JPH09139784A - Management system for image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To download image data from a management equipment to an image forming device by using an image memory used for storing image data for the image forming device. SOLUTION: In the case of downloading a program from a management equipment to an image forming device, the program is once stored in an image memory 106 which is used to write image data. Then the downloaded program is transferred to a ROM 104 in which other program in operation is stored. The series of control is conducted by a system controller 120. Furthermore, the system controller 120 inhibits the image forming using the image memory 106 when the image memory 106 is used to store the program or forms an image by using remaining areas not used for storing the program conversely.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus management system for managing one or a plurality of image forming apparatuses (printers, digital copying machines, facsimiles, etc.) by a management apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A copying machine and a management apparatus (host) are connected via a communication line so that the copying machine stores data corresponding to management items and sends it to the host side or receives data from the host side. An image forming apparatus management system configured as described above has been proposed (for example, JP-A-3-226768, JP-A-6-105032, etc.).

Conventionally, when a program of an image forming apparatus is added or a version is upgraded, a memory element storing the program is replaced (hardware is replaced).
By using the function of this management system to send the program from the management apparatus to the rewritable storage means of the image forming apparatus, the program can be added or the version can be upgraded, and the efficiency of maintenance work is improved. .

[0004]

However, the conventional image forming apparatus management system has the following problems. (1) When the loaded program is overwritten directly on the running program (the communication program is not rewritten), if the copy operation is performed during rewriting, the program may run out of control. Therefore, stop the copy operation and load the program. Need to Moreover, since the program is read again when the transmission fails, it takes time and the copy operation stop time becomes long.

(2) A method of loading a program in a memory other than the memory in which the currently running program exists, and then transferring the program to the memory in which the currently running program exists (the communication program is not rewritten) Then, a memory for loading the program must be newly provided in addition to the existing memory, and the storage capacity of the program is required to be twice as large as usual, leading to an increase in system cost.

Further, in recent years, various functions such as an increase in copy speed have been added to a digital copying machine by preparing a memory dedicated to an image (hereinafter referred to as an image memory) and accumulating image data. However, the point that the basic copy function can be used without using the image memory is overlooked, and since the image memory is only used for storing image data, it is necessary to use the memory effectively. There was room for improvement.

The present invention has been made based on such a background, and an object of the present invention is to utilize an image memory used for storing image data of an image forming apparatus so that the management apparatus can change the image forming apparatus. It is to provide an image forming apparatus management system that can be downloaded to.

[0008]

An image forming apparatus management system according to claim 1 is an image forming apparatus management system in which an image forming apparatus and a management apparatus are connected via a communication line. A communication unit for communicating with the management device, a first storage unit for storing the obtained image data, a rewritable second storage unit for storing a program, and the management by the communication unit. A writing means for writing the program sent from the apparatus into the first storage means, and a control means for transferring the program written in the first storage means to the second storage means are provided.

An image forming apparatus management system according to a second aspect is the image forming apparatus management system according to the first aspect, wherein the control means programs the first storage means from the management apparatus through the communication means. When it is used for storing, the control for prohibiting the image forming operation of the image forming apparatus using the first storage means is performed.

An image forming apparatus management system according to a third aspect of the present invention is the image forming apparatus management system according to the first aspect, wherein the control means is a part of the first storage means from the management apparatus via the communication means. When performing an image forming operation using the first storage means while using a memory for storing a program, an image is formed using the remaining portion of the first storage means that is not used for storing the program. It is characterized in that the operation control is performed.

An image forming apparatus management system according to a fourth aspect is the image forming apparatus management system according to the second aspect, wherein whether the image forming apparatus can perform an image forming operation using the first storage means is used. It is characterized in that a notification means for notifying the person is provided.

An image forming apparatus management system according to a fifth aspect of the present invention is the image forming apparatus management system according to the third aspect, wherein the control means stores the program in the first storage means when the storage capacity exceeds a certain value. When used for storage, control is performed to prohibit operations related to image formation using the first storage means, and the user is asked whether the image forming operation using the first storage means is possible by the image forming apparatus. It is characterized in that a notifying means for notifying is provided.

An image forming apparatus management system according to a sixth aspect of the present invention is the image forming apparatus management system according to the fifth aspect, wherein the control means prohibits operations related to image formation using the first storage means. It is characterized in that the predetermined value for determining whether or not to change is changed, and control is performed to set prohibition of image formation using the first storage means and prohibition of program download using the first storage means.

[0014]

According to the present invention, when a program is downloaded from a management device to an image forming apparatus, it is temporarily written in an image memory (first storage means) for writing image data. After that, the downloaded program is transferred to the ROM (second storage means) where the running program is located. These series of controls are performed by the system controller (control means).

Further, this system controller prohibits the image forming operation using the image memory when the image memory is used for storing the program, and conversely uses the remaining portion not used for storing the program. Control the image formation.

A detailed description will be given below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of an image forming apparatus management system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 1, in this system, one or a plurality of copying machines 100 installed at each user site includes a communication control unit 200 for each user site.
Each of the communication control units 200 is connected to the center management device 400 and the exchange 301 and the telephone line 3 are connected.
Connected online via 02.

The copying machine 100 includes a CPU 101, a communication interface 102, and an AC power supply control unit 1.
03. The communication control unit 200 is connected to the telephone 206.

With such a configuration, in the download for transmitting the data from the management device 400 to the copying machine 100, after the line is established, the management device 400 controls the communication control unit 200 by the copying machine identification code, the control code and the control. Send data. When the received control code is its own, the communication control unit 200 operates based on the received data. On the other hand, when the control code is for the copying machine 100, the communication control unit 200 uses the copying machine identification code. The control code and control data are transmitted to the corresponding copying machine 100. The copying machine 100 operates based on a control code and control data.

FIG. 2 shows the communication control unit 2 of FIG.
It is a block diagram of 00. The control of this unit 200 is performed mainly by the CPU 201. A program and data for controlling the CPU 201 are stored in the ROM 202 in advance,
The RAM 203 is used to store intermediate results and the like. The unit 200 also includes a modem 204 and each copier 100 for sending and receiving data over the telephone line 302.
It has a plurality of interface circuits 205 for sending and receiving data to and from
Can be connected.

In such a configuration, the unit 200
Collects the data of the copying machine 100, transmits it to the management apparatus 400 of the center via the exchange 301 and the telephone line 302, and sends the control code and the data from the management apparatus 400 to the copying machine 100.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the management device 400 of FIG. The management device 400 includes a host computer 401 for executing various processes, a memory 402 for storing management data, a modem 403 for transmitting data between the copying machine 100 and a telephone line 302, and a display. Display 404, keyboard 405, printer 4
06, a telephone 407, and the like.

FIG. 4 is an internal block diagram of the copying machine. Device main body (image forming unit; image forming device in a narrow sense used hereafter) 1
The image reading device 2 and the document feeding device (AD
F) 3 is placed, and a paper feeding unit 4 is provided at the bottom of the apparatus main body 1. A manual paper feed tray 5 is provided on one side of the apparatus main body 1, and a paper discharge tray 6 is provided on the other side so as to be opened and closed. Further, as is well known, an optical writing unit including a laser diode 7, a polygon mirror 8, a writing mirror 9 and the like is used to perform optical writing on the photoconductor 10. It also has a display unit 11. The document feeder 3 has a document table 12.
The paper feeding unit 4 includes two paper feeding cassettes 13 and 14. In the figure, arrows indicate the optical path and the flow of paper.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the hardware structure of the copying machine. Here, the system hardware configuration is freely configured, and various configurations are conceivable, so the description will be made only on the points related to the present invention. A control program for the CPU 101 is stored in the ROM 104 in advance.
A non-volatile memory 04 is a rewritable memory. The communication interface 102 transmits the data of the copying machine to the communication control unit 200 as shown in FIGS.
Used to receive control codes and control data from.

The memory unit 105 includes therein a memory for image data (referred to as an image memory 106). The image memory 106 has a configuration as shown in FIG. 7. Image data is written from the image processing unit 107 to the memory via the video bus 108, and a program to be downloaded is written to the memory via the CPU bus 109.

The image data is the image forming bus 110 in FIG.
Through each unit. The image buffer controller 111 writes the data in the memory, and allocates the memory to the data. Also,
The CPU bus 109 includes a RAM 112, an operation unit 113,
The image forming apparatus 114 (apparatus main body 1 in FIG. 4) and the image reading apparatus 115 (document reading apparatus 2 in FIG. 4) are connected.

A copy application (abbreviated as copy application) 116 is connected via the operation unit 113 and the operation unit control bus. The copy application 116
It is used to extend the functions to, for example, a scanner and a file system in addition to a facsimile and a printer. The copy application 116 is also connected to the system controller 120 including each unit described above by a control signal line.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the system software configuration of the copying machine. This system includes a copy application 116 that controls image formation, an application layer 122 that includes a communication system application 121 that processes data transmitted from the management apparatus 400, a system controller 120, an operation unit controller 123, a memory unit controller 124, and Image forming apparatus controller 12
5. A system control layer 127 having an image reading device controller 126 and a device control layer 129 having an input / output control unit 128.

In the case of a digital copying machine, the copy application 116 is constructed by constructing a multi-task type system.
In addition to the communication system application 121, various applications can be installed. However, resource arbitration between applications not related to the present invention will not be described in particular.

In order to construct a multi-task type system, it is necessary to handle functional units as resources and to manage one resource by sharing it with a plurality of applications.
The system control layer 127 manages this. In this system control layer 127, the system controller 120
Is each controller 123-126, each application 116, 1
We undertake all input and output of 21 information. The device control layer 129 performs conversion for driving and inputting mechanical input / output such as clutches, sensors, and motors in order to actually move the device from logical instructions such as commands and control signals from the system control layer 127. There is.

Specific control contents will be described below. FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the first control content. When copying using the image memory 106 (see FIG. 5), the image data read from the image reading device 115 is written and held in the image memory 106 in the memory unit 105 through the image forming signal bus 110. When the program is downloaded from the management device 400 to the copying machine 100, the image memory 106 is used as a temporary holding place when the program is downloaded. That is, data is transmitted from the management device 400 via the communication interface 102 (S1), and the CPU bus 1
The program is downloaded to the image memory 106 through 09 (S2). After that, the downloaded program is stored in the ROM 104 where the running program is stored in the CPU.
The data is transferred through the bus 109 (S3).

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the second control content. If there is a copy request from the copy application 116 to the system controller 120 to use the image memory 106 (y in S11), the system controller 120
Monitors whether the image memory 106 is being used for downloading the program (S12),
Copy application 1 when 6 is used for downloading
16 is notified of copy prohibition using the image memory 106 (S13). This makes it possible to prohibit copying using the image memory 106 when the image memory 106 is being used for downloading. After that, when the downloaded program has been transferred from the image memory 106 to the ROM 104 (y in S14), the system controller 120 instructs the copy application 116 to store the image memory 1
The copy permission using 06 is notified (S15). When the image memory 106 is not used for downloading (n in S12), the copy application 116 is notified of permission of copying using the image memory 106 (S1).
5).

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the third control content. If there is a copy request from the copy application 116 to the system controller 120 to use the image memory 106 (y in S21), the system controller 12
0 monitors whether the image memory 106 is being used for downloading the program (S22), and the image memory 1
When 06 is used for downloading, the memory unit controller 124 is instructed to take in the image data from the empty area of the image memory 106 (S2
3) The copy application 116 is permitted to copy using the image memory 106 (S24). Image memory 10
When 6 is not used for download, it is similar to the above.

FIG. 11 is a flow chart showing the fourth control content. In steps S31 to S33, S11 to S11 in FIG.
The same process as S13 is performed. Next, copy application 11
6 to the operation unit controller 123, the image memory 106
The display request of the copy prohibition message using is notified (S34) and displayed on the screen of the operation unit 113.

FIG. 12 is a view showing the operation unit display screen in the image memory use copy disabled state. Message display section 13
1, magnification setting display unit 132, paper feed port information display unit 133,
Image memory message display section 134 and reduction key 13
5, enlargement key 136, paper selection key 137, same size key 1
38 is shown. As shown in this figure, step S
In accordance with the processing of 34, the image memory message display section 134
Is displayed as "Memory copy not possible". Next, in steps S35 and S36, the same processing as steps S14 and S15 of FIG. 9 is performed. Then, the copy application 116 notifies the operation unit controller 123 of a display request for a copy permission message using the image memory 106, and displays it on the screen of the operation unit 113. FIG. 13 shows the above display screen. When the image memory 106 is not used for downloading (n in S32), the process proceeds to step S36 and the above-described operation is performed.

FIG. 14 is a flow chart showing the fifth control content. In steps S41 and S42, the same processing as steps S31 and 32 in FIG. 11 is executed. Then, it is monitored whether or not the downloaded data capacity exceeds a certain fixed value (S43), and if it exceeds the certain value, in steps S44 to S48, step S33 of FIG.
~ The same processing as S37 is executed.

FIG. 15 is a flow chart showing the sixth control content. In steps S51 and S52, the same processing as steps S41 and S42 of FIG. 14 is executed. Then, in step S58 and the subsequent steps, the same processing as in step S43 and the subsequent steps in FIG. 14 is executed, but in this example, when the constant value is 100% or 0%, the following processing is executed. That is, when the constant value is 100% (y in S53), copying using the image memory 106 is prohibited (S55), and that effect is displayed on the display screen as shown in FIG. 13 (S56). If the fixed value is 0% (y in S54), the download is prohibited (S57).

FIG. 16 is a view showing the operation unit display screen in the image memory use ratio setting mode at the time of downloading. The image memory usage ratio display section 139 displays 0%, 40%, ...
100% is displayed. Also, the cancel key 140, the left shift key 141, the right shift key 142, and the enter key 14
3 is displayed. The keys 141 and 142 allow the user to set the ratio. Its value is non-volatile RA
Record in M.

[0038]

According to the invention described in claim 1, since the image memory can be used also as a program loading memory, a memory dedicated to download becomes unnecessary,
The cost of memory can be reduced.

According to the second aspect of the invention, by prohibiting copying using the image memory during downloading,
The program in the image memory can be loaded without destroying it.

According to the third aspect of the invention, after the program is loaded into the image memory, the area other than the loaded program area is used to perform copying using the image memory, thereby holding the program in the image memory. Even when it is, the copy operation using the image memory is possible.

According to the fourth aspect of the invention, when the copying using the image memory is prohibited during the program downloading, the fact is displayed on the screen, so that the user can take an appropriate measure.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, when the program capacity downloaded to the image memory exceeds a certain value, the copying using the image memory is prohibited, so that the copying function using the image memory is It is possible to prevent a decrease in operation.

According to the invention described in claim 6, in addition to the above effect, by changing the constant value, the setting according to the usage of the user (prohibition of copying using image memory, use of image memory) (Including selection of prohibition of download).

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of an image forming apparatus management system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2 is a block diagram of the communication control unit of FIG.

3 is a block diagram of the management device in FIG. 1. FIG.

FIG. 4 is an internal configuration diagram of a copying machine.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of a copying machine.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a system software configuration of a copying machine.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram of an image memory.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a first control content.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a second control content.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a third control content.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing a fourth control content.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an operation unit display screen in a state in which image memory use cannot be copied.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an operation unit display screen in a state where image memory use copy is possible.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing fifth control contents.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing sixth control contents.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing an operation unit display screen in an image memory usage ratio setting mode during download.

[Explanation of symbols]

 104 ROM 106 image memory 120 system controller

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An image forming apparatus management system in which an image forming apparatus and a management apparatus are connected via a communication line, wherein the image forming apparatus communicates with the management apparatus, and the obtained image. First for storing data
Storage means, rewritable second storage means for storing the program, writing means for writing the program sent from the management device by the communication means to the first storage means, and the first storage means An image forming apparatus management system comprising: a control unit that transfers the program written in the second storage unit to the second storage unit. 2. The image forming apparatus management system according to claim 1, wherein when the control unit uses the first storage unit to store a program from the management device via the communication unit, the first storage unit An image forming apparatus management system, wherein control is performed to prohibit an image forming operation of the image forming apparatus using a storage unit. 3. The image forming apparatus management system according to claim 1, wherein the control unit uses a part of the first storage unit for storing a program from the management unit via the communication unit. When performing an image forming operation using the first storage means, an operation control relating to image formation is performed using the remaining portion of the first storage means that is not used for storing the program. Forming equipment management system. 4. The image forming apparatus management system according to claim 2, further comprising notifying means for notifying a user whether the image forming apparatus can perform an image forming operation using the first storage means. A characteristic image forming apparatus management system. 5. The image forming apparatus management system according to claim 3, wherein when the control unit uses the first storage unit to store a program exceeding a certain fixed value of storage capacity, the first storage unit. And a notification unit for notifying the user whether the image forming apparatus can perform the image forming operation using the first storage unit. Image forming apparatus management system. 6. The image forming apparatus management system according to claim 5, wherein the control unit changes the constant value for determining whether or not an operation related to image formation using the first storage unit is prohibited, An image forming apparatus management system, wherein control is performed to set prohibition of image formation using the first storage means and prohibition of program download using the first storage means.