JP3184059B2 - Method of inserting medium into drive in library device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, large-capacity storage media such as magneto-optical disks have been put to practical use, and needs for systems having large-capacity storage devices, such as electronic filing systems, have been increasing. Along with this, a library device for storing a plurality of storage media such as a magneto-optical disk in a magazine or the like, automatically taking out a desired storage medium from the magazine, setting the drive in a drive, and reading / writing, has been developed. Is being transformed.

[0002] The present invention relates to the above-described library apparatus,
More specifically, the present invention relates to a medium insertion method that can reliably set a medium stored in a transport unit that transports a medium to a drive.

[0003]

2. Description of the Related Art A magazine for storing a plurality of storage media,
A drive device for reading / writing a medium and a library device provided with a transfer unit for taking out a medium from an arbitrary slot of a magazine and transferring the medium to the drive device and have been developed, are being put into practical use. A library device has been proposed (see Japanese Patent Application No. 5-244935).

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the overall structure of a library device on which the present invention is based. FIG. 7 (a) is a diagram of the library device viewed from above, and FIG. 7 (b) is a diagram of the library device viewed from the side. is there. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 denotes a library device, 11 denotes a magazine that stores media, and a plurality of media are stored in slots of the magazine 11. 12 reads the medium /
A drive unit for writing, 13 is a transport unit for taking out a medium from a magazine and setting it in the drive unit 12, 1
Reference numeral 4 denotes a motor for driving the transport unit in the direction of the arrow shown in the figure. A gear meshing with the worm shaft 15 is provided below the transport unit 13, and when the worm shaft 16 rotates, the transport unit 13 moves in the direction of the arrow in the figure. Go to

The transport unit 13 has a take-in arm 13a for taking out the medium 100 from the magazine 11, a roller (described later) for feeding the taken-out medium to the opposite side of the transport unit 13, and a pushing arm 13b for pushing the medium into the drive device 12. The transport unit 13 takes out the medium 100 from the magazine 11 by the take-in arm 13a that moves back and forth, and then moves in the direction of the arrow in FIG.
b is set in the drive device 12. Further, the medium taken out from the drive device 12 is moved in the same manner as described above and returned to the magazine 11 (for the mechanism in the transport unit 13, refer to the aforementioned Japanese Patent Application No. 5-244935).

[0006] FIG. 8, medium 100 from FIG. 9 is a magazine 11
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an operation of the transport unit when the transport unit is taken out and set in the drive 12. From the magazine 11 to the medium 100
To remove the, first, to move the loading unit 13c of the conveying unit 13 as shown in the magazine 11 side in FIG. 8 (a), the tip closes the uptake arm 13c medium 10
Hook into groove 0.

[0007] Next, as shown in FIG. 8 (b), return the load unit 13c, thereby entraining medium 100 to the roller 13c, opening the arms 13a. Then, as shown in FIG. 8 (c), takes in the medium 100 by rotating the rollers 13d, stop the roller 13d. By operating the transport unit in the reverse order to the above, the transport unit 13
The medium is returned to the magazine 11 from.

On the other hand, when the medium 100 is set in the drive device 12 from the transport unit 13, the transport unit 13 is first moved to the front of the drive 12 and
3c is moved to the magazine 11 side. Next, a clutch (not shown) is driven to engage the load portion 13c with the pushing arm 13b, so that the pushing arm 13b can be pushed by the load portion 13c, and the roller 13d is driven.
Pushed into the drive side of the medium 100 as shown in FIG. 9 (d).

[0009] Then, as shown in FIG. 9 (e), by moving the loading unit 13c to the drive 12 side, pushing the medium 100 to the drive 12 side by the push arm 13b, to complete the set of media. Finally, the loading unit 13c
Is moved to the magazine 11 side to release the engagement between the load portion 13c and the pushing arm 13b by the clutch, return the load portion 13c to the original position, and terminate the process.

When returning the medium 100 from the drive unit 12 to the transport unit 13, the medium discharged from the drive unit 12 is taken in by the rollers 13 d ′, and the medium is moved by the rollers 13 d to a predetermined position in the transport unit. To be stored. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a system configuration of the above-described library apparatus. In FIG. 10 , reference numeral 13 denotes a transport unit, and reference numeral 14 denotes a transport motor for moving the transport unit 103 including a pulse motor or the like.

Reference numerals 13e, 13f, and 13g denote motors provided in the transport unit 13. Reference numeral 13e denotes a roller driving motor that drives a roller for moving the medium. Reference numeral 13f moves the take-in arm 13a and the pushing arm 13b. A motor 13g is a motor that drives the load unit 13c to be driven, and a motor 13g is a motor that drives a clutch that operates the take-in arm 13a and the pushing arm 13b. These motors are not provided with position detecting means such as an encoder. When inserting / removing a medium, the position of the medium is detected by a sensor (not shown) attached to the transport unit. Is controlled.

Reference numeral 12 denotes a drive device for reading / writing a medium, 31 denotes a driver board for driving the motors 14, 13e to 13g and the like, and for taking in the output of a sensor (not shown), and 32 controls a library device. A control board, 33 is a power supply unit, and 34 is a host computer.
Then, when a medium exchange command or the like is sent from the host computer 34, the control board 32,
The transport motor 14 is driven by the driver board 31 to move the transport unit 13 to a slot of the magazine 11 or to a preset position in front of the drive device 12, and the motors 13e, 13
The medium is exchanged by driving f and the like. That is, drive 1
2 is taken out by the take-in arm 13a and returned to the magazine 11;
The next medium taken out of the magazine 11 is taken out by 3 and set in the drive 12.

[0013]

In the above-described library apparatus, a medium is set in a drive by a roller and a pushing arm provided in a transport unit. Therefore, the medium cannot be set in the drive unless the operation of pushing the medium by the transport unit is properly performed.

In particular, if the pushing time of the medium by the pushing arm of the transport unit is too short, the medium cannot be set, and if the pushing time is too long, the drive will be worn or deformed, or the drive will generate abnormal noise. This may cause a drive failure. Therefore, it is necessary to set the pushing time to an appropriate value that can reliably set the medium and does not impose a load on the drive. However, the amount of load when the medium is inserted into the drive, the motor for operating the pushing arm, etc. The load amount and the like are affected by variations among products, environmental changes such as temperature and humidity, and it is difficult to set the pushing time to an optimum value in advance.

[0015] For this reason, conventionally, there has been a high risk that the medium cannot be set and the operation ends in an error or a load is imposed on the drive. The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-described conventional problems, and a first object of the present invention is to provide a method of inserting a medium that can reliably set a medium from a transport unit to a drive. is there.

A second object of the present invention is to automatically adjust the operation time of the pushing arm of the transport unit to an optimum value, and to insert a medium capable of reliably setting a medium without imposing a load on a drive. Is to provide a way.

[0017]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the principle of the present invention. In FIG. 1, FIG. 1A shows a state in which a medium stored and conveyed in a conveyance unit is pushed into a drive by an arm, 1 is a medium, 2 is a drive, 3 is a conveyance unit, and Unit 3 is medium 1
And a roller 3d for feeding the medium.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the invention according to claim 1 of the present invention comprises a transport unit for storing and transporting a medium, as shown in FIG. 1A, and moving the transport unit before a drive. FIG.
As shown in (b), when the medium cannot be set normally in the drive, the arm pushing time is increased by a predetermined time and a retry is performed.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1B, when the retry operation is successful, the arm pressing time at that time is stored,
An arm pushing time is determined based on the stored time.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1B, when the operation time of the apparatus exceeds a certain value, the stored arm pushing time is initialized. It is intended to be.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1A, a transport unit for storing and transporting a medium is provided, the transport unit is moved in front of a drive, and provided in the transport unit. In the method of inserting a medium into a drive in a library device in which a medium is pushed into a drive by a pushing arm, as shown in FIG. The pressing time is stored, and the arm pressing time is determined based on the stored time.

[0022]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the medium cannot be normally set in the drive, the arm pushing time is increased by a predetermined time to perform the retry, so that the load variation and the change of the operating environment are reduced. Even if there is, the medium can be surely set in the drive.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, when the retry operation is successful, the arm pushing time at that time is stored, and the arm pushing time is determined based on the stored time. Therefore, the number of retries can be reduced, and the medium can be reliably set in the drive. According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect of the invention, when the operating time of the apparatus exceeds a predetermined value, the stored arm pushing time is initialized, so that the pushing time is longer than necessary. Can be prevented from being operated continuously at a constant value, and the risk of drive failure can be reduced.

In the invention according to claim 4 of the present invention, the arm pushing time when the medium is successfully set a predetermined number of times in succession is stored, and the arm pushing time is determined based on the stored time. Therefore, the number of retries can be greatly reduced.

[0025]

EXAMPLES The following is a description of how to insert the medium in the present invention, the present invention is premised the library device shown in FIG. 7 to FIG. 10, in the library device, during the operation of the device, or the product At the time of adjustment before shipment,
The time for pushing the medium by the transport unit is adjusted / set so that the medium can be reliably set in the drive.

FIGS. 2 and 3 are views for explaining the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 4 and 5 are flowcharts showing the operation of the present embodiment. In FIGS. 1
Reference numeral 3 denotes a transport unit, 13b denotes a pushing arm provided in the transport unit, 13c denotes a load unit for moving the pushing arm, 13d denotes a roller, and 100 denotes a medium. S is a sensor that detects that the medium has been pushed into the drive, and the sensor S detects that the medium has been pushed into the drive 12 by, for example, detecting that the load unit 13c has moved to a predetermined position. Is turned off when the medium is pressed.

This embodiment shows an embodiment in which, when the setting of the medium in the drive fails, the retry is performed while increasing the pushing time. Referring to FIG. 2, FIG. 3, FIG. 4, and FIG. An embodiment will be described. In FIG. 4, first,
A retry counter provided in the control unit of the library device is initialized (Step S1). Next, as shown in FIG. 2A, the medium is sent to the drive side by the roller 13d of the transport unit 13 (Step S2 in FIG. 4). Here, when the medium is not sent normally and an error occurs, the processing is terminated (step S3), and adjustment is performed by, for example, stopping the apparatus.

Next, it is determined whether or not the operation time of the library device has exceeded a certain time (step S4).
The process proceeds to step S5, where it is determined whether or not a retry increase time to be described later has been initialized. If not, a retry increase time is initialized (step S6). This is because, when the operation time of the apparatus has passed a certain time, the stored retry increase time becomes meaningless due to an environmental change or the like, and it is necessary to set a new retry increase time.

For example, when a retry is performed because the temperature decreases and the load increases at night, or when the daytime temperature increases and the load decreases, the retry increase time stored by the retry is unnecessary. Thus, the medium can be sufficiently set in the drive even with the pushing arm driving time set before the retry. For this reason, the arm push-in time is cleared to the initial value after a certain period of time has elapsed since the operation of the device as described above, preventing the push-in time from operating continuously with a constant value longer than necessary, reducing the risk of drive failure Let me.

Next, as shown in FIG. 2B, the load unit 13c provided in the transport unit is moved to the drive side, and the medium 100 is pushed into the drive 12 by the pushing arm 13b (step S7). And FIG.
As shown in (c), the pressing arm 13b is pulled back a predetermined time after the sensor S detects that the medium has been pressed. Since the initial value of the retry increase time is 0, the initial push-in time is the predetermined time set in advance as described above.

With this operation, if the setting is normally performed, the processing is terminated. On the other hand, if the medium cannot be set in the drive in the above-mentioned predetermined press-in time due to variations in the load, changes in the environment, etc.
Go to 9 to perform a retry operation. If the medium cannot be set, the medium is not chucked by the drive. Therefore, as shown in FIG.
Is pulled out, the medium is ejected from the drive together with the pushing arm 13b.

In the retry operation, first, it is determined whether or not the value of the retry counter has reached the maximum value (step S9). If the value of the retry counter is not the maximum value, the value of the retry counter is incremented by one (step S9). Step S1
0), the pushing time is increased by a predetermined time (step S)
11), the retry increase time is stored (step S1)
2).

Then, as shown in FIG. 3 (e), the medium is once taken into the transport unit 13 by the roller 13d, and the process returns to step S2 in FIG. 4 to increase the pushing time as shown in FIG. 3 (f). And retry. That is, the retry is performed by increasing the time from when the sensor S is turned off to when the push arm is pulled back. Then, if the setting is performed normally, the processing is terminated.

When the setting fails again, the retry is repeated while the pushing time is increased as described above, and the retry increasing time at that time is stored. Then, as shown in FIG. 3G, when the retry succeeds, when the medium is set in the drive thereafter, the medium is pushed in at the pushing time at which the retry succeeded. on the other hand,
If the retry does not succeed and the value of the retry counter reaches the maximum value, error processing is performed in step S13, and the process ends.

As described above, in the present embodiment, when the setting of the medium into the drive fails, the retry is performed while increasing the pressing time, and the pressing time when the retry succeeds is stored. When the media is inserted, the medium is pushed into the drive for the stored pushing time, so that the medium can be reliably set in the drive even if there is a variation in load or a change in the operating environment.

The medium pushing time can be adjusted while operating the apparatus as described above.
Further, before the operation of the apparatus at the time of product shipment or the like, an operation of inserting the medium into the drive from the transport unit may be performed to adjust the medium pushing time, and the optimal pushing time may be stored. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a second embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the medium is pushed into the drive using the pushing time when the medium is successfully inserted into the drive a plurality of times in succession. In this embodiment, in particular,
It is suitable for performing an operation of adjusting the press-in time before operating the apparatus or before shipping the apparatus, and automatically setting an optimal press-in time.

In FIG. 6, first, a retry counter is set to an initial value (step S1 in FIG. 6 ), and a medium is inserted from the transport unit 13 into the drive 12 (step S1).
2). If the medium is not successfully inserted, the process goes to step S7, where the retry counter is set to an initial value, and the time for pushing the medium into the drive is extended (step S7).
8) It is determined whether or not the extended press-in time exceeds a preset limit value, and if it exceeds the limit value, an error is terminated.

If it does not exceed the limit value, the process returns to step S2, and the above processing is repeated while extending the pushing time. If the medium is successfully inserted from the transport unit into the drive, the process proceeds from step S3 to step S4, where the retry counter is decremented by 1 to determine whether the retry counter has become 0 (steps S4 and S4).
5).

If the retry counter is not 0, the process returns to step S2, and the above processing is repeated until the value of the retry counter becomes 0. When the value of the retry counter becomes 0, the time of pushing into the drive is stored (step S6), and the process ends. If the medium insertion fails before the retry counter reaches 0 in the processing of step S2 → step S3 → step S4 → step S5 → step S2, the process goes from step S3 to step S7 and sets the retry counter to the initial value. And step S8 → step S9 → step S2 again.
… Is performed.

That is, in this embodiment, when the retry succeeds, the retry is repeated a plurality of times with the same pushing time, and the pushing time when the medium is successfully inserted into the drive a plurality of times in succession is stored. Use the time to insert the media into the drive. For this reason, by adjusting the press-in time according to the present embodiment before operating the apparatus, it is possible to insert the medium into the drive without retrying unless the environmental conditions are significantly changed during the operation of the apparatus. Thus, the number of retries can be greatly reduced as compared with the first embodiment.

[0041]

As described above, the following effects can be obtained in the present invention. (1) When the medium cannot be set in the drive normally, the retry is performed by increasing the arm pushing time for a predetermined time. Therefore, the medium is surely set in the drive even if the load varies or the operating environment changes. be able to.

For this reason, the possibility of error termination due to failure to set the medium can be reduced, and the reliability of the apparatus can be greatly improved. Also, by storing the arm pressing time when the retry operation is successful, and by determining the arm pressing time based on the stored time,
The number of retries can be reduced and the medium can be reliably set in the drive, and the operation time of the apparatus can be shortened.

Further, when the operating time of the device exceeds a certain value, the stored arm pushing time is initialized to prevent the pushing time from being operated continuously at a constant value longer than necessary to prevent the drive from being operated. The risk of failure can be reduced. (2) The arm pressing time when the medium is successfully set continuously for a predetermined number of predetermined times is stored, and the arm pressing time is determined based on the stored time, whereby the number of retries can be greatly reduced. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a principle diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a library device as a premise of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the operation of the transport unit of the library device on which the present invention is based.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the operation of the transport unit of the library device as a premise of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a system configuration of a library device as a premise of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1,100 medium 2,12 drive 3,13 transport unit 3b, 13b pushing arm 3d, 13d roller 13c load unit

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── of the front page continued (72) inventor Kazushi Terashima Ishikawa Prefecture, Hebei County Unoke-cho Unoke Nu 98 address within 2 Co., Ltd. Piefuyu (58) investigated the field (Int.Cl. ^7, DB name) G11B 17 / 22-17/30

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] A transport unit for storing and transporting the medium, moving the transport unit in front of the drive, and pushing and setting the medium into the drive by an arm provided on the transport unit; A method for inserting a medium into a drive in a library apparatus, wherein when a medium cannot be normally set in the drive, an arm pushing time is increased by a predetermined time and a retry is performed. 2. When the retry operation is successful, an arm pressing time at that time is stored, and the arm pressing time is determined based on the stored time.
Of inserting a medium into a drive in a conventional library device. 3. When the operating time of the device exceeds a certain value,
3. The method for inserting a medium into a drive in a library apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the stored arm pushing time is initialized. And a transport unit for storing and transporting the medium, moving the transport unit in front of the drive, and pushing a medium into the drive by a pushing arm provided on the transport unit to a drive in a library apparatus. In the medium insertion method, an arm pressing time when the medium is successfully set a predetermined number of times in succession is stored, and the arm pressing time is determined based on the stored time. Medium insertion method.