenta.

After step 5603, the area 311 of the liquid crystal display section 300
The inputs to the option keys 300 to 308 displayed on the screen and the input to the option key 312 for instructing the end of the color mode (return) are checked, and the inputs to the option keys 300 to 308 displayed are checked.
If 08 is input, the process advances to step 5605, and the selected option key is highlighted. However, if a selection key that was already selected and highlighted is selected,
Restoration display is performed to return to the original display state.

If the reset key 304 is pressed manually, the process ends (step 5608).

Steps 8604 to 8608 for selecting a color are repeatedly performed, and when the end option key 312 is selected (step 5606), the color of the highlighted option is stored as the selected color (step 5607).

In this way, even if an abnormal section related to the color mode occurs, it is possible to select a color that does not affect the abnormal section, and it is also possible to print using the selected color.

As explained above, according to the first embodiment, even if an abnormal section exists, by clearly indicating the unusable function and allowing copy operation only when the function is selected, until the abnormal section is recovered. time can be used effectively.

<Second Embodiment> FIGS. 7(a) and 7(b) are diagrams showing examples of color mode display according to a second embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment has the same configuration as the previous embodiment, and its explanation will be omitted.

For example, if you press the color mode 7 key 306 when magenta toner is insufficient, the LCD display 300 will display the following information:
Unlike the display example in FIG. 4(d), all option keys are displayed in the area 311 as shown in FIG. 7(a). Add a dash "°" to the key number. If the option key 300° is pressed to select the red color mode, the red color mode uses magenta toner, so in this case Therefore, as shown in FIG. 7(b), the liquid crystal display unit 300 displays an error message that the red color mode cannot be used because there is currently no magenta toner.Of course, the error message It is impossible to use the color that is displayed due to an abnormality. Select the green color mode (press option key 301), this is possible because magenta is not used, and select the option key 301 to indicate that the green color mode has been selected.Here, 703 is a return key of the soft keys, which is pressed when returning from the display screen of FIG. 7(b) to the display screen of FIG. 7(a). used.

Next, the operation of the second embodiment will be explained. Since the overall operation is the same as that of the first embodiment, the operation corresponding to the color mode will be explained here.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating the color mode sequence according to the second embodiment.

When you enter the color mode, the initial screen display will be as shown in Figure 7 (
forming a display screen formed of options including colors related to the abnormal section shown in a) (step 58);
1). Then, the operator selects a color (choice keys 300° to 308°), exits (choice key 312°),
An instruction for one of the reset commands (reset key 304) is awaited, and when the reset command is selected, the present process ends and the process returns to the operation shown in FIG. 5 (step 589).

If a color is selected (step 582), it is checked whether the color corresponds to the abnormal section or not, and if there is no abnormality, the option key of the selected color is displayed in reverse video. Here, if an already selected color is selected, the inverted display is inverted, that is, restored and displayed to correct the selection (step 584). The process then returns to step S82.

Further, when the end is selected in step S82, the selected color that is displayed in reverse video at this point is stored in the RAM 24 or 25 as color information for copying (step S82).
88. step 590).

Next, if it is determined in step 883 that there is an abnormality in the selected color, an abnormality message is displayed, as shown in FIG. 7(b), for example, to inform the user of the error (step 5
85). In this state, only the input of the return key 703 and the input of the reset key 304 are accepted; in the case of the former,
Processing to return to the previous display screen, for example, in FIG. 7(a), is performed (steps 886 and 590), and in the latter case, exiting from the color mode, the processing returns to the operation in FIG. 5 ( step 587).

In this way, the second embodiment can also achieve the same effects as the first embodiment.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the time required for recovery from an abnormal section can be effectively used in a section without an abnormality.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing the internal configuration of a first embodiment of a color copying apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a control section of the first embodiment, and FIG. Figures 4(a), 4(b), 4(c), and 4(d) show specific examples of the external appearance of the operating panel 20.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the sequence of the CPU 22 when an abnormality occurs according to the first embodiment, and FIG. 6 illustrates the color mode sequence of the CPU 22 according to the first embodiment. flow chart,
FIGS. 7(a) and 7(b) are diagrams showing display examples of the color mode according to the second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating the sequence of the color mode according to the second embodiment. In the figure, 1... League club, 2... Printer club, 10...
...Halogen lamp, 12...Video processing unit,
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 13... Control part, 15... Motor driver, 21... Lamp driver, 20... Operation panel, 22... CPU, 23... ROM, 24°25.
...RAM, 26...I10 boat, 27...Interrupt controller, 28...Timer circuit, 29,30...
...Serial I/F, 201...Manuscript, 202...
Platen glass, 203... Original illumination lamp, 204
．． 205, 206, 222... Reflection mirror, 2°7.
...Imaging lens, 208, 209... Beam splitter, 210, 215... Mirror, 211... R component passing filter, 212... CCD for R, 213...
G component pass filter, 214... CCD for G, 216
...B component passing filter, 217...B CCD,
218...Motor, 219...Electrical processing unit, 22
0... Semiconductor laser, 221... Polygon mirror,
223...Photosensitive drum, 224...Paper cassette, 225...Transfer drum, 226...Developer unit, 227...Fixer, 228...Operation unit, 300
...Liquid crystal display, 301...Numeric keypad, 302...
・Clear/reset key, 303...Copy key, 3
04...Reset key, 305, 306, 307...
・Enter key, 310, 311... area, 330~
338°342.330°~338', 342°...
Choice key 703...return key.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) An instruction means for instructing operations related to reading and recording an original image, an input means for reading the original image and inputting an image signal according to instructions from the instruction means, and an input means for inputting an image signal according to instructions from the instruction means. and a forming means for forming a visible image based on an image signal inputted by the input means, a detection means for detecting an internal abnormality, and a color copying apparatus according to the content of the internal abnormality detected by the detection means. 1. A color copying apparatus, comprising: determining means for determining an effective instruction range of said indicating means; and clarifying means for specifying the instruction range determined by said determining means. (2) The color copying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said clarifying means includes display means for displaying said specified range as an option.