JPS63314064A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To accurately display the number of recordable pages by always updating the residual receivable length based on reception data after detecting a near-end mark. CONSTITUTION:The titled equipment is provided with a mark detecting means 18a which reads the near-end mark from a recording paper, a residual length recognizing means 23 which recognizes the residual recordable length of the recording paper after detection of the near-end mark by the mark detecting means 18a, and a first calculating means which calculates the information volume per page to be outputted from the latest reception data. A second calculating means which calculates the number of recordable pages in accordance with the information volume calculated by a first calculating means and the residual length recognized by the residual length recognizing means 23 and a display means 22 on which the number of pages calculated by a second calculating means is displayed are provided. Thus, the number of recordable pages after detection of the nearend mark is accurately displayed and an operator is prevented from unnecessarily replacing the recording paper and forgetting replacement at the time of requiring replacement, and the recording paper is efficiently used.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a facsimile machine, and more particularly to a facsimile machine capable of detecting a near-end mark on recording paper and displaying the number of remaining recordable sheets.

[Prior Art] In a conventional facsimile machine that displays the number of receivable sheets on a transmitter/receiver after detecting a near-end mark, when the recording roll paper approaches the end, the near-end mark recorded in advance on the recording roll paper is read. The number of remaining recording sheets is determined by converting the remaining amount from the near end mark to the number of sheets of a predetermined paper size. This was then preset in the counter section, and the number of sheets was displayed on the display section.

Thereafter, for each fed roll paper, the contents of the counter were subtracted to mechanically update the remaining number of sheets, and this updated number was displayed on a display in the car.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, when the above method displays the number of receivable sheets on the transceiver after detecting the near-end mark, there are the following drawbacks.

That is, the length of recording paper for one page was fixed to one specific type. When a near-end mark is detected, the near-end mark length is divided by the sub-scanning line length of a predetermined paper size to calculate the number of receivable pages.After that, each time one page of data is received, the number of receivable pages is calculated. This is because it will decrease. The number of receivable sheets is stored, for example, by a mechanical counter. This is because when the next transmission is performed, the counter for the number of receivable sheets is simply decremented each time one page of data is received.

For example, if we consider a case where the predetermined (specific) reception size for one page is set as A4 size, no matter what size the document is received, the length of one A4 size page will be subtracted. If you receive an A5 size document, the number of remaining pages that can be recorded will be greater than the displayed number of remaining pages, while if you receive a B4 size document, the number of pages that can be recorded will be greater than the displayed number of pages. is larger than the actual possible number of pages.

As described above, there is a major drawback in that when a document of a size other than the predetermined paper size is received, the number of receivable sheets cannot be accurately displayed.

Further, even when only originals of a predetermined paper size are received, if short or long originals are received, the number of receivable sheets cannot be accurately displayed.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention has been made for the purpose of solving the above-mentioned problems, and as a means for solving the above-mentioned problems, the present embodiment has the following configuration.

That is, a mark detection means for reading a near-end mark from a recording paper, a remaining length recognition means for recognizing the recordable remaining recording paper length after the near-end mark is detected by the mark detection means,
a first calculation means for calculating the amount of information per page to be output from the latest received data; and calculating the number of recordable pages from the amount of information calculated by the first calculation means and the remaining length recognized by the remaining length recognition means. and a display means for displaying the number of pages calculated by the second calculation means.

Further, a mark detection means for reading a near-end mark from a recording paper, a remaining length recognition means for recognizing a recordable remaining length of recording paper after the near-end mark is detected by the mark detection means,
a first calculating means for calculating the number of remaining recordable lines during recording at a specific line recording density from the recognized length of the remaining length recognizing means; and a second calculating means for calculating the recording paper length per page from the latest received data. , a third calculation means for calculating the remaining number of recordable pages from the length calculated by the second calculation means, and a display means for displaying the number of pages calculated by the third calculation means.

[Operation] In the above configuration, after detecting the near-end mark, the remaining receivable length is constantly updated based on the received data,
Displays the number of recordable pages based on the current transmission conditions.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of one embodiment of the present invention, in which 1 is a control circuit that controls the entire device according to a program shown in FIG. 2, which will be described later, and 1 is stored in a ROM 2; In addition to the above-mentioned programs, there is a read-only memory (ROM) that stores various parameters, etc., and 3 a random access memory (RAM) that temporarily stores processing data.
), 4 is connected to a public line network 50 via a line (telephone line) 31, and is a network for performing data communication with other facsimile devices connected to this public line network 50, for example, a counterpart device 60. A control unit (NCU) 5 is a telephone connected to the NCU 4. If the mode signal 48 from the control circuit 1 is "0", the NCU 4 connects the line 31 to the station 5, and if it is "1", the NCU 4 connects it to the facsimile machine side, that is, the communication line 32 side to the hybrid circuit. This mode signal 48 is normally "0" and connects the line 31 to the S side.

6 is a hybrid circuit that separates the transmitting system signal and the receiving system signal in the signal connection between the facsimile machine side and the NCUJ side, and 7 is the signal from the V21 modulator 8, which will be described later, and the V2 circuit.
7/V29 is an adder circuit that adds the signal from the modulator 12 and outputs the resultant signal to the hybrid circuit 6 as a transmission system signal. 8 is a V21 that modulates the procedure signal 36 from the control circuit 1 based on the well-known CCITT recommendation V21. It is a modulator. 10
is a reader that sequentially scans and reads the set transmission document line by line in the main scanning direction, converts it into a well-known binary signal of "white" and "black", and outputs it as a read signal 33; It is composed of an image sensor such as a charge-coupled device (CCD) and an optical system. The configuration of this reader 10 is well known, so a description thereof will be omitted. 11 is an encoding circuit that encodes the read signal 33, which is a binary signal from the reader 10, into, for example, an M) (Modified Huffman) code or an MR (Modified Read) code; 12 is a V27/V29
It is a modulator and is based on the well-known CCITT recommendation V27ter (
This is a modulator that performs modulation based on differential phase modulation (differential phase modulation) or modulation based on CCITT recommendation V29 (quadrature modulation). The modulated signal output 35 of the V27/V29 modulator is input to the above-mentioned adder circuit 7.

15 is V21 which demodulates the received signal sent from the hybrid circuit 6 based on the well-known CCITT recommendation V21.
It is a demodulator, and the demodulation procedure signal 3 from the V21 demodulator 15
8 is sent to the control circuit 1, and the control circuit 1 executes reception control using a transmission control procedure according to the known demodulation procedure signal 38. In addition, 16 is the well-known CCITT recommendation V27ter (
Differential Phase Modulation) or CCITT Recommendation V2
This is a V27/V29 demodulator that performs demodulation processing of the received signal sent from the hybrid circuit 6 based on V.9 (orthogonal modulation). Reference numeral 17 denotes a demodulation circuit that performs a known decoding process, such as MH (Modified Huffman) decoding or MR (Modified Read) decoding, on the demodulated signal 39 from the V27/V29 demodulator 16; is sent to printer 18.

The printer No. 18 is a known printer that prints out the composite data 40 line by line in the main scanning direction. A roll of recording paper is set in the printer 18, and a black band indicating the near end is written on the back side of the roll of recording paper over a predetermined distance from the end of the recording paper (printing). have been). In this embodiment, the near end mark length is 5 m. The printer 18 is equipped with a near-end mark detection section 18a that detects this near-end mark, and the near-end mark detection section 18a sets the detection signal 41 to "O" when it is not detecting the black belt that is the near-end mark. , outputs "1" when detected.

19 indicates whether the received data is received in standard mode (3,85 degrees/mm), fine mode (7,7, Q/mm), or super fine mode (15,4
1/+nm) reception mode discriminator 20 determines the mark length for each recording paper, since the length of the black belt, which is the near-end mark of the recording paper mentioned above, differs depending on the recording paper used. This is a mark length setting section for setting, and the standard length is normally set to 5 m. 21 is the setting value in the mark length setting section 20 and the near end mark detection section 1.
The number of remaining recordable lines in the standard mode (3.85u/mm) is stored from the near-end mark detection signal 41 from 8a, and later the printer 18 updates and records this number of recordable lines according to the print length. This is a standard line number memory 21. The data written to the standard line number memory 21 is read out by the output of the read pulse (RP) signal 46 and output to the data signal line 45, and the updated data from the control circuit 1 is output to the data signal line 45. , is written by the output of the write pulse (wp) signal 47.

22 is the data signal line 4 when the display control signal 43 is “0”
Remaining number display section 23 displays the number of remaining recordable sheets outputted to 2, and 23 displays when the display control signal 43 is "1", that is, the remaining amount of recording paper is sufficient and no near-end mark has been detected. This is a remaining amount display section that displays a sufficient amount of remaining recording capacity at times.

The control of this embodiment having the above configuration will be explained below.

When transmitting data, the reader 10 reads the transmission document, the encoding circuit 11 encodes it, and the V27/V
The process of modulating the signal with the V.29 modulator 12, adding it together with the procedural modulation signal 37 from the V21 modulator 18 in the adder circuit 7, and transmitting it to the device 60 via the hybrid circuit 6 and NCU 4 is well known and will be explained below. omitted.

In addition, data received from the partner device 60 during normal operation is sent to the NCU.
4, hybrid circuit 6, V 27/V 2
The signal is demodulated by a demodulator 16, decoded by a decoding circuit 17, and printed out by a printer 18. The procedure signal is then demodulated by the V21 demodulator 15 and sent to the control circuit 1. Since these reception processes are also well known, their explanation will be omitted.

The details of the processing after near-end mark detection by the near-end mark detection section 18a of the printer 18, which is a characteristic configuration and operation unique to this embodiment, will be described below.

First, the transmitter side is informed by a non-standard signal (NSF signal) that the apparatus of this embodiment has a function of displaying the number of remaining receivable sheets after detecting the near-end mark. Then, the display control signal 43 is set to 1''. When the near-end mark has already been detected from the reception of the first page, the remaining receivable length (m
m) multiplied by "3.85", and when a near-end mark is detected while receiving multiple pages, the PI is added to the signal sent to the other party at the break of one page.
(Only if the facsimile transmitter also has a function to display the number of remaining receivable sheets)
The value obtained by multiplying the remaining receivable length (mm) by "3.85" is stored in the F area, and the standard mode (3,
85 sentences/mm) informs you of the number of lines that can be transmitted.

Here, on the receiving side (this device side), when the near end mark is detected, the number of remaining receivable lines in standard mode is (near end mark length (5000 mm in this example)).
) X (3,85) and stores this in the standard line number memory 21 that stores the number of remaining recordable lines in the standard mode. Then, after that, standard mode (3, 8
5 stands/mm) During reception, one line of data is received, and each time it is recorded, the number of remaining receivable lines in the standard mode stored in the standard line number memory 21 is decremented by one.

Also, when receiving data in fine mode (7,711/mm), it receives data for two lines,
Each time recording is performed, the value of the recordable line number stored in the standard line number memory 21 is decremented by one. Also, when receiving data in super fine mode (xs, 4i/aua), each time data for 4 lines is received and recorded, the value of the number of recordable lines stored in the standard line number memory 21 is set to 1. decrease by one. Then, the number of remaining recordable pages is calculated from this updated number of lines and displayed on the remaining number display section 22.

Hereinafter, a case will be described in which both the sending and receiving sides of facsimile communication have a function of displaying the number of remaining receivable sheets.

Until the facsimile receiver side detects the near-end mark, and the facsimile transmitter side recognizes the number of lines that can be transmitted when transmitting in standard mode from the facsimile receiver side (remaining NSF signal in standard mode). Standard line number memory 2 that stores the number of recordable lines
1. Before the receiving side detects the near-end mark, a unique code that distinguishes it from others (for example, all “
1'' is stored, so the transmitting side can know whether the receiving side has detected a near-end mark), and it is displayed that there is sufficient remaining amount of roll paper.

When the near-end mark detection unit 18a of the receiving device detects a near-end mark, the number of remaining recordable lines in the standard mode is determined, displayed, and sent to the facsimile transmitter.

The transmitter side recognizes the number of remaining receivable lines in standard mode from the response signal to the NSF signal or Q signal, and in the transmission procedure, the transmitter side calculates the number of sub-scanning lines in standard mode determined from the fixed size of the information actually transmitted. Find the number. Then, when transmitting in standard mode, divide the number of remaining receivable lines by the number of sub-scanning lines in standard mode, which is determined from the size of the information actually transmitted, and divide the number after the decimal point by 1.
The number of sheets that can be received is calculated by discarding the sheets, and this number is displayed.

Then, the transmitter and receiver devices transmit image signals or
When receiving data, the data is divided into 1.2 according to standard mode, fine mode, and super fine mode.
．． Every time four lines are transmitted, the number of remaining recordable lines in the standard line number memory 21 is decremented by one. Then, the number of recordable sheets is always calculated and displayed on the transmitter/receiver.

Then, when one communication is completed, the facsimile machine will
The number of remaining receivable lines when receiving in standard mode is stored, for example, in a non-volatile memory area backed up by a battery. Alternatively, it may be stored in the memory of the standby power supply.

That is, it is important to memorize the remaining number of receivable lines in the standard mode until the next communication operation starts.

Then, when communication is performed again, the above-described control may be repeated.

For both facsimile transmitters and facsimile receivers, the number of remaining receivable lines in standard mode is determined from the standard document size (short document in the sub-scanning direction or long document) determined from the information size in the main scanning direction that is actually being transmitted. Divide by 3.85 times the sub-scanning length (m+++) of the document (not a document) and round down to the decimal point to determine the number of receivable sheets. For this reason, there is a difference in that facsimile receivers recognize the number of lines remaining that can be received in standard mode when they detect the near-end mark, and facsimile transmitters recognize the number of lines that can be received in standard mode when they detect the response signal to the NSF signal or Q signal. However, the control for displaying the number of remaining recordable sheets is basically the same control. Therefore, the explanation of the display control of the transmitter side device is omitted, and the details of the display control of the receiver side device are shown in Fig. 2 (A
) and (B) will be described below.

When the device is powered on, the process advances to step S42, where the RA
First black detect flag (FBLKDF) indicating that the near end mark (black belt) in M3 has been detected.
is reset to '0''.

Next, in step S43, the mode signal 48 is set to "0", and the line 31 is connected to the telephone a15, and in step S44, the CML
The signal is turned off, and in the following step S46 it is checked whether the process currently being executed is a facsimile reception process. If the process is not a facsimile reception process, the corresponding processing is executed in step S48, and when the series of processes is completed, step S50
Then, it is checked whether the cover of the recording paper storage section in which the recording paper is set has been opened, that is, whether the recording paper has been replaced. If the cover is not opened, the process directly returns to step S44, and if the cover is opened, the above-mentioned FBLKDF is reset to 0" in step s52. Then, the process returns to step S44.

On the other hand, if it is facsimile reception processing in step S46, or if there is a call from the fourth line 31 and 8 lines are required for facsimile reception processing, step S46 is followed by step S46.
Step S54 turns on the CML, and a subsequent step S56 executes pre-procedure processing. Specifically, the mode signal is set to “1”.
At the same time, connect the line 31 to the hybrid circuit 6 side, check whether the near-end mark detection unit 18a detects a near-end mark, and if it detects a near-end mark (black band), send an NSF signal to the other device. PI of
The number of recordable lines stored in the standard line number memory 21 is read out and notified by the F area. Note that the standard line number memory 21 initially stores the recordable line number converted in standard mode printing according to the mark length set by the mark length setting section 20.

Subsequently, in step S58, reception processing of the image signal sent from the partner device (60) is executed, the procedure signal is demodulated by the V21 demodulator 15 and sent to the control circuit 1, and the data signal is
After being demodulated by the 27/V29 demodulator 16, the decoding circuit 1
The data is decoded in step 7 and printed out by the printer 18 line by line in the main scanning direction. Then, in step S60, the detection signal 41 from the near-end mark detection section 18a is checked to determine whether or not near-end detection has occurred. If the near end is not detected here, the process advances to step S62 and the remaining amount display section 2
From step 3, the remaining amount of recording paper is displayed. and step S
Proceed to 78.

On the other hand, if the near end is detected, step S6
0, the process advances to step S64, and the FBLKD in RAM3 is
Check whether F is "0' or not.

When FBLKDF is "0", it means that the near-end detection state has been entered for the first time instead of the near-end detection state up until now, and the mark length set by the mark length setting section 20 is read in step 366.

In this example, the mark length is 5 m (5000 mm
) is set. If all the mark lengths are the same, the mark lengths can be stored in the ROM 2 in advance, and in this case, the mark tone setting circuit 20 can be omitted. Then, in step S67, the number of remaining recordable lines during recording in the standard mode (3.85 J!/mm) is determined from this mark length, and this value is stored in the line number memory 21 in step S68. Here, if the mark length is 5 m, the value (5000 x 3.85) is the number of remaining recordable lines.

Next, in step S69, FBLKDF is set to "1" and the process proceeds to step S70. In step S70, the procedure signal from the V21 demodulator 15 is received and the determination result in the reception mode determining section 19 is examined to determine the sub-scanning density. In the case of the standard mode, the process advances to step S72, and each time one line of printout is performed (each time one line of received data in the main scanning direction is output), the standard line number memory 21
is set to be subtracted one by one, and data for one page is received. When in fine mode, step 374
The standard line number memory 21 is set to be decremented by one every time two lines are printed out, and data for one page is received. In the case of reception in the super fine mode, the process advances to step S76, where the standard line number memory 1 is decremented by one each time four lines are printed out, and data for one page is received. And steps S72, 74. In the case of Flow, the process also proceeds to step 378, and it is checked whether reception for one page has been completed. If one page of data is being received, the process returns to step 358 and continues receiving the next line.

If one page of data has been received and printed out from the printer 18, the process advances from step S78 to step SaO, where it is checked whether FBLKDF is 1". Here, if FBLKDF is If FBLKDF is not "1", the process proceeds to step S96, but if FBLKDF is "1", the process proceeds to step 382, and the actual size of the document sent (width in the main scanning direction) is checked.

Here, in the case of A5 size (width 210 mm), proceed to step S84, divide the value stored in the standard line number memory 21 by (210 x 3.85), and round down the decimal places to find the remaining number of recordable pages. demand.

Then, the number of pages obtained in step S90 is displayed on the remaining number display section 2.
2, and in the subsequent step S92, the display control signal 43 is output to display the remaining recordable number of sheets on the remaining sheet number display section 22, and at the same time, the display of sufficient remaining amount of recording paper on the remaining amount display section 23 is turned off. The process advances to step S94.

In step S82, one page is A4 size (width 297m■)
If so, the process advances to step S86, and the value stored in the standard line number memory 21 is set to (297×3.85).
Divide by and round down to the nearest whole number to find the number of remaining recordable pages. The process then proceeds to step S90 described above.

Also, in step S82, one page is 84 size (width 367
mm), the process advances to step S88, and the value stored in the standard line number memory 21 is changed to (382×3.85
) and round down to the nearest whole number to find the number of remaining recordable pages. Then, the process advances to step S90.

In step S94, it is checked whether the next page is sent continuously, and if there is no next page, the process advances to step 596.
Post-processing such as restoring the line 31 and connecting the line 31 and the telephone 5 is executed. Then, the process returns to step S44.

If the next page continues to be received, the process advances from step S94 to step S98, where intermediate procedure processing is executed and step S58 is performed.
Return to In this intermediate procedure processing, the following processing is performed.

When a near-end mark (black band) is detected and the transmitting side is not informed of the number of receivable lines in standard mode by the PIF of the NSF signal, in other words, the near-end mark is detected when one page of data is being received. If detected, and the transmitting side also has the same function as in this implementation, a PIF is provided in the response signal to the Q signal, and this PIF informs the transmitter of the number of lines that can be received in standard mode. Execute processing such as

As explained above, according to this embodiment, when a near-end mark is detected, the number of remaining recordable pages can be displayed in the remaining page number display section 22 in terms of the document size that was last transmitted. can.

Note that the original sizes here are standard A5, A4, and S.
In the case of a long original or a short original, the number of remaining sheets is displayed as the number of sheets converted to the closest size among the above sizes.

However, this may, for example, display whether the same number of pages can be recorded on a standard document of A4 size, or whether the same number of remaining pages can be recorded on a standard document size that is the same width as the recording paper. May be displayed.

In this example, we will focus only on the receiving operation on the facsimile receiving side and consider determining the remaining number of recordable lines in standard mode and the remaining recordable number of sheets for the document size currently being transmitted. Ta. However, even when performing a copy operation or outputting a communication management report, etc., the number of remaining recordable lines in the standard mode may be similarly subtracted, and the number of recordable sheets may be calculated and displayed.

If the received data can be temporarily stored in the RAMB, it is possible to receive more data even if the recording paper runs out.In this case, the data can be stored in the RAM3 along with the remaining number of recording paper The number of sheets, the number of sheets that can be stored, etc. may be displayed.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, near-end mark detection is possible no matter what document size information is transmitted, or even if a short document in the backward scanning direction or a long document is transmitted. The remaining number of recordable sheets can be accurately displayed, and recording paper can be used more efficiently without having to replace it unnecessarily or forgetting to replace it when necessary.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 (
A) and (B) are control flowcharts of this embodiment. In the diagram, 1...control circuit, 2...ROM, 3...RA
M. 4...NCU, 5...Telephone, 6...Hybrid circuit, 7...Addition circuit, 8...V21 modulator, 1
0...Reader, 11...Encoding circuit, 12...V
27/V29 modulator, 15-V21 demodulator, 16 ・V
27/v29 demodulator, 17... decoding circuit, 18.
...Printer, 18a...Near end mark detection section,
19... Reception mode determination section, 20... Mark length setting section, 21... Standard line number memory, 22... Remaining number display section, 23... Remaining amount display section.

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) a mark detection means for reading a near-end mark from a recording paper; a remaining length recognition means for recognizing the recordable remaining recording paper length after the near-end mark is detected by the mark detection means;
a first calculation means for calculating the amount of information per page to be output from the latest received data; and calculating the number of recordable pages from the amount of information calculated by the first calculation means and the remaining length recognized by the remaining length recognition means. A facsimile apparatus comprising: second calculation means for calculating the number of pages calculated by the second calculation means; and display means for displaying the number of pages calculated by the second calculation means. (2) mark detection means for reading near-end marks from recording paper; remaining length recognition means for recognizing the recordable remaining length of recording paper after the near-end mark is detected by the mark detection means;
a first calculating means for calculating the number of remaining recordable lines during recording at a specific line recording density from the recognized length of the remaining length recognizing means; and a second calculating means for calculating the recording paper length per page from the latest received data. a third calculating means for calculating the remaining number of recordable pages from the calculated length of the second calculating means, and a display means for displaying the number of pages calculated by the third calculating means. A facsimile device featuring: (3) The second calculation means calculates the number of lines obtained by subtracting the number of recordable lines at a specific line density one by one each time data for one line is received and 1
3. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the number of remaining recordable pages is calculated from the number of reception lines for a page.