Image forming apparatus, method for controlling image forming
Contents
1. US 2013 0194629 Al Aug 1 2013 Sheet 11 of 12 Patent Application Publication Sp uolld0 Beit Dog Jequnu B180 uns oan Jewo EE eee a 6 91d Patent Application Publication Aug 1 2013 Sheet 12 of 12 US 2013 0194629 A1 Beo 4 a START i lt s906 a ANY s lt lt CORRESPONDING ITEM NO k PRESENT 2 ee E Fa a a E gt Pen lt OPRTFON EFFECTIVE 2 gs 5010 cae DISPLAY ERROR INFORMATION US 2013 0194629 Al IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS METHOD FOR CONTROLLING IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND STORAGE MEDIUM FOR PERFORMING MAINTENANCE ON AN IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 0001 1 Field of the Invention 0002 The present invention relates to maintenance of an image forming apparatus 0003 2 Description of the Related Art 0004 To stably operate an image forming apparatus a maintenance engineer periodically visits a customer destina tion to do maintenance In the case the maintenance engineer confirms a value of a counter for measuring the number of times of operation and various types of information of a sensor installed in the image forming apparatus using an interface for service maintenance The maintenance engineer determines an internal state of the image forming apparatus and deteriorated states of components based on the confirmed information and sets a most suitable adjustment value and executes an adjustment operati2. 1 2013 Sheet 7 of 12 US 2013 0194629 A1 PIO Ae start e INPUT CODE i EXTRACT FORMAT 602 An o a Een gt Ca p as w lt L CHECKSUM CORRECT bun i sue NG pa Tara 0 a Ge N x lt CORRESPONDING ITEM gt gt S608 ee e DISPLAY ERROR INFORMATION Aug 1 2013 Sheet 8 of 12 US 2013 0194629 Al Patent Application Publication SEG g 8414 OL STIG 0 SEG OF 3 6 Of S I Bain gt E e E KE E Binakta nga a a s S d Old 9319 g stig Li suid II Sq 11 IJE ag ou GL 7 eu G i Aug 1 2013 Sheet 9 of 12 US 2013 0194629 Al Patent Application Publication 8714 8 Bui 9 5419 8 8114 8 Si g ag 8414 h Le y d i i EE d 8114 6 Nede ems r H c lt Dd ke Kee ett EE EE ay A Ol ve AE sig 2 STEE oS Patent Application Publication Aug 1 2013 Sheet 10 of 12 US 2013 0194629 A1 PIGS CODE NUMBER CODES 3 bits SE EE oo 2 gt COP TERDADJUSTDOPT ON P TRP TBL C2 gt COP TERS ADJUS DOP T LONS TMPT BL ST SFEEDERDOPT ON gt FEEDSNS OSENSPWR Lenners TEM EXAMPLE awe CODE 9 bits ITEM GEES EE 1 511th CODE 10 bits ITEM 1000000000 lt 2 gt GOP ERD ADJUS DDENSVOONT2 CODE 11 bits IEN 1024 10000000000 lt 3 gt C0P I ER gt D I SPLAYVERS ION gt ABCI os _ lt O gt FEEDERDD LSPLAYVERS LONDOPTROW
3. FIG 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing for an image forming apparatus 110 according to the second exemplary embodiment to display an item screen for a maintenance mode based on an input code Each of the steps in the flowchart is implemented when the CPU 1 in the image forming apparatus 110 reads out and executes a pro gram that is computer readably recorded in the program ROM 3 0073 Steps S901 to 906 illustrated in FIG 10 are the same as steps S601 to 606 illustrated in FIG 6 in the first exemplary embodiment and hence description thereof is not repeated In step S907 the CPU 1 acquires OPTION FLAG 91 and OPTION DATA 92 from the code that has been acquired in step S901 Then in step 908 the CPU 1 deter mines whether an option is effective If OPTION FLAG 91 is 00 a value of OPTION DATA 92 indicates a model code of the image forming apparatus 110 Therefore the CPU 1 determines whether the option is effective depending on whether the value of OPTION DATA 92 matches the model code of the image forming apparatus 110 The model code the model information of the image forming apparatus 110 is stored in a model information storage unit a storage area in the program ROM 3 0074 Ifthe value of OPTION DATA 92 does not match the model code of the image forming apparatus 110 the CPU 1 determines that the option is not effective i e the acquired code is not effective NO in step 908 and t
4. CPU 1 performs control to accept input of the adjustment value for the item from the control key 21 When detecting that the adjustment value for the item has been input from the control key 21 and an OK button 52 has been touched the CPU 1 performs control to set the input adjustment value to the item 0064 With the foregoing processing in the service main tenance provided to the image forming apparatus 110 the interface having items required to cope with the newest case collected therein may be dynamically constructed and pro vided even for the plurality of items that have been distributed in a deep layer structure Thus man hours required for the serviceman to access the required items may be significantly reduced 0065 Even if the newest information is updated for the service maintenance an interface on which the newest infor mation has been reflected may be provided by only inputting a simple code like in the code input portion 51 illustrated in FIG 5 without installing a new program on the image form ing apparatus 110 or updating the current program Thus the service maintenance can be done without depending on the environment e g the network policy at an installation des tination of the image forming apparatus 110 0066 Further it may be checked whether the user has input the code in error by including the checksum bit 73 in the code 0067 The interface for accessing each of the items for service maintenance
5. a certain malfunction or a case required to be adjusted the mainte nance engineer at the site examines the manual and the web site to obtain information about the coping method For example a database of cases indicating the coping method is operated in the website so that the maintenance engineer can input and examine the case required to be adjusted 0041 The coping method includes a method for checking the current state of an image forming apparatus based on a sensor value to change an adjustment value according to the sensor value More specifically a voltage value of a specific component or a table of a potential map for each temperature is changed based on a temperature and a humidity inside the image forming apparatus In the manual and the website an instruction to confirm the items and change their setting is placed 0042 FIG 5 illustrates an example of display of a screen for service maintenance according to the present exemplary embodiment FIG 5 illustrates an example in which items for performing information display and adjustment value setting required to cope with a specific malfunction respectively belong to entirely different nodes in the tree structure For example information display and adjustment value setting may be required for an item SENSOR_1 belonging to the display level 2 gt the second layer FEEDER gt the third layer OPTION gt the fourth layer SENSOR an item TMPTBL1
6. and an adjustment value and a state of a switch for an operation change can be displayed and their setting values can be changed 0034 As illustrated in FIG 4 out of the layers in the tree structure the highest layer a first layer is classified as the display level The display level indicates the levels of layers and items below the first layer in the tree structure The levels include a level used only for confirmation during normal maintenance work a level used when setting is changed dur ing normal maintenance work and a level used only in a significantly special case 0035 The second layer is classified by parts the controller block 100 the printing unit 12 the scanning unit 11 and a feeder etc of the image forming apparatus 110 The third layer is classified by functions of the parts in the second layer For example the third layer below the second layer the printing unit 12 is classified by a function of switching opera tion modes an adjusting function and component levels a fixing unit a feeding unit and an image forming unit in the part The fourth layer changes depending on the meaning of the third layer above the fourth layer The layer below the fourth layer is the final layer in the tree structure and indicates individual items 0036 FIG 3A illustrates an example of display in a half way stage before the tree is followed up to the item In the example LEVEL2 31 FEEDER 32
7. belonging to the display level 1 gt the second layer COPIER gt the third layer ADJUST gt the fourth layer OPTION an item TMPTBL2 belonging to the display level 2 gt the second layer COPIER gt the third layer ADJUST gt the fourth layer OPTION and an item SENSPWR belonging to the display level 1 gt the second layer FEEDER gt the third layer OPTION gt the fourth layer FEEDSNS 0043 Thus information display and adjustment value set ting for the four items respectively belonging to the entirely different nodes in the tree structure may be required to cope with a specific malfunction In interfaces for service mainte nance as illustrated in FIGS 3A and 3B the user needs to frequency access required items by following the menu hav ing the tree structure for each of the required items which is significantly inconvenient because it takes a lot of time and labor to perform an operation and work for comparing dis played values cannot be performed 0044 Ifinterfaces for performing information display and adjustment value setting for a plurality of items required to cope with the above described malfunction can be displayed on the same screen therefore the above described problem can be solved For example an interface as illustrated in FIG 5 is used so that values ofa plurality of items required to cope with the malfunction may be compared and confirmed li
8. error 0058 If it is determined that the checksum is not correct NO in step S603 the CPU 1 determines that the code which has been acquired in step S601 is not effective but is in error NG and the processing proceeds to step S608 In step S608 the CPU 1 displays error information error information indi cating that there is an error in the input code on the display unit 20 in the operation unit 9 and the processing proceeds to step 601 In step S601 the CPU 1 waits until a code is input again 0059 On the other hand if it is determined that the check sum is correct YES in step S603 the CPU 1 determines that the code which has been acquired in step S601 is effective OK Then the processing proceeds to step S604 0060 In step S604 the CPU 1 acquires the number of data from the data number bit 72 in the code that has been acquired in step S601 and extracts code numbers corresponding to the number of data from the data portion 74 to the data portion 77 in the code As described above the data portions 74 to 77 differ in bit size depending on the format bit 71 so that the code numbers assigned to the items corresponding to the number of data indicated by the data number bit 72 can be extracted from the data portions 74 to 77 in the bit size 0061 Then in step S605 the CPU 1 extracts each of the items from the code numbers assigned to the items that have been extracted in step S604 using the code table FIG 8 stor
9. reads out and executes a program that is computer readably recorded in the program ROM 3 Aug 1 2013 0056 In step S601 when the maintenance engineer touches the code input portion 51 the CPU 1 first accepts input of a code from a numeric keypad of the control key 21 Then when the maintenance engineer inputs the code with the numeric keypad the CPU 1 detects the input to acquire the code input from the numeric keypad In the present exemplary embodiment the code includes a decimal number that can be input from the numeric keypad However the code is not limited to only a number A character string which can be input using a soft keyboard and a USB connected hard key board may also be used 0057 Then instep S602 the CPU 1 acquires the format bit 71 from the code that has been acquired in step S601 Then in step S603 the CPU 1 acquires the checksum bit 73 from the code that has been acquired in step S601 and determines whether a checksum of the numbers of bits assigned to the respective data portions 74 to 77 is correct In a method for determining the checksum the checksum is adjusted so that ones digit is even when the code excluding the format bit 71 and the data number bit 72 is indicated in bit notation for example to check whether the code has been input in error The checksum may be adjusted so that ones digit is even when the input code is directly indicated in bit notation to check whether the code has been input in
10. the respective items having relatively high frequencies of use When only the item having the highest frequency of use is included in the code for coping with a specific malfunction input from the code input portion 51 therefore all the data portions 74 75 76 and 77 may be eight bits in length as illustrated in FIG 7A so that the entire bit size of the code may be reduced 0054 As illustrated in FIG 8 the items are assigned in use frequency order in a step by step manner When a code is generated a format is determined to match the item assigned the maximum number of bits out of the plurality of items included in the code If only items having high frequencies of use are included in the code therefore the number of digits of the code may fall within 11 or less The number of digits of the code is not limited to 11 or less and can be changed in design depending on the number of items for service maintenance provided in the image forming apparatus 110 0055 Logic of the image forming apparatus 110 accord ing to the first exemplary embodiment to analyze an input code and display the screen 50 will be described below with reference to a flowchart illustrated in FIG 6 FIG 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing for the image forming apparatus 110 to display an item screen for a main tenance mode based on the input code Each of steps in the flowchart is implemented when the CPU 1 in the image form ing apparatus 110
11. which have been conventionally pro vided as illustrated in FIGS 3A and 3B is categorized by each feature of the item and is not suitable for efficient work because the items required to cope with the case are scattered The program for the image forming apparatus 110 may be corrected and coped with by providing a dedicated screen To reflect the newest maintenance information however the image forming apparatus 110 may be difficult in operation to update the program every time the maintenance information is reflected However in the above mentioned configuration the screen having items required to cope with the newest case collected therein e g the screen 50 illustrated in FIG 5 may be dynamically generated and provided by code input e g the code input portion 51 illustrated in FIG 5 without updat ing the program for the image forming apparatus 110 There fore the above described problem may be solved 0068 A second exemplary embodiment will be described below In the above described first exemplary embodiment a configuration in which a code includes information about an item included in the code and checksum information for ensuring the certainty of a code number has been described In the second exemplary embodiment additional information for confirming whether an image forming apparatus to which acode has been input is a target model of the code is added to the code as determination information for determining whether th
12. ETWORK p10 SCANNING eem d SCANNING UNIT 11 3d PROGRAM ROM e UNIT 1 F val COUNTER PRINTING UNIT 12 Bos EXTERNAL E gt HENORY EXTERNAL MEMORY USB Aug 1 2013 Sheet 1 of 12 US 2013 0194629 Al Patent Application Publication pad ESM AO WNYSLXS z4 LINN DNI INE Gd ii LENA DNENNYIS OL 3 1 ANN EHS 3 1 LINI ONIN I Hd 3 1 LINN ON ENRYOS 3 1 LEE EE weus Lot WOU MN Tla Patent Application Publication Aug 1 2013 Sheet 2 of 12 US 2013 0194629 A1 E 2 ST START STOP i i EE i Pati N 3 i H i i Patent Application Publication Aug 1 2013 Sheet 3 of 12 US 2013 0194629 A1 20 MENUS VENU Patent Application Publication Aug 1 2013 Sheet 4 of 12 US 2013 0194629 A1 PIG 35 lt LEVEL2 gt SENSOR 1 00 80 C SENSOR 2 20V 40V SENSOR 3 SA 12V SENSOR 4 12mg 35mg SENSOR 5 SmV LOM SENSOR 6 1240 SENSOR 7 09 SENSOR 8 1 3 Patent Application Publication Aug 1 2013 Sheet 5 of 12 US 2013 0194629 A1 FIG 4 DISPLAY SECOND THIRD FOURTH LEVEL LAYER LAYER LAYER Patent Application Publication Aug 1 2013 Sheet 6 of 12 US 2013 0194629 A1 FIG 5 SOFEEDER OPT i ORDSENSOR gt SENSOR 1 20 C J SESCOPHERDADJUS TOFT HON TNPTBLI amp 22GOPIER2ADOUST gt OPTION UU TMPTBL2 CIpFEEDER2 gt GPTIONPFEEDSNS SENSPWR Patent Application Publication Aug
13. US 20130194629A1 as United States a2 Patent Application Publication ao Pub No US 2013 0194629 A1 Kojima 43 Pub Date Aug 1 2013 54 IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS METHOD Publication Classification FOR CONTROLLING IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND STORAGE MEDIUM FOR 51 Int Cl PERFORMING MAINTENANCE ON AN HO4N 1 00 2006 01 IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS 52 U S CI CPC genie H04N 1 00413 2013 01 71 Applicant CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA USPE eessen geed 358 1 15 Tokyo JP 57 ABSTRACT 72 Inventor Nobuyuki Kojima Yokohama shi JP An image forming apparatus configured to display a mainte nance item for a user to do maintenance includes an input unit 73 Assignee CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA configured to input code information for specifying a plural Tokyo JP ity of maintenance items to be displayed by the image form ing apparatus a specifying unit configured to specify the 21 Appl No 13 748 348 plurality of maintenance items to be displayed by the image forming apparatus out of all the maintenance items based on 22 Filed Jan 23 2013 the code information input by the input unit a generation unit configured to generate a screen for displaying the plurality of 30 Foreign Application Priority Data maintenance items specified by the specifying unit on the same screen and a display unit configured to display the Feb 1 2012 JP eonte 2012 019897 screen generated by the generation unit 110 cr OPERATION UNIT 9 ae N
14. and OPTION 33 are respectively selected in the display level the second layer and the third layer In the highest stage of the display unit 20 the selected layers are displayed as LEVEL2 gt FEEDER gt OPTION Ina display area 38 node names SENSOR MENU1 MENU3 MENU4 and MENUS in the fourth layer existing below a node OP TION 33 illustrated in FIG 4 LEVEL2 gt FEEDER gt OPTION are displayed as the menu in the display area 38 0037 FIG 3B illustrates display when the maintenance engineer selects the SENSOR 34 as the menu in FIG 3A to have reached the final layer The final node indicates items Therefore a value managed by each of the items is displayed 0038 In the example illustrated in FIG 3B eight items SENSOR_1 SENSOR 2 SENSOR 8 out of 20 items below SENSOR 34 in the fourth layer are displayed in the display area 30 US 2013 0194629 Al 0039 The number of items that can be displayed is limited by the limitation of the screen size of the display unit 20 Therefore a maximum of eight items are simultaneously displayed However items to be respectively displayed using a left button 35 and a right button 36 can be switched i e scrolled 0040 As apparent from the example of the display illus trated in FIG 3B the items that can be simultaneously dis played are only items that are included in the same final node and within the same scroll range In coping with
15. anese Patent Application Laid Open No 2003 114779 0008 In recent years the image forming apparatus has been multifunctionalized so that optional devices such as a paper feed deck a feeder and a sorter have been incorporated thereinto Thus the respective numbers of sensors and counters in the imaging apparatus and the optional devices may be increased to a total of 1000 or more The number of maintenance items for confirming or adjusting values of the sensors and the counters are also increased 0009 Generally a user needs to confirm a plurality of maintenance items and derive the most suitable adjustment value to do maintenance More specifically the user needs to perform work for specifying desired one of an enormous number of maintenance items for all of the plurality of main tenance items to be confirmed when doing maintenance Even Aug 1 2013 if the technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No 2003 114779 is used it takes time and labor for the user to frequently input the search key SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 0010 The present invention is directed to a mechanism capable of avoiding inconvenience of frequently switching screens when maintenance required to confirm a plurality of maintenance items is done 0011 According to an aspect of the present invention an image forming apparatus configured to display a maintenance item for a user to do maintenance includes an input unit configured to
16. at bit 71 The respective data portions 74 to 77 store code numbers assigned to the items for service maintenance as illustrated in a table in FIG 8 The number of data portions is not limited to four More specifically a code to be input to the code input portion 51 to cope with a specific malfunction includes one or more code numbers assigned to the items for service maintenance pro vided in the image forming apparatus 110 0052 FIG 8 illustrates an example of a correspondence table of items for service maintenance and code numbers assigned to the items More specifically FIG 8 illustrates correspondence information between code numbers stored in the respective data portions 74 to 77 illustrated in FIGS 7A 7B 7C and 7D and the items for service maintenance Data corresponding to the correspondence table illustrated in FIG 8 is stored in the program ROM 3 in the image forming apparatus 110 0053 While a large number of e g 2000 items for ser vice maintenance exist items to be actually used for adjust ment maintenance are limited to some extent For example version information an operation mode of a function and a setting value used only to display a screen are not used in a screen for coping with a specific case FIG 5 and therefore may not be included in a code Large values are assigned to the respective items that are not used in the screen for coping with a specific case FIG 5 and small values are assigned to
17. cluding a numeric keypad and special keys collectively referred to as aspecial key 22 for switching a content to be displayed on the display unit 20 0031 The display in the present exemplary embodiment described below is performed on the display unit 20 and Aug 1 2013 input to the display is executed with a touch on the display unit 20 or the control key 21 An interface for service main tenance will be described below with reference to FIGS 3A and 3B and FIG 4 The content to be displayed on the display unit 20 in the operation unit 9 is changed for each function used by the image forming apparatus 110 0032 FIGS 3A and 3B illustrate examples of display ona screen for normal service maintenance used by a maintenance engineer The screen for normal service maintenance is not opened to a customer user and can be used only by the maintenance engineer The screen for normal service main tenance has conventionally been provided in the image form ing apparatus 110 0033 FIG 4 illustrates an example of a tree structure of a menu including items for service maintenance The items for service maintenance are positioned ina final node of the menu having the tree structure the display level gt the second layer gt the third layer gt the fourth layer gt the items in the example illustrated in FIG 4 In the items for service main tenance settings of version information various types of sensor information counter information
18. e code is effective 0069 FIG 9 illustrates an example ofa structure of a code indicating items for service maintenance provided to the Aug 1 2013 image forming apparatus 110 according to the second exem plary embodiment As illustrated in FIG 9 in the second exemplary embodiment OPTION FLAG 91 indicating the type of option and OPTION DATA 92 are added to the code If a coping method of a case required to be adjusted to which the code corresponds is effective only in a specific model a problem may occur when the code is used in an unrelated model Therefore in the present exemplary embodiment a model code may be included as the option to prevent the method from being misused in a model other than the target model 0070 For example if OPTION FLAG 91 is 00 OPTION DATA 92 indicates a model code model informa tion of the image forming apparatus 110 If OPTION FLAG 91 is 01 OPTION DATA 92 indicates the serial number of the image forming apparatus 110 If OPTION FLAG 91 is 10 OPTION DATA 92 indicates date and time infor mation about an expiration date of the code 0071 Operations to be performed since a code is input until a screen is displayed according to the present exemplary embodiment will be described below with reference to a flowchart illustrated in FIG 10 A case where OPTION FLAG 91 is 00 i e OPTION DATA 92 indicates a model code will be described below 0072
19. e present inven tion will be described below FIG 1 is a block diagram illus trating an example of a configuration of an image forming apparatus according to the first exemplary embodiment In FIG 1 a control block 100 in an image forming apparatus 110 controls the entire image forming apparatus 110 In the con trol block 100 a central processing unit CPU 1 reads out and executes a program which has been computer readably recorded on a program read only memory ROM 3 and controls each of the devices in the image forming apparatus 110 via a system bus 4 The CPU 1 a random access memory RAM 2 the program ROM 3 a network interface I F 5 a scanning unit I F 6 a printing unit I F 7 an external memory I F 8 an operation unit 9 a counter 14 a sensor 15 and others are connected to the system bus 4 0026 The program ROM 3 stores various types of data in addition to the program to be executed by the CPU 1 The RAM 2 is used as a work area of the CPU 1 The network I F 5 is an interface for connection to an external network envi ronment 10 such as Ethernet The scanning unit I F 6 com municates with a scanning unit 11 The printing unit I F 7 communicates with a printing unit a printer engine 12 that performs printing 0027 The external memory I F 8 is an interface for con nection to an external memory 13 such as a universal serial bus USB flash drive The operation unit 9 has a function of displaying various types of in
20. ed in the program ROM 3 Then in step S606 the CPU 1 determines whether all the items corresponding to the code numbers have been extracted have been included in the code table in the extraction processing of step S605 If the CPU 1 determines that the item corresponding to one of the code numbers has not been extracted from the code table has not been included in the code table in the extraction processing of step S605 NO in step S606 the processing proceeds to step S608 In step S608 the CPU 1 displays error information on the display unit 20 in the operation unit 9 and the process ing proceeds to step 601 In step 601 the CPU 1 performs control to wait until a code is input again 0062 On the other hand if the CPU 1 determines that all the items corresponding to the code numbers have been extracted from the code table have been included in the code US 2013 0194629 Al table in the extraction processing in step S605 YES in step 606 the processing proceeds to step S607 0063 Instep S607 the CPU 1 performs control to dynami cally generate and display the screen 50 for displaying infor mation about the items e g the information 53a to 53d illustrated in FIG 5 extracted from the code table in step 605 The CPU 1 then performs control to accept setting of an adjustment value for each of the displayed items from the screen 50 Specifically when detecting that one of the infor mation 545 to 54d has been touched the
21. eer 0017 FIG 4 illustrates an example of a tree structure of a menu including items for service maintenance 0018 FIG 5 illustrates an example of display of a screen for service maintenance according to the first exemplary embodiment 0019 FIG 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of pro cessing for the image forming apparatus according to the first exemplary embodiment to display an item screen for a main tenance mode based on an input code 0020 FIGS 7A 7B 7C and 7D each illustrate an example of a structure of a code indicating items for service maintenance provided to the image forming apparatus according to the first exemplary embodiment 0021 FIG 8 illustrates an example of a correspondence table between items for service maintenance and code num bers assigned to the items 0022 FIG 9 illustrates an example of a structure of a code indicating items for service maintenance provided to the image forming apparatus according to a second exemplary embodiment 0023 FIG 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing for the image forming apparatus according to the US 2013 0194629 Al second exemplary embodiment to display an item screen for a maintenance mode based on an input code DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS 0024 Various exemplary embodiments features and aspects of the invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings 0025 A first exemplary embodiment of th
22. formation and accepting input from a user The sensor 15 includes a plurality of sensors and detects various states of the image forming apparatus 110 The counter 14 stores the number of times of various opera tions 0028 The CPU 1 outputs an image signal serving as out put information to the printing unit the printer engine 12 via the printing unit I F 7 based on the control program stored in the program ROM 3 The CPU 1 similarly receives an image signal from the scanning unit 11 via the scanning unit I F 6 The CPU 1 receives sensor information from various sensors 15 under controller management The CPU 1 performs con trol to manage and store a value counted up by measuring the number of times of operations in the counter 14 0029 Thescanning unit 11 and the printing unit 12 respec tively store the sensor information and the counter 14 which is not illustrated and the CPU 1 can acquire their respective values via the scanning unit I F 6 and the printing unit I F 7 0030 The CPU 1 executes information display on a dis play unit in the operation unit 9 and behavior of the display which will be described below according to the program stored in the program ROM 3 FIG 2 illustrates the operation unit 9 in the image forming apparatus 110 illustrated in FIG 1 As illustrated in FIG 2 the operation unit 9 includes a display unit 20 with a touch panel various types of control keys collectively referred to as a control key 21 in
23. he processing proceeds to step 910 In step S910 the CPU 1 displays an error information on the display unit 20 in the operation unit 9 and the processing proceeds to step S901 In step S901 the CPU 1 performs control to wait until a code is input 0075 On the other hand if the value of OPTION DATA 92 matches the model code of the image forming apparatus 110 the CPU 1 determines that the option is effective i e the acquired code is effective YES in step 908 and the pro cessing proceeds to step S909 0076 In step S909 the CPU 1 performs control to display each of the items which have been extracted from a code table in step S905 on the screen 50 The CPU 1 then performs US 2013 0194629 Al control to accept setting of an adjustment value for each of the displayed items on the screen 50 0077 Control performed when OPTION FLAG 91 is 01 or 10 i e when the type of option is a serial number of the image forming apparatus 110 or date and time infor mation about an expiration date of the code is similar to that when the type of option is the model code 0078 More specifically if a serial number included in the code which has been input in step S901 and the serial num ber of the image forming apparatus 110 do not match each other for example the CPU 1 determines that the option is ineffective i e the acquired code is ineffective NO in step 908 and the processing proceeds to step S910 The seria
24. input code information for specifying a plural ity of maintenance items to be displayed by the image form ing apparatus a specifying unit configured to specify the plurality of maintenance items to be displayed by the image forming apparatus out of all the maintenance items based on the code information input by the input unit a generation unit configured to generate a screen for displaying the plurality of maintenance items specified by the specifying unit on the same screen and a display unit configured to display the screen generated by the generation unit 0012 Further features and aspects of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 0013 The accompanying drawings which are incorpo rated in and constitute a part of the specification illustrate exemplary embodiments features and aspects of the inven tion and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention 0014 FIG 1 isa block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of an image forming apparatus according to a first exemplary embodiment of the present invention 0015 FIG 2 illustrates an operation unit in the image forming apparatus illustrated in FIG 1 0016 FIGS 3A and 3B each illustrate an example of dis play of a screen for normal service maintenance used by a maintenance engin
25. ion 51 recon structs the required items and displays the reconstructed items on the service maintenance screen FIG 5 More spe cifically the CPU 1 specifies out of all the maintenance items the plurality of maintenance items to be displayed by the image forming apparatus 110 based on the code informa tion input from the operation unit 9 generates a screen for displaying the specified plurality of maintenance items on the same screen and displays the generated screen 50 illustrated in FIG 5 0049 A code structure will be described below with ref erence to FIGS 7A 7B 7C and 7D and FIG 8 FIGS 7A 7B 7C and 7D illustrate respective examples ofa structure of a code indicating items for service maintenance provided in the image forming apparatus 110 according to the first exem US 2013 0194629 Al plary embodiment As illustrated in FIGS 7A 7B 7C and 7D two bits at the head of the code correspond to a format bit 71 indicating each of four types of formats 0050 The subsequent two bits correspond to a data num ber bit 72 indicating the number of data portions to be desig nated in the code Further the subsequent two bits correspond to a checksum bit 73 The checksum bit 73 includes determi nation information for determining whether the code is effec tive by determining the presence or absence of an error in the code 0051 Further the subsequent data portions 74 to 77 differ in bit lengths depending on the form
26. ke in information 53a to 53d to be set If setting the items a serviceman may select the item to be adjusted by touching Aug 1 2013 one of information 545 to 54d and can set the item to be adjusted by inputting an adjustment value for the item from the control key 21 0045 Cases required to be adjusted in a general image forming apparatus and items required to be adjusted which have occurred in a past model and a model of the same group may be previously stocked A program for service mainte nance is upgraded so that content thereof may also be updated The program for service maintenance may be upgraded using the same means as a mechanism for upgrad ing the program for the image forming apparatus because the program for service maintenance is included in the program for the image forming apparatus The means includes a method for downloading the program using a dedicated tool by connecting the image forming apparatus and a personal computer in a peer to peer fashion a method for download ing the program from a download site via a network by the image forming apparatus and a method for downloading the program using an external memory such as a USB flash drive 0046 However even in this method the items in any com bination which are not incorporated into the program from the beginning cannot be collectively displayed As the opera tion of the image forming apparatus progresses at a customer destination in a market as desc
27. l number of the image forming apparatus 110 is stored in a serial number storage unit the storage area in the program ROM 3 0079 Ifthe expiration date included in the code which has been input in step 901 exceeds the date at the time point where the code has been input the option is ineffective i e the acquired code is ineffective NO in step S908 and the processing proceeds to step S910 0080 As described above it can be checked whether the input code is ineffective by including in the code informa tion OPTION FLAG 91 and OPTION DATA 92 such as the type and serial number of the image forming apparatus to which the code corresponds and an expiration date of the code In the above described exemplary embodiments a con figuration in which a code is input from a numeric keypad of the control key 21 and a soft keyboard displayed on the display unit 20 has been described However the configura tion in which a code is input is not limited to this For example information e g a barcode placed in a service manual or a website may be read out by the scanning unit 11 to extract a code 0081 Aspects of the present invention can also be realized by a computer of a system or apparatus or devices such as a CPU or MPU that reads out and executes a program recorded on a memory device to perform the functions of the above described embodiment s and by a method the steps of which are performed by a computer of a syste
28. m or apparatus by for example reading out and executing a program recorded on a memory device to perform the functions of the above described embodiment s For this purpose the pro gram is provided to the computer for example via a network or from a recording medium of various types serving as the memory device e g computer readable medium 0082 While the present invention has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments The scope of the following claims is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all modifications equivalent structures and functions 0083 This application claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No 2012 019897 filed Feb 1 2012 which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety What is claimed is 1 An image forming apparatus configured to display a maintenance item for a user to do maintenance the image forming apparatus comprising an input unit configured to input code information for specifying a plurality of maintenance items to be dis played by the image forming apparatus Aug 1 2013 a specifying unit configured to specify the plurality of maintenance items to be displayed by the image forming apparatus out of all the maintenance items based on the code information input by the input unit a generation unit configured to generate a screen f
29. mation is not effective when the determination unit determines that the code information is not effective 6 The image forming apparatus according to claim 5 wherein the determination unit determines whether the code information input by the input unit is effective based on checksum information included in the code information 7 The image forming apparatus according to claim 5 wherein the code information includes model information indicating a model corresponding to the code information and wherein the determination unit determines whether the code information input by the input unit is effective based on the model information 8 The image forming apparatus according to claim 5 wherein the code information includes information indicat ing an expiration date of the code information and wherein the determination unit determines whether the code information input by the input unit is effective based on the information indicating the expiration date 9 A method for controlling an image forming apparatus configured to display a maintenance item for a user to do maintenance the method comprising inputting code information for specifying a plurality of maintenance items to be displayed by the image forming apparatus specifying the plurality of maintenance items to be dis played by the image forming apparatus out of all the maintenance items based on the input code information US 2013 0194629 Al generating a screen for displa
30. on via the interface to perform adjustment so that the image forming apparatus normally operates 0005 A content of the maintenance at the customer desti nation by the maintenance engineer is reported to a develop ment company The development company totalizes these reports and examines adjustment means specific to a model and a method for coping with a specific case As a result service maintenance information is updated is opened in a service manual and a website and is provided to the mainte nance engineer This is repeated to always update information about a coping method most suitable for a case so that the maintenance engineer can optimally cope with the case at the customer destination 0006 When a case of a malfunction occurs for example the maintenance engineer checks the service manual and the website to confirm a method for coping with the malfunction There is software based coping such as resetting of an adjust ment value in addition to hardware based coping such as component replacement and mechanical adjustment depend ing on a content of the malfunction In the software based coping the serviceman refers to a plurality of sensor values and counter values via the interface for service maintenance and sets the most suitable adjustment value in view of the values 0007 For such maintenance a technique for inputting a search key to display a maintenance item corresponding to the search key has been discussed Jap
31. or dis playing the plurality of maintenance items specified by the specifying unit on the same screen and a display unit configured to display the screen generated by the generation unit 2 The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 wherein input of an adjustment value is accepted for the plurality of maintenance items on the screen displayed by the display unit 3 The image forming apparatus according to claim 2 wherein the display unit further displays an instruction unit configured to set the input adjustment value for the plurality of maintenance items to the image forming apparatus and wherein the input adjustment value for the plurality of maintenance items is set to the image forming apparatus in response to the user selecting the instruction unit 4 The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising a storage unit configured to store a code number indicating the specific maintenance item for all the maintenance items wherein the code information input by the input unit indi cates a plurality of code numbers and wherein the specifying unit specifies the plurality of main tenance items indicated by the plurality of code num bers 5 The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising a determination unit configured to deter mine whether the code information input by the input unit is effective wherein the display unit displays error information indi cating that the code infor
32. ribed above a new problem occurs and more improved measures are found out Every time the problem occurs or more improved measures are found out the program may be coped with by upgrading the program for the image forming apparatus which is not real istic because man hours are additionally required to cope with the problem 0047 Display of a screen having measures accumulated therein can desirably be performed without changing the program in a new combination Therefore a development company places a code including 8 to 16 digit sequences described below when a new case required to be adjusted and measures therefor are added to an addendum of the manual and the website as information about measures 0048 The maintenance engineer searches the addendum of the manual and the website for the case required to be adjusted to acquire the placed code together with information about coping means A function of enabling input of code information to a service maintenance screen of the image forming apparatus 110 a code input portion 51 illustrated in FIG 5 is prepared and the CPU 1 accepts code input from the maintenance engineer via the operation unit 9 If inputting the code information the serviceman selects the code by touching the code input portion 51 and inputs the code from the numeric keypad of the control key 21 The image forming apparatus 110 extracts data indicating items for measures from the code input from the code input port
33. ying the specified plurality of maintenance items on the same screen and displaying the generated screen 10 A computer readable storage medium storing a pro gram that causes a computer to perform the method according to claim 9 Aug 1 2013
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