JPH05114222A - Aggregate-type optical disk apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To control the movement of a medium by using a control device and to change the medium by installing a vertically movable cell provided with a plurality of stacked horizontal shelves and an automatic change function which takes in and out the medium. CONSTITUTION:An operator inserts a medium into a taking-in-and-out part 20. In a readout/write operation, a host apparatus designates to a cell control device 60 to a face A or a face B on the medium which has been housed in a designated shelf at a cell 50 or in the taking-in-and-out part 20; it instructs an optical disk device to mount the medium. The cell 50 detects the face on the medium by using a sensor. On the basis of a detection result, the cell 50 is moved up and down in such a way that it is moved to an optical disk device 30 in the case of the face A and that it is moved to an optical device 40 in the case of the face 40. The optical disk device is aligned with the shelf; the medium is inserted into the optical disk device from the shelf by using an automatic change function. Consequently, it is not required to turn over the medium, the movement time of the medium can be shortened and a complicated automatic change function can be omitted.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a collective type optical disk device, and more particularly to a storage medium moving / exchange device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional collective type optical disc device, when mounting a medium on the optical disc device, the side to be accessed is always directed upward, and the shelves for storing the medium are separated into the right and left sides of the medium moving mechanism. It was provided separately, and the automatic exchange mechanism had the function of reversing the upper and lower surfaces of the medium.

[0003]

In the above-mentioned conventional collective type optical disk apparatus, the surface of the medium to be accessed must be mounted with its surface always facing upward, and the left and right sides of the medium moving mechanism have a shelf for storing the medium. Since it is provided, when the medium is put into the shelf from the outside of the device, or when moving between the shelf and the optical disk device, the medium is half-turned by the automatic exchange mechanism to reverse the direction, or the upper and lower surfaces of the medium are reversed. There are cases where it has to be turned inside out. Therefore, not only is it time-consuming to move the medium, but there is also the drawback that a medium moving / exchange mechanism with a complicated structure must be provided.

An object of the present invention is that it is not necessary to consider the orientation of the surface when a medium is loaded, and the medium does not need to be rotated or flipped when it is moved, so that the medium does not move in a long time. An object is to provide a collective type optical disc device having a simple structure.

[0005]

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a collective type optical disc type apparatus having a plurality of tiers of vertically stacked horizontal shelves for storing the medium and an automatic exchange function for loading and unloading the medium. A cell that can move in the vertical direction itself, an optical disk device that accesses the upper surface of the mounted medium, an optical disk device that accesses the lower surface of the mounted medium, and the medium is inserted into or removed from the device. And a cell controller for moving the cell to a desired position and for giving a required command to the automatic exchange function of the medium of the cell, and an upper side of the medium. An optical disk device for accessing the surface and an optical disk device for accessing the lower surface are arranged in parallel with each other vertically and opposite to the cell.

[0006]

Operation: A plurality of vertically stacked horizontal shelves for storing media and an automatic exchange function for loading and unloading media are integrally configured to form vertically movable cells. Since the optical disk device for accessing the surface and the optical disk device for accessing the lower surface are provided in parallel with each other, above and below, and opposite to the cell, the cell controller can set the cell to a desired shelf / medium input / output section and the optical disk. It is moved vertically between the devices and the media is exchanged by the automatic exchange function.

[0007]

1 is a schematic explanatory view of an embodiment of the present invention. The collective type optical disc device 10 is provided with a medium loading / unloading portion 20 having an opening for loading / unloading a medium into / from the device, and the optical disc devices 30 and 40 are provided inside the device 10.
Are vertically overlapped and provided in parallel with each other. The optical disk device 30 has a function of accessing the upper surface of the mounted medium, and the optical disk device 40 has a function of accessing the lower surface of the mounted medium. Multi-tiered, vertically stacked horizontal shelves for storing media,
A cell 50 including a mechanism having an automatic medium exchange function is vertically movable in the apparatus 10 to position a desired shelf on the medium input / output section 20 or to store a desired medium in a desired shelf. It can be moved to the position of the optical disk device 30 or 40. Further, the automatic exchange function can move the medium between the shelves and the medium input / output unit 20 or between the shelves and the optical disk device at each position. These operations of the cell 50 are performed based on a signal emitted by a cell controller 60 provided in the device 10, and the signal is transmitted from the cell controller to the cell 50.
A data input / output signal line a for transmitting to The sensor controller 60 is connected to a host device outside the device 10 via a data input / output signal line b.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. When the medium is stored in the collective type optical disk device 10, when the operator inserts the medium into the medium loading / unloading section 20, the host apparatus moves the medium from the medium loading / unloading section 20 to a designated shelf in the cell 50. Give a command to 60. The cell controller 60 vertically moves the cell 50 to align the medium input / output unit 20 with the designated shelf, and then moves the medium to the shelf by the automatic exchange function of the cell 50. At this time, the cell 50 can move the medium only by moving it up and down, and also moves the medium in a horizontal state. When the medium is read or written, the host device requests the cell controller 60
The A or B side of the medium stored in the desired shelf or the medium input / output section 20 is designated and a command for mounting on the optical disk device is issued. Since the medium is asymmetric between the A-side and the B-side, the cell 50 can detect whether the upper surface of the medium to be moved is the A-side or the B-side, and informs the cell controller 60 of the detection result. Cell controller 6 when side A is specified
0 uses this information to move the cell 50 to the optical disk device 30 which can access the upper surface if the upper surface of the medium is the A surface, and to the optical disk device 40 which can access the lower surface if the upper surface of the medium is the B surface. The optical disc device and the shelf are positioned up and down, and the automatic exchange function inserts the medium from the shelf into the optical disc device. Therefore, it is not necessary to turn over the medium when moving the medium of the optical disc device.

[0009]

As described above, according to the present invention, a plurality of vertically stacked horizontal shelves for storing media and a vertically movable cell having an automatic exchange function for loading and unloading media are provided. By moving the medium only in the vertical direction when moving the medium and eliminating the operation of turning over the medium due to the difference in the surface mounted on the optical disk device, the moving time of the medium can be shortened and a complicated automatic medium exchange mechanism can be used. There is an effect that can be omitted.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory view of a collective type optical disc device of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 set type optical disk device 20 medium input / output section 30, 40 optical disk device 50 cell 60 cell controller a, b data input / output signal line

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A collective type optical disc device having cells capable of storing a disc type storage medium, wherein a plurality of tiers for storing the medium, horizontal shelves vertically stacked in one row, and automatic exchange capable of taking out and putting in the medium are provided. A cell that has a function and is movable in the vertical direction itself; an optical disk device that accesses the upper surface of the mounted medium; an optical disk device that accesses the lower surface of the mounted medium; A cell controller for moving the cell to a desired position and giving a required command to the automatic exchange function of the cell of the cell. Optical disc device. 2. The optical disk device for accessing the upper surface of the medium and the optical disk device for accessing the lower surface of the medium are arranged in parallel with each other vertically and opposite to the cell. The described collective optical disc device.