1. An inhibiting device for inhibiting reusing a used cartridge, comprising:
a measurer for measuring an estimated used amount of expendable material contained in a cartridge according to actuation of said cartridge, said expendable material being used for forming an image;
a determiner for determining said cartridge as said used cartridge when said estimated used amount reaches a predetermined amount;
an inhibitor for inhibiting reusing said cartridge determined as used by said determiner from being used for forming said image; and
an alarm means for indicating that said cartridge determined as used by said determiner is unusable for forming said image.
2. An inhibiting device as defined in claim 1, wherein:
said cartridge comprises an expendable material chamber for containing said expendable material, a developer roller, and a memory; and
said measurer comprises a detector for detecting rotation of said developer roller, and a writer for writing a cumulative value of a rotation number of said developer roller obtained from a signal from said detector as said estimated used amount.
3. An inhibiting device as defined in claim 2, wherein said measurer, said determiner, said inhibitor, and said alarm means are provided in said cartridge.
4. An inhibiting device as defined in claim 1, wherein:
said cartridge comprises an expendable material chamber for containing said expendable material, a developer roller, a memory, a photoreceptor drum, and a charger roller; and
said measurer comprises a detector for detecting rotation of one of said developer roller, said charger roller, and said photoreceptor drum, and a writer for writing a cumulative value of a rotation number obtained from a signal from said detector as said estimated used amount.
5. An inhibiting device as defined in claim 4, wherein said measurer, said determiner, said inhibitor, and said alarm means are provided in said cartridge.
6. An image forming system including a cartridge and an image forming device in which said cartridge is set in a removable manner, said image forming system comprising:
a measurer for measuring an estimated used amount of expendable material contained in a cartridge according to actuation of said cartridge, said expendable material being used for forming an image;
a determiner for determining said cartridge as said used cartridge when said estimated used amount reaches a predetermined amount;
an inhibitor for inhibiting reusing said cartridge determined as used by said determiner from being used for forming said image; and
an alarm means for indicating that said cartridge determined as used by said determiner is unusable for forming said image.
7. An image forming system as defined in claim 6, wherein:
said measurer, said determiner, said inhibitor, and said alarm means are provided in said cartridge;
said cartridge further comprises an expendable material chamber for containing said expendable material, a developer roller, a memory, a photoreceptor drum, and a charger roller; and
said measurer comprises a detector for detecting rotation of one of said developer roller, said charger roller, and said photoreceptor drum and a writer for writing a cumulative value of a rotation number obtained from a signal from said detector as said estimated used amount.
8. An inhibiting device for inhibiting reusing a used cartridge, comprising:
a measurer for detecting directly a remaining amount of expendable material contained in a cartridge, said expendable material is used for forming an image;
a determiner for determining said cartridge as said used cartridge when said remaining amount of said expendable material detected by said measurer is no more than a predetermined amount;
an inhibitor for inhibiting reusing said cartridge determined as used by said determiner from being used for forming said image; and
an alarm means for indicating that said cartridge determined as used by said determiner is unusable for forming said image.
9. An inhibiting device as defined in claim 8, wherein:
said cartridge comprises an expendable material chamber for containing said expendable material, and a developer roller; and
said measurer is provided in said expendable material chamber and includes a photo sensor for measuring said remaining amount of said expendable material in an optical manner.
10. An inhibiting device as defined in claim 9, wherein said cartridge further comprises a photoreceptor drum and a charger roller.
11. An inhibiting device as defined in claim 10, wherein said measurer, said determiner, said inhibitor, and said alarm means are provided in said cartridge.
12. An image forming system including a cartridge and an image forming device in which said cartridge is set in a removable manner, said image forming system comprising:
a measurer for detecting directly a remaining amount of expendable material contained in a cartridge, said expendable material is used for forming an image;
a determiner for determining said cartridge as said used cartridge when said remaining amount of said expendable material detected by said measurer is no more than a predetermined amount;
an inhibitor for inhibiting reusing said cartridge determined as used by said determiner from being used for forming said image; and
an alarm means for indicating that said cartridge determined as used by said determiner is unusable for forming said image.
13. An image forming system as defined in claim 12, wherein said measurer, said determiner, said inhibitor, and said alarm means are provided in said cartridge.
14. An image forming system as defined in claim 13, wherein:
said cartridge further comprises an expendable material chamber for containing said expendable material, and a developer roller; and
said measurer is provided in said expendable material chamber and includes a photo sensor for measuring said remaining amount of said expendable material in an optical manner.
15. An image forming system as defined in claim 14, wherein said cartridge further comprises a photoreceptor drum and a charger roller.
16. An inhibiting device for inhibiting reusing a used cartridge, comprising:
a measurer for measuring an estimated remaining amount of expendable material contained in a cartridge according to actuation of said cartridge, said expendable material being used for forming an image;
a determiner for determining said cartridge as said used cartridge when said estimated remaining amount is no more than a predetermined amount;
an inhibitor for inhibiting reusing said cartridge determined as used by said determiner from being used for forming said image; and
an alarm means for indicating that said cartridge determined as used by said determiner is unusable for forming said image.
17. An image forming system including a cartridge and an image forming device in which said cartridge is set in a removable manner, said image forming system comprising:
a measurer for measuring an estimated remaining amount of expendable material contained in a cartridge according to actuation of a cartridge, said expendable material is used for forming an image;
a determiner for determining said cartridge as said used cartridge when said estimated remaining amount is no more than a predetermined amount;
an inhibitor for inhibiting reusing said cartridge determined as used by said determiner from being used for forming said image; and
an alarm means for indicating that said cartridge determined as used by said determiner is unusable for forming said image.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. An optical repeater for receiving an optical signal from an upstream node and for transmitting a regenerated copy of the received optical signal to a downstream node, the repeater comprising:
an optical to electrical converter for generating an electrical domain signal in accordance with the received optical signal;
a clock recovery device for recovering a clocking signal from the electrical domain signal;
a framer for reframing the electrical domain signal in accordance with input and output domain clocking signals;
an electrical to optical converter for converting the reframed electrical domain signal into an optical signal, and for transmitting the optical converted signal for a downstream node;
a local clock for generating a local clocking signal;
a beat detector having
a multiplier for multiplying the recovered clock signal with the local clocking signal,
a trigger for receiving the multiplied clock signals from the multiplier and for generating an output having first value when a component of the multiplied clock signals exceeds a threshold, and a second output value distinct from the first value when the component of the multiplied clock signal does not exceed a threshold, and
a window detector for receiving the output of the trigger and for generating a signal indicative of drift in the recovered clock signal when the frequency in change between the first value and second value of the trigger is outside of a predefined window; and
a switch for providing the framer with one of the recovered clocking signal and the local clocking signal as the input domain clocking signal in accordance with the signal indicative of drift.
2. The optical repeater of claim 1 wherein the optical signal is an optical pulse train.
3. The optical repeater of claim 1 wherein the clock recovery device is a demultiplexer for demultiplexing the electrical domain signal to recover the clocking signal and at least one data signal.
4. The optical repeater of claim 3 wherein the clocking signal is extracted from the at least one data signal.
5. The optical repeater of claim 4 wherein the clocking signal is extracted using edge detection.
6. The optical repeater of claim 3 further including a multiplexer for multiplexing the output of the framer and for providing the multiplexed output to the electrical to optical converter.
7. The optical repeater of claim 6 wherein the framer includes a phase detector for providing an output signal to an oscillator, the oscillator generating a clocking signal used by the multiplexer to create the multiplexed output.
8. The optical repeater of claim 7 wherein the output of the oscillator is provided as the output clocking signal to the framer.
9. The optical repeater of claim 1 wherein the local clock is a free running clock.
10. The optical repeater of claim 1 wherein the local clock is generated by a phase locked loop that receives the recovered clocking signal and generates the local clocking signal in accordance with the received recovered clocking signal.
11. The optical repeater of claim 10 wherein the phase locked loop is connected to a second optical repeater, the second optical repeater for transmitting a regenerated copy of received optical signals from downstream nodes to upstream nodes and using the phase locked loop output signal as a local clocking signal.