JPH06311287A - Facsimile equipment and communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a facsimile equipment and a communication system capable of monitoring the fault generation of the facsimile equipment at the center side and speedily recovering the troubled device. CONSTITUTION:When a fault is generated, a CPU 7 writes fault content information in a fault information storage section 6. Then, when a call comes to a line control section 1, the section 1 replies to it. The CPU 7 reads out the fault content information from the fault information storage section 6 and sends it at the side of originating a call on a facsimile procedure signal. When accepting the facsimile procedure signal, the originating call side extracts the fault cause information from the reception signal and displays it. An operator knows the state of the device at the incoming call side and takes the proper measure.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile communication system composed of a facsimile machine on the center side or a facsimile storage / exchange apparatus and a plurality of facsimile machines on the terminal side, and particularly when a failure occurs on the facsimile machine on the terminal side. The present invention relates to a configuration for transmitting information to the center side.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional facsimile machine, when a paper for printing received data runs out or a trouble such as a paper jam occurs during reception, the line is disconnected at that time, and then an incoming call arrives. However, the device does not respond to this. Therefore, the calling side only keeps calling the facsimile machine, and cannot know why the called facsimile machine does not respond, or the cause thereof.
After that, he had to abandon the call and disconnect the line. In this way, when a fault occurs in the facsimile machine, such as out of paper or paper jam, the reason why it is set not to respond even if an incoming call arrives at the device after that is a state in which it is useless to answer the incoming call although it cannot receive the call. This is to prevent this, as there is a charge. Moreover, since a normal facsimile machine is usually used with people around it, if a failure occurs in the facsimile machine, people around it will notice this and take measures to restore the machine. Therefore, there is no problem even if the above-mentioned configuration is adopted.

However, in the case where the center side is a facsimile storage exchange device, etc., the facsimile device used as a terminal is often used exclusively, and therefore, the facsimile device is installed in a place almost unattended. It is often done. When a failure occurs in the facsimile machine in such a situation, it is difficult for a person to notice it, and the facsimile machine may be left unattended for a long time. In such a case, if it is possible to know the state of the facsimile device that has stopped responding at the center side device, it is possible to send a person to the facsimile device to replenish the paper and remove the obstacle, It becomes possible to quickly restore the facsimile terminal and perform smooth communication. However, as described above, the conventional facsimile apparatus has no means for transmitting a failure occurrence such as paper out or paper jam to the calling side. There was a drawback that it would hinder the operation.

[0004]

As described above, in the conventional facsimile apparatus, when a failure such as paper exhaust or paper jam occurs, the incoming call does not respond to the incoming call, and the reason why it does not respond, that is, There was no way to communicate the nature of the failure to the calling machine. Therefore, in such a case, the calling side merely cannot continue to know the state of the called side facsimile device, only the calling state to the facsimile device continues. For this reason, when the facsimile device is installed in a place near an unmanned person, it may be delayed in noticing the occurrence of the failure, and it may be left in a state where it cannot be received at any time. There was a drawback that it would hinder the operation. Therefore, there is a demand for the center side to monitor and maintain a facsimile device that does not respond due to a failure even when a call is made as described above, but the conventional facsimile communication system has a drawback that this cannot be met.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks and to provide a facsimile apparatus and a communication system in which the occurrence of a failure in a facsimile apparatus can be monitored on the side of the center and the failed apparatus can be quickly restored. There is.

[0006]

In the facsimile apparatus on the called side of the present invention, when a failure occurs, a storage means for storing failure cause information and a communication for responding to the incoming call when the failure occurs. When the control means and the communication control means respond to the incoming call, the editing means for reading the failure cause information from the storage means and putting the information on the facsimile procedure signal, and the facsimile procedure in which the failure cause information is put by the editing means In the facsimile machine of the calling side of the present invention, which has a configuration including a transmitting means for transmitting a signal to the calling side, extraction for extracting fault cause information from the facsimile procedure signal transmitted from the called side And a notification means for notifying the operator of the failure cause information extracted by the extraction means.

[0007]

In the called side facsimile apparatus of the present invention,
When a failure occurs, the storage means stores the failure cause information. The communication control means responds to an incoming call when a failure occurs in the incoming call. When the communication control means answers the incoming call, the editing means reads the failure cause information from the storage means and puts it on the facsimile procedure signal. The transmitting means transmits the facsimile procedure signal carrying the fault cause information to the calling side by the editing means. Moreover, in the facsimile machine on the calling side of the present invention, the extracting means extracts the failure cause information from the facsimile procedure signal transmitted from the called side. The notification means notifies the operator of the failure cause information extracted by the extraction means. As a result, the calling side can monitor the status and take appropriate measures only by calling the facsimile terminal.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the facsimile apparatus of the present invention. Reference numeral 1 is a line control unit that performs incoming and outgoing calls and data transmission / reception, 2 is a modem unit that performs data modulation / demodulation, 3 is an image processing unit that performs encoding and decoding of image data, and 4 is a document that is to be transmitted. And a recording unit for printing the image data on paper and outputting the same, a reference numeral 6 for a failure cause information storage unit, and a reference numeral 7 for controlling the entire apparatus and especially for a failure occurrence process when a failure occurs. CP to do
U and 8 are lines.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. When the line control unit 1 receives the image data transmitted via the line 8, the image data is demodulated by the modem unit 2, further decoded by the image processing unit 3, and then sent to the recording unit 5. . The recording unit 5 prints the sent image data on paper and outputs it. At this time, if the paper runs out or the printed and printed paper is jammed, the CPU 7 controls the line control unit 1 at that time to disconnect the line with the calling side and a flag indicating the occurrence of a failure. And the content of the generated failure is written in the failure cause information storage unit 6.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the operation of the CPU 7 when the above-mentioned trouble occurs. If a fault is detected during image data reception in step 201, the process proceeds to step 202, where the CPU 7 disconnects the line, writes the fault content that has occurred in the fault cause information storage unit 6 and is in the fault occurrence state. Is set in the storage unit 6. That is, if a paper jam occurs as the obstacle, C
PU7 indicates "paper jam", and if there is no paper,
“No paper” is written in the failure cause information storage unit 6.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the operation of the apparatus when there is an incoming call to the facsimile apparatus in which a failure has occurred as described above. The line controller 1 is step 301
When the call signal is detected at step 302, the off-hook is performed in response to this at step 302. When the line control unit 1 responds, the CPU 7 determines whether or not a flag is set in the fault information storage unit 6 to determine the state of the device, and if it is in the fault occurrence state, the fault information is detected in step 303. The fault cause information generated from the unit 6 is read out, placed on the NSF (non-standard function) of the facsimile procedure signal, and transmitted from the line control unit 1 to the calling side in step 304. Then, in step 305, the DCN from the calling side
When the line control unit 1 receives the (line disconnection command), the line with the calling side is disconnected and the process ends.

FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram showing an example of a facsimile procedure signal transmitted / received between the calling side and the called side facsimile machines when a failure occurs in the called side. From calling party to C
When NG (ring tone) is sent to the line control unit 1 of the facsimile apparatus shown in FIG.
Attaches the failure cause information to the NSF, and the line control unit 1
Send from After that, the calling side sends the DCN to the called side in FIG.
The line control unit 1 disconnects the line with the calling side.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the calling side facsimile apparatus. When the calling side receives the NSF sent from the called side in the sequence shown in FIG. 4 at the line control unit 1, the CPU 7 extracts the failure cause information included in this NSF, and the extracted failure A display message corresponding to the cause information is created and displayed on the display unit 9 such as an LCD. After that, the CPU 7 transmits the DCN shown in FIG. 4 from the line control unit 1 to the called-side facsimile machine and ends the communication. As a result, the operator on the calling side looks at the display unit 9 and finds out that a failure has occurred in the facsimile apparatus on the called side shown in FIG. 1 and the cause of the failure.
The calling side may be a facsimile storage / exchange device instead of the facsimile device. In this case as well, the failure cause information sent from the called side is displayed in a similar configuration.

According to the present embodiment, when a failure such as paper out or paper jam occurs, the cause of the failure is stored in the failure information storage unit 6, and when the calling signal comes from the calling side,
In response to this, the failure cause information stored in the failure information storage unit 6 can be placed on the NSF and transmitted to the calling facsimile machine. On the other hand, the calling side facsimile machine extracts the failure cause information from the received NSF signal and displays it on the display unit 9, so that the calling side operator has a failure in the called side facsimile machine. Since it is possible to know that the failure cannot be received as well as the cause of the failure, the maintenance personnel can be dispatched to the called facsimile machine to remove the cause of the failure, thereby promptly restoring the facsimile machine. You can As a result, even if a failure occurs in a facsimile machine installed in an unpopular place, the state can be monitored by calling up the facsimile machine from the central facsimile machine or the facsimile storage / exchange apparatus side, and checking the appropriate status. Maintenance can be performed and smooth communication can always be performed.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention. In this example, the line control unit 1 is connected to the MF signal transmission unit 1
0 is connected. When a failure such as paper out or paper jam occurs, the CPU 7 sets a flag indicating failure occurrence in the failure information storage unit 6 and writes the failure content. After that, when an incoming call arrives from the calling side, the device shown in FIG. 6 operates according to the flowchart shown in FIG. When the line control unit 1 detects a call signal in step 701, it goes off-hook in response to this in step 702. When the line control unit 1 responds, the CPU 7 determines the state of the device by checking whether or not a flag is set in the fault information storage unit 6, and if it is in the fault occurrence state, the fault information storage unit in step 703. The fault cause information generated from 6 is read. The CPU 7 sends the failure content information to the MF signal sending unit 10 to convert it into an MF signal, and then sends it from the line control unit 1 to the calling side in step 704. Then, in step 705, the DC sent from the calling side.
When the line control unit 1 receives N, the line control unit 1 disconnects the line with the calling side and ends the processing. The calling side in this example receives the failure cause information transmitted by the MF signal as described above by the MF receiver, interprets the received signal, and displays the obtained failure content on the display unit. Shall have. This example also has the same effect as the previous example.

[0016]

As described above, according to the facsimile apparatus and the communication system of the present invention, the occurrence of a failure in the facsimile apparatus can be monitored on the side of the center and the failed apparatus can be quickly restored.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a facsimile apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation when a failure occurs in the CPU shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the facsimile device shown in FIG. 1 when an incoming call is received in the fault occurrence state.

FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram showing an example of a facsimile procedure signal transmitted / received between a calling side and a called side facsimile apparatus when a failure occurs in the called side.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a calling side facsimile apparatus.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of the facsimile device shown in FIG. 6 when there is an incoming call in the fault occurrence state.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Line control unit 2 ... Modem unit 3 ... Image processing unit 4 ... Reading unit 5 ... Recording unit 6 ... Fault information storage unit 7 ... CPU 8 ... Line 9 ... Display unit

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. In a facsimile apparatus, when a failure occurs, a storage means for storing failure cause information, a communication control means for responding to an incoming call when the failure occurs, and a communication control means for the incoming call. In response to, the editing means for reading the failure cause information from the storage means and putting it on the facsimile procedure signal, and the transmitting means for sending the facsimile procedure signal carrying the failure cause information to the calling side by this editing means. A facsimile machine comprising: 2. In a facsimile apparatus, when a failure occurs, a storage means for storing the failure cause information, a communication control means for responding to the incoming call when the failure occurs, and a communication control means for the incoming call. In response to the above, it is provided with a signal producing means for reading the failure cause information from the storage means and converting it into an MF signal, and a transmitting means for transmitting the MF signal produced by the signal producing means to the calling side. Characteristic facsimile machine. 3. A facsimile apparatus, comprising: extracting means for extracting failure cause information from a facsimile procedure signal transmitted from a called side; and notifying means for notifying an operator of the failure cause information extracted by the extracting means. A facsimile machine characterized by being provided. 4. In a facsimile apparatus, MF signal receiving means for receiving an MF signal transmitted from a called side and analyzing the signal content, and notifying an operator of the content analyzed by this MF signal receiving means. A facsimile apparatus comprising a notification unit. 5. A communication system comprising the facsimile machine according to claim 1, the facsimile machine according to claim 3, and a line network connecting these facsimile machines. 6. A communication system comprising the facsimile machine according to claim 2, the facsimile machine according to claim 4, and a line network connecting these facsimile machines.