JP2007018100A - Log recording device and log recording method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a log recording device and log recording method capable of easily analyzing a failure. <P>SOLUTION: An EEPROM 9 records various information before shipping a deck unit 2, and a deck control microcomputer 3 records various information of the shipped deck unit 2 and various information before shipping the deck unit 2 on the EEPROM 9 by clearly distinguishing them. Therefore, it is possible to distinguish whether the obstacle of the deck unit 2 happens before its shipment or after its shipment. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a log recording apparatus and a log recording method, and more particularly to a technique of an error log recording apparatus and method suitably applied to failure analysis of in-vehicle equipment or the like. However, it is not necessarily limited only to in-vehicle equipment.

  In the present invention, “various information before shipment” refers to various information before shipping a semi-finished product of the device from the semi-finished product manufacturer to the finished product manufacturer, and the finished product of the device. Various information before shipping to the market such as a store. The semi-finished product manufacturer and the finished product manufacturer may include the same manufacturer.

  In the present invention, “various information after shipment” means various information after shipping a semi-finished product of a device from the semi-finished product manufacturer to a finished product manufacturer, and the finished product of the device. Various information after shipping to a market such as a store.

  When a failure (error) occurs in a product after shipment from a manufacturer, a technique for recording the failure information has been put into practical use (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2). In Patent Document 1, when the same error repeatedly occurs within a certain time, only the time of occurrence of the second and subsequent errors is recorded. At the same time, when the error log recording area reaches a predetermined recording area, the error log is overwritten in the order of decreasing importance or in the oldest order.

  In Patent Document 2, when an error occurs, control conditions such as temperature and manipulated variable at that time are recorded together with an error log, and failure analysis is performed.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-306050 JP 2000-164499 A

  In Patent Documents 1 and 2, there are the following problems (1) and (2). (1) An error that has occurred in the product manufacturing process cannot be recognized. (2) When the error log recording area reaches the specified recording area, the error log is overwritten and erased. If errors occur continuously, the error log to be recorded is permanently saved. Can not do it. The problem analysis is complicated by the problems (1) and (2).

  An object of the present invention is to provide an error log recording apparatus and an error log recording method that make it easy to analyze a failure.

The present invention is a log recording apparatus for recording various information during operation or testing of equipment as log information.
Recording means for recording various information before and after shipment of the device;
A log recording apparatus comprising: control means for distinguishing and recording various information of the device after shipment from the various information before shipment in the recording means.

The present invention also relates to a log recording method for recording various information as log information during operation or testing of a device.
A pre-shipment recording step for recording various types of information before shipment of the device;
A log recording method comprising: a post-shipment recording step of recording various pieces of information of the device after shipment in a manner distinct from the various pieces of information before shipment.

  According to the present invention, the pre-shipment recording step includes a plurality of stages, and the various information is information indicating a check result at each stage, and is recorded at each stage.

In the invention, it is preferable that the various information includes a history of operations performed on the device.
According to the present invention, the operation history includes a time interval between a plurality of operations.

In the present invention, the device includes a recording medium other than the nonvolatile memory,
In the pre-shipment recording step, when the capacity of the nonvolatile memory reaches a predetermined value, various information to be recorded in the nonvolatile memory is backed up to the recording medium.

  According to the present invention, the recording means records various information of the device before and after the shipment of the device. Since the control means distinguishes and records the various pieces of information on the device after shipment and the various pieces of information before shipment on the recording means, the following effects can be obtained. From various information recorded in the recording means, it is possible to distinguish whether a device failure has occurred before shipment or has occurred after shipment. This facilitates failure analysis. It is possible to easily analyze whether the failure is caused by the operation of the operator or the failure caused by a phenomenon other than the operation such as environment, vibration and aging.

  From the analysis results, if a failure that has not occurred before shipment occurs undesirably after shipment, or if a failure that occurred before shipment frequently occurs after shipment, the test conditions before design change, parts replacement, and shipment It is possible to take measures to reduce the above-mentioned obstacles, for example, by changing. Since the failure analysis becomes easy, the device can be repaired quickly.

  According to the present invention, in the pre-shipment recording step, various types of information before the device is shipped are recorded. In the post-shipment recording step, various information about the device after shipment is recorded separately from the various information before shipment, and the following effects are obtained. It is possible to distinguish whether the failure of the device occurs before shipment or after shipment. This facilitates failure analysis. Other effects similar to those described above are achieved.

  Further, according to the present invention, at each stage in the pre-shipment recording process, various information that is information indicating the check result at each stage is recorded. Therefore, it becomes possible to obtain more detailed various information, and the failure analysis can be facilitated.

  Further, according to the present invention, since various information includes a history of operations performed on a device, it is possible to specify an operation caused by a failure of the device.

  According to the present invention, the operation history includes time intervals between a plurality of operations, so that failure analysis can be performed more easily.

  Further, according to the present invention, the effective recording capacity can be dramatically increased by backing up various information to other recording media.

  Hereinafter, a plurality of embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Portions corresponding to the matters described in the preceding forms in each embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and overlapping description may be omitted. In addition, when only a part of the configuration is described, the other parts of the configuration are the same as those described above. In addition to the combination of parts specifically described in each embodiment, the embodiments may be partially combined as long as the combination is not particularly troublesome.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a control system of an error log recording apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, an in-vehicle deck unit is applied as an error log recording device. However, the present invention can also be applied to electronic devices other than those for vehicles. The following description also includes an explanation of the error log recording method. In this embodiment, the deck unit 2 is applied as a semi-finished product. After the deck unit 2 is shipped, for example, the deck unit and the navigation function are incorporated into an integrated navigation device.

  The deck unit 2 as a device includes, for example, a deck control microcomputer 3 (referred to as a deck control microcomputer 3), a power source 4, a pickup device 5, a drive circuit 6, a mechanical switch 7, a thermal sensor 8, and a nonvolatile memory 9 as a recording means. , A signal processing LSI 10, an overcurrent detection circuit 11, an RF amplifier (not shown), a D / A converter, a check land, and the like. The deck control microcomputer 3 is electrically connected to a finished device, that is, a microcomputer 12 (referred to as the navigation-side microcomputer 12) on the integrated navigation device main body, and a hard disk as a recording medium is connected to the navigation-side microcomputer 12. A drive 13 (abbreviated as HDD 13) is electrically connected.

The deck control microcomputer 3 as a control means is a central processing unit (CPU: Central:
Processing Unit), ROM (Read Only Memory) and RAM (RAM: Random)
Access Memory). The ROM stores a disk ejection processing program and an error log recording processing program which will be described later. The control body of these disc ejection processing and error log recording processing is the CPU of the deck control microcomputer 3. Note that in the error log recording process according to the second embodiment, the deck control microcomputer 3 and the navigation side microcomputer 12 are the controlling entities.

FIG. 2 shows a memory map, FIG. 2 (a) shows details of an area 14 where overwriting is allowed and an area 15 where overwriting is prohibited, and FIG. 2 (b) shows other areas in detail. FIG. The nonvolatile memory 9 includes an electrically erasable (rewritable) ROM (
Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (abbreviated as EEPROM) is applied. When a failure occurs in the deck unit 2, various information during the operation of the deck unit 2 is recorded in the EEPROM 9 as error log information.

  Various information related to the important error of the deck unit 2 (hereinafter referred to as specific information) before shipment of the deck unit 2, that is, in the manufacturing process, is written in an area 15 where overwriting of the EEPROM 9 is prohibited. This corresponds to the pre-shipment recording process. “Error” and “important error” are synonymous with “failure”. For example, after a deck ejection mechanism and a mechanical switch 7 (not shown) are stored in the deck unit 2 and electrically connected to the deck control microcomputer 3, the disk ejection processing program is executed. Thereafter, an error log recording process is executed. Thus, the specific information is recorded at each stage of the manufacturing process before shipment.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically illustrating specific information of the deck unit 2. In particular, the specific information is recorded in an area 15 (overwrite prohibited area) where overwriting of the EEPROM 9 is prohibited. If it is determined by the disc ejection processing program that a failure has occurred in the deck unit 2, it is recorded in the EEPROM 9 with the check code 16 added as information indicating the check result.

  If there is no disc ejection error even after execution of the disc ejection processing program, for example, as shown in FIG. 3, "01" is given as the check code 16, and if there is a disc ejection error, for example, the check code “10” is given as 16. If the disc ejection processing program is not executed, the check code 16 is not given (for example, a state where “00” is stored in this area by default is maintained). By adding the check code 16, it is recognized that the disc ejection processing program has been executed in the manufacturing process.

  Other specific information includes the electrical characteristics of the laser diode (LED), specifically the LED current initial value, the LED current maximum value, and the temperature detection voltage at the LED current maximum value. The deck control microcomputer 3 drives the laser diode of the pickup device 5 via the drive circuit 6. When a focus error signal, a tracking error signal, and the like are obtained by the signal processing LSI 10, information indicating the check result of the current value and voltage value of the laser diode at that time is recorded in the EEPROM 9. Temperature detection is performed by the thermal sensor 8.

Other specific information includes MD (Mini Disc) recording mode information, CD (Compact
Disc) disc information, adjustment values of the signal processing LSI 10, that is, focus and tracking adjustment values that differ depending on the disc type, jump position and time, overcurrent detection information, and the like. At least some of these information may be specified information. Information other than the information described above may be used as specific information. The specific information includes a history of operations performed on the deck unit 2. This operation history includes operation times performed on the deck unit 2 and includes time intervals between a plurality of operations. The specific information is compressed and recorded in the EEPROM 9.

  Information related to the failure of the deck unit 2 after shipment of the deck unit 2 is recorded in an area 14 where overwriting of the EEPROM 9 is allowed, distinctly from the specific information before shipment. The information includes a history of operations performed on the deck unit 2. This operation history includes operation times performed on the deck unit 2.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart schematically illustrating an example of the error log recording process. In this example, an abnormality in the laser diode current value is determined as an error. The error log recording process starts when the mechanical switch 7 is turned on. After the start, the process proceeds to step k1, and the CPU of the deck control microcomputer 3 temporarily records the aforementioned LED current initial value and the like in the ram. Next, the process proceeds to step k2, and it is determined whether or not the temporarily recorded value is equal to or greater than a prescribed threshold value. If it is determined that the threshold value is exceeded, this process is terminated. If it is determined that the value is less than the threshold value, the process proceeds to step k3 to execute an error log recording process, and then this process is terminated.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the error log recording process. In this example, a disk ejection failure is detected as an error. When the mechanical switch 7 is turned on, the disc ejection process starts. In step s1, it is determined whether or not the discharge switch (eject switch) is “ON”. If it is determined “ON”, the process proceeds to step s2, and if it is not “ON”, the process proceeds to step s1. Return.

  In step s2, the ejection drive is performed by the disk ejection drive motor. Next, the process proceeds to step s3, and it is determined whether or not the disc ejection is completed based on the drive signal of the disc ejection drive motor. When it is determined that the drive signal is equal to or higher than a predetermined threshold value and the discharge is completed, the process is terminated. If it is determined that the drive signal is less than a predetermined threshold value and discharging is not completed, the process proceeds to step s4. In step s4, it is determined whether or not a predetermined time t1 (t1 is 4 seconds, for example) has elapsed. If it is determined that the predetermined time t1 has not elapsed, the process returns to step s3. If it is determined that the predetermined time t1 has elapsed, the process proceeds to an error log recording process. However, the predetermined time t1 is not necessarily limited to 4 seconds.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing specific contents of the error log recording process. When the mechanical switch 7 is turned on, an error log recording process is executed. First, in step a1, it is determined whether or not the temporarily recorded value is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value as described above. When it is determined that the value is equal to or greater than the threshold value, that is, no error has occurred, this process ends. If it is determined that there is an error, the process proceeds to step a2. Note that “error present” in this case refers to the case where a predetermined time has elapsed without completing the disc ejection.

  In step a2, it is determined whether or not there is an important error. At each stage of the manufacturing process, it is inevitably determined that an important error has occurred, and the process proceeds to step a3, where a flag is set. That is, the flag f is switched from “0” to “1”. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step a4 (1). After shipment of the deck unit 2, it is determined in step a2 that the error that has occurred is not an important error, and the process proceeds to step a4 (1) without going through step a3. After the deck unit 2 is shipped, the error log recording process is executed under the condition that the ignition switch is turned on and the power supply 4 is turned on.

  In step a4 (1), it is determined whether or not there is free space in a predetermined area of the EEPROM 9. If it is determined that there is no free space, the process proceeds to step a5 (1), the oldest event and error log are deleted, a free space to be recorded is prepared, and the process proceeds to step a6 (1). If it is determined that there is free space, the process proceeds to step a6 (1). In step a6 (1), an event and error log are written in a predetermined area of the EEPROM 9 to be recorded. That is, the specific information described above at each stage of the manufacturing process is written in the area 15 where overwriting of the EEPROM 9 is prohibited. Information related to the failure after shipment of the deck unit 2 is written in an area 14 where overwriting of the EEPROM 9 is allowed, with a post-shipment check code that is distinct from the specific information before shipment. As the post-shipment check code, a code number “10” similar to the pre-shipment check code 16 as shown in FIG. 3 is written in an area 14 different from the pre-shipment check code 16. Thereafter, this process is terminated. As described above, in the error log recording process, if an error occurs under the above-described start condition, it is necessarily recorded in the EEPROM 9. The error in the manufacturing process before shipment is a flag, and the specific information is recorded in the area 15 where overwriting of the EEPROM 9 is prohibited.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an error log recording process according to the second embodiment of the present invention. In step a4 (2) after step a3, it is determined whether or not the free space in the predetermined area of the EEPROM 9 has reached a predetermined value α (α is, for example, several tens of bytes). If the free capacity is equal to or less than αbyte, the process proceeds to step a5 (2). If it is determined that the free capacity is greater than αbyte, the process proceeds to step a6 (2). In step a6 (2), specific information or information about a failure after shipment is written in a predetermined area of the EEPROM 9. Thereafter, this process is terminated.

  In step a5 (2), it is determined whether or not there is free space in the HDD 13, and if it is determined that there is no free space, the process proceeds to step a7 (2). If it is determined that there is free space, the process proceeds to step a8 (2). In step a7 (2), the oldest event and error log are erased to prepare a free space to be recorded, and the process proceeds to step a8 (2). In step a8 (2), specific information or information about a failure after shipment is written (backed up) in the HDD 13, and then this process is terminated.

  According to the log recording apparatus 1 and the log recording method described above, the EEPROM 9 as the recording unit records specific information related to the failure of the deck unit 2 before shipment of the deck unit 2. Since the deck control microcomputer 3 distinguishes the information related to the failure of the deck unit 2 after shipment and the specific information before shipment from the EEPROM 9 and records them in the EEPROM 9, the following effects are obtained. From at least one of the information recorded in the EEPROM 9 and the specific information, it is possible to distinguish whether the failure of the deck unit 2 occurs before shipment or after shipment. This facilitates failure analysis. It is possible to easily analyze whether the failure is caused by the operation of the operator or the failure caused by a phenomenon other than the operation such as environment, vibration and aging.

  From the analysis results, if a failure that has not occurred before shipment occurs undesirably after shipment, or if a failure that occurred before shipment frequently occurs after shipment, change the test conditions before shipment, etc. It is also possible to take measures to reduce the obstacle. Since the failure analysis becomes easy, the deck unit 2 can be repaired quickly. In addition, since the specific information related to the failure of the deck unit 2 is recorded in the pre-shipment recording process, it is possible to obtain more detailed specific information and facilitate the failure analysis. Can be realized.

  Since the specific information is information indicating the check result at each stage of the manufacturing process, the failure analysis can be facilitated. Further, since the specific information is recorded in the overwriting-prohibited area of the EEPROM 9, the specific information before shipment is not erased undesirably. Therefore, failure analysis can be performed reliably and easily. Since the information related to the failure of the deck unit 2 after shipment or the specific information before shipment includes an operation history performed on the deck unit 2, it is possible to specify an operation caused by the failure of the deck unit. It becomes. Since the operation history includes the operation time performed on the deck unit 2, failure analysis can be performed more easily.

  Since the specific information is compressed and recorded in the EEPROM 9, more information can be recorded in the EEPROM 9 having the same recording capacity. Therefore, detailed specific information can be obtained. Further, by backing up the specific information to the hard disk drive 13 which is another recording medium, the effective recording capacity can be dramatically increased.

  In the present embodiment, the EEPROM is applied as the nonvolatile memory, but is not limited to the EEPROM. Another memory in which data is not erased even when the power is turned off, such as a flash memory, may be applied. A hard disk drive is applied as another recording medium, but an EEPROM or a flash memory can also be applied.

It is a block diagram of the control system of the error log recording apparatus 1 which concerns on embodiment of this invention. FIG. 2A is a diagram showing in detail an area 14 where overwriting is allowed and an area 15 where overwriting is prohibited, and FIG. 2B is a diagram showing other areas in detail. . It is a figure which shows typically the specific information of the deck unit. 5 is a flowchart schematically illustrating an example of an error log recording process. It is a flowchart which shows an example of an error log recording process. It is a flowchart which shows the specific content of an error log recording process. It is a flowchart showing the error log recording process which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

1 Error log recording device 2 Deck unit 3 Deck control microcomputer 4 Power supply 9 EEPROM
12 Product side microcomputer 13 HDD

Claims (6)

In a log recording device that records various information during operation or testing of equipment as log information,
Recording means for recording various information before and after shipment of the device;
A log recording apparatus comprising: control means for distinguishing various information of the device after shipment from the various information before shipment and recording the information in the recording means. In the log recording method of recording various information during operation or testing of equipment as log information,
A pre-shipment recording step for recording various types of information before shipment of the device;
A log recording method comprising: a post-shipment recording step of recording various pieces of information of the device after shipment distinctly from the various pieces of information before shipment.   3. The log recording method according to claim 2, wherein the pre-shipment recording step includes a plurality of stages, and the various information is information indicating a check result in each stage and is recorded in each stage.   The log recording method according to claim 1, wherein the various types of information include a history of operations performed on the device.   The log recording method according to claim 4, wherein the operation history includes a time interval between a plurality of operations. The device includes a recording medium other than the nonvolatile memory,
5. In the pre-shipment recording step, when the capacity of the nonvolatile memory reaches a predetermined value, various information to be recorded in the nonvolatile memory is backed up to the recording medium. 5. The log recording method according to 5.

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