JPH04121860A - Automatic feeder for floppy disk - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To apply this feeder even to an FD of 3.5 in. by providing a push-in mechanism which pushes the FD in an FDD, and an ejection driving part which operates the ejection mechanism of the FDD. CONSTITUTION:The push-in mechanism 13 is equipped with a push cam 14 mounted at the output shaft of a push motor, a driven rod 15 rotated by the rotation of the push cam 14, and a push arm 16 mounted on one terminal side of the driven rod 15, and it is driven when it is set in a horizontal state where the insertion/extraction port of the FDD 1 faces with a supply path 12 and also, the FD 4 is supplied to the supply path 12, and the push arm 16 pushes the FD 4 in the FDD 1. A stacker 3 is to house the FD taken out from the floppy disk FD in a stack state, and is operated by the ejection driving part. The stacker is arranged under a hopper 2, which arranges the hopper 2 and the stacker 3 is two stages upper and lower, thereby, horizontal space can be saved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a floppy disk drive (hereinafter abbreviated as [FDDJ)] that records, reproduces or erases data on a floppy disk (hereinafter abbreviated as rFDJ). do.

This invention relates to an FD auto-feeding device that automatically loads and automatically takes out FDs.

[Conventional technology]

FIG. 6 shows a conventional example of this type of FD autofeeding device, which includes a hopper 110 filled with FDloo in a stacked state, and an FDD 1 to which FDs are supplied from the hopper 110.
20, and a stacker 130 that stores the FD taken out from the FDD 120. The hopper 110 is a hopper cam 1 that is intermittently rotated by a hopper motor (not shown).
11, and when the hopper cam 111 rotates, the lowermost FD stacked in the hopper 100
loo is pushed out in the direction of the FDD 120.

Between this hopper 110 and FDDI 20, FDlo
The first feed roller 1 feeds o in the FDD 120 direction.
12 and a second feed roller 113 are provided, F
A supply path to the DD 120 is formed. Further, a guide arm 140 that rotates about the roller shaft of the lower roller of the first feed roller 112 as a rotation axis is provided in this supply path. This guide arm 140 guides the FDloo to the FDD 120 and also guides the FDD 120 as described later.
It acts to guide the FDloo from 120 to the stacker 130.

The stacker 130 is located below the hopper 110,
The entrance part is opened and FDD is installed in the entrance part.
A chute surface 131 extending diagonally upward toward 120 is provided in series. A pusher arm 132 is provided at the upper end of the chute surface 131 and rotates to push the FDloo into the insertion/removal opening of the FDD 120. Note that the FDD 120 is provided with a head for recording, reproducing, or erasing data on the FDloo.
An ejection mechanism (none of which is shown) is provided to push out the o.

The autofeed device configured in this manner is applied to automatic loading and unloading of a 5-inch FDloo, which itself has flexibility, and its operation will be described below.

When the hopper cam 111 rotates in the state shown in FIG. 6(a),
The lowest stage FDloo in the hopper 110 is pushed out, and the first and second feed rollers 112 and 113
Dloo is delivered to the insertion/removal port of the FDD 120. At this time, the upper roller of the second feed roller 113 moves down to clamp the FDloo and feed it into the FDD 120, and the pusher arm 132 rotates to push the FDloo into the FDD 120 ((b) in the same figure. )
). As a result, data processing for FDloo is performed, and after the data processing is completed, the second feed roller 11
3 is released and released, and FDD1
20 eject mechanism operates and FDloo becomes FDD1
20 ((C) in the same figure). At this time, the guide arm 140 rotates upward to connect the hopper 110 and the FDD.
120 is cut off. Guide arm 140
A wedge-shaped guide surface 141 is formed on the lower surface of the second feed roller 113, and when the second feed roller 113 returns to the nipping state,
FDloo is sent out from the FDD 120 so as to come into contact with the guide surface 141 of the guide arm 140 (see (d) in the same figure).
)). When the tip of the FDloo comes into contact with the guide surface 141, the FDloo is bent toward the stacker 130 due to its flexibility, slides down on the chute surface 131, and is stored in the stacker 130.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

Such a conventional autofeed device is applied to a 5-inch FD, and its flexibility is improved to a certain extent.
It is used for storing in stackers, etc. However, the conventional autofeed device for 5-inch FDs cannot be applied to cartridge storage type FDs, such as 3.5-inch FDs, because their specifications such as size, thickness, weight, etc. are completely different. In particular, 3.5 inch FD
Because the cartridge is hard and not flexible, the behavior of transport, loading, and unloading differs, and it is not possible to adapt the conventional device to its specifications by simply changing the dimensions. ing.

The present invention has been made in consideration of these circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an FD autofeed device that can be suitably implemented even for 3.5-inch FDs.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a hopper filled with floppy disks in a stacked state and for feeding the floppy disks one by one to a floppy disk drive, and a supply path for conveying the floppy disks fed from the hopper to the floppy disk drive. , a stacker for storing the floppy disks taken out from the floppy disk drive in a stacked state, an ejection path connecting the stacker and the floppy disk drive, and a floppy disk drive so that the insertion/ejection opening of the floppy disk drive faces the supply path and the ejection path. A floppy disk drive drive unit that moves the disk drive, a pushing mechanism that operates to push the floppy disk into the floppy disk drive when the insertion/ejection opening of the floppy disk drive faces the supply path, and a pushing mechanism that operates to push the floppy disk into the floppy disk drive. The present invention is characterized by comprising an eject drive unit that operates an eject mechanism of the floppy disk drive to be pushed out from the floppy disk drive in synchronization with when the insertion/ejection opening of the floppy disk drive faces the ejection path.

[Effect]

Such a configuration includes a pushing mechanism that pushes the FD into the FDD and an eject drive unit that operates the ejecting mechanism of the FDD, so that automatic full loading and automatic unloading of the FD can be performed. In addition, since the FDD moves between loading and unloading operations, it is difficult to use a hard FD with a diameter of 3.5 inches.
Even if it is, it can be carried in and out of the FDD freely.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, the present invention will be specifically described with reference to illustrative embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a side view showing the overall configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a side view showing the mechanism.

In these figures, FDDl is arranged on the right side, and hopper 2 and stacker 3 are arranged on the left side. FDDl is FD
4 (see FIG. 4), and reads and writes data to and from the FD 4. For this purpose, a head (not shown) is provided inside. Further, the FDDI is equipped with an eject mechanism (not shown) for pushing out the loaded FD 4, and an eject button 22 for pushing out the FD 4 is attached to the front side.

Eject lever 5 located close to the front side of the FDDI
The eject button 22 is pressed, and is mechanically pressed by being connected to the solenoid 21 and rotating toward the FDDl side by the driving of the solenoid 21. This push button pushes out the FD 4 in the FDDl, and the eject lever 5 and solenoid 21 constitute an eject drive unit that operates the eject mechanism.

In such an FDDI, the upper end of a crank rod 7 is connected to the lower surface on the rear end side, and the lower end of the crank rod 7 is eccentrically connected to the output shaft of the motor 6. When the motor 6 is driven by this, FDDl rotates in the forward and reverse directions,
The state is switched between a horizontal state shown by the solid line in FIG. 2 and an inclined state shown by the broken line. In the horizontal state, the FD 4 is received from the hopper 2 into the insertion/ejection port, and in the inclined state, the FD 4 is inserted from the insertion/ejection port into the stocker 3. FD4 is sent out. A control device is built into the output shaft of the motor 6 (not shown), and if for some reason the FD4 is not inserted from the FDDI and the FDDI is rotated,
The output shaft slips to save rotational driving force. This prevents damage to the FD4.

The hopper 2 is filled with FD4s in a stacked state, and sends out the FD4s stacked at the bottom one by one to the FDDI. This FD
4, the lower side of the FDDl side is opened to form a delivery port 8, and a hopper cam 9 is provided on the opposite side from the delivery port 8. The hopper cam 9 is intermittently rotated in a horizontal plane by the drive of the hopper motor 10, and this rotation sends the lowermost FD 4 out of the hopper 2. The FD 4 sent out from the hopper 2 passes through the first and second feed rollers 11a.

11b, it moves on the supply path 12 and is fed into the FDDl.

In order to feed the feed into the FDDl, a pushing mechanism 13 is disposed near the second feed roller Ilb. The pushing mechanism 13 includes a push cam 14 attached to the output shaft of the push motor and a push cam 1.
4, and a bushing arm 16 attached to one end of the driven rod 15, and the bushing arm 16 is placed in a horizontal state where the insertion/removal port of the FDDl faces the supply path 12, and is placed above the supply path 12. When the FD4 is supplied to the
It is designed to be pushed into the Dl.

This automatically loads the FD4 into the FDDI.

The stacker 3 stores the FDs 4 taken out from the FDDl in a stacked state. By disposing this stacker 3 below the hopper 2, the hopper 2 and the stacker 3 form two stages, one above the other, thereby reducing the space in the horizontal direction. In principle, the FD 4 is fed into the stacker 3 by sliding movement due to the weight of the FD 4, and therefore the stacker 3 and the FDDI are connected by an obliquely inclined discharge path 17.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of rollers 18 are disposed in this discharge path 17 between the stacker 3 and the FDDI, and a belt 19 is passed around these rollers 18. There is. In this case, the rollers 18 at appropriate positions (actually, the first and third rollers 18 in the feeding direction) are rotationally driven to ensure movement of the FD 4. In addition, in FIG. 2, 20 is a feed motor that rotates the first and second feed rollers lla and llb on the supply path side. This feed motor 20 has a timing belt 2
During forward rotation, the first and second feed rollers l
la and llb are rotated, and the roller 18 is rotated during reverse rotation. For this reason, a one-way clutch is incorporated in the drive roller of the first feed roller 11a to keep the roller 18 in a free state during forward rotation. It has become.

In addition to the above configuration, a plurality of sensors are provided to detect the state of the FD 4, and these sensors will be described below. Sensors S1 and S4 are eject sensors that detect movement of the FD4 on the ejection path 17, and sensor S
2 and S3 are feed sensors that detect the movement of the FD 4 in the supply path, sensor S5 is a bush cam sensor that detects the rotation of the bush cam 14 of the pushing mechanism 13, and sensor S
6 is the bush cam 14 along with the bush cam sensor S5.
S7 is a hopper cam sensor that detects the rotation of hopper cam 9, S8 is a hopper empty sensor that detects the presence or absence of FD4 in hopper 2, and S9 is an FDD normal sensor that detects the horizontal state of FDDI. The position sensor SIO is an FDD unique position sensor that detects the tilted state of the FDDI, and S11 is a stacker full sensor that detects the limit of the FDs 4 stacked and stored in the stacker 3.

Figure 3 shows the appearance of an autofeeder in which the device configured as described above is housed in the main body.
It becomes. Further, numeral 33 in the figure is an operation panel, and all operations are performed using various operation buttons arranged on this panel 33.

FIG. 4 shows the operation and sequence of automatically loading the FD4 into the FDDl with the above configuration, and the loading of the FD4 is performed while the FDDI is maintained in a horizontal state. First, the hopper 2 is filled with FD4 in a stacked state (Fig. 4(a)).
) When the hopper cam 9 rotates in a horizontal plane, the lowest FD 4 is sent out from inside the hopper 2 onto the supply path. 1st
Since the second feed rollers lla and llb are rotationally driven in the feeding direction to the FDDI in synchronization with the driving of the hopper cam 9, the FD 4 is conveyed in the direction of the FDD 1 (FIG. 4(b)). This conveyance causes the second feed roller llb
When the feed sensor S3 on the side detects the FD4, the pushing mechanism 13 is driven and the bush arm 16 is rotated. This rotation is performed in the counterclockwise direction and the arm 16 pushes the rear end surface of the FD4 ((C) in the same figure), so that the FD4
((d) in the same figure). In this state of import into the FDDI, predetermined data processing is performed, and automatic loading into the FDDI can be performed smoothly.

FIG. 5 shows the sequence of operations in which FD4 is automatically taken out from FDDI after data processing in FDDI is completed.

First, the bushing arm 16 of the pushing mechanism 13 is FDDI.
After the return rotation away from the FDDI, the motor 6 is driven and its crank rod 7 pushes up the rear end of the FDDI. As a result, the FDDI is rotated so that its insertion/removal port faces the discharge path 17. This rotation of FDDl is detected by the FDD eject position sensor S10.
Based on the detection signal 10, the solenoid 21 (see FIG. 2) of the eject drive section is activated.

This activation causes the eject lever 5 to fall to the FDDl side and press the eject button 22 on the front of the FDDI, which activates the eject mechanism inside the FDDl to eject FD4 or FD.
It is pushed out from the DI (Fig. 5(a)). At this time, FD
The insertion/removal port of the DI faces the discharge path 17, and also faces the discharge path 1.
7 is rotating in the feeding direction to the stacker 3, the FD 4 smoothly slides in the direction of the stacker 3 on the discharge path 17 due to its own weight and the driving action of the roller 18 (see figure (b) )). When the eject sensor S1 detects this movement of the FD 4, the motor 6 rotates in reverse, thereby returning the FDDI to a horizontal state and entering a standby state in which the next stage FD 4 can be received. On the other hand, discharge path 1
The FD 4 on top of the stacker 7 falls directly onto the stacker 3 and is stored therein ((C) in the same figure).

Therefore, due to this operation, FD4 from FDDl
However, since the FDDI rotates diagonally to take out the FD4, the FD4 does not interfere with surrounding parts, and even if it is a hard FD with a diameter of 3.5 inches, it can be taken out easily. In addition, there is no need to increase the transport length for FD movement, and the horizontal space can be reduced.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, the present invention includes a pushing mechanism for pushing an FD into an FDD and an eject drive section for operating an ejecting mechanism of the FDD. Since the FDD is switched between loading and unloading, even a hard FD with a diameter of 3.5 inches can be carried in and out of the FDD with a shortened conveyance length.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing the overall configuration of an embodiment of the autofeed device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a side view showing the mechanical part thereof,
FIG. 3 is an external view of the embodiment device, FIGS. 4(a) to (d) are side views showing the operating sequence of loading the FDD, and FIG. 5(a)
- (c) are side views showing the operating sequence of taking out from the FDD, and Figs. 6 (a) - (d) are side views showing the operation of the conventional device. 1...FDD, 2...Hopper, 3...Stacker,
4...FD. 5... Eject lever 1a. b...Feed roller, 3...Pushing mechanism, 7...Discharge path.

Claims (1)

[Claims] Floppy disks are packed in a stack, and one
A hopper that feeds the floppy disks one by one to the floppy disk drive, a supply path that conveys the floppy disks sent from the hopper to the floppy disk drive, a stacker that stores the floppy disks taken out from the floppy disk drive in a stacked state, and the stacker. an ejection path for connecting the floppy disk drive; a floppy disk drive drive unit for moving the floppy disk drive so that the insertion/ejection port of the floppy disk drive faces the supply path and the ejection path; A pushing mechanism that operates to push a floppy disk into a floppy disk drive when facing the supply path, and an ejection mechanism of the floppy disk drive that pushes a floppy disk out of the floppy disk drive are connected to the insertion/ejection opening of the floppy disk drive. An autofeed device for a floppy disk, characterized in that it is equipped with an eject drive unit that operates in synchronization when the diskette reaches an ejection path.