JPH082080B2 - Fax machine - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (A) Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus.

(B) Prior Art In a recent facsimile machine, as shown in Nikkei Communications March 28, 1988 issue P90-91, for example, a transmission error is retransmitted for each transmission unit so that a transmission error may occur. ECM (Error Co
The rrection mode) method is adopted, and when receiving and recording in the ECM mode, there are three possible recording methods. That is, in the first method, when one block of data is received, the transmitting side is put on standby and recording is performed in the meantime. The second method starts recording when the frame data becomes OK, stops recording when an error frame is detected, and restarts recording when the retransmitted frame becomes OK. And the third
In this method, the received block data is transferred to the data memory, and when the data memory is over, one block of data is recorded from the beginning of the overwritten page,
This is a method of transferring block data after securing a free space in the data memory.

(C) Problems to be Solved by the Invention The first method described above is simple and the easiest to control, but the communication time is long and the amount of data is large in one block such as halftone. When recording with the thermal method, if the number of lines that enter is very small, the thermal head is stopped after recording the specified line, and the thermal head is cooled until the data of the next block is supplied. When the data of the next block is supplied and recording is started, the thermal head does not generate enough heat and a white line is formed at the boundary with the previous recorded image. It was On the other hand, in the second method, when there is a frame error at the beginning of a block, it is equivalent to the first method, and even when there is no air, the number of lines in one frame is small as in the case of halftone. As a result, recording for one frame ends much faster than transmission for one frame, and the thermal head repeats heat generation and cooling, so white lines occur at each frame boundary,
There is a drawback that a large number of white lines are generated in a recorded image as compared with the first method. Further, in the third method, there is no problem if the received data fits within the capacity of the main memory. However, once the memory is over, not only is it equivalent to the first method, but the page over the memory is recorded first. Therefore, there is a drawback in that the order of the recording images arranged on the recording paper tray is changed when the recording is finally completed.

(D) Means for Solving the Problems The present invention has been made to solve the above problems.
A block memory for storing received block data, a data memory to which the block data is transferred, and a record for recording data accumulated in the data memory for the purpose of providing a facsimile apparatus improved from the third method. Section, means for comparing the data amount of the block memory and the free space of the data memory, and when the result of comparison by this means is that the data memory is out of memory, the received data initially accumulated in the data memory is read out for at least one page. The recording unit is composed of control means for controlling recording.

(E) Operation Since the present invention is configured as described above, when the memory of the data memory is over, recording is started from the first block data of the first page first received in the communication, and
When recording of the block is completed, the data in the data memory is packed, the data in the block memory is transferred to the data memory, and then the first block is received while receiving the next block data.
By continuing the recording until the end of the page, the recording of the first page is performed collectively, and the generation of white lines on the recording image due to the cooling of the thermal head is prevented, and the recording is finally performed. When finished, the recorded images are arranged in order.

(F) Examples Examples of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a facsimile machine. (1) is a control circuit for controlling the entire facsimile machine, which is composed of a microprocessor, and is a program in a program memory (2) in which a processing program is stored. Each part is controlled according to. The control circuit (1) also performs signal processing of the read transmission original data and processing of the received signal. (3) is a reading unit that optically reads a transmission original, converts the read black and white data into an electric signal, and supplies the electric signal to the control circuit (1). The reading unit includes a document transfer mechanism, a lens mechanism, an illumination mechanism, and an image sensor. Has been done. (4) is a recording unit that drives a recording head such as a thermal head to perform printing under the control of the control circuit (1) based on a received signal, and is composed of a recording paper, a recording paper transfer mechanism, and a recording head. . Reference numeral (5) is a block memory in which original data read by the reading unit (3) or received data is stored, and has a storage capacity of one block (64 Kbytes). (6) is a data memory to which the data stored in the block memory (5) is transferred at the time of reception, and has a capacity capable of storing a plurality of block data, and the reading and writing of data is performed under the control of the control circuit (1). Be seen. (7) is a directory memory for managing the storage state of the data memory (6).

Reference numeral (8) is a keyboard composed of a transmission key, a reception key, a mode key, a ten-key pad, etc., and a control circuit (1) incorporating a key signal controls according to a program of a program memory (2) according to the key signal. . (9) modulates the signal sent to the telephone line (L), and also, the telephone line (L)
Modem circuit that demodulates the signal from the line switching circuit (1
0) is connected. The line switching circuit (10) is composed of a relay circuit so as to switch and connect the modem circuit (9) and the telephone set (11) to the telephone line (L), and the switching is controlled by the control circuit (1). Also, this line switching circuit (10)
An incoming call detection circuit for generating an incoming call detection signal by detecting a level signal of transmission is built in.

Next, with respect to the operation of the present invention having such a configuration, reception recording by the ECM system, which is a feature of the present application, will be described.

First, the transmission / reception operation of the ECM will be described with reference to the time chart of FIG. 2. In the facsimile apparatus on the transmission side, after the transmission original set in the reading unit (3) is read, the signal processing of encoding is performed to block. Store in memory (5). At this time, the data is 256 bytes as one frame,
Up to 256 frames can be stored in one block. And 1
When the data for one block is accumulated or the reading for one page is completed, the control circuit (1) on the transmission side
Data for one block is transmitted to the receiving side, and when the data transmission is completed, a partial page end signal (PPS-Q) is transmitted. On the other hand, the control circuit (1) on the receiving side, which has received the data, stores the received data in the block memory (5), checks whether or not there is an error in frame units, and if an erroneous frame is found, Send a retransmission request signal (PPR) to the sender. At this time, the retransmission request signal includes a frame number indicating the frame in error, and the error frame is transmitted to the transmitting side. Then, the control circuit (1) on the transmission side that has received the retransmission request signal reads the data of the frame in error from the block memory (5) and transmits it again to the reception side. Upon receiving the retransmitted data, the control circuit (1) writes the retransmitted data in a predetermined frame of the block memory (5) and checks whether or not there is an error. If there is still an error even if it is retransmitted, a resend request signal is transmitted and a resend is requested as described above. When the error disappears as a result of the predetermined number of retransmissions, the control circuit (1) on the reception side transmits a signal (MCF) instructing normal reception to the transmission side. The above is the basic operation of the ECM system. Next, the operation on the receiving side will be described in more detail with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 3 and 4.

When the reception is started, a procedure signal for performing the processing of phase B is communicated in step (S1). Then, in phase C, one block of data is received in step (S2), and the received data is written in the block memory (5). Then, in step (S3), the PPS-Q is received and written in a predetermined area of the directory memory (7). PPS-
The Q signal includes data indicating the number of frames actually transmitted and is stored in the memory (7). Next, the control circuit (1) proceeds to step (S4) to check whether or not all the frames of the received data have an error. When an error is detected, the control circuit (1) proceeds to step (S5) to send the PPR signal to the transmitting side. Send and request to resend.

The control circuit (1), which has detected that all the frames have no errors, proceeds to step (S6) and determines whether the free space of the data memory (6) is larger than the amount of data stored in the block memory (5). Determine whether or not. To what extent the data is stored in the data memory (6), the management data is stored in a predetermined area of the directory memory (7), and the control circuit (1) reads out the management data and carries out arithmetic processing, The free capacity of the data memory (6) is determined. If the free space of the determination result data memory (6) in step (S6) is large, the process proceeds to step (S7), the data in the block memory (5) is transferred to the data memory (6), and then the MCF is performed in step (S8). Send the signal to the sender.

Next, in step (S9), the received PPS-Q signal is determined to determine whether Q = EOM, that is, whether the transmission mode is changed. If the home visit mode is changed, the process proceeds to step (S1) and the above-mentioned operation is repeated. However, when the transmission mode is not changed, the process proceeds to step (S10), and it is determined whether Q = EOP, that is, whether the procedure ends. If the procedure is not completed, the process proceeds to step (S2) to receive the next block data. However, if the procedure is completed, the process proceeds to step (S11), after the line switching signal (DCN) is received from the transmitting side, the telephone line is disconnected, and then the process proceeds to step (S12) and the data memory (6)
Data is read out and recording is started by the recording unit (4). Then, the control circuit (1), which has detected the end of recording for one block in step (S13), proceeds to step (S14) and determines whether it is the end of the page, and if it is the end of the page, proceeds to step (S15). Proceed to operate the cutter to cut the recording. Then, in step (S16), it is determined whether or not data remains in the data memory (6). If data remains, the process returns to step (S12) to continue recording. When recording of all data is completed, the process returns to the standby state from step (S16).

Therefore, for example, as shown in FIG. 5, when the data for one page is received as one block, the steps (S7) (S8) (S9) (10) (S11) and the step (S1)
Record in 2). When the end of recording one block of data is detected in step (S13), then step (S14)
It is determined whether or not the page is at the end. Since it is the end of the page, the cutter is operated to cut the recording paper at step (S15). Next, in step (S16), it is checked whether or not there is data in the data memory (6). However, since there is no remaining data, the standby state is restored. In addition, the sixth here
As shown in the figure, if a plurality of pages of data are stored in the data memory (6), the process proceeds from step (S16) to step (S12) to record the second and subsequent pages. If the amount of data thus received is within the capacity of the data memory (6), reception recording is performed by the processing of steps (S7) to (S16).

Next, a case where the amount of received data is too large to be stored in the data memory (6) will be described.

At this time, the data in the block memory (5) is sequentially accumulated in the data memory (6) as described above. However, in the judgment of the step (S6), the free space of the data memory (6) corresponds to the block memory (5). When it is detected that the amount of data is smaller than the data amount, the control circuit (1) proceeds to step (S17) to check whether or not recording is in progress by checking the flag for instructing recording, but this is the first time that the memory is full. , No recording has been done by then, so step (S1
Proceed to 8) and read the data for the first one block of the data stored in the data memory (6) to the recording section (4).
To start recording. The control circuit (1) sets a recording flag at the start of recording and resets it at the end of recording. When recording is started, the control circuit (1) then proceeds to step (S19) to determine whether Q = EOP, that is, whether the procedure has ended, and if the procedure has ended, the above-mentioned step (S8).
Go to (S9) (S10) (S11) and disconnect the line to finish. During that time, the data stored in the data memory (6) and the data stored in the block memory (5) that does not fit into the data memory (6) are recorded, and when the recording is completed, the standby state is restored.

On the other hand, when the control circuit (1) detects in step (S19) that reception of all pages has not been completed, the control circuit (1) proceeds to step (S20), transmits a reception disable signal (RNR) to the transmission side, and then proceeds to step Proceed to (S21) and step (S18)
It is determined whether or not the recording started in step S3 has ended, and if the recording has not ended, the process returns to step (S20) and the transmission of the RNR signal is repeated. The transmitting side that has received the RNR signal interrupts the transmission and enters the standby state. That is, the transmitting side waits until the recording of one block of data is completed on the receiving side. Then, the step of ending the recording of the data for one block (S21)
The control circuit (1) detected in step S22 proceeds to step (S22) to determine whether it is the end of the page. When it is detected that the end of the page has been reached, the control circuit (1) proceeds to step (S25) to control the recording unit (4). And operate the cutter to cut the recording paper.
Further, only the data for the blocks for which the recording in the data memory (6) has been completed is shifted and the data is packed to increase the free space. Then, the control circuit (1) proceeds to step (S6) and determines the capacity. Since the free space becomes large due to the end of recording for one block, the process proceeds to step (S7) to transfer the data in the block memory (5) to the data memory (6),
After that, the data of the next block is received in the same manner as described above.

On the other hand, in step (S22), if it is detected that the page is not at the end, the process proceeds to step (S23) to determine whether or not the data recording in the data memory (6) is completed. If the page is composed of a plurality of blocks, the process proceeds to step (S24) to shift the data in the data memory (6) in the same manner as described above and start recording the data in the next block. When recording is started, the control circuit (1) proceeds to step (S6) and performs the same processing as described above.

Therefore, for example, when the transmission original data of page 7 is received and the data of up to page 5 is received as shown in FIG. 7, the data of page 5 of the block memory (5) is stored in the data memory (6). If transfer is not possible, the process proceeds from step (S6) to steps (S17) and (S18), and recording of the block data of the first page is started. At the start of recording, the control circuit (1) proceeds to steps (S19) (S20) (S21), transmits an RNR signal to the transmitting side until the recording is completed, and makes the transmitting side stand by. Then, the step of ending the recording for one page (S2
When it is detected in 1), it is determined in step (S22) whether or not the page is the end. Step (S2 because it is the end of the page now)
Go to 5) and operate the cutter to cut the recording paper,
The data in the data memory (6) is shifted to make free space in the data memory (6) as shown in FIG. Subsequently, the capacities are compared in step (S6), and the free space has increased due to the data shift, so it is possible to transfer the data from the broke memory (5) to the data memory (6). ), Data transfer is performed as shown in FIG. As a result, the data of the fifth page is transferred to the data memory (6). The control circuit (1), which has transferred the data in step (S7), operates in steps (S8) (S9).
By proceeding to step (S2) through the process of (S10), the data of the sixth page is stored in the block memory (5) as shown in FIG. Then, in step (S6), the free space of the data memory (6) is compared, but since the free space is small in this case as well, the next block, that is, the first block (2-1) of the second page is step (S18). Start recording. The transmission side is kept waiting by steps (S20) and (S21) until the recording of this block is completed, and the transmission of the seventh page is not performed.

Therefore, when the end of recording of the first block (2-1) of the second page is detected in step (S21), it is determined in step (S22) whether or not the page is the end, but the second page is 2 blocks and the page Since it is not the end of step, it proceeds to step (S23) and it is judged whether or not there is data remaining in the data memory (6). However, since data is accumulated, step (S2
Proceed to 4) and shift the data in the data memory (6) as shown in FIG. At the same time, recording of the second block (2-2) on the second page is started. Then, returning to step (S6), the capacities are compared. However, since the data memory (6) has an empty capacity due to the data shift, the process proceeds to step (S7) and is stored in the block memory (5). The data of the sixth page is transferred to the data memory (6) as shown in FIG. As a result, when the block memory (5) becomes empty, steps (S8) (S9) (S1
After the processing of 0), the 7th page is received and the data is written to the block memory (5). At this time, since the 7th page is the last data, PRI-EOP is transmitted from the transmitting side, this is received in step (S3) and written in a predetermined area of the directory memory (7). When the data of the 7th page is completely received, the control circuit (1) compares the capacities in step (S6), but the data memory (6) is in the state shown in FIG. 13 and transfers the data of the 7th page. Since it is not possible to proceed, it proceeds to step (S17) to judge whether or not recording is in progress. However, since the flag is set in the recording state of the second block (2-2) of the second page, it continues. Then, the process proceeds to step (S19) to determine whether Q = EOP. Now that all 7 pages of data have been received and the PPS-EOP signal from the transmission side has been received, the control circuit (1) advances from step (S19) to steps (S8) to (S16), and the data memory ( 6) and the data recording accumulated in the block memory (5) are connected and performed.

Therefore, when the recording of the second block (2-2) of the second page is completed, the control circuit (1) which has detected the recording end in step (S13) determines whether it is the end of the page in step (S14). However, since it is the end of the second page, the process proceeds to step (S15) to operate the cutter to cut the second page. After that, the third to sixth pages stored in the data memory (6) and the seventh page stored in the block memory (5) are continuously recorded.

Thus, when the data of the fifth page is received, the data memory (6) is out of memory, but when the data of the first page is recorded at the time when the data is over, the remaining data can be received.

(G) Effect of the Invention As described above, the facsimile apparatus of the present invention sequentially stores the data in the data memory received by the ECM method, and when the memory becomes full, records from the first data stored in the data memory. Since it is configured to record continuously until the end of the page, white lines do not appear in the middle of the page, and since recording starts from the first page, the pages are arranged in order at the end of recording. There is. In addition, since only unrecorded data is stored in the data memory from the beginning position, the free space of the memory can be determined based only on the first data position in the data memory, and the free space can be easily determined. You can do it.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a facsimile apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a time chart showing transmission and reception of ECM system signals, FIGS. 3 and 4 are flow charts showing operation states of FIG. 5 to 13 are schematic diagrams showing the data storage states of the block memory and the data memory. (1) ... Control circuit, (3) ... reading section, (4) ... recording section, (5) ... block memory, (6) ... data memory.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A block memory for storing one block of data received in ECM mode, a means for performing an ECM mode error check on the block data stored in the memory, and a plurality of blocks of data. A storable data memory, a means for transferring the data in the block memory to the data memory, and a recording unit for sequentially recording one page of the data accumulated in the data memory from the first block in block units. A shift unit that refills the data in the data memory from the beginning by the recorded block for each recording in block units by the recording unit, a unit that detects and stores the last data position in the data memory, and the position storage unit. Means for determining the free space in the data memory based on the stored contents of the It comprises a means for comparing the free space in the data memory judged by the judging means, and a control means for controlling the respective parts, wherein the control means makes an error in the data in the block memory by the error checking means. When the result of the comparison by the comparison means is that the amount of data in the block memory is larger than the free space in the data memory, it is stored in the head of the data memory by the recording unit. One page of data is read and recorded, the data in the data memory is refilled by the shift means, and then the data in the block memory is transferred to an empty area in the data memory by the transfer means. And the final data position in the block memory after transfer is detected and stored in the position storage means. Facsimile apparatus characterized by.