Patent Application
20050185213
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an erroneous interface cable connection detecting system and a method for detecting an erroneous interface cable connection between a printer controller section and a printer engine section of a printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional digital data transmission device including a printer, several systems for detecting an erroneous connection of interface cables are used in the case where devices are connected with each other by a plurality of interface cables. For example, as described in JP-A-2000-200654, the following system is used. A pair of color marks are displayed on both the interface cable and the device, so that the cable connection can be properly made and the color marks can be confirmed even after the connection has been completed, that is, whether or not the connecting work has been properly made can be easily inspected even after the connection has been completed. However, according to this system, since the inspection is visually made, the following problems are encountered. There is a possibility that the occurrence of an erroneous cable connection can not be detected in some cases. In the case where the device is operated under the condition that the cables are erroneously connected, the operation can not be conducted expectedly. In this case, the cause of the erroneous cable connection is investigated and it is found that the cables are erroneously connected. Therefore, it is impossible to immediately detect the erroneous cable connection. Another method is described in JP-A-2001-325116.
It is an object of the invention to certainly detect an erroneous interface cable connection by not a visual inspection but a simple structure.
In order to solve the above problems, first, a transmission demanding command for demanding a response signal for confirming a connection of each video interface cable is transmitted to the printer engine section from the printer controller section via the command interface. According to the transmission demanding command of the response signal for confirming the connection of each interface cable which has been received, the printer engine section transmits the response signal to the printer controller section via the video interface. The printer controller section compares the response signal with a previously expected signal so as to detect an erroneous video interface cable connection between the printer controller section and the printer engine section.
According to one aspect of the invention, it is possible to positively detect an erroneous interface cable connection between the printer controller section and the printer engine section of a printer by a simple structure.
An erroneous interface cable connection is positively detected by not a visual inspection but a simple structure, is realized without adding another line for detecting an erroneous cable connection between the devices.
Referring to the drawings, one embodiment of the present invention will be explained below.
In the example shown in
The printer controller section 1 conducts the connection confirmation of each video interface cable according to the following procedure. First, in the printer controller section 1, the command interface control section 2 designates the channel No. of the video interface, the connection of which is to be confirmed, and generates a connection confirmation demanding command. The thus generated command is sent to the printer engine section 14 via the command interface. When the command interface control section 15 of the printer engine section 14 receives the connection confirmation demanding command, it judges the channel, the connection confirmation of the video interface cable of which is demanded. Then, the command interface control section 15 of the printer engine section 14 gives a direction of generating and transmitting a response signal to the video interface control section of the demanded channel. The video interface control section of the demanded channel generates a response signal and transmits it to the printer controller section 1 via the video interface cable. After the command interface control section 2 of the printer controller section 1 has generated the connection confirmation demanding command, it designates that a response signal is previously expected to the channel response signal comparing section of the channel, the connection confirmation of which is demanded. The designated response signal comparing section makes comparison with the response signal which has been transmitted from the printer engine section 14. In the case where the cables are properly connected to each other (For example, the channels 1 are properly connected to each other in
As described above, according one embodiment of the invention, the erroneous interface cable connection can be positively detected by not the visual inspection but the simple structure.
In the same manner as the connection between the printer controller and the printer engine, the embodiment of the invention can be applied to an erroneous interface cable connection detecting system to detect a connection between the digital data transmission devices which are connected to each other by a plurality of interface cables.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| P2004-044249 | Feb 2004 | JP | national |
