JP6476010B2 - Connection failure recovery module, device and program with failure recovery function - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for recovering a failure in cable connection for connecting electronic devices.

  In recent years, digital signals including audio and video (hereinafter simply referred to as video signals) are transmitted and received between many electronic devices, and a visible image and audio that can be viewed by a user via a display device are provided. . Communication cables for communicating video signals include those that comply with standards for transmitting and receiving digital signals, such as HDMI (registered trademark) and DVI (registered trademark), as well as those that transmit and receive analog signals such as VGA and XGA. Can do.

  For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2012-248257 (Patent Document 1) describes a video / audio device that can be activated in a state intended by a user using an HDMI-CEC function. A technique is described in which a device is connected with an HDMI cable and output from an audio output device.

  Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-125893 (Patent Document 2) describes a signal cable that can handle two types of video signal inputs with a single signal cable.

  When these connection cables are connected to an electronic device and command transmission / reception of video, in normal cases, video transmission will start without any problem, but even if a connection cable is rarely connected, video transmission will not be performed at all. There was a case where a problem of "

  When such a problem occurs, there is a problem that the user must repeat procedures such as power-off of the electronic device, attachment / detachment of the connection cable, and power-on again until video transmission is successful. FIG. 9 shows a conventional process from connection cable connection to video output. In step S901, the user plugs in the connection cable to the video equipment. In step S902, the video device outputs an authentication signal, and performs an authentication process as to whether or not the devices interconnected by the connection cable pass a predetermined authentication. This authentication process is often performed by the DDC method.

  If authentication is successful in step S904 (yes), a video signal is output in step S905. On the other hand, if authentication is unsuccessful in step S904 (no), the connection cable is still connected (no) in step S908, and the authentication processing in steps S903 to S904 is again performed up to the upper limit number set in the retry counter. Repeat.

  If the video signal is not output even after the above steps are repeated, the user performs an attachment / detachment operation of the connection cable in step S908 (yes). The video equipment outputs an authentication signal again in step S909, and performs authentication processing in step S910. If the authentication is successful in step S911 (yes), the video signal is output in step S912 and the process is terminated. However, if the authentication is not successful in step S911, the process returns to step S908 again, and it is necessary to repeat the authentication retry and the connection cable attachment / detachment operation until the video signal is output.

JP 2012-248257 A JP 2001-125893 A

  The present invention provides a connection failure recovery module, a device having a failure recovery function, and a program that can solve the above-described problems of the prior art and recover a connection failure of a connection cable by processing on the apparatus side. With the goal.

According to the present invention, a module for recovering a connection failure between a video / audio device and a display device,
Means for detecting failure of a predetermined number of authentication processes;
In response to the failure of the predetermined number of authentication processes, a logic circuit means for generating a connector output setting in which the connection cable is artificially disconnected and sending it to the display device for which the authentication process has failed ,
Means for continuing the connector output setting for which the pseudo connection cable is disconnected for a predetermined time;
Means for setting the connector output setting to an output setting in which a connection cable is pseudo-connected after elapse of the predetermined time;
Means for executing the authentication process again after setting the connector output setting to be a setting in which a connection cable is pseudo-connected;
With
The connector setting in which the pseudo connection cable is disconnected includes a setting for turning off the DDC communication line with the display device.
A connection failure recovery module is provided.
Further, it is possible to include means for extending the predetermined time depending on the number of times of the pseudo connection cable disconnection process.

  Further, according to the present invention, there is provided a device including the connection failure recovery module described above and a program that causes the device to function as the functional means.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the apparatus and program provided with the connection failure recovery module which can recover | recover the connection failure of a connection cable by the process by the side of a device, and a failure recovery function can be provided.

1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a video system 100 to which the present invention is applied. The figure which shows embodiment at the time of mounting the cable connection failure recovery module of this embodiment in the relay apparatus 102. FIG. FIG. 3 is a schematic functional block diagram of a separation processing unit 203 according to the present embodiment. The figure which shows embodiment of the logic table 400 which shows the control signals CS1 and CS2 which FPGA300 outputs in this embodiment, and the output state of the connector pin 1 and the connector pin 2. FIG. The flowchart of the failure recovery process of this embodiment. The flowchart of the failure recovery process of this embodiment. The follow chart of the pseudo | simulation connection cable disconnection process in this embodiment. The flowchart of the connection cable pseudo-connection process of this embodiment. The figure which shows the process from the connection of the conventional connection cable to video output success.

1: Connector pin 2: Connector pin 100: Video system 101: Video / audio equipment 102: Relay device 103: Display device 104: Display device 200: Control device 201: Interface 202: Serial converter 203: Pseudo disconnection processing unit 204: Frequency modulation Units 205a and 205b: HDMI connector 206: Bus 300: FPGA
303: Line 304: Line

  The present invention will be described below with reference to embodiments, but the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described below. FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a video system 100 to which the present invention is applied. The video system 100 includes a video / audio device 101, a relay device 102 that relays a video signal output from the video / audio device 101, and display devices 103 and 104 that receive the video signal from the relay device 102 and reproduce the video signal. Can be included. Although the video system shown in FIG. 1 is described as including the relay device 102, the present embodiment does not need to include the relay device 102, and the video / audio device 101 is directly connected to the display device 103. It can also be applied to. The audio / video device 101 may be a server, a personal computer, a terrestrial digital communication tuner for television, or the like.

  FIG. 2 shows an embodiment in which the cable connection failure recovery module of this embodiment is mounted on the relay device 102. The relay device 102 shown in FIG. 2 controls the various functions of the relay device 102 and enables the failure recovery processing of this embodiment, a video signal, and a control signal to the control device (CPU). And the like, and a serial converter 202 for processing the video signal.

  The serial converter 202 serially converts the video signal received from the interface 201 to generate a video sequence. The relay apparatus 102 also includes a frequency modulation unit 204. The frequency modulation unit 204 provides a function of controlling the frequency characteristics of the video signal and improving the attenuation of the video signal. In the embodiment to be described, the video signal that has passed through the frequency modulation unit 204 is transferred to the display device 103 via the connectors 205a and 205b and the connection cable compliant with the HDMI standard, and the video signal is provided as a video signal. The video signal transmission format that can be used in this embodiment can be exemplified by HDMI and DVI, but it is needless to say that the video signal transmission format can be applied to any other video transmission format that uses the authentication function.

  Furthermore, in the present embodiment, a pseudo separation processing unit 203 is provided. In this embodiment, the pseudo disconnection processing unit 203 has a function of automatically recovering a failure in which a video signal is not output when a connection cable is connected by using the function of the apparatus. The function processing units described above are interconnected via an appropriate bus 206, and provide the function of each function unit under the control of the control device 200.

  FIG. 3 is a schematic functional block diagram of the pseudo detachment processing unit 203 of the present embodiment. Note that FIG. 3 also shows the control device 200 for explanation. The disconnection processing unit 203 receives a signal from the control device 200 and generates at least two control signals CS1 and CS2 in order to perform the pseudo disconnection / pseudo reconnection of the present embodiment, an FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) 300. It has. The FPGA 300 is connected to the control device 200 from above by an address line, a data line, a write signal line, and other control signal lines, so that the control from the control device 200 is possible.

  A control signal CS1 output from the FPGA 300 controls a signal output from the line 303 to the connector pin 2 via a switching transistor. The control signal CS2 controls a signal output to the connector pin 1 via the line 304 via the switching transistor. Although not limited to a specific embodiment, in the specific embodiment of the present embodiment, the connector pin 1 corresponds to the TX1_DDCPOWER pin of the HDMI connector, and the connector pin 2 corresponds to the TX1_DDCGND pin of the HDMI connector. To do.

  FIG. 4 is an embodiment of the logic table 400 showing the control signals CS1 and CS2 output from the FPGA 300 and the output states of the connector pins 1 and 2 in this embodiment. In FIG. 4, the high (H) and low (L) states of the control signals CS1 and CS2 and the output states of the connector pins 1 and 2 are associated with each other. When CS1 is H, the connector pin 2 is grounded, and when CS1 is L, it is floated (FLOAT).

On the other hand, when the control signal CS2 is set to H, the output of the connector pin 1 is changed to L. When the control signal CS2 is set to L, the control signal CS2 is changed to H. The “pseudo-detached state” of the present embodiment refers to a state in which the connector pin 2 is FLOAT and the connector pin 1 is L. This state is the condition indicated by hatching in FIG. On the other hand, the condition that the connector pin 2 is GND and the connector pin 1 is H corresponds to a connection cable pseudo- connection state. However, since the connection cable is not actually attached or detached, the connection cable pseudo connection state in the present embodiment means the output setting of the pseudo disconnection processing unit 203.

  FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of the failure recovery processing of this embodiment. The process shown in FIG. 5 starts from step S500, and in step S501, the connection cable is plugged in to the video equipment. In step S502, an authentication signal (HDMI signal) is output, and in step S503, authentication processing is performed using the DDC method. In step S504, it is determined whether or not the authentication is successful. If the authentication is successful (yes), the video signal is output in step S505. Thereafter, the retry counter, which is the number of retries until successful authentication, is reset, and the process ends in step S507.

  On the other hand, if the authentication is not successful in step S504 (no), the process branches to step S509, and the retry counter n is incremented first, and then it is determined whether n = N in step S508. N (positive integer) is the maximum value of the number of iterations of the retry counter. If n = N is not satisfied (no), the process returns to step S503, and the determination in step S504 is repeated again. If the authentication is successful within the N iterations, the process proceeds to step S507 as no failure and the process is terminated.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S508 that the allowable number of iterations has been exceeded (yes), the process branches to point A, and the failure recovery process of the present embodiment is started.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart of failure recovery processing according to this embodiment. The process starts from point A, and the retry counter n is reset in step S600. In step S601, pseudo connection cable disconnection processing is executed, and in step S602, retry counters m and n are incremented. The retry counter m gives a wait time for continuing the pseudo disconnection state and is incremented to the maximum value M. Thereafter, the pseudo disconnection state is maintained for the pseudo disconnection time T (ms). In the present embodiment, the pseudo separation time T is exemplarily given by the following formula (1).

(Equation 1)
T (ms) = 100 × m + 2000 (1)
In a specific embodiment, the retry counter N = 5 and M = 50, and the maximum disconnect time T can be 7000 ms. The pseudo connection cable disconnection process is started when the control device 200 sets a predetermined address of the FPGA 300, and the connection cable pseudo connection process is performed when another appropriate address of the FPGA 300 is set by the control device 200. Executed.

  Thereafter, in step S604, a connection cable pseudo-connection process is executed, an authentication signal is output in step S605, and an authentication process is executed in step S606. In step S607, it is determined whether or not the authentication is successful. If the authentication is successful (yes), the video signal is output in step S608, the retry counters n and m are reset to 0 in step S609, and in step S610. The failure recovery process is terminated.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S607 that the authentication is unsuccessful (no), it is determined in step S611 whether the M retries have been completed, and if the predetermined retry has not been completed (no), step After displaying the connection error in S614, the process is branched to step S602 and the retry is continued. On the other hand, if failure recovery is not possible even after M retries are completed in step S611 (yes), the process waits in step S612 until the maximum standby time T = 7000 ms. If the failure is not recovered even after the maximum waiting time T elapses (no), a realistic hardware failure is suspected, so a connection error is notified in step S613, and the process is terminated in step S610. On the other hand, if the connection error is recovered during this time (yes), the process branches to step S608 to output the video signal.

  Note that the failure recovery process is executed only for a connector that has failed in the authentication process when there are a plurality of HDMI connectors 205a as in the relay apparatus 102 of the present embodiment.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the pseudo connection cable disconnection process in the present embodiment. The process starts from step S700, and in step S701, the control device 200 instructs the frequency modulation unit 204 to set the output of the video signal to disable. In step S702, the control signal is set to CS2 = H and the DDC communication line is set to OFF. Then, in step S703, the control signal CS1 is set to L, the connector pin 2 is set to FLOAT, and step S704 is ended.

  FIG. 8 shows a flowchart of the connection cable pseudo-connection process of the present embodiment. The processing in FIG. 8 starts from step S800, and in step S801, the control signal CS1 is set to H, and the output state in which FLOAT is set is set to the ground state. In step S802, the control signal CS2 is set to L and the DDC communication line is set to ON. Thereafter, the output of the video signal is set to enable in step S803, and the process ends in step S804.

  By executing the above processing, it is possible to efficiently recover from a connection failure without the user having to detach the connection cable manually. In addition, the above-described functions of the present invention can be achieved by using a procedure-oriented programming language such as assembler language or C language, or C ++, Java (registered trademark), Java (registered trademark) Beans, Java (registered trademark) Applet, Java (registered trademark). It can be realized by a device executable program described in an object-oriented programming language such as Script, Perl, or Ruby.

  In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the source code described in C language or the like is executed as an execution code by an appropriate compiler, the execution code is stored in a ROM, an EEPROM, or the like, and the CPU reads the execution code into the RAM. The CPU can execute the processing according to the present embodiment by executing the execution code.

  The present invention has been described above with reference to the embodiments. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments, and other embodiments, additions, modifications, deletions, and the like can be conceived by those skilled in the art. It can be changed, and any aspect is within the scope of the present invention as long as the effects and effects of the present invention are exhibited.

Claims (5)

A module for recovering a connection failure between a video / audio device and a display device,
Means for detecting failure of a predetermined number of authentication processes;
In response to the failure of the predetermined number of authentication processes, a logic circuit means for generating a connector output setting in which the connection cable is artificially disconnected and sending it to the display device for which the authentication process has failed ,
Means for continuing the connector output setting for which the pseudo connection cable is disconnected for a predetermined time;
Means for setting the connector output setting to an output setting in which a connection cable is pseudo-connected after elapse of the predetermined time;
Means for executing the authentication process again after setting the connector output setting to be a setting in which a connection cable is pseudo-connected;
With
The connector setting in which the pseudo connection cable is disconnected includes a setting for turning off the DDC communication line with the display device.
Connection failure recovery module.   The connection failure recovery module according to claim 1, comprising means for extending the predetermined time depending on the number of repetitions of the pseudo connection cable disconnection process. It includes a connection failure recovery module according to claim 1 or 2, equipment. A program executed by a device to recover a connection failure between a video / audio device and a display device, the device comprising:
Detecting a failure of a predetermined number of authentication processes;
In response to the failure of the predetermined number of authentication processes, generating a connector output setting in which the connection cable is virtually disconnected, and sending to the display device where the authentication process has failed ;
Continuing the connector output setting for which the pseudo connection cable has been disconnected for a predetermined time;
Returning the connector output setting to an output setting in which a connection cable is pseudo-connected after elapse of the predetermined time;
Executing the authentication process again after the connector output setting is set to an output setting in which a connection cable is pseudo-connected, and
The authentication process is performed using a DDC method, and the connector setting in which the pseudo connection cable is disconnected includes a setting for turning off the DDC communication line .   The program according to claim 4, comprising a step of extending the predetermined time depending on the number of repetitions of the pseudo connection cable disconnection process.