JPH09277659A - Automatic confirming device of printing equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To lighten the work amount of an operator and prevent the malfunction of a printing equipment by a method wherein a data processing part confirms the formal number and version information of a printing controlling part and the printing controlling part confirms the formal number of the data processing part and, in addition, the data processing part displays the result of confirmation. SOLUTION: A data processing part 6 sends the formal number and version information of the data processing part 6 with a sending means 7 to the receiving means 4 in a printing controlling part 2. The printing controlling part 2 judges the right or wrong of confirmation with a confirming means 3 on the basis of the information received with the receiving means 4. The results of the judge or the right or wrong of confirmation of the printing controlling part 2 are sent with a receiving means 5 to the receiving means 8 in the data processing part 6. With a confirming means 9, the data processing part 6 judges the right or wrong of the confirmations of both the data processing part 6 and the printing controlling part 2. When the wrong of confirmation results, error display is carried out on a display unit 11 with a displaying means 10.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus having a print control section and a data processing section which are independent of each other.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional printing apparatus having a print control unit and a data processing unit independently of each other does not have a method of automatically authenticating each model number and version information.
The information was visually confirmed by the operator.

[0003]

However, the conventional manual method of authenticating the model number and version information has a problem in that the amount of work of the operator increases and the printing apparatus malfunctions due to the work omission.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the work amount of the operator is reduced by adding a method of automatically authenticating the model number and version information by the communication means between the print control unit and the data processing unit and displaying the result. And to prevent malfunction of the printing apparatus.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, a data processing unit transmits a model number and version information of a data processing unit to a print control unit, and a print control unit receives a model number of a data processing unit from the data processing unit. Means for receiving the number and version information, means for the print control unit to send the data processing unit authentication result to the data processing unit and the model number and version information of the print control unit, and the data processing unit for data processing from the print control unit. Means for receiving the copy authentication result, the model number and version information of the print control section, the data processing section for authenticating the model number and version information of the print control section, and the print control section for the model number and version of the data processing section. An automatic authentication device is configured by means for authenticating the information and means for the data processing unit to display the authentication result.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a printing mechanism section for executing printing, 2 is a printing control section for controlling the printing mechanism section, 3 is an authentication means for authenticating a model number and version information of a data processing section 6, and 4 is data. Receiving means for receiving the model number and version information of the data processing section from the processing section 6, and 5 transmitting means for transmitting the data processing section authentication result and the model number and version information of the print control section to the data processing section 6,
Is a data processing unit that processes commands and data from a higher-level device, 7 is a transmission unit that transmits the model number and version information of the data processing unit to the print control unit 2, and 8 is data processing unit authentication from the print control unit 2. Receiving means for receiving the result and the model number and version information of the print control section, 9 is authentication means for authenticating the model number and version information of the print control section 2, and 10 is a display means for the data processing section to display the authentication result. Is a display device.

The data processing unit 6 uses the transmitting unit 7 to transmit the model number and version information of the data processing unit 6 to the receiving unit 4 in the print control unit 2. The print control unit 2 determines whether the authentication unit 3 can authenticate based on the information received by the receiving unit 4. The result of this determination, that is, the authentication propriety, the model number of the print control unit, and the version information are transmitted to the receiving unit 8 in the data processing unit 6 using the transmitting unit 5. The data processing unit 6 uses the authentication unit 9 to determine whether or not both the data processing unit and the print control unit can be authenticated, and if the authentication cannot be performed, the display unit 10 is used to display an error on the display device 11.

FIG. 2 shows the communication protocol between the print control unit and the data processing unit shown in FIG.

In FIG. 2, 21 to 25 are commands and data transmitted from the data processing unit 6 to the print control unit 2, 21 and 22 are commands for transmitting information from the data processing unit 6 to the print control unit 2, and 23 is a command. Data processing unit model number information, 24 is data processing unit version information, and 25 is a parity check code. Reference numerals 31 to 36 are commands and data to be transmitted from the print control unit 2 to the data processing unit 6, 31 and 32 are commands to transmit information from the print control unit 2 to the data processing unit 6, and 33 is a data processing unit from the print control unit. As a result of the means for authenticating the model number and version information of No. 6, 34 is the print control unit model number information, and 35 is
Is print controller version information, and 36 is a parity check code.

FIG. 3 is a data table used by the data processing unit 6 to authenticate the model number and version information of the print control unit 2, and a data table used by the print control unit 2 to authenticate the information of the data processing unit 6. An example is shown.

In FIG. 3, the means for authenticating the print control model number and version information of the data processing unit 6 is 41.
A data table such as the above is used to authenticate the model number and version information of the allowable print control unit. The means for authenticating the model number and version information of the data processing unit of the print control unit 2 uses the data table 42 to authenticate the model number and version information of the allowable data processing unit.

FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of means for authenticating the model number and version information of the print controller in the data processor.

In FIG. 4, the data processing unit executes step 5
At 2, the model number and version information of the data processing units 6 of 21 to 25 are transmitted to the print control unit 2, and at Step 53, the model number version information and the authentication information from the print control are received. In step 54, the data processing unit authentication result 33 received in step 53 and the data table 41 are used to check whether the data processing unit 6 and the print control unit 2 can authenticate each other.

If an error occurs in the time-out monitoring in step 55 or the authentication permission in step 54, the display means 1 for displaying the authentication result on the display device 11 in step 56.
0 is used to display error information, the type and version of the data processing unit, the type and version of the print control unit, and then the processing ends abnormally.

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of means for authenticating the model number and version information of the data processing unit in the print control unit.

In FIG. 5, the print control unit executes step 62.
In step 63, the model number and version information of the data processing unit 6 is waited for, and in step 63, it is checked using the data table 42 whether the data processing unit can be authenticated. In step 66, the print control unit model number, version information, and data processing unit authentication information including the authentication information of the data processing unit in Steps 64 and 65 are transmitted to the data processing unit.

[0019]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, malfunction of the printing apparatus can be prevented by performing automatic authentication between the data processing unit and the print control unit.

Further, if the automatic authentication device of the present invention is used to prevent the non-genuine data processing unit from being authenticated, it is possible to eliminate the pirated version of the data processing unit.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a table showing communication protocols between a print control unit and a data processing unit in FIG.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a data table.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of means for authenticating the model number and version information of the print control unit in the data processing unit.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of means for authenticating the model number and version information of the data processing unit in the print control unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 is a printing mechanism unit, 2 is a print control unit, 6 is a data processing unit,
3 and 9 are authentication means, 4 and 8 are reception means, 5 and 7 are transmission means, 10 is display means, and 11 is a display device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A printing mechanism unit that executes printing, a printing control unit that controls the printing mechanism unit, a data processing unit that processes commands and data from a host device, a communication unit between the printing control unit and the data processing unit, and In a printing device having a display device for indicating the state of the device, the data processing unit sends a model number and version information of the data processing unit to the printing control unit, and the printing control unit sends a model number of the data processing unit from the data processing unit. Means for receiving the number and version information, means for the print control unit to send the data processing unit authentication result to the data processing unit and the model number and version information of the print control unit, and the data processing unit for data processing from the print control unit. Means for receiving the partial authentication result, the model number and version information of the print control unit, and the data processing unit, the model number and version information of the print control unit. Means for authenticating and means print controller authenticates the model number and version information of the data processing unit, the automatic authentication apparatus of a printing apparatus data processing unit is characterized by having a means for displaying the authentication result.