Suncom, Incorporated

Tape-lock Company

Marino Cecchi

Gregory J Borucki

Lawrence R Happ

Dean R DeVolpi

A joystick controller for generating analog signals representative of coordinate positions is characterized by a pair of members movable in orthogonal directions by a handle. Each member carries at least one wiper contact adapted to slide linearly along an associated linearly extending resistor carried on a circuit board to generate the signals representative of coordinate positions. The use of linearly extending resistors for generating the signals, as compared with rotary potentiometers, provides for a reduction in size of the joystick controller, economies in its manufacture, and a high degree of linearity between handle positions and the signals generated.

Joystick controller

A lock for a VHS video cassette is characterized by an insert extendible into and latchable within a sensor LED transmission receptacle of a housing for the cassette. The insert cannot be removed from the receptacle without a special key, and while in the receptacle presents a physical obstruction to the cassette being inserted into a video cassette recorder. The lock thus provides a convenient means to prevent unauthorized playing of a video cassette.

Lock for video tape cassettes

A video tape cassette rapid rewinding/fast forwarding is characterized by a housing on a surface of which are drive and idler sprockets. To rapidly advance or rewind a cassette, the cassette is placed on the surface to extend the sprockets into its tape reels, with winding or rewinding being determined by the orientation of the cassette and therefore the particular one of its reels engaged with the drive sprocket. A selected one of a pair of microswitches is actuated by the cassette in accordance with its orientation, and controls energization of an electric motor to rotate the drive sprocket in the appropriate direction. Releasable clips hold the cassette on the sprockets and the drive sprocket has tapered teeth, so that upon completion of forwarding or rewinding and termination of rotation of the reels, the cassette is forced off of the drive sprocket and away from the clips to deactuate the microswitch and deenergize the motor. The device may be operated by either self-contained batteries or external power.

Video cassette rapid rewinding/fast forwarding device

A joy stick assembly is characterized by a joy stick resiliently mounted in an aperture through a hand holdable housing and normally biased to a neutral position. The joy stick is manually pivotable at one of its ends in any one of a plurality of directions through a 360.degree. arc, and has a conductive sphere at its opposite end. Four contacts are positioned at 90.degree. increments around the sphere and out of contact therewith when the sphere is in its neutral position, and the joy stick is manipulatable to establish electrical connections between the sphere and individual ones or adjacent pairs of the contacts to provide a signal from the sphere to the contact or contacts. With separate electrical connections established between the sphere and the four contacts and a tv video game, the joy stick is manipulatable to apply nine discrete signals to the game, four upon electrical connections between the sphere and individual ones of the contacts, another four upon electrical connections between the sphere and adjacent pairs of contacts and a further one when the sphere is in its neutral position.

Growing community of inventors

Lincolnshire, IL, United States of America

Marino Cecchi