Image forming apparatus and diagnostic system increasing frequency of acquiring diagnostic data

An image forming apparatus diagnostic system comprising:

• a diagnostic server;
• and
• an image forming apparatus that comprises:
• an image forming unit that performs image forming processing on a recording sheet;
• a primary central processing unit (CPU) and a secondary CPU, wherein the primary CPU receives a job externally and instructs the secondary CPU to monitor and control the image forming unit to perform the image forming processing;
• sensors that sense a state of the image forming unit and output sensor data indicating the state of the image forming unit,
• a first transceiver connected to the secondary CPU;
• and
• a second transceiver connected the secondary CPU, wherein
• the secondary CPU monitors the sensor data to generate diagnostic data,
• the first transceiver performs duplex communication with the primary CPU to send and receive data other than the diagnostic data,
• the second transceiver sends the diagnostic data to the diagnostic server without relaying via the primary CPU, and
• the diagnostic server receives the diagnostic data from the image forming apparatus to perform failure diagnostics and lifespan diagnostics on the image forming apparatus.

An image forming apparatus diagnostic system comprising:

• a diagnostic server;
• a parent diagnostic server;
• and
• an image forming apparatus that comprises:
• an image forming unit that performs image forming processing on a recording sheet;
• a primary central processing unit (CPU) and a secondary CPU, wherein the primary CPU receives a job externally and instructs the secondary CPU to monitor and control the image forming unit to perform the image forming processing;
• sensors that sense a state of the image forming unit and output sensor data indicating the state of the image forming unit,
• a first transceiver connected to the secondary CPU;
• and
• a second transceiver connected the secondary CPU, wherein
• the secondary CPU monitors the sensor data to generate diagnostic data,
• the first transceiver performs duplex communication with the primary CPU to send and receive data other than the diagnostic data,
• the second transceiver sends the diagnostic data to the diagnostic server without relaying via the primary CPU,
• the secondary CPU compresses the sensor data to obtain compressed sensor data, and attaches identification data to the sensor data and the compressed sensor data,
• the identification data indicates a correspondence between the sensor data and the compressed sensor data,
• the first transceiver sends the compressed sensor data with the identification data to the parent diagnostic server via the primary CPU,
• the second transceiver sends the sensor data with the identification data as the diagnostic data to the diagnostic server,
• the diagnostic server:
• receives the diagnostic data from the image forming apparatus;
• refers to the diagnostic data to generate a diagnostics result of failure diagnostics and lifespan diagnostics of the image forming apparatus using a diagnostics method;
• attaches, to the diagnostics result, the identification data attached to the sensor data;
• and
• sends the diagnostics result with the identification data to the parent diagnostic server, and
• the parent diagnostic server:
• receives the compressed sensor data with the identification data from the image forming apparatus;
• receives the diagnostics result with the identification data from the diagnostic server;
• refers to the compressed sensor data and the diagnostics result to generate an analysis result;
• and
• sends the analysis result to the diagnostic server, and
• upon receiving the analysis result from the parent diagnostic server, the diagnostic server updates the diagnostics method based on the analysis result.