JP2508743B2 - Optical card tilt angle detector - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION <Industrial field of application> The present invention records or reproduces information on or from a card-shaped recording medium (hereinafter referred to as “optical card”) capable of optically recording information, The present invention relates to an optical card processing device for performing either one of them, and more particularly, the present invention relates to an optical card tilt angle detection device applied to detect the tilt angle of an optical card when recording or reproducing information. .

<Prior Art> In a conventional optical card processing device, as shown in FIG. 8, a holder 8 having a card holding portion on its upper surface is reciprocally and movably attached to a guide mechanism 81, and is directly attached to the holder 8 via a belt 82. A reversely rotating drive motor 83 is connected, and an optical head 9 for optically recording or reproducing information on the optical card 7 is provided above the holder 8. In this device,
When the drive motor 83 is driven forward and backward, the holder 8 including the optical card 7 reciprocates, and the optical head 9 scans the optical card 7, thereby recording or reproducing information. As shown in a partially enlarged view of FIG. 9, an information recording portion 71 having a large number of information recording tracks 72 is provided on the surface of the optical card 7, and the optical head 9 causes the optical beam to the information recording tracks 72. The information is recorded or reproduced by irradiating with. In the figure, 73
Is a track guide for causing the optical head 9 to follow the information recording track 72, and 74 is a pit forming an information unit formed on the information recording track 72.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> In the above optical card processing device, when the optical card 7 is inserted into the holder 8, the optical card 7 is held in a tilted state, and the moving direction of the holder 8 and the optical card 7 The direction of the information recording track 72 may not match. Even if the optical card 7 is properly held by the holder 8, if the information recording section 71 is inclined with respect to the optical card 7 as shown in FIG. 10, the optical card 7 is moved in the direction (indicated by an arrow in the figure). And the direction of the information recording track 72 do not coincide with each other, and in either case, a tracking operation error occurs.

Therefore, it is necessary to correct the holding attitude of the optical card 7,
It is necessary to detect the correction amount, that is, the tilt angle of the information recording track 72 with respect to the card transfer direction (hereinafter, simply referred to as “optical card tilt angle”). By the way, a special optical system or the like needs to be incorporated in the device to detect the tilt angle, which causes a problem that the structure of the device becomes complicated and the device becomes large.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an optical card tilt angle detection device capable of detecting the tilt angle of an optical card without adding a special optical system or the like.

<Means for Solving Problems> In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, an optical card having a plurality of track guides along a plurality of information recording tracks is moved relative to an optical head, and In an optical card processing device for recording or reproducing information by causing a head to follow the information recording track by a track servo mechanism, relative movement of the optical card is performed without operating the track servo mechanism to cross the track guide. Each time the output signal is changed, a means for shaping the waveform of the output signal to generate a tilt pulse having a frequency corresponding to the tilt angle of the optical card, and a means for counting the tilt pulse to determine the tilt angle of the optical card. And means for converting.

<Operation> Prior to recording or reproducing information to or from the optical card, the relative movement of the optical card is performed without operating the track servo mechanism. If the relative movement direction of the optical card and the direction of the information recording track do not match, the optical head will cross the track guide several times during the movement, and the output signal will change at each crossing. become. This output signal is waveform-shaped to generate a tilt pulse having a frequency corresponding to the tilt angle of the optical card, and the tilt pulse is counted to convert the tilt angle of the optical card. When this tilt angle is obtained, the holding attitude of the optical card can be corrected based on the value, and the relative movement direction of the optical card with respect to the optical head and the direction of the information recording track can be matched.

<Embodiment> FIGS. 3 to 5 show an example of an optical card processing device to which the optical card tilt angle detecting device of the present invention is applied.

In this optical card processing device, two guide shafts 13, 13 are installed in parallel in a case 1 having a card insertion port 11 to form a guide mechanism 12, and the guide mechanism 12 supports a holder 2 so that the holder 2 can reciprocate. In addition, the optical head 6 is provided on the card insertion side and the card feeding mechanism 5 is provided on the back side, corresponding to the lower side of the holder transfer path.

As shown in FIG. 3, the holder 2 is supported by the guide shaft 13 by providing bearings 21 on both sides. As shown in FIG. 4, a card holding portion 22 is formed on the lower surface of the holder 2, and the card holding portion 22 is formed in the card insertion opening 11 of the case 1.
It is aligned with the position of.

Inside the card insertion port 11, a detector 31 for detecting the inserted optical card 7 and an optical card 7 which is operated by the operation of the detector 31 to automatically move the optical card 7 to the card holder 22 of the holder 2. There is provided a card load / eject mechanism 3 for carrying in / out the recording medium.

The card load / eject mechanism 3 is located below the holder 2 and has a pair of left and right loading cams 3 on the rotary shaft 32.
3, 33 are provided, and the rotating shaft 32 is connected to a loading motor 37 via a reduction mechanism 36 including a pulley and a belt. The loading cam 33 is a substantially semi-circular cam made of a rubber material, and the flat cam surface 34 has a rotary shaft 32.
It is attached so as to be in close contact with the lower surface of the holder 2 in a non-contact manner when positioned horizontally above. Thus, when the loading cam 33 is rotated by the operation of the loading motor 37, the optical card 7 with the spherical cam surface 35 facing it is carried into the fixed position of the card holding portion 22, and the flat cam surface 34 faces the holder 2 again and the motor is moved. 37 stops.

The information recording track 72 of the optical card 7 is attached to the holder 2.
There is provided a card tilt correction mechanism 4 for matching the direction of (1) with the moving direction of the holder 2.

As shown in FIG. 6, the card inclination correction mechanism 4 of the illustrated example is provided with positioning stoppers 40 on the inner side of the card holding portion 22, two positions on one side, and one position on the other side at an intermediate position. It consists of card guides 41, 42 and 43. Two of the card guides 41, 42 on one side are supported on both ends of the bar member 45. The base end of the bar member 45 is pivotally fixed to the holder 2 and the tip end is connected to the elastic spring 44. Then, the card guide 41 on the front end side is always pushed toward the card side from the card guide 42 on the base end side.

The card guide 43 on the other side is arranged at the tip of a leaf spring 46 whose base end is fixed to the holder 2, and the card guides 41, 4 are provided.
2, 43 are arranged so as to sandwich the optical card 7 from both sides, and the optical card 7 is guided at both sides or at three points.

An operating protrusion 47 is provided on the tip side of the bar member 45,
On the other hand, the optical head 6 is provided with an operating piece 63 that engages and disengages inside the operating protrusion 47. Thus, when the optical card 7 is engaged with the card holding portion 22 and is supported at three points by the card guides 41, 42, 43, the inclination θ of the optical card 7, that is, the information recording track 72 of the optical card 7 The angle difference between the card feeding direction and the card feeding direction is detected by the optical card tilt angle detecting device (described later) according to the present invention, and the optical head 6 is operated according to the detected amount to move the projecting piece 47 by the operating piece 63. Thus, the inclination of the optical card 7 is corrected.

On the rear side of the holder 2, a guide shaft 23 perpendicular to the transfer direction of the holder 2 is provided to support a slide member 24, and the slide member 24 is connected to the card feeding mechanism 5.

In the card feeding mechanism 5, two supporting shafts 51 are mounted on the fixed frame 50 in the case 1, and pulleys are respectively mounted on both supporting shafts 51.
The endless belt 54 is wound around the shafts 52 and 53 to be wound around it, and a connecting pin is vertically provided at an appropriate position of the endless belt 54, and the pin 55 is pivotally connected to the slide member 24. A pulley 56 is axially fixed to the lower part of one of the support shafts 51, and a drive motor 58 for one-way rotation is connected to the pulley 56 via a transmission means 57 such as a belt, and an encoder 59 is attached to the other support shaft 51. Is attached.

The optical head 6 is supported by a lead screw 60 and a guide shaft 61 arranged in a direction orthogonal to the transfer direction of the holder 2, and the lead screw 60 is connected to a head feed motor 62 that can rotate in the forward and reverse directions. Therefore, when the head feed motor 62 operates,
The optical head 6 shifts to the light orthogonal to the feeding direction of the optical card 7 by the guide shaft 61 and the lead screw 60, and thereby the recorded information track of the optical card 7 is accessed.

FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of an optical card tilt angle detection device 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention.
It is composed of 1, amplifiers 102A and 102B, a pulse generation circuit 104, a counter 105, card sensors 106 and 107, and the like.

The photodetector 101 is incorporated in the optical system of the optical head 6, and when the information recording unit 71 (shown by a broken line in FIG. 1) of the optical card 7 is irradiated with tracking or recording / reproducing light, It includes a pair of photodiodes 101A and 101B for forming reflected light. These photodiodes 101A and 101B receive reflected light in the range shown in the figure and generate output signals a and b having a magnitude corresponding to the amount of received light.The output signals a and b are amplifiers 102A and 102B. After being amplified by, the subtraction circuit 103 obtains the difference between the amplified outputs a'and b ', and the tracking error signal e is generated. This tracking error signal e is given to a track servo mechanism (not shown), and the track servo mechanism drives the actuator of the optical head 6 based on this signal input to control the tracking operation.

Therefore, when the track servo mechanism is operated to move the optical card 7 together with the holder 2, the optical head 6 follows the information recording track 72 of the optical card 7, and information recording and reproducing on the information recording track 72 are properly performed. Be seen.

In the present invention, the optical card 7 is moved without operating the track servo mechanism to detect the tilt angle of the optical card 7 before recording or reproducing information. That is, when the optical card 7 is tilted, due to such a card shift, spots are successively intersected with the plurality of track guides 72 on the optical system of the optical head 6, in other words, on the information recording section 71 generated by this optical system. However, the output signals are taken out to the photodiodes 101A and 101B that change at each crossover, and predetermined signal processing is performed.

2 (1) and 2 (2) are photodiodes 101A and 101B, respectively.
The output signals a and b are shown, and each time the track guide 72 crosses the spot, the reflectance of the track guide 72 is lower than the other portions, so that the signal level of the output signals a and b decreases, and the change is Has occurred. There is a phase difference in the change of the output signals a and b, and the phase of one output signal is advanced from the phase of the other output depending on which of the photodiodes 101A and 101B in the crossover is detected first. It will be. For example, in the case of the signal waveforms shown in FIGS.
It can be seen that in the area corresponding to the one-way process of the card, the phase of the output signal a leads the phase of the output signal b.

These output signals a and b are given to the pulse generation circuit 104 after being amplified by the amplifiers 102A and 102B.

The pulse generation circuit 104 waveform-shapes the amplified outputs a ′ and b ′ of the respective amplifiers 102A and 102B, so that FIG.
The tilt pulses p _a and p _b as shown in (4) and the tilt direction signal c as shown in FIG. 2 (5) are generated. The tilt pulses p _a and p _b are signals having a frequency according to the number of crosses, in other words, a frequency according to the tilt angle of the optical card 7, and either one of the tilt pulses p _a is given to the counter 105. . The tilt direction signal c is obtained by comparing the phases of the tilt pulses p _a and p _b , and the tilt pulse p _a is different from the other tilt pulses.
When the phase advances from p _b , the signal level becomes “LOW” as shown in the figure, while when the tilt pulse p _b advances from the tilt pulse p _a , the signal level becomes “HIGH”.

The tilt pulse p _a is given to the counter 105, and the counter 105 receives the count start signal i and the tilt pulse p _a
Counting is started, and the counting is ended by inputting the counting end signal j. The counting start signal i and the counting end signal j are given by a pair of card sensors 106 and 107. These card sensors 106 and 107 are arranged at a fixed distance along the transition path of the optical card 7, and the optical card 7 in transition is respectively When the position is detected, the count start signal i and the count end signal j are output as the detection output.

Therefore, by taking the tilt direction signal c and the count value of the counter 105 as tilt angle information into, for example, a microprocessor, it is possible to determine in which direction and how much the optical card 7 is tilted.

 Next, the operation of the optical card processing device will be described.

In the card insertion standby state, the holder 2 has a card insertion slot 11
, And the flat cam surface 34 of the loading gum 33 of the card loading / ejecting mechanism 3 faces the holder 2. In this state, when the optical card 7 is inserted from the card insertion port 11 and the detector 31 detects it,
When the loading motor 37 operates and the spherical cam surface 35 rotates, the inserted optical card 7 is inserted into the card holder.
It is automatically taken into 22.

The optical card 7 carried into the card holder 22 is supported by the card guides 41, 42, 43 and the positioning stopper 40, but the back side of the optical card 7 tends to be pressed by the card guide 41 by the action of the pressing spring 44. Therefore, the optical card 7 is forcibly given a tilt angle θ in a fixed direction (FIG. 6). In this state, when the card feeding mechanism 5 is activated without activating the track servo mechanism and the optical card 7 is moved back and forth integrally with the holder 2 (details of the feeding operation will be described later), the optical detection of the optical head 6 is performed. The device 101 outputs output signals a and b which change every time the track guide 73 is crossed. The output signals a and b are amplified and then taken into the pulse generation circuit 104 of the optical card inclination detection device 100 to generate an inclination pulse Pa and an inclination direction signal C. By counting the inclination pulse Pa by the counter 105, The tilt angle θ of the information recording track 72 with respect to the moving direction of the card 7 is detected.

When this tilt angle θ is detected, the optical head 6 is actuated according to the detected value, and the actuating piece 47 is actuated by the actuating projection 47.
Is pressed from the inside, whereby the optical card 7 is moved in the direction of arrow S shown in FIG.
The transfer direction D and the direction of the information recording track 72 are matched (FIG. 7).

Following this operation, the card feeding mechanism 5 operates.
When the endless belt 54 is moved by the operation of the drive motor 58, the connecting pin 55 provided on the belt 54 pulls the holder 2 along the guide shaft 13 through the slide member 24 to reciprocate.

When the connecting pin 55 reaches the outer circumference of the pulley 52, the connecting pin 55
The slide member 24 is slid in the width direction with respect to the holder 2 at 55, and the pulley 52 is moved halfway around to move back. Then, the connecting pin 55 moves the holder 2 back and forth along the guide shaft 13 via the slide member 24 as in the case of the forward movement, and the holder 2 is reciprocated by the continuous rotation of the drive motor 58 in one direction. It When the holder 2 is moved back, the information recording track 72 of the optical card 7 relatively moves to the corresponding optical head 6, and information recording / reproducing processing is performed. When the holder 2 returns to the initial position, the head feed motor 62 operates in conjunction with this, the guide shaft 61 and the lead screw 60 perform a track access operation, and the same card feeding operation is repeated again.

<Effects of the Invention> As described above, according to the present invention, the number of times of crossing with the track guide is counted by performing relative movement of the optical card without activating the track servo mechanism. Since it can be submitted by using, it is possible to detect the tilt of the optical card without incorporating a special optical system into the device. Therefore, there is no fear that the structure, the complexity, and the size of the device will be increased, and an inexpensive optical card tilt correction mechanism can be realized. As a result, a small actuator with a narrow movable range can be used as an actuator of the optical system in the optical head, the tracking performance can be improved, and the cost and performance of the optical card processing device can be reduced. Has a remarkable effect.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing the overall configuration of an optical card tilt detection device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a time chart showing signal waveforms when an optical card is tilted, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a plan view showing a card feeding mechanism of an optical card processing device to which is applied, FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line IV-IV in FIG. 3, and FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line VV in FIG. FIGS. 6, 6 and 7 are explanatory views of a card tilt correction mechanism, FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a conventional optical card processing device, FIG. 9 is a front view of an optical card, and FIG. 10 shows an information recording section. It is a front view which shows the tilted optical card. 6 ... Optical head 7 ... Optical card 100 ... Optical card tilt detection device 101 ... Photodetector 104 ... Pulse generation circuit 105 ... Counter 106, 107 ... Card detection sensor

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. An optical card having a plurality of track guides extending along a plurality of information recording tracks is moved relative to an optical head, and the optical head is made to follow the information recording track by a track servo mechanism. In the optical card processing device for performing recording or reproduction of, the means for performing relative movement of the optical card without operating the track servo mechanism to change the output signal every time the track guide is crossed, and the waveform of the output signal. An optical card tilt angle detection device comprising: means for shaping and generating a tilt pulse having a frequency corresponding to the tilt angle of an optical card; and means for counting the tilt pulse and converting it into a tilt angle of the optical card. 2. The optical card tilt angle detection device according to claim 1, wherein the optical card is held in a holder and reciprocated by a card feeding mechanism. 3. The optical card tilt angle detecting device according to claim 1, wherein the means for changing the output signal is at least two photodiodes for detecting a tracking error signal. 4. The optical card tilt according to claim 1, wherein the means for generating the tilt pulse also generates a tilt pulse signal and a tilt direction signal which is binary-inverted according to the tilt direction of the optical card. Angle detection device. 5. The tilt pulse counting means receives the outputs of a pair of card detection sensors to start the tilt pulse counting operation and stop the counting operation. Optical card tilt angle detection device.