JP2003272274A - Disk auto changer apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a disk auto changer apparatus to which a drive of a different kind can be loaded. <P>SOLUTION: In the disk auto changer apparatus provided with: a drive section D having different drives 131 to 13N and a board 11C for controlling the drives; and a changer section C having a magazine 14 in which recording/ reproducing available disks are contained while being mounted on a tray and a mechanism 15 for selecting the tray and the disk from the magazine and carrying the disk to the drive section, the drives have memories 131M to 13NM for storing parameters to control the drives, the drive section reads the parameters from each memory of the drive at application of power, refers to the read parameters and designates a drive from the changer section to control disk insertion/ejection. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a disk autochanger device, and more particularly, to a disk autochanger device having a plurality of different types of drives in the same device. 2. Description of the Related Art A schematic configuration of a conventional disk autochanger device will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of an example of a conventional disk autochanger device. [0003] A schematic configuration of a disk autochanger device 1 shown in FIG.
, A pair of rack assemblies 10A,
10B are divided into one and the other (left and right) in the housing 2 and are installed facing each other. A pair of disc players 110A and 110B are installed below one pair and the other side of the pair of rack assemblies 10A and 10B so as to face each other. Further, the carrier unit 40 comprises a pair of rack assemblies 10A and 10B and a pair of disc players 1
The carrier unit 40 is provided so as to be vertically movable between the rack assemblies 10A and 110B. The carrier unit 40 pulls out the tray 3 on which a desired disk 4 is mounted from the rack assemblies 10A and 10B in the directions of arrows X1 and X2, and removes the disk 4 together with the tray 3. The disc 4 is conveyed up and down and the drawn disc 4 is inserted into the disc players 110A and 110B together with the tray 3. Further, this is a device in which a carrier unit moving mechanism unit 30 for moving the carrier unit 40 up and down is installed at the back in the housing 2. [0005] These disk devices (players) 110
A and 110B are two units having the same configuration.
CDs (compact discs) of the same standard having the same diameter of m can be loaded and reproduced. Next, the tray of the disk autochanger device will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining a tray used in this conventional disk autochanger device, wherein FIG.
(B) is a right side view, and (C) is a sectional view taken along the line M-N. First, the tray 3 on which the disk 4 is placed will be described. The tray 3 is integrally formed into a substantially rectangular shape with a very thin plate thickness using a resin material or the like, and a disc mounting concave portion 3a1 for regulating the mounting position of the disc 4 is provided on the upper surface 3a side of the tray 3. It is slightly larger than the outer shape of the disk 4 and has a circular concave shape. In this embodiment, the disk 4 is formed to have a size on which a well-known CD (compact disk) having a diameter of 12 cm, for example, can be mounted. A substantially triangular triangular portion 3f is linearly formed on the outer edges of the front and rear side surfaces 3b and 3c and the left and right side surfaces 3d and 3e of the tray 3, and these triangular portions 3f are formed by the rack assemblies 10A and 10A. 10B
The tray 3 can be easily inserted and removed in the arrow X1 direction or the arrow X2 direction along the U-shaped tray guide groove of the rack 11 and the tray guide groove plates of the disc players 110A and 110B. In particular, the reason why the side surfaces 3b to 3e of the tray 3 are formed in a substantially triangular triangular portion 3f is that the desired disk 4
When the tray 3 on which is mounted is pulled out to the carrier unit 40, the tray 3 can be surely inserted into the rack assemblies 10A and 10B and the disc players 110A and 110B in consideration of variation in the stop position accuracy of the carrier unit 40. It has become. A lock concave portion 3b2 is formed in the center of the front side surface 3b of the tray 3 in a concave shape. The lock concave portion 3b2 is used for a tray lock mechanism of the rack assemblies 10A and 10B, which will be described later, and the disk players 110A and 110A. 11
The tray 3 is engaged with the tray lock mechanism of the rack assembly 10A, 10B and the disc player 110A,
It can be locked or unlocked to 110B. The disc mounting recess 3a1 of the tray 3
A disk reading hole 3a2 penetrates and penetrates from a center portion of the disk player toward the rear side surface 3c extending in the radial direction.
The turntable and the optical pickup in 10A and 110B can face. Further, the disc mounting recess 3a1 of the tray 3
Inside, a disc presence / absence detection hole 3a3 is penetrated and abutted, and a photo sensor for disc presence / absence detection of a carrier unit 40 described later can detect whether or not the disc 4 is placed on the tray 3. It has become. The disc mounting recess 3a1 of the tray 3
Outside, a tray positioning hole 3a4 penetrates and penetrates the rear side surface 3c side.
The tray 3 can be positioned at a predetermined position in the disc players 110A and 110B by positioning pins (not shown) in the A and 110B. [0014] Furthermore, recent disk drives have been reduced in size and weight, mass-produced and inexpensive, and have a wide variety of product functions. Disk drives capable of reproducing and recording / reproducing a plurality of discs of different standards have been developed. Disk autochanger devices have also appeared. The purpose of mounting a disk drive of a different standard is roughly divided into two purposes. One is DVD-RA
A rewritable drive such as drive M and a CD-
This is a method in which a drive that cannot be rewritten once, such as R or DVD-R, is mixed and used by one disk autochanger device according to the purpose. The other is a desire to mix a writable drive and a read-only drive. Since a read-only drive is inexpensive to a write drive, the mixed drive can be used. The purpose is to reduce the price of a disk autochanger device. This means that the CD-R drive and the CD-R
There is a demand to use a ROM drive or a DVD-R drive and a DVD-ROM together in a disk autochanger apparatus. Further, in a disk autochanger device in which different drives can be mounted in the same optical disk autochanger device, the operation of inserting and ejecting a disk in each drive can be controlled from the changer unit for the drives. Disc autochanger devices have been proposed. In this case, in order to control the drive from the disk changer unit, the disk changer unit needs to know the disk insertion state and the ejection state in each drive. In the conventional disk autochanger device shown in FIG. 9, the drives 901, 902,.
90N and the control board 91 are connected to control lines 901a, 902a,..., 90Na, respectively. FIG. 6 specifically shows control lines (each signal line) when there are two types of different drives. Of the control board wiring, the signal lines 1 and 2 of the control board are connected to the motors (motor A and motor B) for inserting and ejecting the discs in the drives 901 and 902 in FIG. Each of the motors performs the operation of inserting and ejecting a disk. The signal line 3 on the control board is a +12 V power supply, and the signal line 7 on the control board is ground GND.
(+ 12V), the signal line 4 of the control board is a signal indicating the eject state (EJECT) of the drive, and the signal line 5 of the control board is loaded by the drive (LOA).
D) is a signal indicating the state in which the operation is performed. The signal line 6 on the control board is a signal indicating whether or not a tray is inserted into the drive. The signal line 8 is a signal for an eject execution command to the drive, and the drive stops the rotation of the motor by this signal. The signal line (SCSIID) of the control board
1) 9, control board signal line (SCSIID2)
10. Control board signal line (SCSIID3) 1
1 is for an ID number for a SCSI device. In SCSI devices, numbers from 0 to 7 can be set, and three signal lines are assigned in binary. The signal line 12 is a + 5V power supply, and the signal line 1
Reference numeral 3 denotes a ground (GND) of the + 5V power supply. The last signal line 14 is a drive identification signal, and detects whether the signal level is high (H) or low (L) to determine (identify) the drive. An identification signal is provided. FIG. 7 shows signal lines in the case where there are three or more types of drives having different standards.
Since there are three signal lines, up to eight different drives can be detected. In FIG. 7, signal lines for detection for determining the drive are signal lines 14 to 16. A drive identification signal is supplied to the control board 91 through the signal lines 14 to 16. Assuming that the number of signal lines for discrimination is n, the number of identifiable drives is 2 to the power of n. For example, to identify four types of drives, two signal lines are required. Identification is made by assigning four types of numbers such as "0" [1] "2""3". It is possible to identify four types with one signal line by adding a signal from L to H and H to L in addition to the H level and L level, but the detection becomes unstable. And therefore lacks stability of discrimination. In the disk autochanger device of FIG. 9, when a drive having a different standard (type) is set in the control board 91C when the drive is mounted, or is set on the operation panel, the signal line 98 is used. CPU of control board 91C
(91P) can be stored. FIG. 8 shows a specific block configuration of a drive unit of a disk autochanger device having a CPU (91P). The drive unit of the disk autochanger device of FIG. 8 includes a ROM (91M), a CPU (91P),
Drives (931-93N) and control lines (9
11a to 91Na). As described above, conventionally, the CPU (91P) of the control board 91C stores individual drive identification signals, which are supplied to the CPU (91P) through signal lines from the drive, in the ROM (91M). Had been identified. Control board 9 by signal line
1C is supplied with a drive identification signal. However, when a drive identification signal line is output from each drive, the number of control lines (911a to 91Na) increases as the number of drives increases, and an operation panel (operation unit) ) When 97 is set, L (low) of the sensor output for identifying the drive,
In some cases, the level of H (high) is unstable and the level is not clear, and the unclear signal is supplied to the CPU (91P) of the control board 91C.
Refer to the wrong setting in the operation section 97 of the changer section.
However, when a different drive is specified and operated, the specified drive is selected by mistake, which causes a problem of a drive failure. As the number of drives of different standards (types) increases, the number of lines for detecting drives also increases. In addition, by setting using the operation unit (operation panel) 97, it is possible to store the data on the control board 91C. However, there is a risk that the setting may be made erroneously. In the worst case, there is a problem that the drive is broken. Further, it is necessary to change the program for controlling the drive of the changer section each time a drive of a different type is added, so that the number of development steps increases, and the memory ROM (91M) incorporating the changed program is used. ) Must be attached to the drive before shipping, which raises the problem of increased costs. Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and in particular, a drive capable of recording or reproducing the disc can be accommodated, and the drive may be a CD-ROM drive, a CD-ROM drive, or the like. R drive, DV
D-ROM drive, DVD-RAM drive, DVD
-A different drive such as an R drive can be simultaneously mixed and installed, and a disc can be inserted and inserted from the operation unit of the changer unit to a predetermined drive of the drive unit.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a function capable of controlling ejection, and to enable recording or reproduction of a disc with the various different drives provided. In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention described in claim 1 is based on a plurality of drives 131 to 13N having different drive types and the drive 1.
A drive unit D having a control unit 11C for controlling 31 to 13N, a magazine 14 in which a recordable or reproducible disc is stored on a tray,
A transport mechanism 15 for transporting a tray on which the disk selected from the magazine 14 is loaded to a predetermined drive of the drive section D; and a changer section C having an operation section 17 for operating the control section 11C. In the disk autochanger device, each of the drives 1
Reference numerals 31 to 13N denote memories 131M to 131B to which each drive has a drive identification ID, a drive type, and a drive control version required for controlling its own drive as control information parameters.
13NM, the control unit 11C reads the control information parameter from each of the memories,
The operation unit 17 refers to the control information parameter read by the control unit 11C, designates the predetermined drive, and instructs insertion / ejection of the disk. To provide. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A preferred embodiment of a disk autochanger device according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 5 shows a block configuration of an embodiment of a disk autochanger device equipped with a plurality of types of drives of different standards according to the present invention. The embodiment of the disk autochanger apparatus equipped with a plurality of types of drives of different standards of the present invention shown in FIG.
(14A, 14B), a disk and tray transport device 15 for transporting disks and trays, a disk loading and unloading device 16 for loading and unloading disks, and an operation unit (operation panel) 1
7, a changer section C, and CPU (11P), R
Control board (control section) 11C having OM (11M) and memories 13M1, 13M2,.
Drives 131, 132,..., 1 each containing N
3N and a drive section D including a switching circuit (SW) 12S. In the disc autochanger device shown in FIG. 5, a pair of magazines 14A and 14B for accommodating a large number of stacked trays 3 on which the discs 4 are mounted are provided on one side and the other side (left and right) in the casing of the changer section C. It is divided and installed facing each other. Further, drives 131, 132,..., 13N of different standards are installed in a drive unit different from one side and the other side of the pair of magazines 14A, 14B, for example, stacked. The transfer device (carrier unit) 15
Are a pair of magazines 14A and 14B and a drive 131,
132,..., 13N are vertically movable. The transport device (carrier unit) 15 includes magazines 14A, 1N.
4B, a tray (not shown) on which a desired disk (not shown) is placed is pulled out, the disk is transported up and down together with the tray, and the drawn disk is inserted into the drives 131, 132,..., 13N together with the tray. are doing. Further, a carrier unit moving mechanism for moving the transport device 15 up and down is installed at the back in the housing. The transport device (carrier unit) 15 pulls out a tray on which a desired disk is mounted from the magazines 14A and 14B, transports the disk up and down together with the tray, and drives the drive 131,
, 13N has the same configuration as the mechanism (disk 4, tray 3) of the transport device 40 already described with reference to FIGS. 10 and 11 as a conventional device, and a description thereof will be omitted. The designation of the desired disk is the
The operation is performed by selecting a desired disk from a disk storage list table stored in the personal computer by an operation unit including a personal computer (not shown) coupled to the autochanger device. By selecting from the disk storage list table, information on the desired disk such as the disk type and disk storage location number corresponding to the disk is input to the control unit, and the disk selection operation is started. These drives (disk devices) 13
1, 132,..., 13N are a plurality of N units of different configurations, each of which can be mounted on a drive compatible with a well-known 12 cm diameter CD (compact disk) or a different type of disk of another standard, and can be reproduced. It is assumed that. In the disk autochanger device equipped with a plurality of types of drives shown in FIG. 5, when it is necessary to perform control according to the type of drive in performing drive control, the ROM (11M) on the control board 11C is used.
A basic drive control program is installed in the system. The control information parameters of the drives shown in FIG. 2 are stored in the memories 13M1 to 13MN in each drive. Each control information parameter stored in the memories 13M1 to 13MN in each drive is read out by a command from the CPU on the control board 11C when the power supply of the changer is turned on, so that each drive is controlled with optimal parameters. Becomes possible. The "detailed control flag" of each control information parameter includes a case where the flag is 0 and a case where the flag is set to 1. The control information parameters when the flag is 0 are "drive ID" and "drive ID". Only four parameters of “control version”, “drive type (drive type)”, and “detailed control flag” are required. When the flag is set to 1, the control information parameters are “drive ID”, “control version”,
In addition to “drive type (drive type)” and “detailed control flag”, “number of control steps at LOAD (EJECT)”, “PW for each step at LOAD (EJECT)”
There are "M percent", "time of each step at the time of LOAD (EJECT)", "non-reversal control flag at the time of LOAD (EJECT)" and the like, and controls the LOAD / EJECT motor specific to the corresponding drive (drive ID). More detailed control information required above is added. FIG. 1 shows a specific block configuration of the drive section of the disk autochanger device, and FIG. 3 shows specific wiring names between the control board 11C and the drives 131 and 132 of the disk autochanger device. The drive section D includes a control board 11
C, a ROM (11M), a CPU (11P), a switching circuit 12S, and drives 131 to 13N having memories 13M1 to 13MN. The data in the memory 13M1 in the drive 131 is written during the production of the drive, but the control parameters for each drive type are also stored in the ROM (11M) on the control board 11C as default values (specified values). The CPU (11P) performs control in accordance with the data acquisition flowchart of FIG. 4 so that the newer version information becomes valid. The data acquisition at power-on will be described below with reference to the data acquisition flowchart at power-on (ON) in FIG. The power of the disk autochanger device is turned on (ON) (step S11). The maximum number of drives of the device is set to N (step S1).
2). Data (control information parameters shown in FIG. 2) for drive I is obtained from memory 13MI (step S13). The ROM is obtained from the obtained control information parameters.
If the control version (memory address 01H in FIG. 2) in (11M) is large (step S14), the ROM (11M)
The control parameters in M) are made valid (step S1).
5). The control version (memory address 01 in FIG. 2) obtained from the control parameters in the ROM (11M)
If H) is large (step S14), the obtained control parameters are validated (step S16). The same acquisition operation is repeated for the drive (I + 1) following the drive I (step S17).
The acquisition work is performed up to the drive N (step S1).
8). Finally, the data acquisition is completed (Step S1
9). Next, the reading of the status of each drive and the reading of the control information parameters recorded in the memory of each drive will be described. When the power is turned on, the data of the status of each drive is read out by reading signals such as the presence or absence of a tray from the control lines 131a, 132a,... 11M). The control information parameters recorded in the memory of each drive are read by the CPU when the power is turned on.
From (11P), for example, the drive 131 is specified from the drive identification number, control information parameters corresponding to the command output are sequentially read from the memory 13M1 of the drive specified by the identification number, and the read data is input to the status input. As C on the control board 11C
The data is stored in the ROM (11M) via the PU (11P). When the reading from the memory 13M1 of the drive is completed, the switching circuit 12S is used to switch to the memory 13M2 of the next drive 2, and the control information parameters recorded in the memory 13M2 are sequentially read, and are read out from the last drive 13N. Until reading from the memory 13MN. As described above, according to the disc changer apparatus of the present invention, a drive unit having a plurality of drives of different drive types and a control unit for controlling the drives, a recording or reproducing operation Operating a magazine in which possible discs are stored in a state of being placed on the tray, a transport mechanism for transporting the tray loaded with the disc selected from the magazine to a predetermined drive of the drive unit, and operating the control unit And a changer unit having an operation unit to perform the operation, wherein each of the drives has a drive identification ID required to control its own drive, its drive type,
And a memory built in each drive that records at least a drive control version thereof as a control information parameter, wherein the control unit reads the control information parameter from each memory, and the operation unit reads the control information parameter from the memory. By referring to the issued control information parameter and designating the predetermined drive and instructing the insertion and ejection of the disc, a new drive is developed, and when the new drive is mounted, the new drive is Since the control information parameters for controlling its own drive are recorded in the memory, the RO of the changer unit is recorded.
Since there is no need to replace M, workability is good and cost can be reduced. Further, according to the disk autochanger apparatus of the present invention, a signal output directly from the drive,
Since the drive is identified by referring to the signal read from the memory incorporated in the drive and a predetermined drive is specified, for example, the identification number of the drive is erroneously detected as before, and another type of The trouble of specifying the wrong drive is eliminated.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a block configuration of an embodiment of a drive unit of a disk autochanger device of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing one embodiment of control information parameters used in the disc autochanger device of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing wiring between a control board and a drive constituting the disk autochanger device of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a disk autochanger device according to the present invention;
It is the figure which showed the data acquisition determination flowchart at the time of power supply ON performed by PU. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a block configuration of an embodiment of a disk autochanger device of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing signal lines when two different types of drives of the conventional disk autochanger device are used. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing signal lines in a case where there are eight different drives of the conventional disk autochanger device. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a block configuration of an example of a drive unit of a conventional disk autochanger device. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a block configuration of an example of a conventional disk autochanger device. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a block configuration of an example of a conventional disk autochanger device. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a tray used in a conventional disk autochanger device. [Description of Signs] 11C control board (control unit) 11M ROM 11P CPU 111a, 112a, ..., 11Na control line 12S switching circuit (switching means, SW) 131, 132, ..., 13N drive (disk device) 13M1, 13M2 , 13MN memory 14, 14A, 14B magazine 15 disk and tray transport device 16 disk loading / unloading device 17 operation unit (operation panel) 18 operation unit (operation panel) 17 and control board 1
Signal line C between 1C Changer part D of disk autochanger device of the present invention Drive unit N of disk autochanger device of the present invention Maximum number of drives

Claims (1)

Claims: 1. A drive unit having a plurality of drives of different drive types and a control unit for controlling the drives, and a recordable or reproducible disk stored in a tray. Comprising: a magazine to be transported; a transport mechanism that transports a tray on which the disk selected from the magazine is loaded to a predetermined drive of the drive unit; and a changer unit that includes an operation unit that operates the control unit. In the autochanger device, each of the drives has a built-in memory in each of the drives in which at least a drive identification ID, a drive type, and a drive control version required for controlling the drive itself are recorded as control information parameters. The control unit transmits the control information from each of the memories. Disc, wherein the operation unit refers to the control information parameter read by the control unit, designates the predetermined drive, and instructs insertion / ejection of the disc.・ Autochanger device.