JPS6129261A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To ensure reliability of automatic reproduction record of the transmitted image data by storing the received picture data, etc. in memory device, and by reading and recording picture data of a picture memory device automatically. CONSTITUTION:As the transmitting side which receives confirmation of receiving message is set free after transmitting completion of communication it can exchange communication with other facsimile equipment. The receiving side waits until primary heating of a thermal fixing device is ended even after receiving completion of communication. When the primary heating is ended and the recording becomes possible in a printer 3, a controller 25 energizes a decoder 24 to make the printer 3 start. The decoder 24 reads encoded picture data from a picture memory 23, outputs a picture signal to the printer 3 decoding and reproducing to record. When the recording is completed, a heater-OFF1 signal is sent to a line 251 to turn off power to the thermal fixing device.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field] The present invention relates to a facsimile machine, and more particularly to an image memory that can store received image data, and a printer that records and thermally fixes the image data read from the image memory onto paper. The present invention relates to a facsimile machine having a facsimile machine.

[Prior art] Early facsimile machines had slow data transmission speeds and were single-function devices, so the image was read on the sending side, the encoded and transmitted image signal was immediately decoded and played back on the receiving side, and recorded as is in real time. was. This type of device is uneconomical because it requires constant power supply to the receiving device and must be ready for use at any time. Furthermore, even if the sending side requests data transmission immediately after the receiving side of this type of device is powered on, the sending side will not be able to send the image unless there are other circumstances such as the receiving printer being preheated and unable to record. There was an inconvenience that it was not possible to read and transmit data.

Advances in data compression technology in recent years have made it possible to transmit substantially large amounts of image information in a short period of time. Some receiving devices include
In order to solve the problem that the own reproducing/recording means cannot keep up with such a substantially large capacity of image input information, some devices are equipped with a considerable buffer image memory. but,
Even with recent advances in facsimile machines, significant progress has been made in terms of improving image quality, such as increasing pixel density and expressing halftones, but still, as mentioned above, the printer on the receiving side is still preheating. Regarding usage problems where the sending device cannot read and transmit images,
I don't see any improvement.

Specifically, the problems in use are as follows.

Figure 2 is a timing chart explaining the reception print procedure of a facsimile machine with a conventional image memory. The communication control procedure is to

The contents declared in [Transmission request] are the encoding method, document size, transmission speed, etc. of the sending side, and the contents declared in [Receiving function] are the encoding method, paper size, recording speed, etc. of the receiving side. The presence or absence of paper, etc. However, if the receiving device is in some kind of inoperable state at the time of receiving the [transmission request], the receiving inoperable state is indicated as the [receiving function].

The receiving inoperable state is, for example, a case where the thermal fixing temperature of the printer has not reached a predetermined value because the power of the receiving device has just been turned on, and the device is in a warm-up wait state. Since the sending device cannot send image data until the receiving device becomes operational, the sending device is either forced to wait for the receiving device to send data, or the sending device interrupts communication. .

Further, even if data transfer was performed reliably, there was no guarantee that the data would be reliably reproduced and recorded later.

For this reason, there has been an inconvenience that the image data that has been stored is not recorded and is lost for some reason.

[Objective] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, and its purpose is to transmit data even if the receiving facsimile machine is in a certain inoperable state. Receives and stores image reading data from the side device,
Moreover, it is an object of the present invention to provide a facsimile apparatus that guarantees that stored image data is reliably automatically reproduced and recorded.

Specifically, even if the thermal fixing means of the printer of the receiving facsimile machine is below its operating temperature, it will still receive and store the image data from the sending facsimile machine regardless of the operating temperature.
Preferably, the transmitting device is disconnected immediately after receiving the image data, and the stored image data is automatically replayed and recorded when the heat fixing means reaches an operating temperature, thereby ensuring that the stored image data is automatically replayed and recorded. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a facsimile machine that is guaranteed to be reliable.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a facsimile machine that can save power consumption of the printer section, especially the heat fixing means, in view of the fact that the heat fixing means receives and stores image data even if the temperature is below the operating temperature. .

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1(A) is a block diagram showing the configuration of a main receiving print path in a facsimile apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Although not shown, the apparatus of this embodiment further includes a document image reading section and 1. It may be a so-called facsimile transmitting/receiving device that includes a transmission control section for the read image data.

In the figure, 1 is a data communication line, 2 is a control board equipped with a control unit, 3 is an electrostatic recording thermal fixing printer unit, and 4 is preheating of a thermal fixing device (not shown) in the printer unit 3. A temperature detection unit that detects the state, 5 a power controller that controls power supply and power supply timing to each part of the device, 6
is an operation panel equipped with a power on/off switch for the main body of the device and means for notifying various states.

The control board 2 shows a functional block configuration that executes various functions, including a receiving circuit 21 that receives communication control messages and encoded image data from a transmitting device;
2 is a transmitting circuit that transmits a response message to the transmitting side; 23
is an image memory that stores received and encoded image data;
24 is a decoder that decodes the encoded image data read out from the image memory 23, and 25 is a control unit that centrally controls the entire layer. The control unit 25 is an RO with a built-in program.
It is mainly composed of an 1-chip CPU, and includes a RAM necessary for control, a PIO for inputting and outputting control data, and the like. Further, the decoder 24 decodes and reproduces encoded image data compressed and transmitted using the run-length method, for example.
This is a device that simultaneously performs decoding and testing.

The printer unit 3 forms an electrostatic latent image on the charging drum using the reproduced image signal from the decoder 24, applies a sander to the electrostatic latent image, develops it into an image, transfers it to plain paper, and then heats it with a static latent image. □
This is an electrographic thermal fixing printer. Generally, it takes a certain amount of time for a thermal fixing device to reach a predetermined temperature after power is supplied to the thermal fixing device. and is determined as a condition for starting printing.

Power controller 5 supplies power to printer section 3 via line 51 and to the remaining sections via line 52. In this case, the control board 2 is constantly supplied with power even when it is not printing because a [transmission request] may arrive from the sending side at any time. On the other hand, the thermal fixing device of the printer section 3 is not supplied with power to save power while printing is not being performed.

The operation panel 6 is the power on/off switch P on the main body of the device.
It is equipped with a SW and various status notification means. The notification means is an LE that notifies the operator visually or audibly when a certain condition described below occurs, for example.
D and the speaker. Also power on/off switch PS
W. is an operation switch for turning on and off power to the entire device.

FIG. 1(B) is a circuit diagram of a configuration that controls power on and off for the entire device. In FIG. 0 included in the power controller 5, when the PSW is set to the ON side, The level of line 61 becomes HI.
GH, turns solid state relay SSR ON via the NOR gate, and connects AC input AC-I to AC output AC-〇. Also, when the PSW is set to the OFF side, the level of line 61 becomes LOW due to the contact between the contact and GND, and the SSR is turned OFF via the NOR gate.
state and cut off between AC-I and AC-0. However, even in this case, while the control unit 25 outputs a HIGH level through the line 252 due to a certain condition described later, NO
R gate output is kept at LOW level, AC-I and AC
-0 is not interrupted.

The operation of the above configuration will be explained below.

FIG. 3 is a timing chart illustrating the reception printing procedure of the device of this embodiment. When a [transmission request] is issued from the transmitting side of the 0 image, the receiving side of this embodiment does not check whether the proboscis is inoperable or not. Immediately declare 1. “Receiving function”. At the same time, when the control unit 25 receives the [transmission request], it sends a heater-on signal to the power controller 5 via the line 251, and energizes the supply of heat and power to the fixing device via the line 51. On the other hand, the transmitting side receives and accepts the [receiving function], sends out a [receiving command], and continues to transmit S [encoded image data]. When the control unit 25 receives the [reception command], it activates writing in the image memory 23 via a line 253, and subsequently starts writing the received encoded image data. The writing is performed independently of the control unit 25 using DMA. After transmitting the [encoded image data], the transmitting side then transmits [end of transmission]. When the control unit 25 receives the message [END OF TRANSMISSION], it checks whether or not the heat fixing device is being preheated at this point. If preheating is still in progress, a [reception confirmation] is sent back to the transmitting side to notify that the encoded image data has been normally received, without operating the decoder 24 and printer unit 3.

This point differs from the conventional example shown in FIG. That is, conventionally, a [receipt confirmation] is sent back after playback and recording.

This is because the decoder performs a decoding check on the image data during reproduction and recording on the receiving side, and returns a [reception confirmation] as a final confirmation including the presence or absence of errors. On the other hand, in the case of the apparatus of this embodiment as well, if the preheating has been completed at the time when it receives [Transmission Complete], it returns [Receipt Confirmation] after reproduction and recording in the same manner as in FIG. 2. At this point, □The state in which preheating is completed means, for example, when image printing is continued in response to continuous print requests from the sending side. 0 Differences in control depending on the preheating state described above This will be made clear by the explanation of the flow chart below.

Now, according to FIG. 3, the sending side, which has received the [receipt confirmation], releases the message after transmitting [end of communication]. You are also free to make new communications with other facsimile machines. On the other hand, even after receiving the [Communication End] message, the receiving device waits until the preheating of the heat fixing device is completed. When the preheating is completed and the printer section 3 becomes ready for recording, the control section 25 energizes the decoder 24 via the line 254.
5, the printer section 3 is started.

The decoder 24 reads the encoded image data from the image memory 23 and outputs an image signal to the printer section 3 while decoding and reproducing it, and the printer section 3 records the image signal on paper. When the recording is completed, the control unit 25 sends a heater off signal to the line 251 to turn off the power supply to the thermal fixing device.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the above-described received printing process performed by the control section 25.

In step S1, a transmission request is waited for from the other party. When the transmission request is received, the process advances to step S2 and the heater of the thermal fixing device of the printer section 3 is turned on. Step S3
Now, send the [reception function] to the sending side. In step S4, a ``receive command'' is waited for from the transmitting side. When the ``receive command'' is received, the process advances to step S5 and the writing of the image memory 23 is activated.

In step S6, it waits for [end of transmission] from the sending side, for example, waits for the end of receiving encoded image data for one page. [
When the receiver accepts "End of transmission", the process proceeds to step S7, and writing to the image memory 23 is disabled. In step S8, it is determined whether or not preheating has ended.

This determination is made by examining the signal from the temperature detection section 4. When the determination is YES, the preheating has been completed. As mentioned above, such a situation occurs when printing is performed continuously on a plurality of sheets of paper. The flow advances to step S9 to energize the decoder 24, and to start driving the printer section 3 in step S10. The encoded image data read out from the image memory 23 in this state is decoded by the decoder 24 and reproduced into an image signal. The image signal is sent to the printer section 3, and an image for one page is recorded on a sheet of paper. During this interval, the decoder 24 also checks for decoding errors. The control unit 25 executes step Sll and waits for the above-mentioned series of recording operations to be completed. At the end of recording, it also determines whether or not a decoding error has occurred. 0 Normally, normal termination occurs when decoding is performed without errors and reproduction and recording are performed. Then,
The flow proceeds to step 312 and sends an [acknowledgment of receipt]. In step S13, it waits for [end of communication] from the sending side. When the receiver accepts [End of communication], the process proceeds to step S14' and 1. Cut off the power supply to the heat fixing heater.

If preheating is not completed in step S8, the process proceeds to step S15. Such a state occurs when there is a single transmission request from the other party.

However, the other device is not made to wait at all.

In step S15, a [reception confirmation] is immediately transmitted. Although it is not known at this point whether a decoding error will occur later, such processing is permissible due to the inherent redundancy of the image signal. Further, even if a decoding error is detected later and an abnormality is found in the recorded image, a retransmission request can be made using other appropriate communication means (telephone, etc.). In step 31B, □ waits for [end of communication] from the sending side. After sending [end of communication], the sending side device is released. When the receiving side accepts [Communication End], the process proceeds to step 517 and limits power off. That is, the control unit 25 outputs a HIGH level to the line 252, so that even if the operator turns the PSW to the OFF side, it will be ignored in the power controller 5 and the power will not be turned off.In step 518, the notification means is activated. . When the receiver is unable to record image data because the heat fixing device is preheating, the device appears not to be operating, so it is necessary to notify the operator of this fact in some way. Specifically, a speaker is made to sound or an LED is turned on. However, the operator only needs to be aware of this, and no special operation is required. In step 519, the operator waits until the preheating is finished. When the preheating is finished, the process proceeds to step 520 and the decoder 24 is attached. to strengthen In step S21, the printer section 3 is started to be driven, and in step S22, the process waits for the end of recording. When the end of recording is reached, the process proceeds to step S23, and the notification means is deactivated. This is because the image memory 23 no longer holds important data to be recorded. Step S24 cancels the power off restriction. If the operator has already turned the PSW to the OFF side, the power to the device will be automatically turned off. If not, the process proceeds to step S24 and the heater of the heat fixing device is turned off.

The flow then returns to step S1 and waits for a [transmission request] from the other party's device.

[Effects] As described above, according to the present invention, even if the heat fixing means of the receiving facsimile device is at a temperature below the operating temperature, image data transmitted from the receiving facsimile device can be received and stored in the image memory. Since it is memorized, the sending device can read and transmit images without waiting, and when the operating temperature is reached, it automatically replays and records the memorized image data, so there is no chance that the sent image data will be lost. This provides a guarantee that automatic playback and recording will be performed without fail.

Further, according to the present invention, heating of the heat fixing means is started when a transmission request signal is received from the facsimile machine on the other end, so that it is possible to save power consumption of the printer section of the facsimile machine on the receiving side, especially the heat fixing means. . In this case,
Whether continuous printing or one-time printing, the other party's facsimile machine does not experience any operational delay.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1(A) is a block diagram showing the configuration of the main receiving print path for a facsimile machine according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 2 is a timing chart illustrating the reception print procedure of a conventional facsimile machine having an image memory; FIG. 3 is a timing chart illustrating the reception print procedure of the apparatus of this embodiment. , FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the reception print processing performed by the control section. Here, l...data communication line, 2...control board, 3...printer section, 4...temperature detection section, 5...
Power controller, 6...operation panel, 21...
Receiving circuit, 22... Transmitting circuit, 23... Image memory, 24... Decoder, 25... Control unit.

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) a communication control unit that performs data communication according to a predetermined communication control procedure; an image memory unit that stores received image data; and a printer unit that records the image data read from the image memory unit on paper; In the facsimile apparatus, the printer section includes a heat fixing means for thermally fixing a recorded image, and a temperature detecting means for detecting the temperature of the heat fixing means, and the control section Even when the fixing means is at an operating temperature or lower, image data transmitted from the other party's facsimile device is received and stored in the image memory section, and when it is detected that the thermal fixing means is at the operating temperature, the image data is automatically transferred to the image memory section. A facsimile device that reads out image data stored in a copy and records it on paper. (2) The control unit, after receiving the image data and storing it in the image memory unit, immediately transmits a response signal indicating normal reception completion to the other party's facsimile machine. facsimile machine. (3) The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the control section starts heating the heat fixing means upon receiving a transmission request signal from the other party's facsimile apparatus.