JPH0553101B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field] The present invention relates to a facsimile device, and more particularly to a facsimile device having an image memory for storing encoded image data and a recording section for recording decoded image data.

[Prior art] Early facsimile devices had a slow data transmission speed and were single-function devices, so the transmitting side read the image, the encoded and transmitted image signal was immediately decoded and reproduced on the receiving side, and recorded as is in real time. was. In this type of apparatus, the receiving side apparatus must be kept operational at all times, so there is an inconvenience in that, for example, one must always be careful about replenishing toner and paper. That is, when this type of apparatus receives a data transmission request from the sending side but cannot print because the receiving printer is out of toner, the sending side is also unable to read and transmit the image.

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 are equipped with a considerable buffer image memory in order to solve the problem that their own reproduction/recording means cannot keep up with such a substantially large amount of image input information. However, even with recent advances in facsimile equipment, 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 receiving equipment is running out of toner. No improvement has been seen in the inconvenience of use, in that when printing is not possible, the sending device is also unable to read and transmit images.

Specific examples of such problems in use are as follows. FIG. 2 is a timing chart illustrating the reception printing procedure of a conventional facsimile machine having an image memory. In the figure, when a [transmission request] is issued from the image sending side, the receiving side requests the [receiving function] in a communication control procedure. The contents specified in [Transmission request] are the encoding method, document size, transmission speed, etc. of the sending side, and the contents specified in [Receiving function] are the encoding method, recording paper size, etc. of the receiving side. , presence or absence of recording paper, etc. However, if the receiving printer lacks certain requirements essential for printing at the time of receiving the [transmission request], a receiving inoperable state is indicated as the [receiving function]. The absence of a certain requirement essential to printing is, for example, when the receiving printer is out of toner, print ribbon, or ink, or out of recording paper, or in a recording paper jam state. In this case, the sending device cannot send image data until the receiving printer becomes operational, so during that time the sending device is forced to wait for the receiving device to send data, or the sending device interrupts communication. I had the inconvenience of doing so.

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 was an inconvenience that the image data that had been painstakingly stored was not recorded for some reason and was lost.

[Objective] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, and its object is to print even when the printer of the receiving facsimile machine lacks certain conditions essential for printing. To provide a facsimile device which receives and stores image reading data from a transmitting device regardless of this, and which guarantees that the stored image data is reliably automatically reproduced and recorded.

Specifically, even if the printer of the receiving facsimile device is unable to print due to running out of toner, the image data from the sending device is received and stored regardless of this, and preferably the image data is received. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a facsimile device which guarantees the recording of stored image data by immediately disconnecting the sending device and automatically reproducing and recording the stored image data when toner is replenished.

[Embodiment] Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1A is a block diagram showing the configuration of the main receiving and printing path in a facsimile apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. still,
Although not shown, the apparatus of this embodiment may be a so-called facsimile transmission/reception apparatus that further includes a document image reading section and 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, 4 is a toner sensor that detects the presence or absence of toner in the printer unit 3, and 5 is a device. A power controller controls power supply and power supply timing to each part, and reference numeral 6 denotes an operation panel equipped with a power on/off switch for the main body of the apparatus and means for notifying various states.

Inside the control board 2, there is shown a functional block configuration for executing various functions. 21 is a receiving circuit that receives communication control messages and encoded image data from the transmitting side device; 22 is a transmitting circuit that transmits a response message to the transmitting side; 23 is an image memory that stores the received encoded image data; A decoder 25 that decodes encoded image data read out from the image memory 23 is a control unit that centrally controls the entire device. The control unit 25 has a built-in program.
It is mainly composed of a 1-chip CPU, including ROM, RAM necessary for control, PIO for control data input/output, etc. Further, the decoder 24 is a device that decodes and reproduces encoded image data compressed and transmitted using, for example, a run-length method, and simultaneously performs a decoding test.

The printer section 3 is an electrostatic recording type that forms an electrostatic latent image on a charging drum using the reproduced image signal from the decoder 24, develops it by applying toner to it, transfers it to plain paper, and then thermally fixes it. It is a thermal fixing printer. Of course, various other types of printers, such as ink type printers, ribbon type printers, etc., may be used. In general, a printer section is comprised of mechanical sections for paper feeding, toner or ink accumulation, printing, recording paper conveyance, paper ejection, etc., and normal printing cannot be performed if there is a problem with any of these mechanisms.

FIG. 1C is a block diagram showing a state in which conditions essential for printing for each mechanical section (not shown) constituting the printer section 3 are detected and collected.
In the figure, reference numeral 43 denotes a latch circuit, into which detection signals from various sensors for detecting states essential for the execution of functions of each mechanical section are input. For example, the toner-free detection signal is a detection signal from the toner sensor 4 that optically detects the presence or absence of toner between the issuing unit 41 and the light receiving unit 42 as shown in FIG. 1A,
This signal has a level of 1 when there is no toner. Similarly, the detection signals for recording paper out and recording paper jam are determined when there is no recording paper in the paper feed hopper and when recording paper is jammed in the transport mechanism, respectively.
These detection signals are once stored in the latch circuit 43 at the time of generation, and are read by the control section 25 via the line 44 at an appropriate time.

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, while the printer section 3 is not printing, power is not supplied to the printer section 3 except for necessary portions in order to save power.

The operation panel 6 is equipped with a power on/off switch PSW of the main body of the apparatus and means for notifying various states.
The notification means is, for example, an LED and a speaker that notify the operator visually or audibly when a certain condition described below occurs. The power on/off switch PSW is an operation switch for turning on and off the power to the entire device.

FIG. 1B is a circuit diagram of a configuration for controlling power on and off of the entire device, and is included in the power controller 5. In the figure, turn on the PSW
When set to the side, the level of line 61 becomes HIGH due to the pull-up resistor R, turning on the solid state relay SSR via the NOR gate, and connecting the AC input AC-I to the AC output AC-O. Also, when the PSW is set to the OFF side, the contact
The level of line 61 is LOW due to contact with GND
, the SSR is turned off via the NOR gate, and the connection between AC-I and AC-O is cut off. However, even in this case, the NOR gate output is kept at the LOW level while the control section 25 outputs the HIGH level via the line 252 due to a certain condition described later.
There is no interruption between AC-I and AC-O.

The operation of the above configuration will be explained below.
Note that the following description will be made regarding conditions without toner. The same applies to other cases.

FIG. 3 is a timing chart illustrating the reception print procedure of the apparatus of this embodiment. When a [transmission request] is issued from the image sending side, the receiving side of this embodiment immediately requests the [receiving function] without checking certain conditions essential for printing, or even if it does check. When the transmitting side receives the [receiving function], it sends out a [receiving command], and subsequently transmits [encoded image data]. When the control unit 25 receives the [reception command], it activates writing in the image memory 23 via the line 253, and starts writing the subsequently received encoded image data. The write is DMA
This is performed independently of the control section 25 using the following. After transmitting the [encoded image data], the transmitting side then transmits [end of transmission]. The control unit 25, which has received the message [END OF TRANSMISSION], checks the presence or absence of toner at this point.
If there is no toner, the decoder 24 and the printer unit 3 are not operated, and the sending side is notified that the encoded image data has been successfully received [reception confirmation].
to be sent back.

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 there is toner at the time of receiving the [transmission completion] message, a [reception confirmation] is sent back to the recycled recording paper in the same manner as in FIG. The above-mentioned difference in control depending on the presence or absence of toner will be clarified by the explanation of the flowchart described later.

Now, according to FIG. 3, the transmitting side that has received the [receipt confirmation] is released after transmitting [communication termination]. You are also free to make new communications with other facsimile devices. On the other hand, even after receiving the [Communication End] message, the receiving device waits until toner is replenished. Eventually, the toner is replenished and the printer section 3
When recording becomes possible, the control unit 25 switches the line 254
energizes the decoder 24 via line 255 and starts the printer section 3 via line 255. Decoder 24
reads 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.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the above-described received printing process performed by the control section 25.
In step S1, the process waits for a [transmission request] from the other party. When receiving [Send request], step S
Proceed to step 2 and send the [reception function] to the sending side. In step S3, a [reception command] from the sending side is waited for.
When the [reception command] is received, the process advances to step S4, and writing to the image memory 23 is activated. In step S5, the process waits for [end of transmission] from the transmitting side, for example, waits for the end of receiving encoded image data for one page. When receiving [Transmission End], the process advances to step S6, and writing to the image memory 23 is disabled. In step S7, it is determined whether or not there is toner. This determination is made by checking the detection signal from the toner sensor 4. When the determination is YES, it means that the presence of toner has been detected, and the printing operation can be performed immediately. The flow advances to step S8 to energize the decoder 24, and to start driving the printer section 3 in step S9. 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 one page worth of images is recorded on recording paper. During this interval, the decoder 24 also checks for decoding errors. The control unit 25 performs step S10.
is executed and waits for the series of recording operations described above to be completed. At the end of recording, it is also determined whether a decoding error has occurred. Normally, if the data is decoded without error and reproduced and recorded, the process ends normally, and the flow proceeds to step S11, where a [receipt confirmation] is sent. In step S12, the process waits for [end of communication] from the sending side. Upon receiving [Communication End], the process returns to step S1 and waits for the next [Transmission Request].

If no toner is detected in the determination at step S7 (NO), the printing operation is disabled and the flow advances to step S13. Such a situation may occur, for example, when the user is unaware of the toner-out condition that occurred when the previous received print was completed. However, the other device is not made to wait at all. In step S13, immediately [Confirm reception]
Send. Although it is not known at this point whether a decoding error will occur later, such processing is originally permissible due to the redundancy of the image signal. Further, even if a decoding error is detected later and an abnormality is recognized in the recorded image, a retransmission request can be made using other appropriate communication means (telephone, etc.). In step S14, it waits for [end of communication] from the sending side. After the sending device sends [Communication End], it is released. When the receiving side receives [Communication End], it proceeds to step S15 and restricts power off. That is, since the control unit 25 outputs a HIGH level to the line 252, even if the operator turns the PSW to the OFF side thereafter, it will be ignored within the power controller 5, and the power will not be turned off. In step S16, the notification means is energized. When the received image data cannot be recorded due to the lack of toner, it is necessary to notify the operator of this in some way.
Specifically, it makes a speaker sound or lights up an LED to that effect. In step S17, the process waits for toner to be replenished. When the toner is replenished, the process advances to step S18 and the decoder 24 is activated. In step S19, driving of the printer section 3 is started,
The end of recording is waited for in step S20. When the recording ends, the process advances to step S21 and the notification means is deactivated.
This is because the image memory 23 no longer holds important data to be recorded. In step S22, the power off restriction is canceled. The operator is already
If the PSW is set to OFF, the device will automatically power down. If not, the process 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, encoded image data is received regardless of whether or not the recording means is capable of recording at the start of reception. Encoded image data can be received without causing any problems.

In addition, after normally receiving one page of encoded image data, if the recording means is able to record, it records the image data, and if it is not recordable, it retains the received encoded image data in the image memory and transmits a response signal that has been normally received. Therefore, even if the recording means is unable to record after one page of encoded image data has been normally received, it is possible to notify the other party's transmitter that the data has been normally received.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1A is a block diagram showing the configuration of the main receiving and printing circuits of a facsimile apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1B is a block diagram showing the configuration of the main receiving and printing circuit in a facsimile apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. Figure 1C is a block diagram showing the state in which conditions essential for printing are detected and collected for each mechanical part that makes up the printer section, and Figure 2 is a diagram of a conventional facsimile machine with image memory. FIG. 3 is a timing chart illustrating the reception print procedure of the apparatus of this embodiment. FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating the reception print process performed by the control section. Here, 1... data communication line, 2... control board, 3... printer section, 4... toner sensor, 5... power controller, 6... operation panel, 21... receiving circuit, 22... transmitting circuit, 23... image memory, 24
. . . decoder, 25 . . . control unit.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. Communication means that performs data communication according to a predetermined communication control procedure; An image memory that stores received encoded image data; and a decoder that decodes the encoded image data read from the image memory. recording means for recording the image data decoded by the decoding means on recording paper; detection means for detecting whether or not the recording means is capable of recording; regardless of the output of the detection means, the encoded image After receiving the data and successfully receiving one page of encoded image data, based on the detection result of the detection means, if the recording means is recordable, the image data is recorded; if the recording means is not recordable, the image data is recorded; For example, a facsimile apparatus comprising a control means for holding received encoded image data in the image memory and transmitting a response signal indicating normal reception.