Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G11—INFORMATION STORAGE
  • G11B—INFORMATION STORAGE BASED ON RELATIVE MOVEMENT BETWEEN RECORD CARRIER AND TRANSDUCER
  • G11B25/00—Apparatus characterised by the shape of record carrier employed but not specific to the method of recording or reproducing, e.g. dictating apparatus; Combinations of such apparatus
  • G11B25/06—Apparatus characterised by the shape of record carrier employed but not specific to the method of recording or reproducing, e.g. dictating apparatus; Combinations of such apparatus using web-form record carriers, e.g. tape
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G11—INFORMATION STORAGE
  • G11B—INFORMATION STORAGE BASED ON RELATIVE MOVEMENT BETWEEN RECORD CARRIER AND TRANSDUCER
  • G11B15/00—Driving, starting or stopping record carriers of filamentary or web form; Driving both such record carriers and heads; Guiding such record carriers or containers therefor; Control thereof; Control of operating function
  • G11B15/18—Driving; Starting; Stopping; Arrangements for control or regulation thereof
  • G11B15/40—Driving record carriers otherwise than by electric motor
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G11—INFORMATION STORAGE
  • G11B—INFORMATION STORAGE BASED ON RELATIVE MOVEMENT BETWEEN RECORD CARRIER AND TRANSDUCER
  • G11B33/00—Constructional parts, details or accessories not provided for in the other groups of this subclass
  • G11B33/02—Cabinets; Cases; Stands; Disposition of apparatus therein or thereon
  • G11B33/06—Cabinets; Cases; Stands; Disposition of apparatus therein or thereon combined with other apparatus having a different main function

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a voice correspondence object of the type consisting of a postcard provided with a sound recording and reproduction device integrated in a housing adapted to the card.
• EP 0207258 This comprises a magnetic strip, a read / write head coupled to an electronic device capable of recording and reproducing sound as well as a mechanism for motorized drive and a current source for supplying electrical power to the assembly.
• the magnetic tape is wound on a tape transport wheel which is driven by a mechanical system actuated by an electric motor or by a spiral or barrel spring motor.
• the spring of the latter is fixed inside a drive drum and is reassembled by a winder or any other resetting device.
• a read / write head in contact with the magnetic tape allows the recording and reproduction of sound.
• the electrical energy is supplied by a battery encapsulated in the card.
• the sender of the postcard can send a personalized voice message to his recipient who can listen to it again at will.
• the device becomes unusable quickly enough except to replace the battery with another which requires an operation to disassemble the battery from its capsule. with a risk of damage to the card.
• re-listening to the postcard after several months without having been used is generally not possible because in the meantime the battery has lost its capacity.
• cards of the aforementioned type do not support storage well when these include electrolytic batteries because the electrolyte which they contain always ends up escaping and damaging the postcard. The use of mercury batteries is also undesirable because of the danger they pose to the environment.
• the main object of the invention is to provide an object of vocal correspondence without battery allowing however a perfect recording and a perfect reproduction of sounds.
• the main idea of the invention consists in using exclusively the mechanical energy supplied by a spring which goes up manually to drive on the one hand the drive mechanism of the magnetic strip and on the other hand the generator of electrical energy.
• the invention therefore relates to a voice correspondence object comprising a sound recording medium such as a magnetic tape, a read / write head, an electronic device connected to the read / write head for recording the sound on the recording medium, a loudspeaker, a drive mechanism for the magnetic tape, and a spring intended to move the drive mechanism when it has been reassembled, but also a current generator to power the electronic device and a means generator driven by the spring when the latter is raised.
• a sound recording medium such as a magnetic tape
• a read / write head an electronic device connected to the read / write head for recording the sound on the recording medium
• a loudspeaker a drive mechanism for the magnetic tape
• a spring intended to move the drive mechanism when it has been reassembled, but also a current generator to power the electronic device and a means generator driven by the spring when the latter is raised.
• the main advantage of using a current generator is that it can allow listening to correspondence recorded on the magnetic tape even after several years, which similar devices of the prior art powered by batteries cannot allow.
• FIGS. 2 and 3 are block diagrams respectively representing two embodiments of the circuits necessary for recording and playing sound in the voice correspondence object according to the invention.
• the object of voice correspondence according to the invention which is represented in FIG. 1 is more particularly intended to be integrated on a support having the format of a postcard but nothing prevents it from being able to be integrated into other supports of different shapes.
• rewinding wheel 4 This comprises, arranged inside a housing 1, a magnetic strip 2 moving in front of a read / write head 3 and wound from each of its ends respectively on two transport wheels hereinafter referred to as rewinding wheel 4 and recording / reading wheel 5.
• the wheels 4 and 5 have substantially identical dimensions and are driven simultaneously and in opposite directions to each other by a cocking wheel 6.
• the cocking wheel 6 is linked to a first end 7a of a spiral spring 7 which is wound around its axis of rotation 8.
• the other end 7b of the spiral spring 7 is fixed to the housing 1.
• the rewinding wheel 4 is serrated on its periphery and is locked in rotation in the opposite direction to that of the rewinding by a non-return pawl composed of a ratchet 9 and a spring 10.
• the spring 10 presses the ratchet 9 between two teeth of the rewinding wheel 4 when the spring 1 is wound up.
• the non-return pawl is disengaged by a push button 11 in order to allow, when the spring 7 has been wound, the rotation of the arming route 6 under the action of the spring 7 and the rotation drive of the wheels 4 and 5 causing the magnetic strip 2 to scroll in front of the read / write head 3.
• the wheels 4 and 5 are coupled to the cocking wheel 6 by two reducers formed respectively by two toothed wheels 12 and 13 concentric with the wheels 4 and 5 which mesh on teeth 14 disposed at the periphery of the cocking wheel 6.
• the teeth 14 are flush with the exterior surface of the housing 1 by one of its sides through a window 15 to allow, by manual drive of the cocking wheel 6, the winding of the spring 7 and the winding of the strip magnetic 2 on the rewinding wheel 4. It should be noted that unlike a purely manual drive as is the case in US patent 4,001,887, the manual energy of the user which is necessarily irregular, is transformed into a potential energy in the spring which is exerted in a regular and uniform way as everyone knows.
• the recording / reading wheel 5 also includes drive teeth arranged on its periphery for driving the rotor of a current generator 18 in rotation by means of a bench of speed multiplier cogs 19a, 19b , 19c.
• the generator is rotated by the recording / playback wheel 5, it goes without saying that the generator could be rotated directly by the cocking wheel 6 by means of the multiplier cogs of speed 19a, 19b, 19c which, in this case, would mesh on the cocking wheel 6 and not on the recording / reading wheel 5.
• All or part of the devices which have just been described can be placed in front of a transparent window (not shown) arranged on the housing to reveal the movement of the wheels during the recording and reading operations.
• the tension of the spring 7 and the ratios of the pinions are determined to obtain a continuous rotation of the generator 18 for 30 or 40 seconds with a speed of approximately 3000t / s, and a displacement magnetic tape 2 of about 5 cm / s over a length of about 235 cm, which corresponds to a rotation of about 15 turns of the wheels 4 and 5.
• a viscous friction torque to the output shaft of the generator 18 by means of an eddy disc for example, not shown.
• the generator 18 supplies the electrical energy necessary for supplying the sound recording and restoring circuits.
• the generator must be able to deliver a power of around 120 mW, which can be obtained for example with a conventional asynchronous three-phase current generator.
• the electronic circuits necessary for recording and reproducing the sound are arranged on a printed circuit represented with the reference 20 in FIG. 1.
• the sound recording and restitution circuits essentially comprise an amplifier 21 coupled to an input to a microphone 22 via a switch 23 with two states “Write E” and “Play L “And coupled on its output on the one hand, to a loudspeaker 24 and on the other hand, to the read / write head 3 by means of a switch 25 with two states” Write E “and” Read L ".
• the signal supplied by the microphone 22 is amplified by the amplifier 21 and is applied to the writing head 3 which records it on the magnetic tape 2.
• the signal supplied by the recording head 3 is applied to the input of the amplifier 21 to be amplified and retransmitted in the form of a sound by the loudspeaker 24.
• the switches 23 and 25 can be actuated by a single push button which is pressed to perform the recording and which returns the assembly to reading mode when it is released.
• a frequency generator (not shown) applying a signal with a frequency greater than that of the sound on the read / write head 3 can be provided to possibly erase the magnetic tape before any new recording.
• a device for detecting the end of travel 26 of the strip definitively inhibits the transmission of the signal from the microphone 22 to the recording / reading head 3.
• the amplifier 21 is mounted as a differential amplifier and the limit switch 26 is placed in series between the switch 23 and the input marked “-” on amplifier 21 via an RI resistor.
• a micro-contact 28 of the detector 26 places the end of the resistor RI not connected to the input "-" of the amplifier 21 to the ground potential of the circuit in an irreversible manner, so that the device is only able to operate in read mode.
• the detector 26 can be produced by any known means, either by means of a cam driven in rotation by a reduction gear coupled to the rewinding wheel 4 and which pushes a retractable micro-contact 28 when the magnetic strip is at the end. stroke, or again using a magnet driven by a reducer which causes a blade of the microswitch 28 to ground to tip at the end of the stroke.
• the reduction ratio of the reducer is determined so that the cam rotates by an angle less than 360 degrees for the duration of the movement of the magnetic strip 2.
• the detector 26 can be produced using means electronic devices capable of memorizing, using a non-volatile memory, the end-of-travel state of the magnetic strip 2, this state then being signaled by the detection the presence of a marker, not shown, carried by the magnetic strip 2.
• the assembly constituted by the electronic device 21, the magnetic strip 2, and the read head 3 by an electronic microcircuit such as a chip comprising means for encoding, storing and decoding sound.
• the electric power generator 18 which feeds said micro-circuit is rotated directly by the cocking wheel as described above or by means of wheel 5 which, then, has only a role of drive wheel.
• the cocking wheel is still driven by a spring similar to that shown in FIG. 1, but the rewinding wheel 4 no longer exists.
• the non-return pawl composed of the ratchet 9 and the spring 10 must be placed on the drive wheel 5.

Landscapes

• Recording Or Reproducing By Magnetic Means (AREA)
• Connection Of Motors, Electrical Generators, Mechanical Devices, And The Like (AREA)
• Toys (AREA)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=8849229

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (6)

Families Citing this family (2)

Family Cites Families (12)

• 2000
  • 2000-04-13 FR FR0004769A patent/FR2807865B1/fr not_active Expired - Fee Related
• 2001
  • 2001-04-13 WO PCT/FR2001/001156 patent/WO2001080231A1/fr not_active Ceased
  • 2001-04-13 EP EP01925654A patent/EP1277205A1/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 2001-04-13 JP JP2001577542A patent/JP2003535421A/ja active Pending
  • 2001-04-13 AU AU2001252342A patent/AU2001252342A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2001-04-13 US US10/257,567 patent/US20030151843A1/en not_active Abandoned

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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