JPH0366745B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a floppy disk device that protects a floppy disk from damage that may occur when the floppy disk is mounted.

Traditionally, external storage devices for computers are
Storage devices such as magnetic tape and magnetic disks were widely used, but in recent years, magnetic sheet disks, Storage devices using so-called floppy disks have come into widespread use.

An example of such a floppy disk device is shown in FIG.

This figure shows a mini-sized floppy disk device as an example, where 1 is a floppy disk housed in a protective jacket, 2 is a floppy disk device, and 3 is a floppy disk 1.
This is a door installed at the entrance of the part where the

When using this device, after opening the door 3, insert the floppy disk 1 housed in the jacket into the device, and then close the door 3 to set it in an operational state.

Figures 2a and 2b show an example of a disk drive method for such a floppy disk device.
Figure 2a shows a state in which the door 3 (Fig. 1) has been opened and the floppy disk 1 has been inserted, but the door 3 has not yet been closed, and Figure 2b shows a state in which the door 3 has been closed. In these figures, 4
5 is a centering cone, and 5 is a center hole of the floppy disk 1. Note that 1' is a jacket for the floppy disk 1.

As its name suggests, the centering cone 4 has a conical shape, and rotates with its outer peripheral surface fitted into the center hole 5 of the disk 1, and serves as a drive shaft for rotationally driving the disk 1. Since this centering cone 4 is designed to move in the axial direction in conjunction with the opening and closing of the door 3, when the door 3 is closed after inserting the disk 1, the centering cone 4 changes from the state shown in FIG. 2a to the state shown in FIG. When the door 3 is opened, the state shown in FIG. 2b automatically returns to the state shown in FIG. 2a.

Therefore, just by opening and closing door 3, disk 1 can be opened.
The centering cone 4 is fitted into and separated from the centering cone 4, and when the door 3 is closed, the disk 1 is automatically set in a state where it can be rotated as shown in FIG. 2b. .

FIG. 3 shows the state in which the disk 1 is rotationally driven by the centering cone 4, and 6 is a driving motor.

Therefore, when writing information to or reading information from the floppy disk 1, the drive motor 6 drives the floppy disk 1.
A magnetic head (not shown) comes into contact with the surface of the floppy disk 1 in synchronization with the rotation, and necessary information is written and read.

By the way, such a floppy disk 1
Since the floppy disk 1 is rotated while being accommodated in the jacket 1', it is necessary to accommodate the floppy disk 1 with a relatively large amount of room inside the jacket 1'. Figure 4a.
As shown in FIG. 2, the center of the floppy disk 1 and the center of the jacket 1' often become misaligned.

However, if you close the door 3 in this state and try to fit the centering cone 4 into the center hole 5 of the disk 1, the end of the centering cone 4 will ride on the disk 1 as shown in FIG. 4b. Since the centering cone 4 fits into the center hole 5 of the disk 1 while bending and deforming that part, the inner circumference of the center hole 5 of the floppy disk 1 is given a wave-like deformation, and the center hole 5 may be deformed into an oval shape.

At this time, if the centering cone 4 is rotating, when the end of this cone 4 comes into contact with the periphery of the center hole 5 of the floppy disk 1, the disk 1
Since the center hole 5 moves and the center of the cone 4 coincides with the center of the cone 4, a so-called self-centering effect occurs, so that the fitting is performed smoothly and the area around the center hole 5 of the floppy disk 1 is deformed. No fear will arise.

However, as mentioned above, storage devices using floppy disks, especially mini-sized floppy disks, are mainly used in small and simple computers, so they are required to be small and low cost. Therefore, a direct current motor is mainly used as the drive motor 6. As a result, in consideration of the lifespan of the drive motor, such a floppy disk device is equipped with a drive motor start/stop control circuit in the floppy disk device, as shown in FIG. The control circuit is activated by a signal to drive the floppy disk only when information is to be written or read, and the drive motor is kept stopped at other times.

In FIG. 5, 6 is a motor for rotationally driving the drive cone 4 described above, 7 is a start/stop control circuit, 8 is a holding circuit, and 9 is a motor drive circuit.

The start/stop control circuit 7 generates a start signal in response to a command from a computer or the like when writing or reading information, and supplies the signal to the holding circuit 8. The signal held in the holding circuit 8 is supplied to a motor drive circuit 9, the motor 6 rotates, and the floppy disk 1 is rotationally driven via the drive cone 4.

Furthermore, when the writing and reading of information is completed, the control circuit 7 supplies a stop signal to the holding circuit 8, so that the output of the holding circuit 8 disappears and the motor 6 stops.

Therefore, in this conventional floppy disk device, since the centering cone does not rotate when the floppy disk is inserted, the floppy disk is easily deformed and damaged as described above, and the floppy disk is easily damaged. Disadvantages include that the disk requires skill to insert, making it inconvenient to handle, and that the lifespan of the floppy disk is shortened, making it easy for valuable information to be lost.

Therefore, in order to eliminate this drawback of the conventional technology, the insertion operation of the floppy disk is detected and the floppy disk drive motor is rotated, so that when the floppy disk is inserted, this drive motor is automatically rotated. Another device has been proposed, and this device will be explained below. In FIG. 6, 10 is an opening/closing detection circuit for the door 3 (FIG. 1), and 11 is an OR circuit. Note that the motor start/stop circuit 7, holding circuit 8, motor drive circuit 9, etc. are the same as in the conventional example shown in FIG.

The door opening/closing detection circuit 10 generates a pulse signal b when the door 3 starts to close after being opened, and provides an activation signal to the holding circuit 8 via the OR circuit 11. Therefore, since the output from the holding circuit 8 is supplied to the motor drive circuit 9, the drive motor 6 rotates and drives the centering cone 4 in rotation.

For this reason, as shown in FIG. 1, open the door 3 and insert the floppy disk 1, then close the door 3, and immediately drive the cone 4 (FIGS. 2 to 4).
(Fig. 4) begins to rotate, so even if the center of the center hole 5 of the floppy disk 1 and the center of the centering cone 4 are slightly misaligned, for example as shown in Fig. is corrected, and the center hole 5 of the floppy disk 1 is properly fitted as shown in FIG.
It is possible to prevent damage to the vicinity.

Next, this other device will be explained in more detail with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8.

In Figure 7, 12 is when door 3 is opened.
A switch that turns OFF and turns ON when it starts to close, 1
3 is a monostable multivibrator (monomulti),
14 is an OR gate, 15 is a flip-flop (FF), and 16 is a power transistor.

Next, the operation will be explained using the time chart shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 1, when the door 3 of the floppy disk device 1 is opened, the switch 12 is turned off.

On the other hand, at this time, as a matter of course, no information is being written or read, so the output c of the start/stop control circuit 7 remains at a low level.

Next, when the floppy disk 1 is inserted and the door 3 is closed, the switch 12 is turned on, and its output a becomes low level. The fall of this output a triggers the monomulti 13, and its output b becomes high level. Therefore, this output b passes through the OR gate 14 and becomes the output d, and the FF15
Set. As a result, the output e becomes high level, so the transistor 16 becomes conductive and the drive motor 6 starts rotating.

Therefore, when the centering cone 4 is about to fit into the inserted floppy disk 1, the centering cone 4 is always rotating, so that the inserted floppy disk 1 is in the state shown in FIG. 2a. Of course, even when the floppy disk 1 is warm, even if it is in the state shown in FIG. Floppy disk 1 without paying attention to
will not be damaged.

After inserting the floppy disk 1, the signal c from the control circuit 7 is sent to the FF 15 via the OR gate 14, and the starting and stopping of the motor 6 is controlled.

However, in the devices described in FIGS. 6 to 8, if the power is turned on to the device with the floppy disk inserted, the drive motor immediately starts rotating, so unnecessary motor It is not possible to sufficiently suppress the rotation of
The drawback was that it was still insufficient in terms of extending the life of the device.

An object of the present invention is to eliminate the drawbacks of any of the conventional examples described above, sufficiently suppress unnecessary rotation of the floppy disk drive motor, and ensure a long life. An object of the present invention is to provide a method and a floppy disk device.

In order to achieve this object, the present invention is characterized in that the floppy disk drive motor is controlled to be in a stopped state at least once when the power of the apparatus is turned on.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The floppy disk control method and floppy disk apparatus according to the present invention will be explained in detail below with reference to illustrated embodiments.

FIGS. 9 and 10 show an embodiment of the present invention.
The figure is a block diagram showing the overall configuration, and FIG. 10 is a specific circuit diagram of a part thereof.

In FIGS. 9 and 10, 20 is an RS flip-flop with clear input and reset priority (RSFF), 21 is a centering completion detection circuit, and 2
2 is an exclusive OR circuit (EXOR). In addition,
Flotspy disc 1, centering cone 4,
center hole 5, drive motor 6, motor drive circuit 8,
The opening/closing detection switch 12 of the door 3, etc. are shown in Figures 6 and 7.
This is the same as the embodiment shown in the figure.

RSFF20 is cleared by a clear signal h given from a computer or the like when power is supplied to the floppy disk device to enable operation, and then set by signal a from switch 12, and EXOR22 is cleared. The operation is as shown in the logic table of FIG. 11 because it is preferentially reset by the signal g from In FIG. 11, H represents a high level signal, L represents a low level signal, and X indicates that even if the input state is H, it is not related. The Q in No. 5 indicates that the previous state is preserved as is.

The centering completion detection circuit 21 mainly consists of a switch that operates when the centering cone 4 fits into the center hole 5 of the floppy disk 1 and reaches a predetermined position, and operates until the centering cone 4 reaches the predetermined position. is maintained at the power supply voltage, that is, H, and when centering is completed and reaches a predetermined position, it generates a signal f that becomes a contact voltage, that is, L.

Next, the operation will be explained using the time chart shown in FIG.

First, when the power of the floppy disk device is turned on, a power reset circuit (not shown) supplies a signal h that is at a low level for a certain period of time as shown in FIG. 12h to the clear terminal CLR of the reset priority RSFF 20. As shown in No. 1 in FIG. 11, the output signal Q of the FF 20 becomes low level as shown in FIG. At this time, the signals a and g applied to the input terminals S and R of the RSFF20 are both high level, so the first
As shown in Figure 1 No. 5, RSFF continues after that.
Since the output signal e of the motor 20 is maintained at a low level, the motor 6 is also maintained in a stationary state.

Next, when the floppy disk 1 is inserted into the floppy disk device 2 and the door 3 is closed, the door switch 12 operates as shown in FIG. 12a.
The set input signal a of RSFF20 falls to low level. At this time, the output Q of RSFF20 is the 11th
With No. 2 in the figure, the signal becomes high level as shown in FIG. 12e, and this signal e is supplied to the motor drive circuit 8, so the motor 6 starts rotating and the centering ring 4 also starts rotating. On the other hand, by closing the door 3, the centering cone 4 moves forward toward the hole 5 of the floppy disk, as explained in FIG. tupee disk 1
In this embodiment, while the centering cone 4 rotates,
Since it moves forward toward the hole 5 of the floppy disk, even if the hole 5 is placed in a position misaligned with the centering cone 4 as shown in Figure 4a, the centering can be done without damaging the floppy disk sheet. It can be made to perform an action.

This is because, since the centering cone 4 is rotating, when it comes into contact with the floppy disk 1, it immediately starts rotating the disk, and as explained above, due to the action of centrifugal force, the center of the center hole 5 and This is because a so-called self-centering effect can be obtained in which the axis of rotation of the centering cone 4 is made to coincide with the axis of rotation.

The centering cone 4 inserted into the hole 5 of the floppy disk 1 in this way is
Set the switch of the centering completion detection circuit 21 to the first position.
0 from the position indicated by the solid line to the position indicated by the broken line. As a result of this movement, since the switch is grounded, the upper input terminal of the exclusive OR circuit 22 drops from a high level to a low level as shown in FIG. 12f. The lower input terminal of the exclusive OR circuit 22 is brought to a low level only when the floppy disk device is accessed from the outside by the signal c, but is kept at a high level when the floppy disk device is not being accessed, that is, at this time. Therefore, the first
As shown in Figure 2g, the output g of the exclusive OR circuit 22
falls to a low level. On the other hand, at this time, RSFF
Since the input of FF 20 is in the state of No. 4 in FIG. 11, the output e of the FF 20 falls to a low level.
Therefore, the input signal to the motor drive circuit 8 is the first
The voltage falls to a low level as shown in Figure 2e, and the motor 6 is stopped.

That is, it can be seen that by closing the door 3 of the floppy disk device, the motor 6 that has started rotating automatically stops after completing the centering operation of the inserted floppy disk 1. .

After the above operations are completed, unless the door 3 of the floppy disk device is opened,
Since the set input S of the RSFF 20 is maintained at a low level, as shown in No. 2 and No. 4 in Fig. 11, when the reset input R of the FF becomes a high level, the output Q also goes high. When the level is reached and the motor 6 rotates, and the reset input R becomes low level,
Since the output Q of the FF also becomes low level, the motor 6 stops. Then, the output of the centering completion detection circuit 21 is maintained at a low level.

Therefore, when the access signal c of the floppy disk device is lowered to a low level, the output of the exclusive OR circuit 22 becomes high level, causing the motor 6 to rotate, and conversely, when the signal c is raised to a high level, The output of the circuit 22 can go to a low level to stop the motor 6, and as before, the motor 6 can be rotated only when accessing the floppy disk device.

Therefore, according to this embodiment, when the floppy disk is inserted, the centering cone automatically rotates to perform centering without damaging the disk, and the drive motor only stops after centering is completed. Therefore, centering is always performed reliably, and even if the power is turned on to the device with the floppy disk inserted, the drive motor will not start rotating, so unnecessary drive of this motor will be avoided. Rotation can be almost completely suppressed, and its life can be sufficiently extended.

The above embodiments are all directed to a floppy disk device in which the floppy disk 1 is driven by the centering cone 4, but as shown in FIG. The same applies to a floppy disk device that uses a drive cup 25 that is rotationally driven by a motor, and that rotates and drives the floppy disk 1 by sandwiching the floppy disk 1 between the cup 25 and the centering cone 4. Needless to say, it is applicable to

As explained above, according to the present invention, it is possible to prevent the floppy disk from being damaged when inserting the floppy disk into the floppy disk device. To provide a floppy disk device that has a long lifespan and is easy to handle at a low cost.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a perspective view showing an example of a floppy disk device, Figures 2a and b are explanatory diagrams for explaining the relationship between the centering cone and the floppy disk and the centering operation, and Figure 3 is an illustration of the centering cone and the floppy disk. An explanatory diagram showing an example of a drive mechanism for a floppy disk. Figures 4a and 4b are explanatory diagrams for explaining the relationship between a centering cone and a floppy disk and the centering operation. Figure 5 is a conventional example of a floppy disk device. 6 and 7 are block diagrams showing another conventional example, FIG. 8 is a time chart for explaining its operation, and FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention. 10 is a block circuit diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 11 is a logic diagram for explaining its operation, FIG. 12 is a time chart, and FIG. 13 is a drive of a floppy disk device. It is an explanatory view showing an example of a mechanism. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Floppy disk, 2... Floppy disk device, 3... Door, 4... Centering cone, 6... Drive motor, 7... Motor start/stop control circuit, 8... Holding circuit, 9... ...Motor drive circuit, 10...Door opening/closing detection circuit, 11...OR circuit, 12...Door opening/closing detection switch, 20...Reset priority RS flip-flop with clear input,
21... Centering completion detection circuit, 22... Exclusive OR circuit.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A system that includes a start/stop control circuit for a floppy disk drive motor, and controls the motor to rotate only when reading/writing information based on commands from a computer, and to stop at other times. In the floppy disk control method, the insertion of the floppy disk is detected, the start/stop control circuit starts the motor, and then the fitting of the floppy disk driving centering cone to the center hole of the floppy disk is detected. Then, the start/stop control circuit stops the motor, and when the floppy disk is inserted, the motor is automatically controlled to rotate until centering is completed, independently of control by commands from the computer, and the floppy disk is controlled to rotate until the centering is completed. A method for controlling a floppy disk, characterized in that the drive motor is maintained in a stopped state by supplying a reset signal to the start/stop control circuit from a reset circuit activated when power is turned on to the disk device. 2. A floppy disk that has a start/stop control circuit for the floppy disk drive motor, and controls the floppy disk to rotate only when reading and writing information based on commands from a computer, and to stop it at other times. In the disk control device, an insertion detection means detects insertion operation of the floppy disk and generates a detection signal, and detects completion of centering by a centering cone for driving the floppy disk with respect to the center hole of the floppy disk and generates a completion signal. Completion detection means for
A reset circuit is provided that generates a reset signal when the floppy disk device is powered on, and when the floppy disk is inserted, the motor is automatically rotated until centering is completed, independent of control by commands from the computer. and a reset signal generated from the reset circuit is supplied to the start/stop control circuit to maintain the drive motor in a stopped state when the floppy disk device is powered on. Floppy disk control device.