JPH06121266A - Camcorder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent backup data for a mode microcomputer from being missing through inexpensive circuit configuration whose circuit scale is not large. CONSTITUTION:Backup data for a mode microcomputer 10 are stored to part of an E<2>PROM 1a being a nonvolatile memory built in a camera microcomputer 1, and the backup data for the mode microcomputer 10 are communicated by using data serial communication implemented usually between the camera microcomputer 1 and the mode microcomputer 10 to protect the backup data for the mode microcomputer 10 even when battery backup is ineffective with simple configuration without new provision of a memory storing the backup data for the mode microcomputer and employment of a microcomputer incorporating an E<2>PROM 1a for the mode microcomputer 10.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a camera-integrated recorder, and more particularly, it is suitable for use in a camera-integrated recorder configured to perform various controls using a plurality of microcomputers.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a camera-integrated recorder which is widely used at present, a plurality of microcomputers (microcomputers) are mounted so that the respective microcomputers can share various controls and data can be transferred between the microcomputers. By communicating, each microcomputer cooperates with each other to control the entire system.

Microcomputers that play such various roles include, for example, camera microcomputers, mechanical servo microcomputers,
There is a mode microcomputer. The camera microcomputer controls the electronic shutter speed and aperture, or controls the camera system such as automatic white balance adjustment and automatic exposure compensation. The mechanical servo microcomputer controls the speed of the rotary head and tape running system. .

In addition, in the mode microcomputer, for example, the operation state of the key switch provided in the camera-integrated recorder is read, and various displays are displayed on the display unit such as a liquid crystal panel (LCD) or an electronic viewfinder (EVF). Or other general control of the entire system as described later.

Data obtained by various controls in each of these microcomputers are stored as backup data in a predetermined memory and used as reference data for the control at the next control.

In a recent camera-integrated recorder,
From the viewpoint of cost reduction and efficiency improvement of hardware / software design, the camera microcomputer is equipped with E ² PRO.
A microcomputer incorporating M is used. In this case, the backup data for the camera microcomputer is this E ² PRO.
Stored in M. On the other hand, the backup data for the mode microcomputer has conventionally been stored in the SRAM provided in the real-time clock module or the RAM built in the mode microcomputer.

[0007]

However, since the SRAM and RAM as described above are volatile memories,
There was a problem that the stored data would be lost when the battery backup was run out.

In order to prevent the loss of such backup data, a non-volatile memory may be used to store the data. However, since the backup data for the mode microcomputer is not so large, a non-volatile memory is newly provided for the mode microcomputer or E ²
Using a microcomputer with a built-in PROM is not only costly, but also has a problem in that the circuit scale becomes large in terms of efficiency improvement in hardware design.

In view of the above problems, it is an object of the present invention to prevent the backup data for the mode microcomputer from being lost by the circuit configuration which is inexpensive and does not have a large circuit scale.

[0010]

According to the present invention, a camera microcomputer and a mode microcomputer are provided, and various controls are performed based on respective reference data, and data communication is performed between the microcomputers. In a camera-integrated recorder configured such that each microcomputer cooperates to control the entire system, a nonvolatile memory for storing data used for control by the camera microcomputer is provided, and Data used for control by the mode microcomputer is stored in a part of a storage area of the nonvolatile memory, and the nonvolatile memory is provided by data communication performed between the camera microcomputer and the mode microcomputer. Remembered in Data for over de microcomputer is characterized in that it has available to send to the mode microcomputer side. Also,
The non-volatile memory may be composed of E ² PROM built in the camera microcomputer. Further, the above-mentioned data communication may be performed by the data communication normally performed between the camera microcomputer and the mode microcomputer.

[0011]

According to the present invention configured as described above, the backup data for the mode microcomputer is also stored in a part of the non-volatile memory for storing the backup data for the camera microcomputer, and the control by the mode microcomputer is performed. When performing, necessary data is obtained from the non-volatile memory by data communication.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a camera-integrated recorder according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is a camera microcomputer that incorporates an E ² PROM 1a which is a non-volatile memory, 2 is a lens, 3 is a diaphragm, 4 is a diaphragm driving circuit for driving the diaphragm 3, 5 is an electronic shutter, and 6 is an electronic shutter. A shutter drive circuit that drives the shutter 5.

Reference numeral 7 is an image pickup device such as a CCD, 8 is a CCD drive circuit for driving the image pickup device 7, and 9 is a camera system signal processing circuit for automatically adjusting white balance and exposure correction. The control block of the camera system is configured by these components.

Further, 10 is a mode microcomputer, 11 is a key switch, 12 is a liquid crystal panel (LCD), 13 is an electronic viewfinder (EVF), 14 is a VTR system signal processing circuit for digitally processing a video signal, and 15 is a magnetic field. The head 16 is a magnetic tape. A VTR system control block is configured by these components.

E ² PRO built in the camera microcomputer 1
As shown in FIG. 2, the M1a stores backup data for the camera microcomputer and backup data for the mode microcomputer. In the case of the present embodiment, the backup data for the mode microcomputer is stored in 48 bytes from the beginning of the storage area of the E ² PROM 1a, and the backup data for the camera microcomputer is the remaining 464 bytes.
It is stored in e minutes.

The backup data stored for the mode microcomputer includes, for example, reduced power data, destination data, city number data corresponding to the reference city name of the world clock,
There is character title data, etc.

Here, the power reduction data is data indicating a constant reference value of the voltage that the power supply of the system is turned off when the level further decreases. Mode microcomputer 10
Then, while monitoring the power supply voltage, the power supply circuit (not shown) is controlled so as to turn off the power supply when the level falls below the reference value indicated by the power reduction data.

Further, since the camera-integrated recorder needs to have different contents to be displayed on the LCD 12 and the EVF 13 depending on the country in which it is used, the camera-integrated recorder is used in any country. This is stored as destination data. The mode microcomputer 10 controls the LCD 12 and the EVF 13 so that the contents to be displayed differ depending on the contents of the destination data.

Further, for the city number data corresponding to the reference city name of the world clock, the camera-integrated recorder obtains the time in various world cities from the time difference information with respect to the time information in a certain reference city, and this is displayed on the LCD 12. And E
This is data for indicating which city is the reference when the function of the world clock displayed on the VF 13 is provided. The character title data will be described later.

Further, a factory area may be provided in a part of the storage area for the mode microcomputer. When this factory area is provided, it becomes possible to store data such as the manufacturing version and the manufacturing date in the manufacturing process of the camera-integrated recorder.

On the other hand, the backup data stored for the camera microcomputer includes, for example, program AE data, exposure correction value data, electronic shutter speed data, white balance data, and initial setting values of these data.

Next, the operation of the camera-integrated recorder having the above structure will be described. The amount of light incident from the subject through the lens 2 is adjusted by the diaphragm 3 and reaches the image sensor 7 via the electronic shutter 5. The image pickup device 7 converts the incident light into an electric image signal by performing photoelectric conversion, and supplies this to the camera system signal processing circuit 9. The camera system signal processing circuit 9 performs signal processing such as white balance adjustment and exposure correction on this video signal, and then supplies this to the VTR system signal processing circuit 14.

Next, in the VTR system signal processing circuit 14,
The input video signal is converted into a recording signal having a signal form suitable for recording. Then, this recording signal is recorded on a recording medium such as the magnetic tape 16 via the magnetic head 15.

These series of operations are controlled by the camera microcomputer 1 and a mechanical / servo microcomputer (not shown). In particular, the operation of the control block of the camera system is controlled by the camera microcomputer 1 based on the backup data for the camera microcomputer stored in the E ² PROM 1a.

In addition to such a series of operation control, the mode microcomputer 10 controls the general system as described above. At this time, the backup data for the mode microcomputer necessary for the control is stored in the E ² PROM 1a built in the camera microcomputer 1, and the mode microcomputer 10 stores this backup data between the camera microcomputer 1 and the mode microcomputer 10. I try to get it by using the serial communication that is usually done in.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing communication specifications for one cycle of this serial communication. According to this, one cycle of serial communication is composed of data of 8 words (W0 to W7), and 1 word is composed of 8 bits (D0 to D7). Of these configurations, W3, W5, and W6, for example, are used for communication of backup data for the mode microcomputer.

That is, when performing serial communication of backup data for such a mode microcomputer, it is determined whether the data to be communicated is read (read) or written (write) in addition to the data itself to be communicated. It is necessary to simultaneously communicate the flag data for doing so and the address data in which the data is stored.
Therefore, this flag data is assigned to one bit (eg, D5) in W3, and the address data is assigned to W5.
In addition, the data itself is assigned to W6 for communication.

By the way, when performing control by the mode microcomputer 10, the camera microcomputer 1 and the mode microcomputer 10
Since the backup data for the mode microcomputer is communicated using the serial communication normally performed between the camera microcomputer 1 and the mode microcomputer 10, it is necessary to adjust the data processing in the camera microcomputer 1 and the data processing in the mode microcomputer 10 to each other. Occurs. A method for this adjustment will be described by taking, as an example, a method for setting a character title. 4 to 6 are diagrams for explaining this.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a main processing procedure of control by the mode microcomputer 10 when setting a character title. In the case of the present embodiment, the settable characters are letters A to Z, numbers 0 to 9 and other symbols, and these characters are defined in binary as 8-bit character title data. ing. Further, the setting of the character title is configured such that the operator sequentially selects alphanumeric characters and symbols desired to be set one by one by operating the key switch 11.

First, in step P1, it is determined whether or not the mode is the character title setting mode. If it is determined that the character title setting mode is not set, then the procedure advances to Step P2, and it is determined whether or not the character title setting button, which is one of the key switches 11, has been pressed for 3 seconds. When it is determined that this button has been pressed for a long time, the process moves to step P3 to enter the character title setting mode.

When it is determined in step P1 that the mode is the character title setting mode, the process proceeds to step P4, and it is determined whether or not the key for notifying that the selection of one character is finished is pressed. . If it is determined that the key is pressed, the process proceeds to step P9 and the setting position (address) of the display character title is incremented by one. This completes the preparation for selecting the next character.

If it is determined in step P4 that the key has not been pressed, it means that the character selection at the set position has not been completed. At this time, it is determined in step P5 and step P6 whether or not the key for changing the displayed character is pressed.

In the case of the present embodiment, the display characters can be changed in the positive (+) direction or the negative (-) direction. When it is determined in step P5 that the character change in the + direction has been instructed, the process proceeds to step P10 and the display character title data is incremented by +1.
If it is instructed to change the character in the-direction in step P6, the process proceeds to step P11 to decrement the displayed character title by -1. Therefore, for example, if the character change in the + direction is instructed while the character “D” is displayed, the character “E” is displayed, and if the character change in the − direction is instructed, the character “C” is displayed.

After the display character title is changed in steps P10 and P11, step P
12, the request is made to write new character title data to the E ² PROM 1a through serial communication with the camera microcomputer 1.

On the other hand, when it is determined in step P5 and step P6 that the key for changing the displayed character is not pressed, it is determined in step P7 whether the character title setting button is pressed. If it is determined that the setting button has been pressed, then the flow shifts to step P8, where the character title setting is completed.

Next, regarding the character title data set in this way, the processing procedure of the serial communication performed between the mode microcomputer 10 and the camera microcomputer 1 will be described with reference to FIG.
And it demonstrates based on FIG. FIG. 5 shows a part of the serial communication processing from the mode microcomputer 10 to the camera microcomputer 1.

First, in step P13, information sent from the camera microcomputer 1 (step P2 in FIG. 6, which will be described later).
Based on the 7), new character title data E ² PRO
It is determined whether or not writing to M1a is in progress. If it is determined that writing is not being executed, then the procedure proceeds to step P14, where it is determined whether or not the E ² PROM 1a is in the standby state for writing data. If it is determined that the standby state is in the standby state, then the step is continued. Move to P15.

In step P15, step P1 in FIG.
It is determined whether or not a request for writing the new character title data shown in 2 has been issued. When it is determined that the request is generated, the process moves to step P16 and E ² P
A request for writing data to the ROM 1a is set to "1", and this is notified to the camera microcomputer 1 together with the new character title data selected in step P10 or step P11 of FIG.

If it is determined in step P13 that the new character title data is being written to the E ² PROM 1a, the process proceeds to step P17,
Information sent from the camera microcomputer 1 (see FIG.
It is determined whether the writing of data to the E ² PROM 1a is completed or not based on step P22). Here, if it is confirmed that the writing has been completed successfully, the process moves to step P18, the data writing request to the E ² PROM 1a is set to "0", the writing process of the new character title data is finished, and the next new character title is written. Prepare for writing data.

As described above, while serial communication of data is performed from the mode microcomputer 10 to the camera microcomputer 1, serial communication of data as shown in FIG. 6 is also performed from the camera microcomputer 1 to the mode microcomputer 10.

In FIG. 6, first, in step P19, it is determined whether or not the E ² PROM 1a is currently accessed (whether data is erased or written). Here, when it is determined that access is in progress,
The following processing is not performed at all. If it is determined that the E ² PROM 1a has not been accessed, it is determined whether or not the E ² PROM 1a has been accessed immediately before. If it is determined that the E ² PROM 1a has been accessed, the process proceeds to step P 21.

In step P21, it is judged whether or not the mode microcomputer 10 has been notified that the access to the E ² PROM 1a has been completed (writing of data to the E ² PROM 1a is based on the request from the mode microcomputer 10). If it is not notified, step P
After notifying this in step 22, the process proceeds to step P23.
If it has been notified, or if it is determined in step P20 that the E ² PROM 1a was not accessed immediately before, the process directly goes to step P23.

In step P23, it is determined whether or not there is a request for writing new character title data from the mode microcomputer (step P16 in FIG. 5 described above). Here, when it is determined that there is a request, it is further determined in steps P24 and P25 how many times the request is. Then, in step P24, the request is 1
When it is determined that it is the second request, or step P2
If it is determined in step 5 that the request is not the second request (if different from the first request content), the process proceeds to step P26, and the request is temporarily stored as the first request. On the other hand, if it is determined that the request is the second request, the process moves to step P27 to start writing new character title data to the E ² PROM 1a and notify the mode microcomputer 10 that the data is being written. To do.

By performing the serial communication as described above between the camera microcomputer 1 and the mode microcomputer 10, the data processing in the camera microcomputer 1 and the data processing in the mode microcomputer 10 can be smoothly performed. , So-called communication failure can be prevented. In addition,
The same adjustments as described above are performed when performing other various controls using the power reduction data, the destination data, the city number data, and the like.

Since communication of backup data for the normal mode microcomputer is not performed so often, when this backup data is not communicated, E ² P
Address data not actually used in the ROM 1a and fixed data having no meaning (for example,
"11111111") is used as a lead for communication. By doing so, even if a communication failure occurs and unnecessary data is written in the storage area for the camera microcomputer, no problem will occur in actual use.

[0046]

As described above, according to the present invention,
A part of the non-volatile memory built in the camera microcomputer is used as a backup data storage area for the mode microcomputer, and the information required for the control by the mode microcomputer is
Since it is obtained by using the data communication that is normally performed between the camera microcomputer and the mode microcomputer, a new non-volatile memory for storing backup data for the mode microcomputer is newly provided, and the mode microcomputer is also non-volatile. Eliminates the need to adopt a microcomputer with built-in static memory. This makes it possible to realize a configuration in which backup data for the mode microcomputer is not lost, at a low cost and with a small circuit scale.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a main part of a camera-integrated recorder according to the present invention.

[Figure 2] E ² PROM built in the camera microcomputer
It is a figure which shows the content of.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing communication specifications for one cycle of serial communication performed between a camera microcomputer and a mode microcomputer.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a main processing procedure of control by a mode microcomputer when setting a character title.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a part of a serial communication process from a mode microcomputer to a camera microcomputer.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a part of serial communication processing from a camera microcomputer to a mode microcomputer.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 camera microcomputer 1a E ² PROM 10 mode microcomputer 11 key switch 12 liquid crystal panel (LCD) 13 electronic viewfinder (EVF)

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A camera microcomputer and a mode microcomputer are provided, which perform various controls based on respective reference data and perform data communication between the respective microcomputers, whereby the respective microcomputers cooperate with each other. In a camera-integrated recorder configured to control the entire system by providing a nonvolatile memory for storing data used for control by the camera microcomputer, one of the storage areas of the nonvolatile memory is provided. Data used for control by the mode microcomputer is stored in the section, and the mode microcomputer stored in the non-volatile memory is stored by the data communication performed between the camera microcomputer and the mode microcomputer. Pew A recorder with a built-in camera, characterized in that data for computer is sent to the mode microcomputer side for use. 2. The camera-integrated recorder according to claim 1, wherein the nonvolatile memory is constituted by an E ² PROM built in a camera microcomputer. 3. The camera-integrated recorder according to claim 1, wherein the data communication is performed by data communication normally performed between the camera microcomputer and the mode microcomputer.