CN118092105A - Chip activating method and image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

The embodiment of the application provides a chip activating method and an image forming device, wherein the image forming device responds to an activating request input by a user, and the chip activating method comprises the following steps: outputting chip information corresponding to the consumable chip, wherein the chip information is used for enabling a server to judge whether to feed back activation information of the consumable chip, and the activation information is used for carrying out activation processing on the consumable chip, and the activation processing is processing for activating the consumable chip based on operation of a user on a supplementary developer of the consumable. Through the activation processing to the consumable chip, the consumable chip can be reused, and the use cost of the consumable chip is reduced.

Description

Chip activating method and image forming apparatus

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of image forming technologies, and in particular, to a chip activation method and an image forming apparatus.

Background

Image forming apparatuses such as printers and copiers often have consumable supplies (ink cartridges, toner cartridges, and the like) for accommodating developer (ink, toner, and the like) that are convenient for user replacement. For the consumable capable of supporting the user to supplement the developer, when the developer in the consumable is consumed, the user uses the standby developer to supplement the developer for the consumable, and the image forming device can continue to use the consumable to print and image. In order to facilitate the management of consumable, a consumable chip is usually arranged on the consumable, and information such as the residual quantity of the developer is stored in the consumable chip, and after the developer is exhausted, although the user performs the replenishing operation of the developer on the consumable, the information such as the residual quantity in the consumable chip cannot be updated, and is still corresponding information when the developer is exhausted.

In the prior art, for consumable materials supporting the user to supplement the developer, the consumable chip needs to be replaced once when the developer is supplemented once again, so that the consumable chip can recalculate consumable information such as the residual quantity of the developer. However, consumable chips are costly, which can make the use of the consumable chips costly for the user.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above, the present application provides a chip activation method and an image forming apparatus, which are beneficial to solving the problems of the prior art that consumable chips cannot be reused and the cost is high.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip activation method, which is applied to an image forming apparatus, on which a consumable part is mounted, and on which a consumable chip is detachably mounted, the method including:

And responding to an activation request input by a user, outputting chip information corresponding to the consumable chip, wherein the chip information is used for enabling a server to judge whether to feed back activation information of the consumable chip, and the activation information is used for activating the consumable chip, and the activation is based on the operation of the user on the supplementary developer of the consumable, and activating the consumable chip.

In an alternative embodiment, the method further comprises: when the residual value corresponding to the consumable chip is lower than a first threshold value, outputting first prompt information, wherein the residual value is used for indicating the residual amount of the developer in the consumable, and the first prompt information is used for prompting a user to perform the operation of replenishing the developer to the consumable.

In an optional embodiment, when the margin value corresponding to the consumable chip is lower than a first threshold, outputting a first prompt message includes:

Acquiring residual information corresponding to the consumable chip, judging whether the residual value indicated by the residual information corresponding to the consumable chip is lower than the first threshold value, and outputting the first prompt information if the residual value is lower than the first threshold value;

Or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

And receiving second prompt information sent by the consumable chip, and outputting the first prompt information based on the second prompt information, wherein the second prompt information is used for prompting that the residual value corresponding to the consumable chip is lower than the first threshold value.

In an optional embodiment, the outputting the chip information corresponding to the consumable chip includes: and outputting the chip information corresponding to the consumable chip and the server website information corresponding to the server.

In an optional embodiment, the outputting the chip information corresponding to the consumable chip and the server website information corresponding to the server includes:

outputting chip information corresponding to the consumable chip and server website information corresponding to the server in a two-dimensional code mode;

and/or outputting the code character string corresponding to the chip information.

In an optional embodiment, the chip information is used for enabling a server to determine whether to feed back activation information of the consumable chip, and the method includes: the chip information is used for combining the developer information corresponding to the standby developer to enable the server to judge whether to feed back the activation information of the consumable chip, wherein the developer information is the information corresponding to the developer supplementing operation.

In an optional embodiment, after the outputting the chip information corresponding to the consumable chip, the method further includes:

Acquiring activation information of the consumable chip fed back by the server;

and performing activation processing on the consumable chip based on the activation information.

In an alternative embodiment, the activating the consumable chip includes:

And sending activation indication information to the consumable chip, wherein the activation indication information is used for indicating the consumable chip to store the consumable information after the operation of replenishing the developer.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a method for activating a chip, where the method is applied to a server, and includes:

acquiring chip information corresponding to consumable chips, wherein the consumable chips are detachably mounted on consumable chips;

And judging whether to output the activation information of the consumable chip according to the chip information, wherein the activation information is used for activating the consumable chip, and the activation is based on the operation of the user on the supplementary developer of the consumable chip.

In an optional embodiment, the chip information includes at least one of developer replenishment times information corresponding to the consumable chip, total printed page number information corresponding to the consumable chip, and identification information corresponding to the consumable chip;

The step of judging whether to feed back the activation information of the consumable chip according to the chip information comprises the following steps:

judging whether the number of the developer replenishment times of the consumable is larger than or equal to a first preset value, if so, determining that the activation information of the consumable chip is not fed back;

And/or judging whether the total printed page number of the consumable is larger than or equal to a second preset value, if so, determining that the activation information of the consumable chip is not fed back;

and/or judging whether the consumable meets the expectation or not according to the identification information corresponding to the consumable chip, and if not, determining not to feed back the activation information of the consumable chip.

In an optional embodiment, the determining whether to output the activation information of the consumable chip according to the chip information includes:

Acquiring developer information corresponding to the standby developer;

judging whether the standby developer accords with the expectation or not according to the developer information corresponding to the standby developer;

and if the standby developer is determined not to be in line with expectations, determining not to output the activation information of the consumable chip.

In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides an image forming apparatus, including a memory for storing computer program instructions and a processor for executing the program instructions, wherein the computer program instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the electronic device to perform the method according to any one of the first aspects.

In a fourth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides an activation method, including:

And outputting chip information corresponding to the consumable chip, wherein the chip information is used for enabling a server to judge whether to feed back activation information of the consumable chip, and the activation information is used for carrying out activation processing on the consumable chip, and the activation processing is processing for activating the consumable chip based on the operation of a user on the supplementary developer of the consumable.

In an alternative embodiment, the method further comprises: when the residual value corresponding to the consumable chip is lower than a first threshold value, outputting second prompt information, wherein the residual value is used for indicating the residual amount of the developer in the consumable, and the second prompt information is used for prompting that the residual value corresponding to the consumable chip is lower than the first threshold value.

In an alternative embodiment, the chip information is used for enabling a server to determine whether to feed back the activation information of the consumable chip, and the method includes: the chip information is used for combining the developer information corresponding to the standby developer to enable the server to judge whether to feed back the activation information of the consumable chip, wherein the developer information corresponding to the standby developer is the developer corresponding information corresponding to the operation of supplementing the developer.

In an optional embodiment, after the outputting the chip information corresponding to the consumable chip, the method further includes:

receiving activation instruction information sent by an image forming device;

and storing consumable information after the operation of replenishing the developer based on the activation indication information.

In an optional embodiment, the chip information includes at least one of developer replenishment number information corresponding to the consumable chip, total printed page number information corresponding to the consumable chip, and identification information corresponding to the consumable chip, and before the outputting of the chip information corresponding to the consumable chip, the method further includes:

Acquiring information including at least one of developer replenishment times information corresponding to the consumable chip, total printed page number information corresponding to the consumable chip and identification information corresponding to the consumable chip as chip information;

And encrypting the chip information by using a server public key.

In a fifth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a control apparatus, including:

the first output unit is used for outputting chip information corresponding to the consumable chip, the chip information is used for enabling the server to judge whether to feed back activation information of the consumable chip, the activation information is used for carrying out activation processing on the consumable chip, and the activation processing is based on the operation of a user on the supplementary developer of the consumable, and is used for carrying out activation processing on the consumable chip.

By adopting the scheme provided by the embodiment of the application, the image forming device responds to the activation request input by the user, outputs the chip information corresponding to the consumable chip, and the chip information is used for enabling the server to judge whether to feed back the activation information of the consumable chip, wherein the activation information is used for activating the consumable chip, and the activation is based on the operation of the user on the supplementary developer of the consumable, and activates the consumable chip. Through the activation processing to the consumable chip, the consumable chip can be reused, and the use cost of the consumable chip is reduced.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, the drawings that are needed in the embodiments will be briefly described below, it being obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present application, and that other drawings may be obtained according to these drawings without inventive effort for a person skilled in the art.

Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of an image forming system according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 2 is a schematic structural view of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart of a chip activation method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating another method for activating a chip according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of another chip activation method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a consumable chip according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 7 is a block diagram of a control device according to an embodiment of the present application;

Fig. 8 is a block diagram of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a consumable part according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of another consumable part according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of another consumable part according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a schematic structural diagram of another consumable provided in an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

For a better understanding of the technical solution of the present application, the following detailed description of the embodiments of the present application refers to the accompanying drawings.

It should be understood that the described embodiments are merely some, but not all, embodiments of the application. All other embodiments, which can be made by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the application without making any inventive effort, are intended to be within the scope of the application.

The terminology used in the embodiments of the application is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the application. As used in this application and the appended claims, the singular forms "a," "an," and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

It should be understood that the term "and/or" as used herein is merely one way of describing an association of associated objects, meaning that there may be three relationships, e.g., a and/or b, which may represent: the first and second cases exist separately, and the first and second cases exist separately. In addition, the character "/" herein generally indicates that the front and rear associated objects are an "or" relationship.

Referring to fig. 1, a schematic structural diagram of an image forming system according to an embodiment of the present application is provided. As shown in fig. 1, the image forming system includes an image forming apparatus and a consumable. Wherein the image forming apparatus is a part of an image forming system that performs an image forming operation, and the consumable is a replaceable accessory in the image forming system. For example, when the image forming apparatus is an inkjet printer, a laser printer, a 3D printer, a label printer, a needle printer, the consumable material is an ink cartridge, a toner cartridge, a ribbon cartridge, or the like, respectively. One way this can be achieved is: the consumptive material is split type structure, including mutual dismouting drum box and developing box, wherein, drum box includes sensitization drum and charging roller, and developing box includes developer accommodation portion, developing roller and developer conveying element. Another way that can be achieved is: consumable is an integral structure, for example: the consumable material includes a developer accommodating portion, a developing roller, a developer conveying member, a photosensitive drum, a charging roller, and the like. Further, the consumable may include only the housing and the developer accommodating portion. The consumable material may be the developing cartridge or the drum cartridge. Wherein the aforementioned developer accommodating portion is for accommodating a developer such as toner, and the developer conveying member is a member for stirring and/or conveying the toner such as a toner conveying roller, a toner conveying screw, or the like. Of course, the developer cartridge may include only the developer accommodating portion, and is not limited thereto. Further, the developer cartridge may include only the developer accommodating portion and the developer conveying member, and is not limited thereto. In a possible implementation manner, the consumable may also include a powder cylinder and/or an imaging component, where the powder cylinder is used to convey the toner to the imaging component when the toner contained in the imaging component is insufficient to enable the image forming device to form an image based on the toner conveyed by the imaging component, and where the consumable is the powder cylinder, the consumable may include only a housing and a developer containing portion, and may also include a housing, a developer containing portion, and a developer conveying element, which are not limited herein. When the consumable is an image forming assembly, the consumable may include a housing, a developer accommodating portion, a developer conveying unit, a charging roller, a photosensitive drum, etc., and a developer conveying passage is provided between the developer accommodating device and the image forming assembly, without limitation.

It should be noted that, the consumable material mentioned in the embodiment of the present application may also be other components, parts, units (such as a paper box, etc.) that are easy to damage and need to be replaced in the image forming apparatus, which also belongs to the technical scheme corresponding to the consumable material protected by the present application.

In order to facilitate the management of consumables, a consumable chip is generally disposed on the consumable, and the consumable chip is an electronic device with a storage function. In the consumable chip, information about consumables such as manufacturer, type of developer (toner, ink), color, capacity, and use condition, etc. is stored. Therefore, when a user installs the consumable into the host, the information stored by the consumable chip can be provided to the host, so that the host knows the basic information of the consumable. In addition, during the image forming operation, the host computer may also write update information of the consumable (e.g., the use condition of the recording material) into the consumable chip.

In one embodiment, the consumable chip of the present application generally includes a substrate and a plurality of contact points disposed on the substrate, where each contact point is configured to electrically connect with a plurality of contact terminals disposed on the image forming device, so as to implement communication between the image forming device and the consumable chip, and the plurality of contact points may include a VCC contact point, a GND contact point, an SDA contact point, and an SCL contact point.

In another implementation manner, the consumable chip in the embodiment of the present application may further include an interposer other than the substrate, where the interposer is electrically connected to the substrate, and the plurality of contact points may be at least partially disposed on the interposer.

Further, the image forming apparatus includes an image forming control section for controlling the entire image forming apparatus, and an image forming section for forming an image on the conveyed sheet under the control of the image forming control section based on the image data.

The image forming control section may be a System on Chip (SoC), which is a micro System composed of a plurality of System components, configured to control an imaging processing operation of the image forming apparatus, for example, to perform processing such as linear correction, noise reduction, dead pixel removal, detail enhancement, etc. on the image data, thereby improving the quality of the image output. The image forming control section is also used for performing processing operations related to data transmission and reception, command transmission and reception, engine control of printing an image, such as transmitting and receiving data, engine control commands, status, etc. through an interface unit (including but not limited to a USB port, a wired network port, a wireless network port, or other interfaces, etc.).

Referring to fig. 2, a schematic structural diagram of another image forming system according to an embodiment of the present application is provided. As shown in fig. 2, the image forming section of the image forming apparatus may include: the paper to be printed moves in the paper feeding direction, sequentially passes through the powder feeding operation of the developer conveying element 13 and the developing operation of the developing part 12, reaches a clamping area between the photosensitive part 14 and the transfer part 15 for transfer after the developing operation of the developing part 12, and then passes through the fixing assembly 5 for fixing to complete the image forming operation, wherein the developer accommodating part 11 is used for accommodating developer, and the developer can be toner, carbon powder and other materials; the developing member 12 includes: a developing roller, etc.; the developer conveying member 13 includes: a powder feeding roller, etc.; the photosensitive member 14 includes: a photosensitive drum (OPC, organic Photo Conductor), a charging roller for charging the photosensitive drum, and the like.

In general, the image forming apparatus is detachably mounted with at least one consumable, and the image forming apparatus shown in fig. 2 is exemplified by the image forming apparatus which is detachably mounted with 4 consumables (consumable 1, consumable 2, consumable 3, and consumable 4, respectively, consumable 4 shown in fig. 2 are used to supply the image forming apparatus with the developer of four colors of black K, cyan C, magenta M, yellow Y, respectively), although in other embodiments, the number of consumables mounted with the image forming apparatus may be increased or decreased, for example, 5 or 6 or even more or less, and the like, which is not limited in the present application.

In the prior art, for consumable materials capable of supplementing developer, a consumable chip needs to be replaced once every time the developer is supplemented, so that the consumable chip can correctly recalculate the residual quantity of the developer. However, consumable chips are costly, which can make use by users costly.

In order to solve the problems, the embodiment of the application provides a chip activation method, which can realize the reuse of consumable chips and reduce the cost by reactivating the consumable chips when replenishing developer.

Fig. 3 is a schematic flow chart of a chip activation method according to an embodiment of the present application. The method may be applied to an image forming apparatus, as shown in fig. 3, and may include:

Step 301, outputting a first prompt message when a margin value corresponding to the consumable chip is lower than a first threshold value.

The image forming device is in communication connection with the consumable chip, in the using process of the consumable, the residual quantity of the developer in the consumable is lower than a preset first threshold along with the consumption of printing imaging, and optionally, when the residual quantity of the developer is lower than the first threshold, the developer in the consumable can be considered to be almost exhausted, the image forming device cannot be supported to perform printing meeting the preset quality requirement, and at the moment, the image forming device can output first prompt information to prompt a user to perform operation of replenishing the developer to the consumable. Specific ways of outputting the first prompt information by the image forming apparatus include, but are not limited to, displaying or printing the first prompt information on a display panel of the image forming apparatus, and in some scenarios, the image forming apparatus is communicatively connected to a user device such as a smart phone, and may also send the first prompt information to a user through the user device. It can be understood that the margin value corresponding to the consumable chip mounted on the consumable is used to indicate the remaining amount of the developer in the consumable.

Specifically, for the specific manner in which the image forming apparatus determines that the margin value corresponding to the consumable chip is lower than the first threshold, in one embodiment, the image forming apparatus obtains the margin value stored in the consumable chip, and compares the margin value with the first threshold to determine whether the margin value of the consumable chip is lower than the first threshold, and if the margin value stored in the consumable chip is lower than the first threshold, outputs the first prompt message. In another embodiment, the consumable chip is pre-stored with a first threshold, when the consumable chip determines that the residual value stored by the consumable chip is lower than the first threshold, the consumable chip outputs a second prompt message to the image forming device, the second prompt message is used for informing the image forming device that the corresponding residual value of the consumable chip is lower than the first threshold, and at this time, the image forming device can output the first prompt message based on the received second prompt message.

Step 302, in response to an activation request input by a user, outputting chip information corresponding to the consumable chip.

The image forming device obtains the activation request input by the user, specifically, the obtaining mode can obtain the activation request of the user through the panel or the key of the image forming device receiving the click operation of the user, in some scenes, the image forming device is in communication connection with user equipment such as a smart phone, and the activation request sent by the user can also be received through the user equipment.

The consumable chip can pre-store information corresponding to the consumable chip, for example, identification information corresponding to the consumable chip and use information corresponding to the consumable chip are included, the identification information corresponding to the consumable chip is used for indicating information such as identity information, product model, manufacturer, production batch and the like of the consumable, the information comprises one or more of the model of the consumable and serial numbers of the consumable chip, and the use information corresponding to the consumable chip can comprise one or more of developer replenishment times information corresponding to the consumable chip and total printed page number information corresponding to the consumable chip. The server website corresponding to the consumable can be output while the chip information corresponding to the consumable chip is output, the server website can be a server website of a consumable manufacturer, and the corresponding website is used for managing the sold consumable. Specific ways of outputting the chip information corresponding to the consumable chip by the image forming device in response to the activation request input by the user include, but are not limited to, displaying or printing out in a display panel of the image forming device, and in some scenes, the image forming device is in communication connection with user equipment such as a smart phone, and the chip information corresponding to the consumable chip can be sent to the user through the user equipment. The presentation form of the chip information includes, but is not limited to, a two-dimensional code or a coded character string. That is, the image forming apparatus obtains chip information corresponding to the consumable chip, generates a corresponding two-dimensional code and/or code string, and outputs the two-dimensional code and/or code string. In some embodiments, before the image forming device generates the presentation information corresponding to the chip information, the image forming device encrypts the chip information by using a pre-stored server public key, so that the information security is ensured. When the display form of the chip information is a two-dimensional code, the server website and the chip information can be combined to generate the two-dimensional code.

After the image forming device outputs the chip information corresponding to the consumable chip, the user can send the chip information corresponding to the consumable chip to the official network server. Specifically, when the display form of the chip information is a two-dimensional code combined with the server website, the user uses user equipment such as a mobile phone to scan the two-dimensional code output by the image forming device, namely the server can be linked to the official network server of the consumable manufacturer, and meanwhile, the chip information corresponding to the consumable chip is sent to the official network server. When the display form of the chip information is the code character string, a user logs in the official network server by using user equipment such as a mobile phone and the like, and then inputs the code character string on the official network page so that the server can acquire the chip information.

In some embodiments, to ensure imaging quality, the consumable manufacturer may require that the developer replenished into the consumable meet certain specifications. In a specific implementation, after receiving chip information corresponding to consumable chips sent by a user, the official network server can acquire developer information of standby developer to be replenished into the consumable chips from the user, specifically, the information of the type, brand, manufacturer and the like of the developer can be identified by means of scanning a two-dimensional code on a developer package by the user, manually inputting a developer identification code and the like by the user, and after acquiring the information, if the developer is determined to meet a specific specification, activation information of the consumable chips is generated. Further, in order to ensure data security, when the official network server generates the activation information of the consumable chip, the pre-stored public key corresponding to the consumable chip is used for encrypting the activation information. After the activation information is generated, the network server can feed back the activation information to the user, specifically, the activation information is returned to the user equipment for display, and the display form of the activation information can be a coded character string.

Step 303, acquiring activation information of the consumable chip fed back by the server.

Step 302 is executed, after the image forming apparatus responds to the activation request input by the user, the chip information corresponding to the consumable chip is output, the user sends the chip information to the server, the server feeds back the activation information to the user, after receiving the activation information fed back by the server, the user can output the activation information to the image forming apparatus, and the mode of inputting the activation information can refer to the mode of the activation request input by the user in step 302, which is not described herein again.

Optionally, in order to ensure the safety of the communication data, after the image forming device obtains the activation information of the consumable chip fed back by the server, the activation information may be checked by using the server certificate, if the check passes, step 304 is executed, and if the check does not pass, step 304 is not executed.

Step 304, based on the activation information of the consumable chip, performing activation processing on the consumable chip.

One or more of the developer remaining amount information, the number of printed pages information, and the developer consumption amount information are stored in the consumable chip, and it is understood that, due to the limited capacity of the consumable developer accommodating portion, the consumable information indicates that the developer is consumed as the developer in the developer accommodating portion is consumed, and, illustratively, when the developer in the developer accommodating portion is consumed, the developer remaining amount information indicates that the developer remaining amount is 0 or close to 0. After the user carries out the operation of replenishing developer to the consumable, because the consumable can not detect the developer surplus in it by oneself generally and update the consumable information that the consumable chip stored, therefore actual developer surplus in the consumable can not match with the consumable information in the consumable chip. Further, when the consumable chip determines that the stored consumable information thereof indicates that the developer is consumed, in order to protect the machine, the consumable chip instructs the image forming apparatus to deactivate the consumable, or the image forming apparatus determines that the developer in the consumable mounted therein is consumed, the printing and imaging operation is automatically stopped, i.e., the consumable is made unusable. And activating the consumable chip, namely enabling the consumable chip to record consumable information again, so that the consumable can be used continuously. The image forming device performs activation processing on the consumable chip, namely, instructs the consumable chip to store and record consumable information again.

Specifically, implementing activation of the consumable chip, a specific embodiment may include at least one of the following ways:

The consumable chip directly resets the original consumable information to the corresponding initial value. For example, when the state of the developer contained in the consumable is full, the developer quality is 1000 g, the consumable chip directly resets the original developer remaining amount information to a corresponding initial value, namely, resets the developer remaining amount information to 1000 g; for another example, when the state of the developer contained in the consumable part is full, it can be considered that there is no printing consumption, and the consumable part chip directly resets the original printed page number information to the corresponding initial value, i.e., resets the printed page number information to 0 page.

And in the second mode, after the original consumption information is updated to be exhausted, a new storage area is set up on the consumable chip, and the consumable information is recorded and updated in the new storage area. In practical application, the operation of replenishing the consumable with the developer is often performed before the original developer of the consumable is completely consumed, the consumable chip can set up a new storage area after the developer remaining before the operation of replenishing the consumable with the developer is completely consumed, the consumable information corresponding to the developer replenished with the consumable by the user is recorded and updated in the new storage area, for example, the developer remaining amount information in the old storage area is 50 grams, the developer remaining amount information in the new storage area is 1000 grams, the original 50 grams of developer is consumed in the printing and imaging operation of the image forming device after the operation of replenishing the developer with the consumable by the user, and after the original 50 grams of developer is consumed, namely after the developer remaining amount information in the old storage area is updated to 0 gram, the 1000 grams of developer remaining amount information is consumed and updated in the new storage area.

In a third mode, a consumable chip sets up a new storage area, uses consumable information in an old storage area to calculate an initial value corresponding to the consumable information, records a result obtained by calculation in the new storage area, directly records and updates consumption information in the new storage area after a user operates the consumable replenishment developer, for example, 50 g of developer remaining amount information is recorded in the old storage area, 1000 g of initial value corresponding to the developer remaining amount is recorded in the old storage area, 50 g of developer remaining amount information in the old storage area can be added with 1000 g of initial value of the developer remaining amount to obtain 1050 g of developer remaining amount, so that 1050 g of developer remaining amount information is recorded in the new storage area, and then 1050 g of developer remaining amount information is consumed and updated in the new storage area.

The workflow of the server may be as shown in fig. 4, and specifically includes:

step 401, obtaining chip information corresponding to consumable chips;

the chip information comprises at least one of developer replenishment times information corresponding to the consumable chip, total printed page number information corresponding to the chip and identification information corresponding to the consumable chip. The embodiment of obtaining the consumable chip by the server may refer to step 302, which is not described herein.

Step 402, according to the chip information, it is determined whether to output the activation information of the consumable chip.

After the server obtains the chip information corresponding to the consumable chip, whether the activation information of the consumable chip is fed back or not can be judged according to the chip information, and further, if the obtained chip information corresponding to the consumable chip is the chip information encrypted by the server public key, the server private key is used for decrypting the chip information.

In one embodiment, the server determines whether the number of developer replenishment times of the consumable is greater than or equal to a first preset value according to the number of developer replenishment times information corresponding to the consumable chip, and if yes, determines that the activation information of the consumable chip is not fed back. The number of times of replenishing the developer of the consumable is the accumulated number of times of replenishing the developer operation performed by the user in the life cycle of the consumable, and it can be understood that the use of the consumable has a certain life limit, when the number of times that the consumable is replenished with the developer and the developer is consumed exceeds a preset value, the life of the consumable can be considered to be exhausted, if the use is continued, mechanical failure can be caused, therefore, when the number of times of replenishing the developer of the consumable reaches a first preset value, the consumable chip can not be activated any more, namely, the consumable is limited to be used continuously.

In another embodiment, the server determines whether the total number of printed pages of the consumable is greater than or equal to a second preset value, and if yes, determines that the activation information of the consumable chip is not fed back. In the process of printing and imaging, the OPC of the consumable is rotated along with the rotation, the rotation length of the OPC is positively correlated with the number of printed pages of the consumable, when the total number of printed pages in the life cycle of the consumable reaches a preset value, the rotation length of the OPC is considered to be about to reach the upper limit, and it can be understood that if a user is allowed to conduct the operation of replenishing the developer to the consumable, the remaining rotation length of the OPC cannot support the replenishing developer to be exhausted, so that the developer is wasted, and therefore, when the server judges that the total number of printed pages of the consumable is larger than or equal to a second preset value, the activation of the consumable chip can be not allowed, namely the consumable chip is limited to be used continuously.

In another embodiment, the server determines the identification information corresponding to the consumable chip, determines whether the consumable meets the expectation, and if not, determines not to feed back the activation information of the consumable chip. The identification information corresponding to the consumable chip can indicate the information such as the serial number of the consumable chip, the type of the consumable, the manufacturer, the production batch and the like, and the fact that the consumable does not accord with expectations can mean that the consumable belongs to the consumable type which does not support the supplement of developer, namely, the consumable does not support the reuse, the server does not output the activation information of the consumable chip, the consumable does not accord with expectations, the consumable and the server belong to the same manufacturer, the server cannot identify the information of the consumable, and the activation information of the consumable chip is not output.

Step 403, if it is determined to output the activation information of the consumable chip, outputting the activation information of the consumable chip.

Further, the server performs step 402, according to the chip information, determines whether to feed back the activation information of the consumable chip, and further obtains the developer information corresponding to the standby developer, and according to the developer information corresponding to the standby developer, determines whether the standby developer meets the expectation, if it is determined that the standby developer meets the expectation, determines to output the activation information of the consumable chip, and if it is determined that the standby developer does not meet the expectation, determines not to output the activation information of the consumable chip. The spare developer is used by the user for performing the developer replenishment operation on the consumable material. Specifically, the developer information corresponding to the standby developer may indicate information such as identity information, product model, manufacturer, production lot and the like of the standby developer, and the server may determine whether the standby developer is suitable for consumable materials installed on the consumable material chip based on the developer information corresponding to the standby developer and the chip information corresponding to the consumable material chip, so as to determine whether to output activation information of the consumable material chip. For the specific mode of acquiring the developer information corresponding to the standby developer by the server, the user can scan the two-dimensional code on the package of the standby developer in the web page corresponding to the server by using the user equipment, so as to acquire the developer information corresponding to the standby developer and send the developer information corresponding to the standby developer to the server.

The specific way in which the server outputs the activation information may be to send the activation information to the aforementioned user device so that the user may obtain the activation information. In order to ensure information security, the server can encrypt the chip public key of the consumable chip used for activating information and sign the chip public key by using the server private key and then output the encrypted chip public key, so that after the user of the activating information passes the verification of the activating information by using the server certificate, the user of the activating information decrypts the activating information by using the chip private key of the consumable chip and activates the consumable chip. The user can directly send the activation information to the consumable chip as the activation indication information after the image forming device obtains the activation information, and the consumable chip can automatically perform signature verification and decryption on the activation information and then obtain the activation information after the image forming device obtains the activation information and then perform signature verification and decryption, and send the activation indication information to the consumable chip to indicate the consumable chip to perform activation.

Fig. 5 is a flowchart of another chip activation method according to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in fig. 5, the method may include:

step 501, the consumable chip 51 outputs a residual value or a second prompt message to the image forming apparatus 52;

Step 502, the image forming apparatus 52 outputs a first prompt message;

step 503, the image forming apparatus 52 responds to the activation request input by the user, and outputs the chip information corresponding to the consumable chip;

step 504, the user sends the chip information to the server 54 through the user device 53;

step 505, the user sends developer information to the server 54 through the user device 53;

Step 506, the server 54 determines whether to output the activation information of the consumable chip according to the chip information;

step 507, the server 54 sends the activation information to the user equipment 53;

Step 508, the user sends the activation information to the image forming apparatus 52 through the user device 53;

step 509, the image forming apparatus 52 transmits activation instruction information to the consumable chip 51;

In step 510, the consumable chip 51 performs an activation process.

The user device 53 may include a mobile phone, a computer, etc., and further details of each step may be described with reference to the above method.

Corresponding to the embodiment, the embodiment of the application also provides a consumable chip.

Referring to fig. 6, a block diagram of a consumable chip according to an embodiment of the present application is provided. The consumable chip can be mounted on a consumable, and the consumable is detachably mounted on the image forming device. As shown in fig. 6, the consumable chip includes a first control unit for: outputting chip information corresponding to the consumable chip, wherein the chip information is used for enabling a server to judge whether to feed back activation information of the consumable chip, and the activation information is used for carrying out activation processing on the consumable chip, and the activation processing is processing for activating the consumable chip based on the operation of a user on the supplementary developer of the consumable.

In one possible implementation, the first control unit is further configured to: and when the residual value corresponding to the consumable chip is lower than a first threshold value, outputting second prompt information, wherein the residual value is used for indicating the residual amount of the developer in the consumable, and the second prompt information is used for prompting that the residual value corresponding to the consumable chip is lower than the first threshold value.

In one possible implementation manner, the chip information is used to enable the server to determine whether to feed back the activation information of the consumable chip, and includes: the chip information is used for combining the developer information corresponding to the standby developer to enable the server to judge whether to feed back the activation information of the consumable chip, wherein the developer information corresponding to the standby developer is the developer corresponding to the operation of supplementing the developer.

In one possible implementation, the first control unit is further configured to: after the chip information corresponding to the consumable chip is output, receiving activation instruction information sent by the image forming device;

and storing consumable material information after the operation of replenishing the developer based on the activation instruction information.

In one possible implementation manner, the chip information includes at least one of developer replenishment number information corresponding to the consumable chip, total printed page number information corresponding to the consumable chip, and identification information corresponding to the consumable chip, and before the outputting of the chip information corresponding to the consumable chip, the first control unit is further configured to: acquiring information including at least one of developer replenishment number information corresponding to the consumable chip, total printed page number information corresponding to the consumable chip and identification information corresponding to the consumable chip as the chip information;

And encrypting the chip information by using the server public key.

Referring to fig. 7, a block diagram of a control device according to an embodiment of the present application is provided. As shown in fig. 7, the control device includes:

The first output unit is used for outputting chip information corresponding to the consumable chip, the chip information is used for enabling the server to judge whether to feed back activation information of the consumable chip, the activation information is used for carrying out activation processing on the consumable chip, and the activation processing is processing for activating the consumable chip based on the operation of the user on the supplementary developer of the consumable.

In a possible implementation manner, the control device further includes:

and the second output unit is used for outputting second prompt information when the residual value corresponding to the consumable chip is lower than a first threshold value, wherein the residual value is used for indicating the residual amount of the developer in the consumable, and the second prompt information is used for prompting that the residual value corresponding to the consumable chip is lower than the first threshold value.

In a possible implementation manner, the chip information is used to enable a server to determine whether to feed back activation information of the consumable chip, and the method includes: the chip information is used for combining the developer information corresponding to the standby developer to enable the server to judge whether to feed back the activation information of the consumable chip, wherein the developer information corresponding to the standby developer is the developer corresponding to the operation of supplementing the developer.

In a possible implementation manner, the control device further includes:

a first receiving unit configured to receive activation instruction information transmitted from an image forming apparatus;

And the first activation unit is used for storing consumable information after the operation of replenishing the developer based on the activation indication information.

In a possible implementation manner, the chip information includes at least one of developer replenishment number information corresponding to the consumable chip, total printed page number information corresponding to the consumable chip, and identification information corresponding to the consumable chip;

The control device further includes:

a first obtaining unit configured to obtain, as the chip information, information including at least one of developer replenishment number information corresponding to the consumable chip, total printed page number information corresponding to the consumable chip, and identification information corresponding to the consumable chip;

And the first encryption unit is used for encrypting the chip information by using the server public key.

In the embodiment of the present application, the first output unit, the second output unit, the first receiving unit, the first activating unit, the first obtaining unit, and the first encrypting unit may be implemented in a software manner or may be implemented in a hardware manner, which is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

The first output unit, the second output unit, the first receiving unit, the first activating unit, the first obtaining unit and the first encrypting unit may be circuit units including FPGA, MCU, DSP devices, the sending unit may also realize functions by building a specific waveform generator circuit, and the obtaining unit and the determining unit may also realize corresponding functions by building a digital logic calculator.

In one possible implementation manner, at least one of the first output unit, the second output unit, the first receiving unit, the first activating unit, the first obtaining unit and the first encrypting unit may be an external module electrically connected to the consumable chip outside the consumable chip, that is, the consumable includes the consumable chip and the external module electrically connected to the consumable chip.

In one possible implementation manner, the first output unit, the second output unit, the first receiving unit, the first activating unit, the first obtaining unit, and the first encrypting unit are not other units of an external module which is electrically connected with the consumable chip outside the consumable chip, but are directly contained in the consumable chip.

In a possible implementation manner, the first output unit, the second output unit, the first receiving unit, the first activating unit, the first obtaining unit, and the first encrypting unit are included in a first control unit in the consumable chip.

Corresponding to the embodiment, the embodiment of the application also provides a consumable.

The application embodiment also provides an activation method which can be applied to the control device or the consumable chip. The method mainly comprises the following steps.

Outputting chip information corresponding to the consumable chip, wherein the chip information is used for enabling a server to judge whether to feed back activation information of the consumable chip, and the activation information is used for carrying out activation processing on the consumable chip, and the activation processing is processing for activating the consumable chip based on the operation of a user on the supplementary developer of the consumable.

In a possible implementation manner, the foregoing activation method further includes: and when the residual value corresponding to the consumable chip is lower than a first threshold value, outputting second prompt information, wherein the residual value is used for indicating the residual amount of the developer in the consumable, and the second prompt information is used for prompting that the residual value corresponding to the consumable chip is lower than the first threshold value.

In a possible implementation manner, the chip information is used to enable a server to determine whether to feed back activation information of the consumable chip, and the method includes: the chip information is used for combining the developer information corresponding to the standby developer to enable the server to judge whether to feed back the activation information of the consumable chip, wherein the developer information corresponding to the standby developer is the developer corresponding to the operation of supplementing the developer.

In a possible implementation manner, after the outputting the chip information corresponding to the consumable chip, the method further includes:

receiving activation instruction information sent by an image forming device;

and storing consumable material information after the operation of replenishing the developer based on the activation instruction information.

In a possible implementation manner, the chip information includes at least one of developer replenishment number information corresponding to the consumable chip, total printed page number information corresponding to the consumable chip, and identification information corresponding to the consumable chip, and before the outputting of the chip information corresponding to the consumable chip, the method further includes:

Acquiring information including at least one of developer replenishment number information corresponding to the consumable chip, total printed page number information corresponding to the consumable chip and identification information corresponding to the consumable chip as the chip information;

And encrypting the chip information by using the server public key.

Referring to fig. 8, a block diagram of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application is provided. As shown in fig. 8, the image forming apparatus includes a second controller configured to execute part or all of the method executed by the image forming apparatus in the above-described method embodiment.

It should be noted that, for brevity, details of the embodiments of the present application may be referred to the description of the embodiments of the method, and are not described herein again.

Corresponding to the embodiment, the embodiment of the application also provides a consumable.

Referring to fig. 9, a schematic structural diagram of a consumable provided in an embodiment of the present application is shown. As shown in fig. 9, the consumable includes a housing; a developer accommodating portion, located in the housing, for accommodating a developer; and the consumable chip in the foregoing embodiment.

Referring to fig. 10, a schematic structural diagram of another consumable provided in an embodiment of the present application is shown. As shown in fig. 10, the consumable further includes a developer conveying member for conveying the developer, on the basis of the embodiment shown in fig. 9.

Referring to fig. 11, a schematic structural diagram of another consumable provided in an embodiment of the present application is shown. As shown in fig. 11, the consumable further includes a photosensitive drum on the basis of the embodiment shown in fig. 10; and a charging roller for charging the photosensitive drum.

Referring to fig. 12, a schematic structural diagram of another consumable provided in an embodiment of the present application is shown. As shown in fig. 12, the consumable includes a photosensitive drum; a charging roller for charging the photosensitive drum; and the consumable chip in the foregoing embodiment.

It should be noted that, for the details of the consumable chip in the embodiment shown in fig. 9 to 12, reference may be made to the description of the above embodiment, and for brevity, the description is omitted here.

In a specific implementation, the present application further provides a computer storage medium, where the computer storage medium may store a program, where the program may include some or all of the steps in each embodiment of the chip activation method provided by the present application when the program is executed. The storage medium may be a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a read-only memory (ROM), a random-access memory (random access memory, RAM), or the like.

In a specific implementation, the present application also provides a computer program product, where the computer program product contains executable instructions, which when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform some or all of the steps in the embodiments of the chip activation method provided by the present application.

The same or similar parts between the various embodiments in this specification are referred to each other. In particular, for the device embodiment and the terminal embodiment, since they are substantially similar to the method embodiment, the description is relatively simple, and reference should be made to the description in the method embodiment for relevant points.

Claims (18)

1. A chip activation method, the method being applied to an image forming apparatus on which a consumable part is mounted, the consumable part having a consumable chip detachably mounted thereon, the method comprising:

And responding to an activation request input by a user, outputting chip information corresponding to the consumable chip, wherein the chip information is used for enabling a server to judge whether to feed back activation information of the consumable chip, and the activation information is used for activating the consumable chip, and the activation is based on the operation of the user on the supplementary developer of the consumable, and activating the consumable chip.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: when the residual value corresponding to the consumable chip is lower than a first threshold value, outputting first prompt information, wherein the residual value is used for indicating the residual amount of the developer in the consumable, and the first prompt information is used for prompting a user to perform the operation of replenishing the developer to the consumable.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein outputting the first prompt message when the margin value corresponding to the consumable chip is lower than a first threshold value comprises:

Acquiring residual information corresponding to the consumable chip, judging whether the residual value indicated by the residual information corresponding to the consumable chip is lower than the first threshold value, and outputting the first prompt information if the residual value is lower than the first threshold value;

Or alternatively, the first and second heat exchangers may be,

And receiving second prompt information sent by the consumable chip, and outputting the first prompt information based on the second prompt information, wherein the second prompt information is used for prompting that the residual value corresponding to the consumable chip is lower than the first threshold value.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein outputting the chip information corresponding to the consumable chip comprises: and outputting the chip information corresponding to the consumable chip and the server website information corresponding to the server.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein outputting the chip information corresponding to the consumable chip and the server website information corresponding to the server comprises:

outputting chip information corresponding to the consumable chip and server website information corresponding to the server in a two-dimensional code mode;

and/or outputting the code character string corresponding to the chip information.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the chip information is used to enable a server to determine whether to feed back activation information of the consumable chip, comprising: the chip information is used for combining the developer information corresponding to the standby developer to enable the server to judge whether to feed back the activation information of the consumable chip, wherein the developer information is the information corresponding to the developer supplementing operation.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein after outputting the chip information corresponding to the consumable chip, the method further comprises:

Acquiring activation information of the consumable chip fed back by the server;

and performing activation processing on the consumable chip based on the activation information.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the activating the consumable chip comprises:

And sending activation indication information to the consumable chip, wherein the activation indication information is used for indicating the consumable chip to store the consumable information after the operation of replenishing the developer.

9. A method for activating a chip, the method being applied to a server and comprising:

acquiring chip information corresponding to consumable chips, wherein the consumable chips are detachably mounted on consumable chips;

And judging whether to output the activation information of the consumable chip according to the chip information, wherein the activation information is used for activating the consumable chip, and the activation is based on the operation of the user on the supplementary developer of the consumable chip.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the chip information includes at least one of developer replenishment number information corresponding to the consumable chip, total printed page number information corresponding to the consumable chip, and identification information corresponding to the consumable chip;

The step of judging whether to feed back the activation information of the consumable chip according to the chip information comprises the following steps:

judging whether the number of the developer replenishment times of the consumable is larger than or equal to a first preset value, if so, determining that the activation information of the consumable chip is not fed back;

And/or judging whether the total printed page number of the consumable is larger than or equal to a second preset value, if so, determining that the activation information of the consumable chip is not fed back;

and/or judging whether the consumable meets the expectation or not according to the identification information corresponding to the consumable chip, and if not, determining not to feed back the activation information of the consumable chip.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein determining whether to output activation information of the consumable chip based on the chip information comprises:

Acquiring developer information corresponding to the standby developer;

judging whether the standby developer accords with the expectation or not according to the developer information corresponding to the standby developer;

and if the standby developer is determined not to be in line with expectations, determining not to output the activation information of the consumable chip.

12. An image forming apparatus comprising a memory for storing computer program instructions and a processor for executing the program instructions, wherein the computer program instructions, when executed by the processor, cause the image forming apparatus to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 8.

13. A method of activation, comprising:

And outputting chip information corresponding to the consumable chip, wherein the chip information is used for enabling a server to judge whether to feed back activation information of the consumable chip, and the activation information is used for carrying out activation processing on the consumable chip, and the activation processing is processing for activating the consumable chip based on the operation of a user on the supplementary developer of the consumable.

14. The activation method as set forth in claim 13, further comprising: when the residual value corresponding to the consumable chip is lower than a first threshold value, outputting second prompt information, wherein the residual value is used for indicating the residual amount of the developer in the consumable, and the second prompt information is used for prompting that the residual value corresponding to the consumable chip is lower than the first threshold value.

15. The activation method of claim 13, wherein the chip information is used to enable a server to determine whether to feed back activation information of the consumable chip, and comprises: the chip information is used for combining the developer information corresponding to the standby developer to enable the server to judge whether to feed back the activation information of the consumable chip, wherein the developer information corresponding to the standby developer is the developer corresponding information corresponding to the operation of supplementing the developer.

16. The activation method according to claim 13, wherein after outputting the chip information corresponding to the consumable chip, the method further comprises:

receiving activation instruction information sent by an image forming device;

and storing consumable information after the operation of replenishing the developer based on the activation indication information.

17. The activation method according to claim 13, wherein the chip information includes at least one of developer replenishment number information corresponding to the consumable chip, total printed page number information corresponding to the consumable chip, and identification information corresponding to the consumable chip, and before the outputting of the chip information corresponding to the consumable chip, the method further includes:

Acquiring information including at least one of developer replenishment times information corresponding to the consumable chip, total printed page number information corresponding to the consumable chip and identification information corresponding to the consumable chip as chip information;

And encrypting the chip information by using a server public key.

18. A control apparatus, characterized by comprising:

the first output unit is used for outputting chip information corresponding to the consumable chip, the chip information is used for enabling the server to judge whether to feed back activation information of the consumable chip, the activation information is used for carrying out activation processing on the consumable chip, and the activation processing is based on the operation of a user on the supplementary developer of the consumable, and is used for carrying out activation processing on the consumable chip.