JP2001076410A - Disk changer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a compact disk changer capable of changing a disk by drawing out a carousel from a casing during the playing back of another disk, although it can load a number of 12 cm disks. SOLUTION: A carousel 7 rotatably supported on a sliding tray 8 is provided with a first disk loading section 9, and plural second disk loading sections 10 in the peripheral edge side of the first disk loading section 9. By a disk conveying arm 11, a disk is conveyed by the same radial track 6 between the first disk loading section 9 or respective second disk loading sections 10 and a third disk loading section 24 provided in a driving mechanism 21 for recording/playing back the disk.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a disc changer for selecting and recording an arbitrary disc from a plurality of stored discs, and more particularly to a carousel type disc changer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional carousel type disc changer, for example, there is a disc player device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 5-347063. As shown in FIGS. 16 and 17, this disc player apparatus has a rotatable carousel 9 having a plurality of small-diameter disc mounting portions 91 provided discretely on a peripheral side around a large-diameter disc mounting portion 90.
2 and a movable chassis 95 on which a large-diameter and small-diameter disk dual-purpose spindle motor 93, a pickup 94 and the like are mounted. In this structure, a desired disk is selected from a plurality of small-diameter disks.

As shown in FIGS. 18 and 19, a disk reproducing apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-4964 has a plurality of small-diameter disk mounting portions 101 centered on a large-diameter disk mounting portion 100. , A rotatable carousel 102 discretely provided on the peripheral side, a spindle motor 103 dedicated to a large-diameter disk, a spindle motor 104 dedicated to a small-diameter disk,
It has a fixed chassis 106 on which a pickup 105 and the like are mounted, and has a structure in which the carousel 102 rotates to select a desired disk from a plurality of small-diameter disks.

[0004] However, in the structures described in JP-A-5-347063 and JP-A-6-4964, it is not possible to pull out the carousel from the housing during the reproduction of the small-diameter disc and replace the other small-diameter disc. Met. That is, when trying to set a new small-diameter disc on the carousel, the reproduction must be temporarily stopped, and a long waiting time is required until the next reproduction starts. For this reason, continuous playback was not possible, and the convenience was inconvenient.

[0005] In the disk reproducing apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-304771, five disks can be placed on a tray, and when one disk is being reproduced, the tray is protruded from the main body of the reproducing apparatus. , So that other disks can be replaced.

However, in the structure described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-304771, it is possible to place six 12 cm disks in order to suppress the width to around 440 mm. In the case of placing more than one disc, the width must be further increased, and the size of the disc reproducing apparatus becomes large, so that the disc reproducing apparatus cannot be stored in a rack for audio equipment.

Generally, the width of an audio device (for example, an amplifier or a CD player) is about 440 mm, and a device having this width can be stored in a rack or the like for storing the audio device.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems by allowing the carousel to be pulled out of the housing during disc playback so that another disc can be replaced. An object of the present invention is to provide a small-sized disc changer in which a disc can be placed.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, a disc changer according to the present invention is characterized in that a carousel rotatably supported on a slide tray includes a first disc mounting portion and the first disc mounting portion. A plurality of second disk mounting portions are provided on the peripheral side of one disk mounting portion, and the disk transport arm records and reproduces the provided first disk mounting portion or each of the second disk mounting portions and the disk. The object of the present invention is to transport a disk to and from a third disk mounting portion provided in a drive mechanism.

Specifically, the present invention provides the following disc changers. The present invention relates to a housing, a slide tray that is moved to and stored in and discharged from the housing, a carousel rotatably supported by the slide tray, and an upper surface of the carousel and a center of rotation of the carousel. A first disk mounting portion provided on the first disk mounting portion, a plurality of second disk mounting portions provided on a peripheral side of the first disk mounting portion, and a drive mechanism disposed on the housing for recording and reproducing a disk. A third disk mounting portion provided in the drive mechanism, and a disk for transporting the disk between the first disk mounting portion or each of the second disk mounting portions and the third disk mounting portion. A disc changer comprising a transfer arm.

Preferably, the disk transfer arm is
The disk is conveyed by moving along one of the same radius trajectory or the same linear trajectory between the first disk mounting portion, one of the second disk mounting portions, and the third disk mounting portion.

Preferably, the slide tray is configured to be able to be pulled out and inserted into the housing during recording and reproduction of a disk by the drive mechanism.

Preferably, detecting means for detecting whether the disk being recorded or reproduced is a disk transported from the first disk mounting portion or a disk transported from one of the second disk mounting portions, When the detected disk is a disk transported from the first disk mounting portion, an amount of pulling out the slide tray is adjusted so that the first disk mounting portion does not protrude from the housing, and the detection is performed. When the disc that has been recorded is a disc transported from one of the second disc mounting sections, the second disc mounting section on which the recording / reproducing disc is mounted does not protrude from the housing. And an adjusting means for adjusting the amount of pulling out of the slide tray.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a disc changer according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic top view of a disk transport mechanism of a disk changer according to a first embodiment of the present invention, showing a disk transport trajectory.

FIG. 1 shows a first carousel 7 provided on a carousel 7.
The disk loading section 9, the second disk loading section 10, and the disk loading section 24 provided on the drive mechanism tray 23 are viewed from the top of the housing 15.
Reference numeral 1 denotes a state in which the disc 1 can move from the rotation center 5 of the disk transfer arm 11 on the same radius orbit 6.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the entire structure of the disk changer of FIG. 1 including the disk transport mechanism.

The carousel 7 is rotatably supported by a slide tray 8 and has a first disk mounting portion 9 at a central portion and second disk mounting portions 10a to 10f at a peripheral portion. The two disk mounting portions 10a to 10f are arranged concentrically at intervals of 60 degrees from the rotation center of the carousel 7. As described above, since the disc 25 (12 cm disc) can be placed at the center of the carousel 7, seven discs 25 can be placed on the carousel 7.

The disk transport arm 11 is supported by a base 12 so as to be able to move up and down and rotate by an arm driving mechanism 14, and a distal end portion 13 of the disk transport arm 11 is connected to the first disk mounting portion 9 or the second disk mounting portion 10a to 10f. By being inserted into the center hole 25a of the loaded disk 25, the tip 13
The disk 25 is configured to be gripped by a disk catch mechanism (not shown) provided in the apparatus.

The slide tray 8 is slidably supported by the housing 15 and rotatably supports the carousel 7.

The slide tray drive mechanism 16 includes a housing 15
And drives the slide tray 8. The slide tray drive mechanism 16 has a rack-and-pinion gear structure. When the slide tray 8 is manually pushed in by a few millimeters, a switch (not shown) detects the operation, and the slide tray drive mechanism 16 operates to operate the slide tray 8. Is drawn into the housing 15.

The carousel rotation drive mechanism 18 is fixed to the slide tray 8 and rotates the carousel 7. Note that the carousel rotation drive mechanism 18 has a worm-and-wheel gear structure, and cannot manually rotate the carousel 7. That is, when the carousel rotation drive mechanism 18 is stopped, the carousel 7 is locked.

The address button 19 is arranged on the front of the housing 15 and drives the carousel rotation drive mechanism 18 by an electric control circuit (not shown).

The eject button 20 is disposed on the front of the housing 15 and drives the slide tray drive mechanism 16 by an electric control circuit (not shown).

The drive mechanism 21 is fixed to the housing 15 and has a turntable (not shown) for reproducing a disk, a pickup (not shown), a clamp mechanism 22 and the like inside. The disk 25 is placed on a third disk mounting portion 24 provided on the tray 23 and can be taken in and out. The disk tray 23 is configured to be slidable by a control circuit (not shown) in conjunction with the operation of the disk transfer arm 11.

As shown in FIG. 2, the disk changer constructed as described above is mounted on the disk 25 mounted on the first disk mounting portion 9 of the carousel 7 or on the second disk mounting portions 10a to 10f. One of the loaded disks 25 is moved by the disk transport arm 11 to the drive mechanism 21.
The disc tray 23 is loaded on the third disc mounting portion 24 provided on the disc tray 23, and the disc tray 23 is loaded to perform recording and reproduction.

Next, the details of the disk transport operation of the disk changer according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIGS.

As shown in FIG. 2, first, seven disks 25 are respectively mounted on the first disk mounting portion 9 and the second disk mounting portions 10a to 10f of the carousel 7, and the slide tray 8 is pushed to move the housing. It is drawn into the body 15.

Next, a desired disk 25 is selected by pressing the address button 19. When the address button 19 is pressed, the carousel 7 rotates, and when the desired position of the disk 25 is on the circular orbit 6 of the disk transfer arm 11 shown in FIG. 1, the rotation of the carousel 7 is stopped. At this time, the disk mounting portion 24 of the disk tray 23 of the drive mechanism 21 is on the circular orbit 6. Therefore, the selected disk 2
If the disk 5 is a peripheral disk, the second disk mount 10
Stop at the position.

Next, as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the disk 25 stopped at the position of the second disk mounting portion 10 is moved by the disk catching mechanism of the distal end portion 13 of the disk transfer arm 11 moved from the center. It is grabbed, lifted as shown in FIG. 5, and conveyed to and placed on the disk mounting portion 24 of the disk tray 23 of the drive mechanism 21 as shown in FIG.

Next, as shown in FIG. 7, the disc tray 23 on which the disc 25 is placed is loaded on the drive mechanism 21, and reproduction is performed.

The carousel 7 from the drive mechanism 21
The operation of transporting the disk 25 to the above is the reverse operation of the above, and the description is omitted.

The tip 1 of the disk transfer arm 11
The disk catch mechanism 3 is a mechanism for gripping the disk center hole 25a, but may be a structure for gripping the outer periphery of the disk or a structure for sucking the disk surface.

The disc changer of this embodiment is
One of the seven disks 25 mounted on the carousel 7
When recording / reproducing of one disk 25 is performed, the slide tray 8 is protruded from the housing 15 and the other six disks 25 placed on the carousel 7 can be replaced.

In the first embodiment, only one drive mechanism 21 is mounted. However, as shown in FIG. , Or more.

By mounting the drive mechanism 21 on top of one another, a plurality of disks 25 can be recorded and reproduced at the same time. The other disk 25 placed on the carousel 7 can be replaced with a disk on hand.

Further, in the disk changer of the above-described embodiment, the disk 25 can be mounted also at the center of the carousel 7 and the disk mounting efficiency is improved, so that a total of seven disks 25 are mounted. And the width of the housing 15, that is, the width of the device can be set to about 440 mm.

Next, a mechanism for preventing double insertion of the disk when the slide tray is pulled out during reproduction of the disk will be described with reference to FIGS.
This will be described with reference to FIG.

The mechanism for preventing double insertion of the disk is such that when the slide tray 8 is pulled out of the housing 15 during reproduction of the disk, the disk 25 being reproduced is further placed on the mounting portion to be returned after reproduction. This is a mechanism to prevent erroneous operation of mounting. The following embodiment is an example in which one drive mechanism is mounted.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the construction of the mechanism for preventing double insertion of a disk. The mechanism for preventing double insertion of the disk is such that the disk 25 being reproduced by the drive mechanism 21 is moved to the first disk mounting portion 46.
From the disk transported from the second disk mounting portion 40-4
A detecting means for detecting whether the disc has been transported from one of the first and fifth discs,
In the case of a disk transported from the disk tray, the amount of pull-out of the slide tray 8 is adjusted so that the first disk mounting portion 46 does not protrude from the housing 15, and the detected disk is moved to the second disk mounting portion 40 to 45. When the disc is conveyed from one of them, an adjusting means for adjusting the amount of pulling out of the slide tray 8 so that the second disc mounting portion on which the disc being reproduced is mounted does not protrude from the housing 15; have.

More specifically, the mechanism for preventing double insertion of the disc is provided with a guide groove 30 formed on the back of the carousel 7.
A J-shaped guide groove 31 formed on the back of the slide tray 8 and having a J-shaped structure including a long groove portion 32 and a short groove portion 33; a slide lever 34 slidably supported by the slide tray 8; Fixed, guide groove 3
A pin 35 that slides to zero, a rotation lever 36 that is rotatably supported by the housing 15, a spring 37 that biases the rotation lever 36, and is fixed to the tip of the rotation lever 36, and is fixed to the J-shaped guide groove 31. And an engaging pin 38.

The operation of preventing double insertion of a disk according to the above configuration will be described below.

First, the disk 2 at the periphery of the carousel 7
9 and FIG. 10 show the operation of preventing double insertion during reproduction of FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIG. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the disk 25 of the disk mounting unit 40 is being reproduced.

First, the carousel rotation drive mechanism 18
As shown in FIG. 10, the disc mounting portion 40 of the disc 25 being reproduced is rotated to the rear of the housing 15, and the slide tray 8 is pulled out of the housing 15 in the arrow direction with the carousel 7 locked.

When the slide tray 8 is pulled out, as shown in FIG. 11, the slide lever 34 slid by the guide groove 30 presses the pin 38 of the rotary lever 36, and the pin 39 enters the long groove 32 of the guide groove 31. As shown in FIG. 12, since the long groove 32 is locked to the pin 39, the slide tray 8 cannot be manually pulled out any more.

Here, the disk mounting portions 42, 43, 4
4, 45 and 46 disks can be exchanged, and the carousel rotation drive mechanism 18 moves the carousel 7 in the R direction by 6
When rotated 0 degrees, the disc mounting section 4 can exchange discs.
Since 1 protrudes from the housing 15, all disks other than the disk being reproduced can be replaced. Since the disk mounting portion 40 during reproduction is always hidden by the housing 15, it is possible to prevent the disk 25 from being inserted into the disk mounting portion 40 by mistake.

Next, the disk 25 at the center of the carousel 7
Will be described with reference to FIGS. 13 and 14. FIG.

First, each disk mounting portion at the peripheral portion is shown in FIG.
The carousel 7 is rotated so as to be in a position as shown in FIG. 3, and then the slide tray 8 is pulled out from the housing 15 in the direction of the arrow. When the slide tray 8 is pulled out, the pin 38 of the rotation lever 36 is not pressed by the slide lever 34 and the pin 39
Enters the short groove 33 of the guide groove 31, and the short groove 33 is locked to the pin 39 as shown in FIG. Therefore, the slide tray 8 cannot be manually pulled out any more.

Next, it is possible to rotate the carousel 7 by 60 degrees by the carousel rotation drive mechanism 18 to sequentially eject the six peripheral disks from the housing 15 and replace them. Since the mounting portion 46 is always hidden by the housing 15, it is possible to prevent a disk from being inserted into the disk mounting portion 46 by mistake.

FIG. 15 is a schematic top view of a disk transport mechanism of a disk changer according to a second embodiment of the present invention, showing a disk transport trajectory.

As shown in FIG. 15, the carousel 50
It is rotatably supported by the slide tray 51 and has a first disk mounting portion 52 at the center and second disk mounting portions 53a to 53f at the peripheral portion. Note that the second disk mounting portions 53a to 53f53 at the peripheral edge are arranged concentrically at an interval of 60 degrees from the rotation center of the carousel 50.

The disk transfer arm 54 is supported by a base 55 so as to be able to move up and down and slide by an arm drive mechanism 56. The disk transfer arm 54 has a first disk mounting portion 52 at the center and a first edge at a peripheral portion stopped at a predetermined position. 2 disk mounting part 53a
And the third disk mounting portion 59 of the disk tray 58 of the drive mechanism 57 is connected to the linear
It is driven by. Note that the other principles of the disk transport operation and the double insertion prevention operation are the same as those of the first embodiment, and thus description thereof is omitted.

In this embodiment, as in the first embodiment, the disk 25 can be mounted also at the center of the carousel 7 and the disk mounting efficiency is improved.
The number of disks 25 can be placed, and the width of the housing 15
That is, it is possible to make the width of the device around 440 mm.

[0054]

According to the present invention, the carousel can be pulled out of the housing and another disk can be replaced while the disk is being played, so that continuous playback can be performed without interruption of playback stoppage due to the replacement of the disk. Satisfaction can be improved.

In addition, although a large number of 12 cm disks, that is, seven 12 cm disks, can be placed, the width of the disk changer can be accommodated within the standard width of a small audio equipment. Can be stored in a rack for use, and user satisfaction can be further improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic top view of a disk transport mechanism of a disk changer according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the entire configuration of the disk changer of FIG. 1 including a disk transport mechanism.

3 is a perspective view showing a disk transport operation of the disk changer of FIG. 2 and showing movement of a disk transport arm.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a disk transport operation of the disk changer of FIG. 2 and showing a state where a disk transport arm grips the disk.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a disk transport operation of the disk changer of FIG. 2 and showing a state where a disk transport arm lifts and moves the disk.

6 is a perspective view showing a disk transport operation of the disk changer of FIG. 2 and showing a state where the disk is mounted on a disk mounting portion of a drive mechanism.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing a disk transport operation of the disk changer of FIG. 2, and showing a state where a disk is loaded and reproduced.

8 is a perspective view in which two drive mechanisms of FIG. 2 are stacked and mounted.

9 is an exploded perspective view illustrating a mechanism for preventing double insertion of a disc in the disc changer of FIG. 2;

10 is an upper surface interlocking diagram of the disk double insertion prevention mechanism of FIG. 9 and is an explanatory diagram of the double insertion prevention operation when the disk at the peripheral portion is being reproduced, and is a diagram when the slide tray is pulled out of the housing. It is.

11 is an upper surface interlocking diagram of the disk double insertion prevention mechanism of FIG. 9, illustrating the double insertion prevention operation when the disk at the peripheral portion is being reproduced, in which the slide tray is pulled out of the housing; It is.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory view of a double insertion preventing operation of the disk double insertion prevention mechanism of FIG. 9 when the disk at the peripheral portion is being played back, and is drawn out of the housing until the slide tray stops. FIG.

13 is an upper surface interlocking diagram of the disk double insertion prevention mechanism of FIG. 9 and is an explanatory diagram of the double insertion prevention operation when the disk in the center of the carousel is being reproduced, and illustrates the operation when the slide tray is pulled out of the housing. FIG.

14 is an upper surface interlocking diagram of the disk double insertion prevention mechanism of FIG. 9, illustrating the double insertion prevention operation when the disk in the center of the carousel is being reproduced, and pulled out of the housing until the slide tray stops. FIG.

FIG. 15 is a schematic top view of a disk transport mechanism of a disk changer according to a second embodiment of the present invention, showing a disk transport trajectory.

FIG. 16 is a configuration diagram of a disc mounting portion of a conventional carousel-type disc changer when reproducing a large-diameter disc.

17 is a configuration diagram of a disc mounting portion of the carousel-type disc changer of FIG. 16 during reproduction of a small-diameter disc.

FIG. 18 is a configuration diagram of a disc mounting portion of a conventional carousel-type disc changer when reproducing a small-diameter disc.

19 is a configuration diagram of a disc mounting portion of the carousel-type disc changer of FIG. 18 during reproduction of a large-diameter disc.

[Explanation of symbols]

6: same radius track, 7,50: carousel, 8,51: slide tray, 9,52: first disk mounting part, 10,5
3. Second disk mounting portion, 10a to 10f, 53a to 53
f: second disk mounting portion at the periphery, 11, 54: disk transfer arm, 12, 55: base, 13: arm tip, 15, 60: housing, 16: slide tray drive mechanism, 18: carousel Rotary drive mechanism, 21, 57 drive mechanism, 22 clamp mechanism, 23, 58 disk tray, 24, 59 third disk mounting part, 25 disk, 30 guide groove, 31 J-shaped guide groove 32 long groove, 33 short groove, 34 slide lever, 35, 3
8, 39 ... pin, 36 ... rotating lever, 37 ... spring, 40
... Reproducing disc mounting portion, 41. Replaceable disc mounting portion, 56. Arm drive mechanism, 61.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A housing, a slide tray which is moved to and stored in and discharged from the housing, a carousel rotatably supported by the slide tray, and a center of rotation of the carousel on an upper surface of the carousel. A first disk mounting portion provided on the portion, a plurality of second disk mounting portions provided on a peripheral edge side of the first disk mounting portion, and a drive mechanism disposed on the housing for recording and reproducing a disk And transporting the disk between a third disk mounting portion provided on the drive mechanism and the first disk mounting portion or each of the second disk mounting portions and the third disk mounting portion. A disc changer comprising a disc transfer arm. 2. The disk transport arm according to claim 1, wherein the disk transfer arm has the same position between the first disk mount, one of the second disk mounts, and the third disk mount. A disk changer that moves along a radial orbit and a same linear orbit to transport the disk. 3. A disc changer according to claim 1, wherein said slide tray is configured to be able to be pulled out and inserted into said housing during disc recording and reproduction by said drive mechanism. 4. The disk according to claim 1, wherein the disk being recorded or reproduced is transported from one of the disk transported from the first disk mounting portion and the second disk mounting portion. Detecting means for detecting whether the disc is a disc, and when the detected disc is a disc conveyed from the first disc mounting portion, the slide tray is disposed so that the first disc mounting portion does not protrude from the housing. When the detected disk is a disk transported from one of the second disk mounting portions, the second disk mounting portion on which the recording / reproducing disk is mounted is adjusted. Adjusting means for adjusting the amount of pulling out of the slide tray so as not to protrude from the housing.
A disc changer comprising a double insertion prevention mechanism.