Hewlett-packard Company

Rick A Kato

Thomas Charles Oliver

Kelly John Reasoner

Mark John Bianchi

Kraig A Proehl

Donald J Stavely

Mark E Wanger

David Paul Jones

Jennifer L Methlie

A method of deciphering bar codes is disclosed herein. The method determines if the bar code complies with predetermined specifications. The method then sorts the bar code information into character groups. Each character group is reviewed individually to assure compliance with the predetermined specification. The individual character groups are then decoded individually. The method allows for bar code specification to have varying tolerances between the individual character groups, which increases the likelihood of a bar code reader being able to decipher the bar code.

Method of deciphering bar codes

An online repairable multiple drive library computer system, and method of online drive repair for repairing same, wherein the method comprises the steps of detecting that a drive has failed, placing the failed drive in an offline state, removing power to the failed drive, disconnecting any cabling attached to the failed drive, replacing the failed drive, reconnecting cabling to the replaced drive, restoring power to the replaced drive, and placing the replaced drive in an online state. All of the steps occur while one or more good drives in the multiple drive library computer system remain online, and accessible to a host.

System for online SCSI drive repair utilizing detachable secondary I/O

Disclosed is an optical disk handling system, called an autochanger, having two control systems to provide the six motions necessary to move optical disk cartridges from storage holding cells to an optical drive. Whenever the mechanisms are being moved, the control systems monitor the progress of the movement, and should the control system detect an error conditon, a state update flag is changed to prevent further updates of the state of the system. With state updates disabled, the control system will stop all mechanisms and prevent further movement of the mechanisms. When the operation appears complete, an error recovery software function is called. When the error recovery software detects that the state update flag is in an error condition, error recovery is initiated. 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 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.

Error recovery in a cartridge handling system

Disclosed is an optical disk handling system, called an autochanger, having two control systems to provide the six motions necessary to move optical disk cartridges from storage holding cells to an optical drive. The system uses shaft encoders on the motors of the two control systems, and current or votlage 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 are used to position a mechanism close to the eventual move location, then motor current or voltage feedback is used to determine opposition to the movement to the mechanism, which informs the control system as to whether the mechanism has reached its destination. An important aspect of the invention is that the motor current or voltage feedback is used by one control system to provide five of the six motions.

Growing community of inventors

Greeley, CO, United States of America

Rick A Kato