摘要:
Disclosed is an optical disk handling system (24), called an autochanger, having two control systems (150Y, 150Z) to provide the six motions necessary to move optical disk cartridges from storage holding cells to an optical drive (26). The system uses shaft encoders (62, 72) on two motors (60, 70) of the two control systems, and current or voltage feedback from the motors, for all positioning, and for detecting the location of the mechanisms during, and at the end of, moves. The shaft encoders (62, 72) are used to position a mechanism close to the eventual move location, then motor current or voltage feedback is used to determine the opposition to the movement of the mechanism, which tells the control system whether the mechanism has reached its destination. A human operator can enter a cartridge into the system through a mailslot (41), which is rotatable to properly receive or eject cartridges. The control systems use a flip assembly (49) in the autochanger to turn the cartridge over, allowing either side of the disk to be arranged for reading or writing by the optical drive (26). The control systems use a lateral displacement assembly (51) to move a cartridge from a cell in one of the two columns of the autochanger to a cell in the other column, or to move a cartridge between the optical drive (26), which is located in one of the columns, to a cell in the other column. The control systems use a cartridge engaging assembly (45) to attach to an exposed end portion of a cartridge positioned in a cell or the optical drive (26). A longitudinal displacement assembly (47) is used by the control systems to move the cartridge, after attachment, out of the cell or optical drive. After positioning the cartridge vertically and laterally, the longitudinal displacement assembly (47) is then used to move the cartridge into a cell or the optical drive, where the engaging assembly (45) releases the cartridge. An optical drive interface (25) connects the electronics of the autochanger (24) and the optical drive (26), and includes electrical signals to emulate an eject pushbutton on the optical drive (26) and an indicator lamp on the optical drive (26). The autochanger (24) monitors the on and off state of the lamp signal as well as the duration of the on and off cycles to determine which operation is being performed by the optical drive (26). The autochanger uses the lamp signal and the eject signal to control all operations with the optical drive (26).
摘要:
Disclosed is an optical disk handling system (24), called an autochanger, having two control systems (150Y, 150Z) to provide the six motions necessary to move optical disk cartridges from storage holding cells to an optical drive (26). The system uses shaft encoders (62, 72) on two motors (60, 70) of the two control systems, and current or voltage feedback from the motors, for all positioning, and for detecting the location of the mechanisms during, and at the end of, moves. The shaft encoders (62, 72) are used to position a mechanism close to the eventual move location, then motor current or voltage feedback is used to determine the opposition to the movement of the mechanism, which tells the control system whether the mechanism has reached its destination. A human operator can enter a cartridge into the system through a mailslot (41), which is rotatable to properly receive or eject cartridges. The control systems use a flip assembly (49) in the autochanger to turn the cartridge over, allowing either side of the disk to be arranged for reading or writing by the optical drive (26). The control systems use a lateral displacement assembly (51) to move a cartridge from a cell in one of the two columns of the autochanger to a cell in the other column, or to move a cartridge between the optical drive (26), which is located in one of the columns, to a cell in the other column. The control systems use a cartridge engaging assembly (45) to attach to an exposed end portion of a cartridge positioned in a cell or the optical drive (26). A longitudinal displacement assembly (47) is used by the control systems to move the cartridge, after attachment, out of the cell or optical drive. After positioning the cartridge vertically and laterally, the longitudinal displacement assembly (47) is then used to move the cartridge into a cell or the optical drive, where the engaging assembly (45) releases the cartridge. An optical drive interface (25) connects the electronics of the autochanger (24) and the optical drive (26), and includes electrical signals to emulate an eject pushbutton on the optical drive (26) and an indicator lamp on the optical drive (26). The autochanger (24) monitors the on and off state of the lamp signal as well as the duration of the on and off cycles to determine which operation is being performed by the optical drive (26). The autochanger uses the lamp signal and the eject signal to control all operations with the optical drive (26).
摘要:
Disclosed is an optical disk handling system 124), called an autochanger, having two control systems (150Y, 150Z) to provide the six motions necessary to move optical disk cartridges from storage holding cells to an optical drive. The system uses shaft encoders (62, 72) on two motors (60, 70) of the two control systems, and current or voltage feedback from the motors, for all positioning, and for detecting the location of the mechanisms during, and at the end of, moves. The shaft encoders (62, 72) are used to position a mechanism close to the eventual move location, then motor current or voltage feedback is used to determine the opposition to the movement of the mechanism, which tells the control system whether the mechanism has reached its destination. A human operator can enter a cartridge into the system through a mailslot (41), which is rotatable to properly receive or eject cartridges. The control systems use a flip assembly (49) in the autochanger to turn the cartridge over, allowing either side of the disk to be arranged for reading or writing by the optical drive. The control systems use a lateral displacement assembly (51) to move a cartridge from a cell in one of the two columns of the autochanger to a cell in the other column, or to move a cartridge between the optical drive, which is located in one of the columns, to a cell in the other column. The control systems use a cartridge engaging assembly (45) to attach to an exposed end portion of a cartridge positioned in a cell or the optical drive. A longitudinal displacement assembly (47) is used by the control systems to move the cartridge, after attachment, out of the cell or optical drive. After positioning the cartridge vertically and laterally, the longitudinal displacement assembly (47) is then used to move the cartridge into a cell or the optical drive, where the engaging assembly (45) releases the cartridge. An important aspect of the invention is that the longitudinal displacement assembly (47), the flip assembly (49), the lateral displacement assembly (51), the engagement assembly (45), and the mailslot assembly (41) are operated by one of the two control systems. The other of the two control systems is used for vertical displacement of the cartridge.
摘要:
Disclosed is an optical disk handling system (24), called an autochanger, having two control systems (150Y, 150Z) to provide the six motions necessary to move optical disk cartridges from storage holding cells to an optical drive (26). The system uses shaft encoders (62, 72) on two motors (60, 70) of the two control systems, and current or voltage feedback from the motors, for all positioning, and for detecting the location of the mechanisms during, and at the end of, moves. The shaft encoders (62, 72) are used to position a mechanism close to the eventual move location, then motor current or voltage feedback is used to determine the opposition to the movement of the mechanism, which tells the control system whether the mechanism has reached its destination. A human operator can enter a cartridge into the system through a mailslot (41), which is rotatable to properly receive or eject cartridges. The control systems use a flip assembly (49) in the autochanger to turn the cartridge over, allowing either side of the disk to be arranged for reading or writing by the optical drive (26). The control systems use a lateral displacement assembly (51) to move a cartridge from a cell in one of the two columns of the autochanger to a cell in the other column, or to move a cartridge between the optical drive (26), which is located in one of the columns, to a cell in the other column. The control systems use a cartridge engaging assembly (45) to attach to an exposed end portion of a cartridge positioned in a cell or the optical drive (26). A longitudinal displacement assembly (47) is used by the control systems to move the cartridge, after attachment, out of the cell or optical drive. After positioning the cartridge vertically and laterally, the longitudinal displacement assembly (47) is then used to move the cartridge into a cell or the optical drive, where the engaging assembly (45) releases the cartridge. An optical drive interface (25) connects the electronics of the autochanger (24) and the optical drive (26), and includes electrical signals to emulate an eject pushbutton on the optical drive (26) and an indicator lamp on the optical drive (26). The autochanger (24) monitors the on and off state of the lamp signal as well as the duration of the on and off cycles to determine which operation is being performed by the optical drive (26). The autochanger uses the lamp signal and the eject signal to control all operations with the optical drive (26).
摘要:
Disclosed is an optical disk handling system (24), called an autochanger, having two control systems (1504, 1502) to provide the six motions necessary to move optical disk cartridges (43) from storage holding cells (40) to an optical drive (26). Whenever the mechanisms are being moved, the control systems monitor the progress of the movement, and should the control systems detect an error condition, a state update flag is changed to prevent further updates of the state of the system (176). With state updates disabled, the control systems (1504, 1502) will stop all mechanisms and prevent further movement of the mechanisms. The software that calls the control systems (404, 406, 408, 410), however, is unaware of this change in the state update flag, and continues to process until the operation appears complete. When the operation appears complete, an error recovery software function (412) is called. When the error recovery software (412) detects that the state update flag is in an error condition, error recovery is initiated. The type of error recovery performed is based on the state of the machine (176) at the time the error condition was first detected, since this state has been saved by changing the state update flag. The first part of error recovery (422) attempts to put the mechanisms into a known state, based on the mechanisms positions at the time of the error. After the mechanism's state has been established, error recovery movement is started, based on the operation that was being performed at the time of the error, and the state of the machine (176) at the time of the error. The type operation being performed is saved in non-volatile memory, so that the type of operation will be saved should electrical power fail during the operation. Therefore, after power is restored, power fail error recovery can perform error recovery based on the type of operation being attempted at the time power was lost.
摘要:
Disclosed is an optical disk handling system (24), called an autochanger, having two control systems (150Y, 150Z) to provide the six motions necessary to move optical disk cartridges from storage holding cells to an optical drive. The system uses shaft encoders (62, 72) on two motors (60, 70) of the two control systems, and current or voltage feedback from the motors, for all positioning of the mechanisms controlled by the two control systems. This positioning includes initial calibration as well as detecting the location of the mechanisms during, and at the end of, moves. The shaft encoders (62, 72) are used to position a mechanism close to the eventual move location, then motor current or voltage feedback is used to determine the opposition to the movement of the mechanism, which tells the control system whether the mechanism has reached its destination. The control systems use a flip mechanism (49) in the autochanger to turn the cartridge over, allowing either side of the disk to be arranged for reading or writing by the optical drive. The control systems use a lateral displacement mechanism (51) to move a cartridge from a cell in one of the two columns of the autochanger to a cell in the other column, or to move a cartridge between the optical drive, which is located in one of the columns, to a cell in the other column. The control systems use a cartridge engaging mechanism (45) to attach to an exposed end portion of a cartridge positioned in a cell or the optical drive. A longitudinal displacement mechanism (47) is used by the control systems to move the cartridge, after attachment, out of the cell or optical drive. After positioning the cartridge vertically and laterally, the longitudinal displacement mechanism (47) is then used to move the cartridge into a cell or the optical drive, where the engaging mechanism (45) releases the cartridge. An important aspect of the invention is that the longitudinal displacement mechanism (47), the flip mechanism (49), the lateral displacement mechanism (51), the engagement mechanism (45), and the mailslot mechanism (41) are operated by one of the two control systems. The other of the two control systems is used for vertical displacement of the cartridge. During initialization of the cartridge handling system, it uses the shaft encoders (62, 72), along with current or voltage feedback from the motors, to calibrate the home locations of the mechanisms. The system determines the home position for vertical movement of the transport as well as the top and bottom positions used for the translate operation. The system then calibrates the plunge movement, the flip movement, and the translate movement. Finally, the system determines whether the path for all the movements is free of obstructions.