JP2003151131A - Disk unit - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the reliability and the operability of a disk unit which carries out data recording and reproduction when there are two or more kinds of hosts to receive a command, such as a camera and a personal computer, by changing data reliability, an operating speed, power consumption, etc., to optimum operation specifications according to the kinds of hosts. SOLUTION: The disk unit comprises a pickup, disk motor, actuator control means, feed motor control means, disk motor control means, interface (a), interface (b), recording reproduction control means, host discriminating means, operational control means, external signal input means, data memory means, and external display means.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention particularly relates to a disk device that operates using a plurality of external devices as hosts, and by selecting the type of the external device, the optimum operation mode for the usage environment is selected, and the reliability of the device is improved. The present invention relates to a disk device having a function of improving operability.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, a disk device is used as a data recording / reproducing device for a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a PC).
Alternatively, it is often used as a data recording / reproducing device for AV equipment for recording / reproducing audio / video data. Like the former
Disc devices that record and reproduce data by using a PC as a host have been devised to accurately record or reproduce data, such as comparing recorded data and re-recording unreliable data. On the other hand, when operating as a data recording / reproducing device for AV equipment, the reliability of data may not always be the most important. For example, in the case of recording audio and video in real time, it is necessary to record data to be sent one after another without performing data comparison or rerecording.

Further, in the case of a disk camera, since the noise generated by the apparatus is not recorded, the rotational speed of the disk motor is moderately changed, or the rotational speed of the seek motor or the moving speed of the arm for moving the head is set. Operations such as limiting are performed. Therefore, the operation speed is not always given the highest priority as in the case of being used in a PC.

Similarly, intermittent operation is often used as a means of reducing power consumption when used in portable applications, but in PC applications in many cases power supply from a PC or a power adapter is used. Recording can be started instantly if intermittent operation is not performed. Also, the time to transit to the ready mode in which the operation of the device such as the disk motor is stopped when there is no command from the external device which is the host for a long time can be set longer than that used in the portable application.

As a method of devising the operation of the device in order to cope with the power saving and the low noise as described above, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 05-13
0799 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-110904.

[0006]

As described above, the operating specifications indicate in what environment the disk device is used, for example, as an external recording device of a desktop PC or as a recording device of a video camera. By etc.
Each has its own behavior.

However, the disk device used as a recording device such as a video camera stores the captured image data in the recording device of the PC by connecting the video camera to the PC or stores the image data edited by the PC. Usage methods such as capturing in a camera are performed. At this time, the disk device mounted on the camera should have operating specifications suitable for mobile use and real-time recording when recording / reproducing images, while operating quickly and with high reliability when connected to a PC, similar to a stationary recording device. Is mandatory.

An object of the present invention is to provide means for identifying the host and usage environment of the disk device, and based on the identification result,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a disk device that improves the reliability and operability of the device by switching the operating specifications suitable for each usage environment.

[0009]

In order to achieve the object of the present invention, the disk device of the present invention discriminates the type of an external device serving as a host, and based on the discrimination result, an operation suitable for each usage environment. I do.

Therefore, according to the present invention, a pickup including an objective lens, an actuator and a feed mechanism, a disc motor, an actuator control means, a feed motor control means for moving the pickup in the disc radial direction, and a disc motor control means. An interface a, an interface b, a recording / reproducing control unit, a host discriminating unit, an operation control unit, an external signal input unit, a data memory unit, and an external output unit are provided.

By providing the above means, it is possible to determine the type of the external device that sends the command and switch to the operation mode suitable for the usage environment. Therefore, the reliability and operability of the device can be improved.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of an optical disk device of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

First, the configuration of the optical disk device of the present invention will be described.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a disc, 2 is a pickup including an objective lens, an actuator and a feed mechanism, 3 is a disc motor, 4 is actuator control means, and 5 is feed motor control means for moving the pickup in the disc radial direction. , 6 are disk motor control means, 7
Is an interface a, 8 is an interface b, 9 is a recording / reproducing control means, 10 is a host discrimination means, 11 is an operation control means, 12 is an external signal input means, 13 is a data memory means, and 14 is an external display means. .

Next, the operation outline and the relationship between the blocks will be described.

In FIG. 1, the disc motor 3 drives the disc 1. The disk motor control means 6 controls the disk motor 3 so that the disk 1 rotates at a predetermined rotation speed.
To control. The actuator control means 4 drives the actuator so that the objective lens keeps a distance from the disc 1 at a focal length and is positioned on a predetermined track. The feed motor control means 5 drives the pickup 2 to move the lens in the radial direction of the disk over a wide range that cannot be positioned only by the actuator. The interface a sends and receives commands and data to and from the camera unit, and sends the commands and data sent from the camera to the recording / playback control means 9. The interface b sends and receives commands and data to and from the external camera unit to which the user is connected, and sends the commands and data sent from the camera to the recording / playback control means 9. The recording / reproduction control means 9 stores the sent data in the data memory means 13 in accordance with the sent command.
Alternatively, it is recorded on the disc 1. The host discriminating means 10 detects the command obtained by the recording / reproducing control means 9, and
Detects the presence / absence of connection with an external device via interface b. Then, the operating environment is determined based on the detected command, the presence / absence of the connection of the external device, and the signal from the external signal input means 12, and the operating environment information is sent to the operation control means 11. The operation control means 11 switches the operation mode of the actuator control means 4, the feed motor control means 5, and the disk motor control means 6 based on the sent operation environment information.

Next, the operation of the external signal input means 12 and the host discrimination means 10 will be described with reference to FIG. The external signal input means 12 is a means for the user to notify the operating environment to the disk device, and for example, the user discriminates the response of the user to the display such as "use external device?" Or "use in power saving mode?" Send to means 10. These displays are sequentially displayed on the external display unit 14 by the host discrimination unit 10 triggered by the connection with the external device. In this way, when the signal is input by the user, the operation mode is determined according to the flowchart of FIG. If the user does not input a signal for a predetermined period or if the connection with the external device is disconnected, the operation mode is determined according to the table of FIG. Here, the user can also make settings that are different from the actual settings. For example, if the effects of noise and vibration are not considered even when shooting with a camera, "use external device?" May be set to yes, and "use in power saving mode?" May be set to no.

Next, the operation modes shown in the table of FIG. 2B will be described.

The retry limitation means limiting the number of times of re-recording operation of the data, which is performed when the data recording is not normally completed. By performing this retry, the reliability of the recording data can be improved, but the time spent for the recording operation increases. When the host determining unit 10 determines that the host is a camera,
The operation control means 11 sets the number of retries to 0 times,
Further, it is set not to perform the data compare operation.
However, retry is not limited in file data recording performed at the end of data recording.

The intermittent operation is an operation performed by using the difference between the transfer speed of the data sent from the interface a or 2 and the recording speed on the disk 1 and the data memory means 13, and the recording / reproducing control means 9 uses the interface a. Alternatively, the data sent from 2 is temporarily stored in the data memory means 1
3 and the recording on the disc 1 is started when a predetermined amount of data is stored. The power consumption of the disk device can be reduced by stopping the operation of the disk motor 3, the actuator, and other unnecessary parts during the period when the recording is not performed on the disk 1, but the recording is required to be restarted when the recording is performed on the disk 1. Time will increase. When the host determination unit 10 determines that the host is a camera, or when the user specifies power saving,
The operation control means 11 performs the above intermittent operation, and when the host is an external device and the user does not specify power saving by the host determination means 10, the operation control means 11 cancels the intermittent operation.

The speed limitation of the disk motor 3 means the limitation of the transition speed at the time of starting the motor or changing the rotation speed. In order to shorten the start-up time or the seek time, the disk motor 3 needs to reach and stabilize at a predetermined rotation speed in the shortest possible time, but a sudden change in the rotation speed causes noise at the same time. Therefore, when the host determination means 10 determines that the host is a camera,
The operation control means 11 gently changes the rotation speed as in “with speed limitation” in FIG.

Similarly, when the host discriminating means 10 discriminates that the host is a camera, the speed of the feed motor is also:
The operation control means 11 limits the moving speed of the pickup as in “with speed limitation” in FIG.

As described above, the host discriminating means and the operation control means are provided, and by discriminating the type of the external device receiving the command, it is possible to switch to the operation mode suitable for the use environment. Therefore, the reliability and operability of the device can be improved.

Here, in the above embodiment, the operation mode of the feed motor has been described by taking the optical disk device as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this. That is, the same effect can be obtained even when the head is positioned on a predetermined track by driving the arm like a hard disk.

Further, in the above embodiment, an example in which a specific number (0 times) is set when the number of retries is limited has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. That is, even if the number of retries is set according to the free space of the data memory means and the recording speed to the disc, the same effect can be obtained.

Further, in the above embodiment, when there is no user setting in FIG. 2 and there is a dedicated command from the camera,
Intermittent drive is set to "Yes", but when the video camera is used with the power adapter, by setting not to perform intermittent drive, it is possible to perform more suitable operation for the environment. .

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention, the initial object can be achieved.

That is, by providing a means for identifying an external device that serves as a host of the disk device and switching the operation mode of the device based on the identification result, it is possible to perform an operation suitable for each usage environment. Therefore, the reliability and operability of the device can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a host identification method.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of operation mode change.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Disc, 2 ... Pickup, 3 ... Disc motor, 4 ... Actuator control means, 5 ... Feed motor control means, 6 ... Disc motor control means, 7 ... Interface a, 8 ... Interface b, 9 ... Recording / reproduction control means, 10 ... Host discrimination means, 11 ... Operation control means, 12
... external signal input means, 13 ... data memory means, 14 ...
External display means

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Hiroaki Ono             292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa             Ceremony Hitachi Digital Media Development Book             Department (72) Inventor Motoyuki Suzuki             292 Yoshida-cho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa             Ceremony Hitachi Digital Media Development Book             Department F term (reference) 5B065 BA01 CA17 CC08 ZA02                 5B077 AA04 AA41                 5D090 AA01 CC12 HH01 HH03 HH07

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A device for recording or reproducing data on a disk medium according to a command sent from an external device, a head for writing and reading data, a feeding means for positioning the head on a predetermined track, and a disc. A motor, a disk motor control means for driving the disk motor at a predetermined rotation speed, a recording / reproducing control means for controlling recording / reproducing of data, an interface a for receiving commands and data from the external device, and the external device. A disk device comprising: a host discriminating means for discriminating the type of the disc drive, and an operation control means for switching the operation mode of the disc device based on the discrimination result of the discriminating means. 2. The disk device according to claim 1, wherein the determination unit determines the type of the external device based on the content of a command sent from the external device via the interface a. 3. An interface b is provided, and the determination means detects the presence / absence of a connection with the interface b, and determines the type of the external device based on the detection result. 2. The disk device according to any one of 1 to 2. 4. An external signal input means for transmitting a type of the external device set by a user to a disk device, wherein the discriminating means determines the type of the external device based on an output result of the external signal input means. 4. The disk device according to claim 1, wherein the disk device is discriminated. 5. The operation control means switches at least one of the presence / absence of a compare operation at the time of data recording and the number of retries of the recording / reproducing operation based on the determination result of the determining means. The disk device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein 6. A memory for storing data, wherein the operation control means has an intermittent operation that utilizes a speed difference between a data reception speed and a disk writing speed based on a determination result of the determination means. The disk device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein nothing is switched. 7. The operation control means switches the operation speed of the feeding means for positioning the recording or reproducing head on a predetermined track based on the determination result of the determining means. The disk device according to any one of claims. 8. The disk device according to claim 1, wherein the operation control unit switches a starting speed of the disk motor and a transition speed of a rotation speed change. 9. An external output unit is provided, and the operation control unit notifies the user of the operation mode of the disk device by using the external display unit based on the determination result of the determination unit. Item 9. The disk device according to any one of Items 1 to 8.