JPH06152829A - Maintenance equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily and surely confirm maintenance data of the maintenance control equipment as image data without limit in time and location by using a facsimile equipment. CONSTITUTION:When a service man desiring to obtain maintenance data of a system 7 uses a facsimile equipment to make a phone call to a line control section 4 of the maintenance equipment 8, after the call reaches the control section 4, an ordering frame in a prescribed PB tone is sent. The PB tone of the ordering frame inputted to the line control section 4 is detected by a PB detection section 5 and sent to a control section 6, in which the data are analyzed. The maintenance code data stored in a maintenance code data storage section 1 are converted into image data at a code/image conversion section 2 and the image data being the maintenance data are sent to a facsimile equipment sending the ordering.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a maintenance device, and more particularly to a maintenance device for transmitting maintenance data of a remote maintenance device to a manager via a public line.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a maintenance device has been used for collecting maintenance data for performing maintenance management of a device at a remote place using a communication line. For example, JP-A-2-146839
As described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-163, there is a converter that enables communication between consoles with a service center or the like through an existing telephone line to improve maintenance efficiency.

Further, in the "remote maintenance system" described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-207633, fault information of a device to be maintained and managed is converted into image information and stored, and a predetermined transfer is performed. When an opportunity occurs, it is transferred to the remote maintenance station.

[0004]

However, in such a conventional maintenance device, the CPU (Central Processor)
When trying to check the maintenance data of the device that operates in the essing unit) using a remote terminal, if the maintenance data is code data, you must access it with a device that has a function to recover communication errors. There was a problem of not becoming. This is because if you send maintenance data using a communication device that does not have a recovery function, and if even one bit of code data is transmitted by mistake, the entire contents of the maintenance data will be destroyed or unreliable data will be generated. Because it will be.

Further, when accessing from a remote place using a telephone line as a medium, it is common practice to confirm data via a modem. In this case, a modem and a control program are required both on the side of the device to be maintained and managed and on the side of the maintenance terminal for checking the maintenance data, so the device cost becomes very high, and there is a problem that it can be used only for high-end machines. there were.

Further, as described above, since the maintenance terminal side for confirming the maintenance data always needs a modem, there is a problem that the place where the maintenance data can be confirmed is limited. In the past, there was a method that converts the subsequent failure information generated when a failure occurs in the device to be managed to the image data and confirms it, but it is necessary to confirm in advance before the failure occurs. There was nothing that could confirm the data as image data.

Further, since the conventional maintenance device outputs the maintenance data which it has in advance only at a predetermined transfer timing, the maintenance manager can freely obtain the maintenance data at a desired time when he / she wants to confirm the maintenance data. After the failure or the like, the maintenance data cannot be obtained unless the user goes to the installation location of the device to be maintained, and the agile maintenance activities cannot be performed.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is easy to take out maintenance data of an apparatus to be maintained and managed as image data from a remote place at a desired time using a facsimile terminal and from anywhere. It is an object of the present invention to provide a maintenance device that can be confirmed in the above.

[0009]

The invention according to claim 1 is
In a maintenance device that transmits and monitors maintenance code data necessary for maintenance management of a predetermined device to a remote manager, a maintenance code data storage means for storing the maintenance code data and an image of the maintenance code data. Code / image converting means for converting to data, image data transmitting means for transmitting the image data created by the code / image converting means to a facsimile terminal on the administrator side, and a line connected to a public line for line control Control means, and transmission control signal detection means for detecting a transmission control signal of maintenance data input from an administrator through the public line,
And a transmission control means for analyzing the detected transmission control signal and controlling transmission of maintenance data based on the transmission control signal. It is characterized in that the image data is taken out to the facsimile terminal as a result.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the maintenance apparatus according to the first aspect, the maintenance management apparatus is a facsimile mail system (FMS). According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the maintenance apparatus according to the first aspect, the maintenance management apparatus is a facsimile terminal.

[0011]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the maintenance code data is converted into image data, and the control data can be transmitted to the own facsimile terminal at any time by the control signal from the administrator side. Can use the facsimile terminal widely used in the world to check the maintenance data of the device to be maintained and managed as image data without being limited by time and place.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the device for maintenance and management is the facsimile mail system (FMS), this FMS already has the hardware configuration of the maintenance device of the present invention. The effect similar to that of claim 1 can be realized only by installing the software for performing. Further, since this FMS usually has a plurality of lines, it is possible to perform the original work of the FMS in parallel even while the maintenance data is being retrieved, and the original work of the FMS is hardly affected. New functions can be added.

According to the third aspect of the invention, since the device for maintenance management is a facsimile terminal, this facsimile terminal already has the hardware configuration of the maintenance device of the present invention, and the software for performing the above-mentioned operation is provided. The effect similar to that of claim 1 can be realized only by mounting. Further, since maintenance and management of this facsimile terminal can be performed using facsimile terminals that are widely used all over the world, maintenance can be performed at low cost without being limited by time and place. it can.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, the configuration will be described. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing calibration of a maintenance device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
In FIG. 1, 1 is a maintenance code data storage unit for storing maintenance code data, 2 is a code / image conversion unit for converting maintenance code data into image data, and 3 is a line for transmitting transmission data to a transmission partner. An output unit which performs a calling operation via the control unit, 4 is a line control unit which is connected to a telephone line and performs line control, and 5 is a line control unit from the partner station 4
A PB detection unit for detecting a PB tone sent via the PB tone and converting it into code data, and a control unit 6 for controlling the entire apparatus.
For example, the B tone code data is analyzed and the maintenance code data stored in the maintenance code data storage unit 1 is controlled to be transmitted to the partner station. Reference numeral 7 is a system as a device that is maintained and managed.

Next, FIG. 2 is an overall configuration diagram showing the relationship between the system in which the present apparatus of FIG. 1 is provided and the facsimile terminal for obtaining the maintenance data thereof. In FIG. 2, the device shown in FIG. 1 is attached to a system for performing maintenance management, and the maintenance device 8 as the device is a PSTN (Public Swi
It is configured to be connectable to the facsimile terminal 9 via a public telephone network such as a tched telephone network. The facsimile terminal 9 is operated by the service person 10 to send out a predetermined PB tone to the apparatus. Then, by controlling the maintenance code data of the system 7 stored in the maintenance code data storage unit 1 in the present apparatus shown in FIG. It can be received and recorded by the facsimile terminal 9.

Next, the operation will be described. First, as shown in FIG. 2, an operation when the service person 10 retrieves the maintenance data of the system 7 having the maintenance device 8 from the facsimile terminal 9 at a remote place will be described. 4 is an operation flow of the maintenance apparatus according to the present invention when receiving, and FIG. 5 is an operation flow of the maintenance apparatus according to the present invention when transmitting.

As shown in FIG. 4, the service person 1 of FIG.
0 makes a call to the line control unit 4 of the device 8 by using a telephone (not shown) attached to the facsimile terminal 9,
The line control unit 4 detects the ringing tone and receives the call (step 100). Upon confirming that the telephone line is connected, the service person 10 sends an ordering frame to the system 7 by the PB tone sending function of the facsimile terminal 9 to the system 7.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of an ordering frame. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG.
The serviceman 10 issues PB tones in the order of "ID", "service code", and "partner UID".
For example, "# 123456 # 999 # 654321 * #"
The call is hung up after sending.

Therefore, in the present device 8, the PB tone input from the line controller 4 is sent to the PB detector. The transfer of the PB tone from the line controller 4 to the PB detector 5 is performed in real time. “# 123456 # 999 # 654321 * #” of the PB tone input to the PB detection unit 5.
Is sent to the control unit 6 and is analyzed by the control unit 6 (steps 101 to 103). In this embodiment, the PB
By the tone, the serviceman 10 recognizes that the serviceman 10 is requesting the facsimile terminal 9 to transmit all the maintenance data of the system 7 stored in the maintenance code data storage unit 1 of the apparatus. Then, the line control unit 4 of this apparatus disconnects the line once (step 1
04).

Next, the control unit 6 sends the read maintenance code data to the code / image conversion unit 2 in order to send the maintenance data in the maintenance code data storage unit 1 to the destination facsimile terminal 9. Then, after the image data is converted here, the output unit 3 is instructed to transmit the converted image data to the facsimile terminal 9.

As shown in FIG. 5, when the output unit 3 receives the above-mentioned transmission command, it calls the partner UID detected at the time of reception via the line control unit 4 (step 200). Then, when the arrival of the call from the facsimile terminal 9 as the other party is not detected by waiting for n seconds (step 201), after disconnecting the line, waiting for n seconds to open a predetermined interval, and then returning to step 200 ( Step 202).

Next, when an incoming call is detected in step 201, it is judged whether or not communication is possible (step 203). If communication is impossible for some reason, the line is disconnected and the process ends. If communication is possible here, the image data converted by the code / image conversion unit 2 according to a predetermined communication procedure is transmitted to the facsimile terminal 9 (step 204).

The above operation is repeated until the transmission of the image data is completed (step 205). However, if a transmission error occurs in the middle (step 206), the line is disconnected and the process ends. If there is no error, the process returns to step 203 and the transmission of the image data as the maintenance data is continued. When the transmission of the image data is completed in step 205, the line is disconnected (step 207) and the process ends.

Next, in the second embodiment, the FMS is used for the system 7 to be maintained and managed. Since the FMS already has a hardware configuration corresponding to the reference numerals 1 to 6 of the maintenance device shown in FIG. 1, the software for executing the operation described in the embodiment described in claim 1 is installed. Only by doing so, it is possible to easily obtain the same effect as that of the first aspect.

Further, since this FMS usually has a plurality of communication lines, it is possible to process the original operation of the FMS in parallel even if the maintenance data is retrieved. A new maintenance data transmission function can be added with almost no influence on the original work of the FMS. In the third embodiment, a facsimile terminal is used as the system 7 to be maintained and managed. Also in the case of this facsimile terminal, since it already has the hardware configuration of the maintenance device shown in FIG. 1, the operation described in the embodiment of claim 1 is executed similarly to the embodiment of claim 2. It is possible to easily obtain the same effect as that of the above-mentioned claim 1 only by installing the software for executing.

As described above, the maintenance device can easily and inexpensively confirm the maintenance data as image data without being limited by time, place, etc. by using the facsimile terminals which are widely used all over the world. be able to.

[0027]

According to the invention described in claim 1, it is possible to control so that the maintenance code data is converted into the image data and the maintenance data is transmitted to the own facsimile terminal at any time by the control signal from the administrator side. Therefore, the administrator can confirm the maintenance data of the device to be maintained and managed as image data without being limited by time, place, etc., by using the facsimile terminal widely adopted in the world.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the device for maintenance management is the FMS, the FMS already has the hardware configuration of the maintenance device of the present invention, and the software for performing the above-mentioned operation is provided. The effect similar to that of claim 1 can be realized only by mounting. Further, since this FMS usually has a plurality of lines, it is possible to perform the original work of the FMS in parallel even while the maintenance data is being retrieved, and the original work of the FMS is hardly affected. A new maintenance data transmission function can be added.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the device for maintenance management is a facsimile terminal, this facsimile terminal already has the hardware configuration of the maintenance device of the present invention, and software for performing the above-mentioned operation is provided. The effect similar to that of claim 1 can be realized only by installing the wear.
Further, since maintenance and management of this facsimile terminal can be performed using facsimile terminals that are widely used all over the world, maintenance can be performed at low cost without being limited by time or place. it can.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a maintenance device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is an overall configuration diagram showing a relationship between a system provided with the apparatus of FIG. 1 and a facsimile terminal for obtaining maintenance data thereof.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of an ordering frame.

FIG. 4 is an operation flow at the time of reception by the maintenance device according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an operation flow during transmission of the maintenance device according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Maintenance code data storage section 2 Code / image conversion section 3 Output section 4 Line control section 5 PB detection section 6 Control section 7 System 8 Maintenance device 9 Facsimile terminal 10 Serviceman

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Office reference number FI technical display location H04Q 9/00 311 J 7170-5K

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A maintenance device for transmitting maintenance code data required for maintenance management of a predetermined device to an administrator at a remote place and monitoring the maintenance code data, and maintenance code data storage means for storing the maintenance code data, Code / image conversion means for converting maintenance code data into image data, image data transmission means for transmitting the image data created by the code / image conversion means to a facsimile terminal on the administrator side, and connected to a public line, A line control means for controlling the line, a transmission control signal detecting means for detecting a transmission control signal of maintenance data input by an administrator through the public line, and an analysis of the detected transmission control signal, and the transmission control signal Transmission control means for controlling transmission of maintenance data based on the Maintenance device administrator, characterized in that they were taken out as image data to the facsimile terminal by a remote operation. 2. The maintenance device according to claim 1, wherein the device for maintenance management is a facsimile mail system (FMS). 3. The maintenance device according to claim 1, wherein the device for maintenance management is a facsimile terminal.