JPH10275399A - Disk automatic changer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a disk automatic changer capable of knowing an initial disk loading state quickly. SOLUTION: Slits corresponding to respective trays 3 of respective magazines 15 are used as not only position information of trays 3 mounted in the magazines 15 but also as identifications as to presences or absences of the magazines 15. Thus, a series of operations that the presence or the absence of a disk 4 in a carrier unit 40 is detected by drawing out a tray 3 from a magazine 15 in order to know the disk loading state in a device 1 at the initial state of the device 1 is eliminated in parts in which the magazine 15 are not present.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a disk for storing a plurality of disks and reading information from a predetermined disk.
It relates to an autochanger device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A disc autochanger apparatus is a C
In many cases, information is read from a disc such as a D-ROM or a DVD (Digital Video Disc).
Some write information to a disc, such as mpactDisc-Recordable. The disc autochanger device is
Sometimes called an optical library (optical lib-rary).

[0003] Conventional disk autochanger devices are disclosed in JP-A-8-273270 and JP-A-8-273.
No. 271 and illustrated in detail. This disk autochanger device includes a rack assembly that stores a plurality of trays on which disks are placed in a stacked state. The rack assembly is provided with a slit corresponding to each storage position of each tray by providing a disk guide groove for guiding each tray to each storage position and a slit corresponding to the disk guide groove. The carrier unit that transports the tray in the vertical direction in the disk autochanger device includes a photosensor as slit detecting means for detecting a slit, and a magazine or rack in which a plurality of disks are set as one unit based on the output of the slit detecting means. A tray insertion / removal mechanism for inserting / removing the tray from / to the assembly; and a photosensor as disk detection means for detecting the presence / absence of a disk on the tray taken out of the magazine and outputting a detection signal. . The carrier unit is sometimes called a carrier or an elevator.

On the other hand, there is a disk autochanger apparatus in which a plurality of (for example, 50) trays on which disks are mounted are removably mounted with a plurality of magazines stored in a stacked state. The magazine is provided with reinforcing plates on the upper and lower surfaces of the rack of the rack assembly to divide the magazine into a convenient size for accommodating a predetermined number (for example, 50) of trays, and to attach a handle to the side of the rack. It can also be seen as being removably mounted.

[0005]

The conventional disk autochanger device does not have means for detecting a magazine mounting failure when the magazine is not properly mounted, and the disk autochanger device does not properly mount the magazine on the disk. When the autochanger device is operated, there is a possibility that the inside thereof may be damaged.

Further, in the conventional disk autochanger apparatus, in order to know the initial loading state of the disk in the changer, the tray is pulled out of the magazine into the carrier unit, and the tray is pulled out from all magazines by the disk detecting means of the carrier unit. It is necessary to check for presence. This operation needs to be performed on the assumption that all the magazines are mounted in the case of a device that does not have the function of detecting the presence or absence of a magazine.

Further, in a disk autochanger device, the positioning of the carrier unit is stopped by the slit of the magazine, and the tray is inserted / removed. The stopping accuracy is important. Conventionally, positioning is performed by comparing a numerical value of a rotary encoder provided in a drive motor of a carrier unit with predetermined mechanical position information in a state where a magazine or a drive is mounted. Therefore, the carrier unit sometimes stops at the wrong slit of the magazine due to a change over time due to a shift of the magazine or a change in the sliding portion of the carrier unit.

[0008]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of trays on which discs are placed are stacked, and a detected portion (for example, a slit) corresponding to each tray position of the magazine and a detected portion of a carrier unit (for example, a detecting portion). In a disc autochanger device equipped with a slit detection means), by using a detected part corresponding to each tray of each magazine not only as position information of the tray mounted in the magazine, but also as identification of the presence or absence of the magazine, In order to know the loading status of the disc in the changer in the initial state of the disc autochanger device, a series of operations of pulling out the tray from the magazine and detecting the presence or absence of the disc in the carrier unit is omitted by omitting the portion without the magazine. Disk mounting condition in the early stage of the autochanger device Characterized in that to know early.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in a disk autochanger apparatus in which a plurality of magazines are mounted, the stop position of the carrier unit is determined by a value of a rotary encoder provided on a carrier unit driving motor and a predetermined magazine. The carrier unit moves up and down each time the power is turned on, rather than using the numerical value of the mechanical attachment position of the detected part. The detected part detecting means of the carrier unit is used to drive one end of the detected part of each magazine and drive. By storing the numerical value of the rotary encoder when the detected part is detected, the dimensional error of the disc / autochanger device, the mounting error of the magazine, the change of the position of the detected part of the magazine and the change of the sliding part of the carrier unit Even if there is a change over time due to the Characterized in that it stops the A unit.

By processing the output of the detected part detection means of the carrier unit as a signal indicating the presence or absence of a magazine,
It is possible to quickly know the initial disk mounting status of the disk autochanger device. By storing one end of each magazine as the value of the rotary encoder using the detected part detecting means of the carrier unit, even if there is a slight mounting dimensional error or a change with time of each magazine, there is a problem in taking out and returning the tray. Can be prevented.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described based on embodiments shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a disk autochanger device according to the present invention. Reference numeral 1a is a display unit composed of an LCD. Reference numeral 1b denotes an operation button of the disc autochanger device 1. Reference numeral 1c denotes a table cover of a table for transporting a disk in a mail slot mechanism used when an operator stores a new disk in the disk autochanger apparatus 1 or removes a disk from the disk autochanger apparatus 1. Reference numeral 1d denotes a door provided by an operator to open the disk autochanger device 1 for maintenance or the like.

FIG. 2 is a simplified development view of the disc autochanger device 1 when both doors 1d, 1d of the disc autochanger device 1 according to the present invention are opened.
FIG. 3 is a simplified perspective view of the disk autochanger device 1 according to the present invention.

In the left area 10A, three magazines 15 in the vertical direction, a mail slot mechanism (not shown),
There is. One magazine 15 is located in the right area 10B.
And six disk drives 110 and an operation unit 150 provided with a power supply circuit. The left area 10A
The magazine 15 of the right side area 10B facing the magazine 15 of the left side is the magazine 15 of the left side area 10A.
And the trays 3 are exchanged so that the discs 4 are placed thereon, and the description thereof is omitted. Then, between the left and right areas 10A and 10B, the carrier unit 40 for inserting and removing the disk 4 and transporting it to the disk drive 110 moves up and down.

As shown in FIG. 3, the carrier unit 40 is provided so as to be vertically movable between left and right areas 10A and 10B.
5 from the tray 3 on which the desired disc 4 is placed with the arrow X ₁
The tray 4 is pulled out horizontally, and the disc 4 is transported up and down together with the tray 3.
Into the disk drive 110. The disk 4 reproduced by the disc drive 110 has been completed is conveyed to the original storage position, back is moved to the direction of arrow X ₂ in a predetermined storage position. Further, a carrier unit moving mechanism 30 for moving the carrier unit 40 up and down (in the Z ₁ and Z ₂ directions) is installed at the back of the housing 2.

That is, the carrier unit 40 is vertically movably guided by a long guide shaft 31 fitted to the carrier base 41 and a long guide shaft 32 on which the rollers 43 mounted on the carrier base 41 roll. Have been. Further, a part of the timing belt 33 is fixed to the carrier base 41, and the timing belt 33 is hung over a pair of timing pulleys (not shown) installed vertically and connected to the motor 17M (not shown). So that the carrier unit 40 can move up and down freely,
The control unit (not shown) including a CPU is configured to be able to reliably stop at a predetermined position.

The main components of the carrier unit 40 are:
A tray lock release mechanism 60 for unlocking the tray lock mechanism 20 of the magazine 15 and a tray lock mechanism (not shown) of the disk drive 110, respectively, and a carrier for positioning and locking the tray 3 on the carrier unit 40 A tray stopper mechanism (not shown), a tray insertion / removal mechanism (not shown) for pulling out or inserting a tray 3 on which a desired disk 4 is placed from the magazine 15 and the disk drive 110; A drive mechanism (not shown) that drives a mechanism, the tray lock release mechanism 60, and the tray stopper mechanism, respectively.
And

Photosensors 42A and 42B for detecting the stacking number of the tray 3 of the magazine 15 are fixed to the carrier base 41. Detection of the photosensor 42A, the tray stacking number according 42B is a slit detection means is performed by counting the number of slits 11f ₁ of the magazine 15. On the other hand, in the vertical direction of the end portion of the magazine 15 a number of slits 11f ₁ associated to detect the tray position is formed. Since the position of the tray 3 are made to coincide with between the slits 11f _1, slit 1
The number of 1f ₁ is the number of the tray plus 1.

A photo sensor 44 (not shown) for detecting the presence or absence of a disc is attached to the carrier base 41. The photo sensor 44 corresponds to a disc presence / absence detection hole 3a ₃ (see FIG. 5) formed in the tray 3. A transmission type photosensor is used. A catcher 100 for holding the tray 3 and inserting and removing the disc 4 is provided on the carrier base 41 in the horizontal direction in the left and right directions (the directions of arrows X ₁ and X ₂ ).
It is movable freely.

FIG. 4 is a simplified perspective view of the magazine 15,
FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing the positional relationship among the magazine 15, the tray 3, and the disk 4. A plurality of tray guide grooves are formed inside the mutually facing side surfaces of the magazine 15,
A plurality of trays 3 on which disks 4 are placed can be stored in a stacked state. The number of tray guide grooves is
For example, 30 or 50 stages are appropriately set according to the number of sheets stored.

The front surface 11f, which is bent in connection with the side surface of the magazine 15, has a plurality of trays 3 corresponding to a plurality of tray guide grooves.
Slit 11f ₁ for detecting the stack number is more bored. The slit 11f ₁ is provided in the carrier unit 4
Photo sensor 42 attached to carrier base 41
A, 42B, are used as position detection of the tray 3 and information on the presence or absence of the magazine 15. Also, 11
photosensor 42A points f _2, when the 42B passes,
The numerical value of a rotary encoder (not shown) attached to the motor of the carrier unit moving mechanism 30 is stored.
This means that if there are a plurality of magazines 15, the number of magazines 15 is stored. Furthermore, in the drive 110 of the disc autochanger device 1, the magazine 15
And the value of the rotary encoder is stored similarly when passing through this slit. The above values are stored in a memory in the CPU 19 and read out as control information.

A tray lock mechanism 20 is provided on the side surface of the magazine 15.
Are configured so that the trays 3 on which the disks 4 are placed can be locked collectively, for example, every ten sheets. Therefore,
Assuming that, for example, 50 trays 3 are stored in the magazine 15, five tray lock mechanism units 20 are required.

[0023] the tray 3, the lock recess 3b ₂ is formed in a concave shape, the locking recess 3b ₂ is magazine 15
The tray 3 is locked or unlocked by the magazine 15 and the disk drive 110 by engaging with a tray lock mechanism 20 and a tray lock mechanism (not shown) of the disk drive 110 described later.

The tray 3 has a disc presence / absence detection hole 3a ₃
Are penetrated so that a photo sensor 44 for detecting the presence or absence of a disk of the carrier unit 40 described later can detect whether or not the disk 4 is placed on the tray 3. Further, the tray 3, tray positioning holes 3a ₄ are provided through, so that the tray 3 can be positioned at a predetermined position of the disk drives 110 by the positioning pins of the disc drive 110 to be described later (not shown) It has become.

The first clamping portion 3e ₁ of the pair in the drawing direction of one end of the tray 3 is formed to shape "substantially U". These first clamps are connected to the carrier unit 4
0 and the carrier unit 40
Catcher 100 of a tray insertion / removal mechanism section described later provided in
The tray 3 on which the disk 4 is placed is placed in the magazine 15
And or automatically pulled out from the disk drive 110 in the direction of arrow X ₁ or direction of arrow X _2, the first clamping portion 3e _1, 3e ₁ tray drawer line to Dari automatically pushed into the magazine 15 and disk drive 110 It is formed symmetrically.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view of an essential part of the periphery of the magazine 15 when the magazine 15 is mounted on the disk autochanger device. FIG. 7 is an enlarged view of a main part of the magazine 15 and the vicinity of the mounting position when the magazine 15 is mounted on the disk autochanger device 1. Guides 15g, 15g are attached to the back of the magazine 15 in parallel and in the insertion and removal direction of the magazine 15. Therefore, the mounting position accuracy of the magazine 15 for slightly vary with each magazine, by storing the end 11f ₂ of the magazine 15 as the position information, it can be ensured stop position with high accuracy. Also, guides 15g, 15g provided on the back surface of the magazine 15 (at a position facing the take-out side of the tray 3).
A projection 15k is provided in parallel with the projection 15k.
Is provided with a concave portion 15n, and the photo sensor 1h
This is used for detecting a mounting failure of the magazine 15.

The magazine 15 of the guide 15 g, 15 g guide 1g attached to the housing 2, interdigitated with 1g, thereby the operator guide the magazine 15 into deeper of the housing 2 (Y ₁ direction) 1g, to 1g The magazine 15 can be mounted by being pushed along. The housing 2 is provided with a magazine mounting failure detecting means composed of a photo sensor 1h, and a projection 15k is positioned in a light shielding object detecting recess of the photo sensor 1h. When the magazine 15 of FIG. 6 is mounted, the concave portion 15n of the protrusion 15k is located in the concave portion for detecting a light-shielding object of the photosensor 1h, and the photosensor 1h outputs an L-level signal without detecting the light-shielding object. Has become.

Plates 2a, 2a are attached to the upper and lower positions of the guides 1g, 1g so as to be orthogonal to the side surfaces of the housing 2, and the plates 2a, 2a are located near the upper and lower reinforcing plates of the magazine 15 in FIG. I have. Plate 2a, 2a
Functions to correct the inclination of the magazines 15, and the projections 2b of the plates 2a of each magazine 15 located on the carrier unit 40 side are fitted into recesses (not shown) provided in the center panel 1e (see FIG. 2). Fit each plate 2a
Are arranged horizontally.

FIG. 8 is a simplified configuration diagram of the periphery of the lever 1r used when taking out the magazine 15 from the disk autochanger device 1 when viewed from above the disk autochanger device 1. When the operator pulls the lever 1r forward with the magazine 15 of FIG. 6 mounted,
The magazine 15 is slightly out of the way. Here, the loading and unloading operations of the magazine 15 will be described.

In FIG. 8, the magazine 15 is connected to a guide 1g.
When is pushed in Y ₁ direction along, while the stopper 1y are brought into contact with the inclined portion 15w provided near the insertion direction end portion of the rear side of the magazine 15, retracted in the left direction orthogonal to the moving direction of the magazine 15 Will move. The stopper 1y is elastically urged rightward in FIG. 8 by a spring or the like (not shown). Further, a metal plate 1t supporting the pins 1p is fixed to the housing 2. When the magazine 15 is further pushed in, the pin 1p is pressed by the end face of the magazine 15 to move upward, and the spring 1
s shrinks, and the stopper 1y fits into the stopper receiving portion 15z provided on the magazine 15, so that the magazine 15 is normally mounted.

Next, to release the magazine 15, the operator pulls the lever 1r forward (downward in FIG. 8).
The tapered portion 1x connected to the lever 1r moves forward,
The stopper 1y gradually moves to the left against the urging force.
When the stopper 1y comes out of the stopper receiving portion 15z, the pin 1p is moved to the magazine 1 by the return force of the spring 1s.
5 is urged toward the front, and the magazine 15 comes out slightly toward the front.

FIG. 9 is a simplified block diagram of the disk autochanger device 1 according to the present invention. The magazine mounting failure detecting means (photo sensor) 1h shown in FIG.
In the disk autochanger device 1 of FIG. 1, four magazines 15 are provided corresponding to the mounting positions of the magazines.
Reference numeral 1h is assigned to these four magazine mounting failure detecting means.
a, 1hb, 1hc, 1hd are attached. The left slit detecting means 42A is a photo sensor 42A, and the right slit detecting means 42B is a photo sensor 42B (see FIG. 3). The disk detecting means 44 is a photo sensor provided in the carrier unit 40, detects the presence or absence of the disk 4 on the tray 3 taken out of the magazine 15, and outputs a detection signal to the CPU 19.

Magazine mounting fault detecting means 1ha, 1h
The output signals of b, 1hc, and 1hd are ORed by the OR circuit 18, and if any of the magazines 15 has a mounting failure, an H level signal is output from the OR circuit 18 to the CPU 19. The CPU 19 controls the entire operation of the disc autochanger device 1 and outputs an H
Only in the case of the level, a display instruction of the magazine mounting failure is given to the display means 1a composed of LCD, and a warning is given to the operator by the display of the display means 1a. As a result, the fact that the magazine 15 is not properly mounted can be determined.
Can be notified to the
Unreasonable operation of the autochanger device 1 can be prevented to prevent internal damage.

The lower limit position detecting means 17D comprises a photo sensor, and a projection is provided on the lower surface of the carrier unit 40. The projection is formed only when the carrier unit 40 reaches the lower limit position in the disc autochanger device 1. It becomes a light-shielding member of the photo sensor and outputs a signal to the CPU 19 indicating that it has reached the lower limit position.

The upper limit position detecting means 17U comprises a photo sensor, and a projection is provided on the upper surface of the carrier unit 40. The projection is formed only when the carrier unit 40 reaches the upper limit position in the disc autochanger device 1. It becomes a light shield of the photo sensor and outputs a signal to the CPU 19 indicating that it has reached the upper limit position.

The CPU 19 controls the drive of the motor 17M connected to the timing belt 33 to stop the carrier unit 40 at a predetermined position without fail. Motor 17M
An encoder disk is attached to the rotating shaft of the encoder disk. The window of the encoder disk is detected by a vertical movement detecting means 17N composed of a photo sensor, the windows are counted based on the detection signal, and one end 11f of the magazine 15 is turned on when the power is turned on. The number of encoders at the time of passing through ₂ is stored by the number of magazines 15 and the presence or absence of the magazines 15 is determined at the same time. The CPU 19 stops the motor 17M based on the output of the upper limit position detecting means 17U and the lower limit position detecting means 17D when the carrier unit 40 has reached the upper limit position and has reached the lower limit position. When inserting or removing the tray 3, the CPU 19 calculates the position information of the magazine 15 initially stored and the positions of the trays 3 in which the magazines 15 are arranged at regular intervals, compares the calculated position information with the output signal of the encoder,
The carrier unit 40 is moved to a target tray position. At this time, if it matches the output signals of the slit detecting means 42A and 42B, it is determined that the position is correct, and the insertion / removal of the tray 3 is started. If it is not correct, go to magazine 15
detecting the f ₂ again, and stores the value of the encoder again drives the motor 17M. Note that one end 11f of the magazine 15
₂ is the slit 11 at the bottom of the magazine 15
may be a f _1, it may be a slit 11f ₁ at the top position of the magazine 15, may be slit 11f ₁ in other positions.

FIG. 10 is a simplified flowchart for explaining the initial operation (particularly the operation of the CPU 19) of the disk autochanger device 1. When the power of the disk autochanger device 1 is turned on, the processing shown in this flowchart is started.

In step S1, an initial setting is made in the storage information of the memory in the CPU 19 that a magazine and a disk drive are not present in the disk autochanger device 1. First, in step S2, the carrier unit 40 is moved to the lower limit position.

Then, in step S3, the carrier unit 40 is moved upward. In step S4, the presence or absence of each magazine 15 and disk drive 110 is determined (see FIGS. 11 and 12). In step S5, it is determined whether or not the carrier unit 40 has reached the upper limit position,
If the upper limit position has not been reached, the process returns to step S4, and if the upper limit position has been reached, the process proceeds to step S6. Step S
6, the discs 4 for all the trays 3 of the magazine 15
A disk check process for detecting the presence / absence of a disk is performed (see FIG. 13).

FIGS. 11 and 12 are simplified flowcharts for explaining the presence / absence judgment processing for each magazine and disk drive. In step S10, the left slit detecting means 42
A or the right slit detection means 42B
It is determined whether or not each of the slits 11f1 of _No. 5 has been detected.

If a slit is detected, step S1
Proceeding to 1, it is determined whether or not the left slit detecting means 42A has detected. If the left slit detecting means 42A has detected, the process proceeds to step S12, and if the right slit detecting means 42B has detected, the process proceeds to step S20 (see FIG. 12).

In step S12, the left area 10A
Storing the value of the rotary encoder when it passes through the one end 11f ₂ of a first magazine 15 at. At the same time, step S14, step S16 and all the magazines 15 are performed. The value of the rotary encoder is when the slit detecting means 42A, 42B passes through the 11f ₂ of the magazine 15. Step S13, step S13
15. In step S17, the presence or absence of each magazine 15 is determined.

In step S20, the right area 10B
The slit of the drive 110 corresponding to the position of the first disk drive 110 in
B, and the value of the rotary encoder at this time is stored. In steps S22 to S31, similar processing is performed for the second to sixth disk drives. Thus, the carrier unit 40 can be stopped accurately even if the mounting accuracy of each drive varies.

FIG. 13 is a simplified flowchart for explaining a disk check process for checking the disk storage state in the changer. In step S60, the variable I = 1 and the variable MAX = 200 are set. In step S61, the (I / 50) -th magazine 1 is used by using the result obtained by the above-mentioned magazine / disk drive presence / absence determination processing.
5 is determined. Here, the value of (I / 50) is rounded up to an integer value. If there is no (I / 50) -th magazine 15, the routine proceeds to step 62, where 50 is added to the value of the variable I. (I / 50) th Magazine 1
If there is 5, the process proceeds to step S63.

In step S63, the carrier unit 4
0 is moved and the tray 3 at the address I is taken out. here,
1 ≦ I ≦ 50 is sequentially assigned to the tray 3 of the first magazine 15, 51 ≦ I ≦ 100 is sequentially assigned to the tray 3 of the second magazine 15, and 101 ≦ I ≦ 100.
≦ I ≦ 150 is sequentially assigned to the tray 3 of the third magazine 15, and 151 ≦ I ≦ 200 is sequentially assigned to the tray 3 of the fourth magazine 15.

In step S64, the tray 3
It is determined using the disk detecting means 44 whether or not the disk 4 is present. If there is no disc 4 on the tray 3 taken out, the process proceeds to step S65, where "no disc at address I" is stored in a storage means in the CPU 19 which is an internal storage device. If there is a disk 4 on the tray 3 that has been taken out, the process proceeds to step S66, where "there is a disk at address I" is stored in the storage means in the CPU 19 which is an internal storage device.

In step S67, the tray 3
Is returned to the original storage position of the magazine 15. Step S
At 68, the value of the variable I is increased by one. Step S
At 69, it is determined whether the value of the variable I is greater than 200. If the value of the variable I is greater than 200, the disk check processing ends. If the value of the variable I is 200 or less, the process proceeds to step S61.

By using the slit detecting means 42A and 42B of the carrier unit 40 not only for detecting the tray position of the magazine 15 but also for detecting the presence or absence of the magazine 15, it is possible to quickly check the disk storage state in the disk autochanger apparatus 1. Can be. The slit detecting means 42A, with 42B, by storing the value of the rotary encoder upon detection of the value of the rotary encoder and the slit drive 110 upon detection of the end 11f ₂ of the magazine 15, the magazine Even if there are some dimensional errors and mounting errors of the drive 15 and the drive 110 and some changes over time, it is possible to prevent the tray 3 from being taken out or returned.

The case where four magazines can be set in the disk autochanger apparatus has been described.
The disk autochanger device may be made even higher so that twelve magazines can be installed. The warning may be issued by voice using a voice IC. Conventional disk autochanger apparatuses are exemplified and described in JP-A-8-273270 and JP-A-8-273271, and these publications can be referred to in various points in the present application. it can. Further, the above embodiment is an example of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment.

[0050]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, in the operation of checking the initial disk mounting state of the disk autochanger device, the detection of the slit which is the detected portion of the magazine is stored as the presence / absence of the magazine, so that the carrier unit can remove the tray from the magazine. This operation can be performed quickly by checking the presence / absence of the ejected disk and not performing the operation where the magazine is not present.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the disk autochanger device stores one end of a slit of each magazine as a numerical value of a rotary encoder attached to a motor used for driving the carrier unit when the power is turned on. Even if there is a dimensional error, a mounting error, or a slight change with time, it is possible to prevent trouble in taking out and returning the tray.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a disk autochanger device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a simplified development view of a disk autochanger device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a simplified perspective view of a disk autochanger device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a simplified perspective view of a magazine.

FIG. 5 is a simplified explanatory diagram showing a positional relationship between a magazine, a tray, and a disk.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view of a principal part around the magazine when the magazine is mounted on the disk autochanger device.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged view of a main part for explaining the magazine and its mounting position when the magazine is mounted on the disc autochanger device;

FIG. 8 is a simplified configuration diagram when the periphery of the lever is viewed from above the disk autochanger device.

FIG. 9 is a simplified block diagram of a disk autochanger device according to the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a simplified flowchart illustrating an initial operation of the disk autochanger device according to the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a simplified flowchart illustrating processing for determining the presence / absence of each magazine and disk drive in FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is a simplified flowchart illustrating processing for determining the presence / absence of each magazine and disk drive in FIG. 10;

FIG. 13 is a simplified flowchart illustrating a disk check process for checking the disk of FIG. 10;

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Disk autochanger device, 1a ... LCD
(Display means), 1b ... operation buttons, 1c ... table cover, 1d ... door, 1e ... center panel, 1g ... guide, 1h, 1ha, 1hb, 1hc, 1hd ... photo sensor (magazine mounting failure detecting means), 1p ... pin , 1r ...
Lever, 1s ... spring, 1t ... metal plate, 1x ... taper part,
1y stopper, 2 housing, 2a plate, 2b projecting portion, 3 tray, 4 disc, 10A left area, 10B right area, 11f front surface, 12 reinforcing plate, 15 magazine 15g guide, 15k protrusion, 15n recess, 15w inclined portion, 15z stopper receiving portion, 16 handle, 17D lower limit position detecting means 17,
M: motor, 17N: vertical movement detecting means, 17U: upper limit position detecting means, 18: OR circuit, 19: CPU (control means), 20: tray lock mechanism, 30: carrier unit moving mechanism, 31, 32 ... Guide shaft, 33 ...
Timing belt, 40: Carrier unit, 41: Carrier base, 42A: Photosensor (left slit detecting means), 42B: Photosensor (right slit detecting means), 4
3. Roller, 44 Photosensor (disk detecting means),
60: tray lock release mechanism, 100: catcher,
110 ... disk drive (disk player), 15
0 ... operation unit.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A disk autochanger apparatus for removably mounting a plurality of magazines in which a plurality of trays for mounting disks are stored in a stacked state, the disk autochanger apparatus includes a magazine for storing the trays and a carrier for conveying the trays. The magazine includes a detected part associated with each storage position of each tray, and the carrier unit that transports the tray in the vertical direction in the disc autochanger apparatus includes a detected part that detects the detected part. Detecting means, means for inserting / removing a tray from / to a magazine based on the output of the detected part detecting means, and disk detecting means for detecting the presence / absence of a disk on the tray taken out of the magazine;・ In the operation to check the initial disk loading state of the autochanger device, A disk autochanger device in which the detection of a detected portion is stored as magazine presence / absence information, so that the operation of the carrier unit to take out the tray from the magazine and check the presence / absence of a disk is not performed in the absence of the magazine. . 2. A disk autochanger device for removably mounting a plurality of magazines in which a plurality of trays for mounting disks are stored in a stacked state, the disk autochanger device includes a magazine for storing the trays and a carrier for conveying the trays. The magazine includes a detected part associated with each storage position of each tray, and the carrier unit that transports the tray in the vertical direction in the disc autochanger apparatus includes a detected part that detects the detected part. The power supply is turned on, and one or both of the magazines and the drive are detected as numerical values of a rotary encoder attached to a motor used for driving the carrier unit, so that the magazine and the drive are stored. At one or both of the positions to be detected. Disk autochanger apparatus characterized by a positionable units.