Patent Application
20140355040
The present invention relates to imaging technologies and, in particular, relates to a method for recording chip usage state information, a chip of imaging box and an imaging box.
With the development of imaging technologies, imaging devices such as copier, printer, facsimile machine, word processor etc are widely applied. An imaging device is provided with consumables such as an imaging box for convenience of replacement, where the imaging box is usually provided with a chip, which records information such as categories of recording materials stored in the imaging box, date of manufacture of the imaging box, number of imaging pages, remaining amount of recording materials etc. During the using process of the imaging box, the imaging device needs to update data in the chip of the imaging box continuously, so as to ensure that the chip always records the latest state of the imaging box. Therefore, the chip in the imaging box is especially important, if problems occur to the chip during the using process of the imaging box, then the whole imaging box will be unable to work. In order to guarantee the normal use of the imaging box, the chip is required to represent a high performance. The performance of the chip is significantly improved through improving manufacturing process of the chip and adopting new technologies etc, however, in practical applications, there will still be problems in some chips, which result in that the imaging box is unable to work.
In order to facilitate the manufacturer to find quality problems of the imaging box, an existing imaging box can record parameters such as temperature, moisture, number of pages printed, on-off times of the printer, whether the imaging box has been reinstalled or not, times of installation, application area, information of the manufacturer etc which relate to the imaging box, the manufacturer can find quality problems of the imaging box through collecting the information in the chip. However, the above state parameters can only represent the usage state of the imaging box, but the usage state of the chip itself is not recorded. If problems occur to the chip itself, the imaging box will be unable to work either. The above parameters recorded in the chip of the prior art cannot be used for fault analysis of the chip.
In order to overcome the above defects of the prior art, the present invention provides a method for recording chip usage state information, a chip of imaging box and an imaging box, which provides powerful information to find and solve the communication problems between the chip and the imaging device.
The present invention provides a method for recording chip usage state information, the chip includes a substrate, and an information storage unit and a control unit which are provided on the substrate, the information storage unit includes a write-prior area. The method for recording chip usage state information includes: when the chip receives a read/write operation command sent by an imaging device or when the control unit on the chip monitors a communication interference signal, the control unit on the chip updates a chip usage state parameter stored in the write-prior area, the chip usage state parameter is used for fault analysis of the chip.
The present invention further provides a chip of imaging box, the chip includes: a substrate, and an information storage unit and a control unit which are provided on the substrate, the information storage unit includes a write-prior area, the write-prior area is used for storing a chip usage state parameter, the control unit is configured to update the chip usage state parameter stored in the write-prior area when the chip receives a read/write operation command of an imaging device or receives a communication interference signal, the chip usage state parameter is used for fault analysis of the chip.
The present invention further provides an imaging box, which includes the chip of imaging box described above.
In the method for recording chip usage state information, the chip of imaging box and the imaging box provided by the present invention, the information storage unit of the chip is provided with a write-prior area, the chip usage state parameter recorded in the write-prior area can represent the usage state information of the chip itself, which provides powerful information to find and solve the communication problems between the chip and the imaging device, and thus is beneficial to find the reason of the faults occurred to the imaging box and the chip.
Step 101, the chip receives a read/write operation command sent by an imaging device, or the control unit on the chip monitors a communication interference signal;
Step 102, the control unit on the chip updates a chip usage state parameter stored in the write-prior area; the chip usage state parameter above is used for fault analysis of the chip.
After executing step 102, the control unit on the chip can further update data recorded in each storage area in the normal read-write area.
An imaging box is a component of an imaging device, where the imaging box is installed on the imaging device, and the chip of imaging box is installed on the imaging box.
As shown in
The chip of imaging box, the imaging box and the method for recording chip usage state information provided by this embodiment can represent the usage state information of the chip itself through the chip usage state parameter recorded in the write-prior area 11, moreover, when the chip receives a read/write operation command sent by the imaging device or the control unit 20 on the chip monitors a communication interference signal, the control unit 20 will firstly point to the address of the storage area 111, the write-prior area 11 is accessed, and the chip usage state parameter stored in the write-prior area 11 is updated, thus the function of the usage state information will not be affected no matter whether the operation of the imaging device on the chip is successful or not, which provides powerful information to find and solve the communication problems between the chip and the imaging device, and is beneficial to find the reason of the faults occurred to the chip.
On the basis of the embodiments shown in
one or more of the following parameters: a times-of-writes parameter, a normal communication parameter, a times-of-reads parameter, a times-of-communication-faults parameter and a times-of-communication-interference parameter.
Either working environment of the chip of imaging box, misoperation of the user, running out of read-write service life of the chip, or faults of the chip itself will lead to a fault of the chip. If a fault occurs to the chip of imaging box when the chip was used only for a few times, then the fault may possibly be caused by the performance problem of the chip itself; if the chip of imaging box has been read or written for many times, the reason of the fault may be that the chip is running out of normal service life.
When a fault occurs to the chip of imaging box, through reading the chip usage state parameter in the write-prior area of the information storage unit in the chip of imaging box and performing data analysis on the chip usage state parameter, it can be determined whether the fault occurred due to the performance problem of the chip itself or that the normal service life is running out, or the times of normal communication, times of communication faults and times of communication interference are obtained, further, by combining with data of usage state of the imaging box recorded in each storage area in the normal read-write area, it is beneficial to finding the reason which causes the fault of the chip of imaging box and the fault of the imaging box.
On the basis of the first embodiment of the present invention, in a second embodiment of the present invention, the chip usage state parameter includes a times of writes parameter.
Step 201, the chip receives a write command sent by the imaging device;
Step 202, the control unit on the chip accesses the write-prior area, and increases the times of writes parameter stored in the write-prior area by 1;
After executing step 202, the control unit on the chip can further update data recorded in each storage area in the normal read-write area.
As shown in
When a fault occurs to the chip of imaging box provided by the second embodiment, through reading the times of writes parameter in the write-prior area 21 of the information storage unit in the chip of imaging box, the times of writes of the chip can be determined, thus it can be determined whether the fault occurred due to the performance problem of the chip itself or that the normal service life is running out.
On the basis of the second embodiment of the present invention, the chip usage state parameter in a third embodiment of the present invention further include a normal communication parameter;
Step 303, the control unit on the chip determines whether the data written by the imaging device to the chip has been written into the information storage unit successfully or not, if yes, execute step 304, or else, the process ends;
Step 304, the control unit on the chip accesses the write-prior area, and increases the normal communication parameter stored in the write-prior area by 1.
If the imaging device sends a write command to the chip of imaging box provided by the third embodiment of the present invention, but the data is not written into the information storage unit 10 successfully, there will be a situation that the times of writes parameter stored in the storage area 310 of the write-prior area 31 is larger than the normal communication parameter stored in the storage area 311 of the write-prior area 31. Thus the times of communication faults occurred to the chip can be determined through reading the time of writes parameter stored in the storage area 310 and the normal communication parameter stored in the storage area 311 of the write-prior area 31 in the information storage unit of the chip, and it can be specifically determined that in which time of executing the write operation command did the fault occur to the chip. Of course, the normal communication parameter can also be recorded through the following operations: when the chip receives a write command sent by the imaging device, the control unit on the chip accesses the write-prior area, and increases the normal communication parameter stored in the write-prior area by 1; after the communication, the control unit on the chip determines whether the data written by the imaging device to the chip has been written into the information storage unit successfully or not, if not, then decreases the normal communication parameter by 1, if yes, then the process ends.
On the basis of the first embodiment of the present invention, in a fourth embodiment of the present invention, the chip usage state parameter includes a times of communication faults parameter.
Step 401, the chip receives a write command sent by the imaging device;
Step 402, the control unit on the chip accesses the write-prior area, and increases the times of communication faults parameter stored in the write-prior area by 1;
Step 403, the control unit on the chip determines whether the data written by the imaging device to the chip has been written into the information storage unit successfully or not, if yes, execute step 404, or else, the process ends;
Step 404, the control unit on the chip accesses the write-prior area, and decreases the times of communication faults parameter stored in the write-prior area by 1.
As shown in
If the imaging device sends a write command to the chip of imaging box provided by the fourth embodiment of the present invention, but the data written by the imaging device to the chip was not written into the information storage unit successfully, the imaging device will resend a write command. If the chip can write the data, which is sent by the imaging device to the chip, into the information storage unit successfully when the imaging device resends the write command, then the imaging box is enable to work, but the data of the times of communication faults parameter will be stored in the write-prior area 41, which can represent the unsuccessful times of writes of the data into the information storage unit; if the imaging device sends the write command for multiple times, but the chip still does not write the data, which is sent by the imaging device to the chip, into the information storage unit successfully, then the imaging box is unable to work, the data of the times of communication faults parameter will be stored in the write-prior area 41. In this way, whether a fault occurs to the chip of imaging box or not and the times of communication faults can be determined through reading the times of communication faults parameter stored in the storage area 411 of the write-prior area 41 in the information storage unit of the chip.
On the basis of the first embodiment of the present invention, the chip usage state parameter in a fifth embodiment of the present invention includes a times of reads parameter. The procedure of the method for recording chip usage state information and the data arrangement of the information storage unit of the chip of imaging box in this embodiment are substantially the same with those in the second embodiment, the difference therein is only to replace the write command sent by the imaging device with a read operation command sent by the imaging device, and replace the times of writes parameter with a times of reads parameter. When the chip receives the read/write operation command sent by the imaging device, the control unit on the chip updates the chip usage state parameter stored in the write-prior area, which includes:
when the chip receives a read command sent by the imaging device, the control unit on the chip accesses the write-prior area, and increases the times of reads parameter stored in the write-prior area by 1.
In the chip of imaging box in this embodiment, the control unit is specifically configured to access the write-prior area and increases the times of reads parameter stored in the write-prior area by 1 when the chip receives a read command sent by the imaging device.
When a fault occurs to the chip of imaging box provided by the fifth embodiment of the present invention, through reading the times of reads parameter in the write-prior area of the information storage unit in the chip of imaging box, the times of reads of the chip can be determined, thus it can be determined whether the fault occurred due to the performance problem of the chip itself or that the normal service life is running out.
On the basis of the first embodiment of the present invention, in a sixth embodiment of the present invention, the chip usage state parameter includes a times of communication interference parameter; in the method for recording chip usage state information, when the control unit on the chip monitors a communication interference signal, the control unit on the chip updates the chip usage state parameter stored in the write-prior area, which includes:
the control unit monitors the communication signal sent by the imaging device all the time, when the chip is in a non-read-write state, and when the control unit on the chip monitors a high pulse signal from the imaging device, the control unit accesses the write-prior area, and increases the times of communication interference parameter stored in the write-prior area by 1;
when the chip is in a read-write state, the control unit on the chip compares the voltage of the received communication signal with a preset voltage threshold, when the voltage of the communication signal exceeds the voltage threshold, accesses the write-prior area, and increases the times of communication interference parameter stored in the write-prior area by 1; preferably, the above voltage threshold can be set as 5V.
The chip of imaging box in this embodiment includes: the control unit is specifically configured to access the write-prior area and increase the times of communication interference parameter stored in the write-prior area by 1 when the chip is in a non-read-write state and monitors a high pulse signal from the imaging device; compare the voltage of the received communication signal with a preset voltage threshold when the chip is in a read-write state, and when the voltage of the communication signal exceeds the voltage threshold, access the write-prior area and increase the times of communication interference parameter stored in the write-prior area by 1.
When a fault occurs to the chip of imaging box provided by the sixth embodiment of the present invention, through reading the times of communication interference parameter stored in the write-prior area of the information storage unit in the chip of imaging box, the times of interference suffered by the chip during the communication process can be determined, which is beneficial to finding the reason of the faults occurred to the chip.
The present invention further provides an imaging box, which includes a chip of imaging box in any of the above embodiments, through reading the chip usage state parameter, which represents the usage state of the chip, in the write-prior area of the information storage unit in the chip of imaging box and/or reading the data of the usage state of the imaging box recorded in each storage area of the normal read-write area, the reason of the faults occurred to the imaging box and the chip of imaging box installed thereon can be found.
In addition, as for the prior art, the chip stores the information of remaining amount of recording materials, if the recording materials in the imaging box run out (i.e. the information of remaining amount of recording materials reaches a threshold), the chip will no longer work, and the imaging box will no longer work either even if the imaging box is refilled, which causes a waste and environment pollution. In order to solve the problem, there is a kind of reset chip in the prior art: a reset module is added on a disposable chip, the module presets a reset threshold (for example, the information of remaining amount of recording materials is 10%), when the information of remaining amount of recording materials stored in the chip reaches the threshold, the chip will reset automatically (for example, the information of remaining amount of recording materials is updated as 100%), and the chip after reset can represent a new imaging box. With respect to the reset chip, since the write-prior area and the normal read-write area are provided separately in all embodiments of the present invention, that is to say the information such as information of remaining amount of recording materials etc is stored in the normal read-write area, therefore, when the information of remaining amount of recording materials stored in the chip reaches the threshold, the data updated is the data in the normal read-write area, and the data of the chip usage state parameter which is recorded in the write-prior area and represents the chip usage state information will not lost due to reset of the chip.
In the method for recording chip usage state information, the chip of imaging box and the imaging box provided by the present invention, as a result of the arrangement of the write-prior area in the information storage unit of the chip of imaging box and the method that when the chip receives a read/write operation command sent by the imaging device or the control unit on the chip monitors a communication interference signal, the write-prior area will firstly be accessed and the chip usage state parameter are updated, in the chip of imaging box, the imaging box and the method for recording chip usage state information provided by these embodiments, the usage state information of the chip itself can be represented through the chip usage state parameter recorded in the write-prior area, moreover, since the write-prior area will firstly be accessed, the function of the usage state information will not be affected no matter whether the operation of the imaging device on the chip is successful or not, which provides powerful information to find and solve the communication problems between the chip and the imaging device. When a fault occurs to the chip of imaging box, through reading the chip usage state parameter in the write-prior area of the information storage unit in the chip of imaging box and performing data analysis on the chip usage state parameter, it can be determined whether the fault occurred due to the performance problem of the chip itself or that the normal service life is running out, or the times of normal communication, times of communication faults and times of communication interference are obtained, further, by combining with data of usage state of the imaging box recorded in each storage area in the normal read-write area, it is beneficial to finding the reason which causes the fault of the imaging box and the fault of the chip.
The imaging device according to the present invention can be a device having imaging functions such as printer, facsimile machine, copier, word processor, all-in-one machine etc, the imaging box can be an imaging component installed on the imaging device such as ink cartridge, toner cartridge etc, and the recording material can be ink, toner etc.
Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are merely provided for describing the technical solutions of the present invention, but not intended to limit the present invention. It should be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, modifications can be made to the technical solutions described in the foregoing embodiments, or equivalent replacements can be made to some of or all of the technical features in the technical solutions; but such modifications or replacements will not cause the essence of corresponding technical solutions to depart from the scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 201210209303.5 | Jun 2012 | CN | national |
This application is a continuation of International Application No. PCT/CN2013/075275, filed on May 7, 2013, which claims the priority benefit of Chinese Patent Application No. 201210209303.5, filed on Jun. 21, 2012, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | PCT/CN2013/075275 | May 2013 | US |
| Child | 14461313 | US |
