Image forming apparatus, communication monitoring system, and communication monitoring circuit

摘要

An image forming apparatus includes an image forming unit, a controller including a master unit and a slave unit, and a serial communication line connecting the master unit and the slave unit and used in serial communication. The master unit includes an arithmetic module that generates first serial data to be transmitted to the slave unit to monitor serial communication, and monitors whether the first serial data has been successfully received in accordance with second serial data received from the slave unit. The slave unit includes a pulse signal output module that outputs pulse signals for a number of pulses which is set from the first serial data, an analog voltage output module that receives the pulse signals, changes an analog voltage in accordance with the number of pulses, and outputs the analog voltage, and an analog/digital conversion module that converts the analog voltage into the second serial data.

主权项

1. An image forming apparatus comprising:
a controller configured to control formation of an image by the image forming apparatus, the controller including a master controller and a slave controller; and a serial communication line connecting the master controller with the slave controller, and being for serial communication, the master controller including:
an arithmetic module configured to generate first serial data for communication monitoring which is transmitted to the slave controller and used to monitor serial communication with the slave controller via the serial communication line, and to monitor whether the first serial data has been successfully received by the slave controller in accordance with second serial data received from the slave controller via the serial communication line, the slave controller including:
a pulse signal output module configured to output pulse signals for a number of pulses, the number of pulses being set from the first serial data received from the master controller via the serial communication line in accordance with the first serial data,an analog voltage output module configured to receive the pulse signals for the number of pulses, change an analog voltage in accordance with the number of pulses, and output the analog voltage, andan analog/digital conversion module that converts the analog voltage output from the analog voltage output module into the second serial data by performing analog/digital conversion.