JPH0573329A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the image forming device allowing the device itself to automatically replace a control program under the prescribed condition of usage. CONSTITUTION:This image forming device is provided with a storage means storing a control program and a function forming an image on an image carrier based on the control program stored in this storage means and communicating with an external device 60. It is also provided with a detection means detecting the condition of usage of the device and a control means 80 receiving the latest program from the external device 60 by a communication function in the case that the detection result of this detection means coincides with the condition of usage of the device and replacing the control program of the storage means with the latest control program. Thus, the device itself executes the replacement of the control program automatically based on the change of the condition of usage.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus,
More specifically, the present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having a communication function with an external device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a user or a service person (hereinafter referred to as an "operator") goes to a certain place of the apparatus itself and uses a communication function with an external apparatus of the apparatus to perform control for image formation. An image forming apparatus has been put into practical use in which the program is replaced with the latest control program.

The replacement of the control program is carried out in order to eliminate bugs in the existing control program and deal with version upgrades.

[0004]

However, in the case of the conventional apparatus, the replacement operation of the control program must always go to a place where the apparatus itself is, despite the simple work, which wastes the operator's time. As a result, there was a problem that labor costs were wasted.

Further, it is extremely difficult to make the contents of the control program of each image forming apparatus used by a large number of users the same.

Therefore, according to the present invention, when a predetermined change in the use condition of the apparatus itself occurs, the control program is automatically replaced, the operator's time is saved, and the labor cost is not wasted. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has a storage means for storing a control program, and a communication function with an external device for forming an image on an image carrier based on the control program stored in the storage means. In an image forming apparatus provided with an apparatus body having the detecting means for detecting the use status of the apparatus body, and when the detection result of the detecting means matches a preset use condition of the apparatus body, the communication function allows an external device to operate from an external device. And a control means for receiving the latest control program and replacing the control program in the storage means with the latest control program.

[0008]

The operation of the above-mentioned image forming apparatus will be described below.

The detection means of the image forming apparatus detects the usage status of the apparatus main body and sends the detection result to the control means. The control means receives the latest control program from the external device by the communication function when the detection result from the detection means matches the preset use condition of the apparatus body, and the control program of the storage means is updated to the latest control program. Replace.

As a result, when the use condition of the device body matches the preset use condition of the device body, the existing control program is automatically replaced with the latest control program.

[0011]

EXAMPLES Examples of the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 1 is a copying machine 1 which is an example of an image forming apparatus.
Is shown.

The copying machine 1 is of a thermal transfer type capable of selectively producing multicolor color images.

That is, an operation panel (not shown) is provided on the front portion of the upper surface of the apparatus body 1a of the copying machine 1. An upper part of the apparatus main body 1a is an image reading section 3 which constitutes a main body operating section 50 for scanning and reading the original O set on the original table 2, and a lower part is an image forming section 4 constituting the main body operating section 50. Is becoming In FIG. 1, reference numeral 5 denotes a document cover which is provided on the document table 2 so as to be openable and closable. Also, the document table 2
Is fixed to the apparatus main body 1a.

The image reading means 3 includes a first carriage 7 provided with an illumination lamp 6 as a light source, a second carriage 8 which bends an optical path by mirrors 8a and 8b, a lens 9, and reflected light from a document O which will be described later. A mirror unit 10 that guides the light to the converter 11 and corrects the optical path length during zooming, a photoelectric converter 11 that receives the reflected light from the original O, and a drive system (not shown) that changes the position of each unit. ing.

The first carriage 7 has an illumination lamp 6 for irradiating the original O with light, a reflector 12 as a reflecting mirror for collecting the light from the illumination lamp 6 on the original surface, and the original O.
Mirror 13 that guides the reflected light from the second carriage 8 side
Is installed.

The second carriage 8 is equipped with mirrors 8a and 8b for guiding the light guided by the mirror 13 to the lens 9. The first and second carriages 7 and 8 are
The second carriage 8 is connected to each other with a timing belt (not shown), and the second carriage 8 moves in the same direction at half the speed of the first carriage 7. As a result, scanning can be performed so that the optical path length to the lens 9 is constant.

The lens 9 has a fixed focal length and can be moved in the optical axis direction during zooming. Further, a lens having a variable focal length such as a zoom lens may be used.

The mirror unit 10 includes two mirrors 10a,
10b, the positions of the mirrors 10a and 10b are changed in accordance with the change of the optical path length corresponding to the selected magnification, and the light from the lens 9 is reflected by the two mirrors 10a and 10b. By bending the optical path, the light is guided to the photoelectric converter 11.

The photoelectric converter 11 photoelectrically converts the reflected light from the original O to convert the image of the original O into C (cyan), M (magenta), Y (yellow) or R (red), G (. The color signals of green and B (blue) are separately output as color signals, and are mainly composed of, for example, a CCD type line image sensor. In this case, the original O
3 pixels (C,
It corresponds to M, Y or R, G, B). The output of the photoelectric converter 11 is sent to the main body control unit 70.

The movements of the first and second carriages 7 and 8, the lens 9 and the mirrors 10a and 10b are performed by a stepping motor (not shown).

The mirrors 10a and 10b and the lens 9
Are moved by different stepping motors (not shown). The lens 9 is
A spiral shaft (not shown) is rotated by a corresponding stepping motor and is moved in the optical axis direction by the movement of the spiral.

The image forming section 4 is provided with a platen drum 22 as an image carrier located at the substantially central portion of the apparatus main body 1a.

The platen drum 22 is made of an elastic material such as rubber around its periphery and has a function as a platen roller of the thermal head 24. The platen drum 22 itself rotates counterclockwise to wind the paper P as an image forming medium around the outer circumference of the paper P so that the paper P does not shift during overlay printing.

Around the platen drum 22, pressure rollers 25 are provided at predetermined intervals to prevent the paper P from floating above the platen drum 22. The circumference of the platen drum 22 is slightly longer than the length of the maximum paper size in the longitudinal direction.

A thermal head 24 is arranged on the lower left portion of the platen drum 22. The thermal head 24 is attached to a radiator integrally formed on the rear end surface of the holder. An ink ribbon 26 as an image forming medium is interposed between the platen drum 22 and the thermal head 24.

Cores 30, 31 of the ink ribbon 26
Is connected to a drive shaft of a motor (not shown) via a drive force transmission mechanism (not shown), and is rotationally driven as necessary.

A paper feed roller 41 is provided in a lower portion of the apparatus main body 1a so as to take out the paper P as an image forming medium housed in the paper feed cassette 20 one by one. .. Paper P taken out by paper feed roller 41
Is transported by the transport roller 42 toward the platen drum 22 diagonally above the transport roller 42, and the gripper 2 mounted along the axial direction of the platen drum 22.
9. The platen drum 22 is wound around the platen drum 22 by the pressure roller 25, and is gripped, so that the platen drum 22 can be fed accurately.

Here, the paper feed cassette 20 is the apparatus main body 1a.
It is removable from the side. Incidentally, 4 in FIG.
Reference numeral 6 denotes a manual paper feeding device for manually feeding the paper P and the like. The paper P supplied from the manual paper feeding device 46
Is also wound around the platen drum 22 in the same manner as described above.

The paper P, the front end of which is fixed by the gripper 29, is wound around the platen drum 22 by the counterclockwise rotation, and after the front end passes through the printing area of the thermal head 24, the thermal head 24 is moved to the platen drum 2.
The sheet P is pressed to print the sheet P.

When the paper P is discharged, the platen drum 22 is used.
Is rotated counterclockwise, and when it reaches, the platen drum 22 is rotated clockwise, and the rear end of the sheet P is separated from the platen drum 22 by a separation pawl (not shown) and is guided to the discharge guide 27. Finally, the front end of the paper P is released from the gripper 29, and the paper P that has been copied by the paper discharge guide 27 is discharged onto the paper discharge tray 28.

In FIG. 3, 23 is a pinch roller, 35 is a circuit board group on which each circuit of the control system described later is mounted, 36 is a platen drum motor, 37 is a scanning motor, 3
8 is a cooling fan and 39 is a power supply.

Next, the control system of the copying machine 1 will be described with reference to FIG.

The copying machine 1 has a control means 8 for controlling the whole.
0, the control means 80 sends operation commands to the main body operation part 50 including the image reading part 3 and the image forming part 4, and the control part 80 takes in the read information from the image reading part 3. Output information for image formation is sent to the image forming unit 4.

Further, the number of operations of the image forming section 4 is counted by a total counter 51 as a detecting means, and is sent to the control means 80 as information on the total number of output sheets showing the usage status.

Further, the control means 80 includes a memory 74 as a storage means for storing a control program for forming an image of the copying machine 1, and an external device (host computer) 60 capable of transferring the latest control program at any time. A communication network interface 55 for communicating information between the two is connected.

The control means 80 comprises an execution control section 71 and a main body control section 70 as shown in FIG. The execution control unit 71 stores, in advance, a numerical value storage unit 72 that stores information about a designated number of sheets (for example, 10,000 sheets) as a set use condition.
And the information on the total number of output sheets counted by the total counter 51 and the information on the designated number of sheets are compared,
When both match, the main body control unit 70 displays the comparison result to that effect.
And a comparison calculation unit 73 for sending to

The main body control unit 70 sends a communication command to the communication network interface 55 based on the comparison result indicating that the total output number from the comparison calculation unit 73 matches the designated number, and the external device 60 sends the latest instruction. Upon receiving the control program, the latest control program is sent to the memory 74 to replace the control program.

Further, the main body control unit 70 sets and refers to the latest control program reception instruction flag (hereinafter referred to as “instruction flag”) TF for the numerical value storage unit 72, and further, the image of the main body operation unit 50. Image forming control is performed on the forming unit 4.

Next, the operation of the copying machine 1 described above will be mainly performed when the replacement of the control program is automatically performed, and FIG.
It will be described with reference to FIGS.

When the power of the copying machine 1 is turned on (ST
1), the main body control unit 70 executes the initialization operation (S
T2), the main body control unit 70 refers to the instruction flag TF (ST3), and when the instruction flag TF is set (ST4 affirmative), shifts to the program receiving module shown in FIG. 4 (ST5) and gives an instruction. If the flag TF is not set (NO at ST4), the copying operation of the copying machine 1 is started.

That is, first, the sheet number information from a copy sheet number key (not shown) is accepted, and this is substituted for the sheet number value i (ST6). Next, the copy key is accepted (ST7), and when the copy key is pressed (ST8), the image forming section 4 executes copying on the paper P (S).
T9) At this time, the value of the total output number TC of the total counter 51 is incremented by 1 each time the number of operations from the main body operation unit 50 is received (ST10).

Next, the control means 80 executes the program receiving timing judgment module (ST11) shown in FIG. 5, and then waits until the number of sheets i becomes 0 (ST12, S
T13) and moves to step 6.

The above-mentioned program receiving timing judgment module of step 11 operates as follows.

That is, the designated number TT of the numerical value storage section 72
Has been specified at the time of shipment, and the comparison calculation unit 73 determines the total counter 5 when determining the program reception timing.
The quotient α between the total output number TC from 1 and the designated number TT is obtained (ST31), and the value is sent to the main body control unit 70. When the quotient α is a positive integer such as 1 or 2 (ST32), the main body control unit 70 sets an instruction flag TF (ST
33).

After the power is turned on next time, the main body control unit 70 looks at the adjustment instruction flag TF (ST4) and executes the program receiving module (ST5).

The program receiving module of step 5 described above operates as follows.

The main body controller 70 looks at the adjustment instruction flag TF after the power is turned on, and if it is set, the number of retries j
Is subtracted from 10 by 1 (ST21, ST22),
When the number of retries j becomes 0, the abnormal end is judged by the external device 6
0 (ST24), and the instruction flag TF is set (ST25).

If the number of retries j is not 0 in step 23, the main body control section 70 sends a request for transmitting the latest control program to the external device 60 via the main body communication network interface 55 at this time ( ST26). Then, when the latest control program is received from the external device 60 (ST27), after confirming whether this is normally received (ST28), the instruction flag TF is set.

Thereafter, the main body control section 70 sends the received latest control program to the memory 74 and replaces the existing control program with the latest control program.

It goes without saying that the present invention can be modified in various ways within the scope of the gist thereof.

[0052]

According to the present invention described above, even if the operator does not actually go to the place where the image forming apparatus exists,
Since the control control program is automatically replaced with the latest one, it is possible to provide the image forming apparatus which can contribute to the reduction of labor cost.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view showing a copying machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a detailed block diagram of a control system in the copying machine of this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the copying machine of this embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a program receiving module according to this embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a program reception timing determination module of this embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Copier 1a Device main body 3 Image reading unit 4 Image forming unit 51 Total counter 70 Main body control unit 74 Memory 80 Control means

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Storage means for storing a control program,
In an image forming apparatus that includes an apparatus main body that forms an image on an image carrier based on a control program stored in the storage unit and has a communication function with an external device, a detection unit that detects the usage status of the apparatus main body. And a control means for receiving the latest control program from the external device by the communication function and replacing the control program in the storage means with the latest control program when the detection result of the detection means matches a preset use condition of the apparatus main body. An image forming apparatus comprising: