JP2002015447A - Disk device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To always keep an objective lens clean even if manual cleaning such as wiping the objective lens 2 with a swab is not performed by removing dirt containing dust and water or the like before it is accumulated on the objective lens 2 and a biaxial driving part 1 of an optical pickup, in a disk device having the optical pickup such as a CD player or an MD player. SOLUTION: Cleaning for the objective lens by applying cleaning signals on driving mechanisms 3-5 which drive the objective lens 2 of the optical pickup and vibrating the objective lens 2 for a specified time (for example, several seconds to several ten seconds) is periodically performed (for example, at the interval of several ten minutes to several hours) when reproducing or recording operation (actual operation) is not performed. Further, when the actual operation is performed, cleaning for the objective lens is preferably performed before and after the actual operation.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a disk device such as a CD (compact disk) player, MD (mini disk) player, DVD (digital video disk) player, etc., which is read or recorded by an optical pickup. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art CD players, MD players or DV players
An optical pickup used for reading or recording signals and data in a D player or the like is exposed to various environments during use, and dust and moisture adhere to the objective lens, causing deterioration of optical characteristics. In this case, the performance of the player or the like may be significantly reduced, and the function may be significantly impaired. In practice, more than 50% of the market defects of CD players and MD players are caused by dirt on the objective lens. Particularly, in the case of in-vehicle players, troubles due to dirt on the objective lens are remarkable.

Conventionally, when the objective lens becomes dirty, the player is disassembled and the surface of the objective lens is wiped off with a cotton swab or the like to remove dirt or the like. However, a lens cleaning disk for cleaning the objective lens is commercially available, and there is a cleaning method using the lens cleaning disk. It is also considered as one of the measures for preventing the objective lens from being stained that the housing of the player has a perfect dust-proof structure to completely prevent intrusion of dust and the like. Also,
A technique for detecting dirt on an objective lens by light from a disk passing through the objective lens, and when detecting dirt, vibrating the objective lens by a mechanism for driving the objective lens to remove dirt by the vibration. Kaihei 8-
315395.

[0004]

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

However, the above-mentioned operation of wiping the surface of the objective lens with a cotton swab or the like has a problem that it requires human labor.
The troublesome work of assembling after cleaning is required.
Also, the operation of wiping the surface of the objective lens with a cotton swab or the like is a troublesome operation that requires attention. This is because the surface of the objective lens is damaged. In particular, in the case where the dirt is strongly adhered to the lens, it is not possible to sufficiently remove the dirt by wiping the lens gently. Therefore, there is a problem that the maintenance burden on the manufacturing company, the sales company or the repair company is large.

The above-described method using a commercially available lens cleaning disk is a method that can be easily performed by the user himself, and can be said to be a good method as long as it is used. However, in many cases, the objective lens and the cleaning disc are too far from each other to be in contact with each other, or the degree of contact is insufficient, so that dirt stuck to the objective lens cannot be removed in many cases. The reality is that you can't.

Although the above-described dustproofing measures for making the player's housing have a perfect dustproof structure are technically possible, they are too costly and cannot be said to be practical at least for consumer goods. The dirt on the objective lens introduced in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-315395 is detected by light from a disk passing through the objective lens, and when the dirt is detected, the objective lens is vibrated by a mechanism for driving the objective lens. According to the above-mentioned prior art, when dirt on an objective lens can be detected by light passing through the lens, the dirt is considerably large and often sticks to the lens surface. Difficult,
In the end, they often remained unclean and required maintenance.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve such a problem. In a disk drive, dust or dirt is added to an objective lens of an optical pickup or a mechanism for driving the objective lens.
Remove any dirt due to moisture etc. before it accumulates without damaging the lens surface, so that the objective lens can always be kept clean without manual cleaning such as wiping the objective lens with a cotton swab etc. With the goal.

[0009]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a disk drive which performs cleaning of an objective lens by applying a cleaning signal to a servo mechanism for driving an objective lens of an optical pickup and vibrating the objective lens for a predetermined time.
When the reproduction or recording operation (main operation) is not performed, the operation is performed periodically.

Therefore, according to the disk device of the first aspect, the objective lens is periodically cleaned by oscillating the objective lens by the biaxial drive unit of the servo mechanism, so that the objective lens is exposed to dust, moisture, and the like. Dirt can be removed before it accumulates, and the top surface of the objective lens can always be kept clean. Therefore, there is no need to manually wipe the objective lens with a swab or the like. In addition, since dirt on the lens surface is removed without contact, there is no possibility of damaging the lens surface. Further, since the objective lens cleaning is automatically performed when the main operation, that is, the reproduction or recording operation is not performed, there is no fear that the automatic objective lens cleaning will interfere with the main operation. Further, not only the objective lens but also dirt attached to, for example, a biaxial mechanism for driving the objective lens can be removed by the vibration.

In the disk device according to the present invention, the objective lens is cleaned before and after the main operation.

Therefore, according to the disk device of the second aspect, the main operation can be started in a state where the objective lens is surely cleaned by the objective lens cleaning before the main operation. In addition, since the objective lens is cleaned after the main operation, dirt generated during the main operation can be removed, the operation can be stopped, the disc can be ejected, and the objective lens can always be kept clean more reliably. .

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a disk device having a cleaning cloth on the upper surface of the objective lens, which is in contact with the objective lens at least when cleaning the objective lens. Therefore, according to the disk device of the third aspect, the objective lens can be cleaned by wiping dirt, moisture and the like with a cleaning cloth in contact with the vibrating objective lens. Therefore, the contamination of the objective lens can be more reliably prevented.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A disk drive according to the present invention basically applies a cleaning signal to a biaxial drive section of a servo mechanism for driving an objective lens of an optical pickup, and vibrates the objective lens for a predetermined time. Is periodically performed when the main operation, that is, the reproduction or recording operation is not performed. More specifically, a cleaning voltage of a constant frequency in the range of several to several KHz, for example, a high voltage of about ± 5 V (depending on the disc device standard) having a frequency of about 30 Hz, for example, is applied to the focusing coil and / or Alternatively, it is performed by vibrating the coil in the horizontal direction and / or the vertical direction by applying the voltage to the trunking coil. The frequency of the cleaning signal may be constant, but may be changed within the above range. Thereby, the cleaning effect can be enhanced. In the case where a servo mechanism for driving an optical pickup including an objective lens is provided with a two-axis drive unit, a cleaning signal is applied to the two-axis drive unit.

One objective lens cleaning may be performed, for example, for several seconds to several tens of seconds. Then, the objective lens cleaning is automatically performed at a fixed period of several ten minutes to several hours, for example, one hour during the stop time of the disk device (when this operation is not performed). This automatic cleaning operation is performed when this operation is not performed, but can be performed by a power supply voltage from a backup power supply that constantly backs up the disk device.

In addition, it is preferable that the objective lens cleaning is automatically performed before and after the actual operation of the disk device, even before the operation is started. Furthermore, for example, a cleaning cloth is placed on the objective lens so that when the objective lens vibrates according to a cleaning signal, the cleaning cloth wipes off dirt and the like on the objective lens so that cleaning can be performed more reliably. Is also good. In this case, it is necessary to provide a mechanism for retracting the cleaning cloth to a position deviating from above the lens when cleaning is not performed.

The present invention relates to a CD player, an MD player,
The present invention can be generally applied to a disk device using an optical pickup, such as a DVD player, and can be applied not only to a device capable of reproducing but also to a device capable of reproducing and recording.

[0018]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the illustrated embodiments. 1 (A), 1 (B) and 2 show one embodiment of the disk drive of the present invention. FIG. 1 illustrates the configuration of the disk drive, and FIG. 2 shows an operation flow. . FIG. 1A showing a configuration of a disk device is a plan view showing a two-axis drive unit of an optical pickup, and FIG. 1B is a circuit block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a control system of the two-axis drive unit.

In the drawing, reference numeral 1 denotes a biaxial driving unit for performing trunking and focusing by driving the objective lens 2 biaxially; 3, a focusing coil for driving the objective lens 2 in the vertical direction to perform focusing; A tracking coil that drives the lens 2 in the lateral direction to perform tracking.

Reference numeral 5 denotes a driver (drive circuit) for supplying a drive current to the focusing coil 3 and tracking coil 4; 6, a digital servo processor (DSP) for controlling the driver 5; and 7, a disk drive. The digital servo processor 6 is also controlled by the microcomputer 7.

The microcomputer 7 issues a cleaning command to the digital servo processor 6 when cleaning should be performed automatically (when it is to be described later). Then, the digital servo processor 6 generates a cleaning signal as shown in FIG. This cleaning signal has a cycle of 1/3.
At 0 seconds (that is, at a frequency of 30 Hz), the driving circuit 5 generates a voltage that causes the focusing coil 3 and the tracking coil 4 to generate sufficient vibration necessary for removing the dirt on the upper surface of the objective lens 2. . The driving circuit 5 includes a focusing coil 3 and a tracking coil 4.
Is different depending on the specification of the apparatus, but is a considerably high voltage such as 5V. Otherwise,
This is because a vibration that removes dirt, moisture, and the like on the surface of the objective lens 2 cannot be obtained.

Next, the operation of the disk drive will be described with reference to FIG. When the flow starts, it is determined whether or not a switch for causing the disk device to perform operations such as reproduction or recording is on (step ST1). The result of the judgment is know N
In the case of "o", in other words, when the timer is not operating, the timer starts (step ST2). This time measurement is a time measurement for measuring the cleaning time, and the time is set to a predetermined time within a range of several ten minutes to several tens of hours, for example, one hour.

Next, it is determined whether or not the time is over (step ST3). That is, whether or not the time has reached the set time (for example, one hour) is determined in step S.
This is performed at T3. If the result of this determination is no, the process returns to step ST2 for timing.
If the result of the determination in step ST3 is Yes, cleaning is performed (step ST4). More specifically, the microcomputer 7 issues a cleaning command to the digital servo processor 6 to generate a cleaning signal as shown in FIG. 1C, and the driving circuit 5 causes the focusing coil 3 and the tracking coil A drive voltage for oscillating the objective lens 2 is generated.

Then, the objective lens 2 has its coil 3,
The vibrator 4 vibrates vertically and horizontally to remove dirt on the surface of the objective lens 2 due to dust and the like. Further, dirt attached to the biaxial drive unit of the servo mechanism can be removed by the vibration. That is, when the objective lens 2 vibrates to remove the dirt, the vibration can also remove the dirt on the biaxial drive unit. This one cleaning operation is to be continued for a preset time, for example, several seconds to several tens of seconds. When the cleaning is completed, the clock time is reset to 0 (step ST5). When this reset is completed, step ST1
Return to

If the disk device is not performing the reproducing or recording operation (actual operation), the above-described step S
At T1 to T5, cleaning for a certain period (for example, several seconds to several tens of seconds) is repeated at a certain period (for example, one hour period). Therefore, the objective lens 2 and the like are automatically and reliably cleaned before a large amount of dirt accumulates, so that the objective lens 2 is always kept clean.

When the disk device performs a reproducing or recording operation (actual operation), the result of the determination in step ST1 is YES. Then, the same cleaning as that described above is performed (step ST6). afterwards,
This operation, that is, reproduction or recording operation is performed (step ST
7). Then, when the main operation is stopped or the disc is ejected, cleaning is performed thereafter (step ST8). Thereafter, the process returns to step ST1.

By the operations of steps ST6 to ST8, the cleaning operation is performed before and after the main operation, that is, when the disk reproducing or recording operation is performed, that is, before the main operation is started, and when the main operation is stopped or the disk is ejected. It can be performed. Therefore, it is possible to start this operation with the objective lens securely cleaned by the objective lens cleaning before this operation, and to remove the dirt generated during this operation by the objective lens cleaning after this operation and stop the operation. You can enter the state. Therefore, it is possible to more reliably keep the objective lens clean at all times.

Further, if the surface of the objective lens 2 is contaminated due to dew condensation of the lens or some abnormal situation and the reproduction capability (or the recording capability) is once reduced, the present operation is arbitrarily performed, thereby performing the steps ST6 and ST6. Step ST
By removing the dirt by the cleaning in step 8, the reproduction capability (or the recording capability) that has once decreased can be restored.

An experiment was conducted in which the above-mentioned cleaning was carried out with baby powder applied to the surface of the objective lens so that it could not be read. As a result, it was found that dirt on the surface of the objective lens could be almost completely removed and the reproduction capability could be restored. It was found that the cleaning ability could be restored and the regeneration ability lost due to condensation could be restored by cleaning. Further, the frequency of the drive voltage applied to the focusing coil 3 and the tracking coil 4 may not be constant within a range of several Hz to several KHz, but may be changed within that range. This is because the cleaning effect can be enhanced. And it can be easily done by the contents of the instruction executed by the microcomputer 7. That is, automatic cleaning can be performed simply by changing the program executed by the microcomputer 7, and the cleaning mode can be changed by the program. You.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing a main part of a modification of the disk drive of the present invention. In this modification, the cleaning cloth 8 is placed on the upper surface of the objective lens 2 and is wiped by the cleaning cloth 8 when the objective lens 2 is vibrated by cleaning, so that the cleaning is made more effective and sure. is there. In this case, it is necessary to provide a mechanism for retracting the cleaning cloth 8 so as to deviate from the upper surface of the objective lens 2 when the cleaning operation is not performed.

[0031]

According to the disk apparatus of the first aspect, the objective lens is cleaned by periodically performing the objective lens cleaning by vibrating the objective lens by the biaxial drive unit of the servo mechanism, and further the biaxial drive is performed. These dirt can be removed before the dirt such as dust accumulates on the drive unit.
The upper surface of the objective lens can be kept clean. Therefore, the incidence of market failure due to lens contamination can be significantly reduced. Also, there is no need to manually wipe the objective lens with a swab or the like. Accordingly, service costs such as maintenance can be reduced. In addition, since dirt on the lens surface is removed without contact, there is no possibility of damaging the lens surface.

Further, since the objective lens cleaning is automatically performed when the main operation, that is, the reproduction or recording operation is not performed, there is no possibility that the automatic objective lens cleaning will interfere with the main operation. Then, the automatic cleaning of the objective lens does not need to provide a special mechanism for accomplishing the purpose, but merely changes a part of an execution program of a control system for controlling the optical pickup, for example, a microcomputer. Can do it. Therefore, it is possible to automatically clean the objective lens and the biaxial drive unit without increasing the cost of the disk device.

According to the disk device of the second aspect, the main operation can be started in a state where the objective lens is surely cleaned by the main operation, that is, the objective lens cleaning before the reproducing or recording operation. In addition, since the objective lens is cleaned after the main operation, it is possible to remove dirt generated during the main operation and enter an operation stop state, and to more reliably maintain the objective lens and the drive unit at all times. Can do it.

According to the disk device of the third aspect, the objective lens can be cleaned by wiping dirt and the like with a cleaning cloth in contact with the vibrating objective lens. Therefore, the contamination of the objective lens can be more reliably prevented.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1A is a plan view showing a biaxial drive unit of an optical pickup according to one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
3 is a circuit block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a control system of the optical pickup, and FIG. 3C is a waveform diagram illustrating an example of a waveform of a cleaning signal.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a flow of an automatic cleaning operation of the disk device.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing a main part of a modified example of the disk device of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Biaxial mechanism, 2 ... Objective lens, 3 ... Focusing coil, 4 ... Tracking coil, 8 ... Cleaning cloth.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A disk drive comprising an optical pickup having a two-axis drive unit for driving focus and tracking of an objective lens and a servo system comprising a control system for controlling the drive, forcibly driving the objective lens to focus And / or applying a cleaning signal for tracking drive to the biaxial drive unit and oscillating the objective lens for a predetermined period of time to automatically perform the objective lens cleaning periodically when the reproduction or recording operation is not performed. A disk device characterized in that: 2. The disk device according to claim 1, wherein the objective lens cleaning is performed before and after the reproducing or recording operation. 3. The disk device according to claim 1, further comprising a cleaning cloth on the upper surface of the objective lens, the cleaning cloth being in contact with the objective lens at least when cleaning the objective lens.