Sensor processor for high-speed mail-handling machine

• US 5,178,224 A
• Filed: 05/11/1992
• Issued: 01/12/1993
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/1991
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Pitney Bowes Incorporated (Böwe Systec AG)
• Original Assignee: Pitney Bowes Incorporated (Böwe Systec AG)
• Inventors: Linkowski, Williams J., McDermott, Francis E., Tolmie, Robert J. Jr., Salazar, Edilberto I., DiGiulio, Peter C.
• Primary Examiner(s): MILLER JR, GEORGE
• Application Number:
  US07/880,865
• Time in Patent Office: 246 Days
• Field of Search: 177/25.15, 364/464.02, 364/464.03
• US Class Current: 177/25.15
• CPC Class Codes: B07C 1/00 Measures preceding sorting according to destination
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 17/00314 Communication within apparatus, personal computer [PC] system, or server, e.g. between printhead and central unit in a franking machine
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 17/00661 Sensing or measuring mailpieces weighing G01G19/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 2017/00338 Error detection or handling
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 2017/00677 Keeping track of mailpieces inside apparatus
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 2017/00685 Measuring the dimensions of mailpieces
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 2017/00693 Measuring the speed of mailpieces inside apparatus

Abstract

A sensor processor for cooperating with a drive controller in a high-speed mail-handling machine. The sensor procesor access periodically a plurality of sensors distributed throughout the machine, and then writes the sensor data to an NVM-RAM shared with the drive controller. Time-critical sensors are accessed more frequently than non-time-critical sensors.

Claims

1. In a mail-handling machine for processing mail pieces along a flow path through a plurality of stations each having drive means for processing the mail and a drive controller for said drive means, said plurality of stations having sensors for monitoring the progress of the mail pieces and generating sensor data in response thereto for communication to the drive controller, the improvement comprising a sensor processor connected to the sensors dedicated to the task of accessing the sensors to determine their state and communicate the sensor'"'"'s state to the drive controller, and causing the sensor processor to access the sensors and communicate their state to the drive controller, the sensor processor being caused to activate the sensors before accessing the sensors.

2. The machine of claim 1, wherein the communication means comprises a RAM accessible and shared by the sensor processor and the drive controller.

3. The machine of claim 2, wherein the RAM is non-volatile memory.

4. The machine of claim 1, wherein some of the sensors generate analog data, said sensor processor comprising means for converting the analog data into digital data before communicating same to the drive controller.

5. The machine of claim 2, further comprising a host processor, said host processor having means for accessing and sharing said RAM.

6. The machine of claim 1, wherein the sensor processor accesses the sensors on a cyclical basis, with the access cycle divided up into multiple time slices with each of some of the time slices devoted to accessing one or more determined sensors.

7. The machine of claim 6, wherein some of the sensors generate time-critical data and others do not, each sensor generating time-critical data being accessed at least once during each access cycle.

8. The machine of claim 7, wherein a plurality of the non time-critical sensors are allocated access time during the same time slice of the access cycle, each of said non-time-critical sensors being accessed during the said time slice but during different cycles.