Hunter Industries Incorporated

Cipher Data Products, Inc.

Thomas C Kadien

Steven B Cook

Kok Huat Chong

Richard C Stange

Jeffrey S McGee

Irrigation controller with reversible operator controls

An irrigation controller comprises actuable controls, a memory to store the watering program, and one or more displays. The actuable controls and display are incorporated into a removable face pack that is mounted to an interior door of the irrigation controller. The face pack can be easily moved from a first position on the front side of the interior door to a second position on the back side of the interior door and the face pack automatically senses its position. When the face pack is in the first position, the actuable controls and display are configured for operating information. When the face pack is in the second position, the wiring hook up area of the irrigation controller is exposed and the actuable controls and display are configured for diagnostics.

A tape transport for a leader block tape cartridge has a threading mechanism including a threader pin for engaging the leader block and extracting it from the cartridge after it has been loaded into the transport adjacent a first end of a tape path. The threading mechanism pulls the leader block along the tape path past a read/write head, and inserts the leader block into a take-up hub adjacent a second end of the tape path during a threading operation. During a rewinding operation, the threading mechanism extracts the leader block from the take-up hub, pulls the leader block past the read/write head and inserts the leader block back into the cartridge. A first guide assembly adjacent the first end of the tape path engages and guides the leader block to ensure proper insertion thereof back into the cartridge during the rewinding operation. A second guide assembly adjacent the second end of the tape path engages and guides the leader block to ensure proper insertion thereof into the take-up hub during the threading operation. This accommodates the tolerance variations in the positions of the cartridge and take-up hub, and in the dimensions of the cartridge, leader block, take-up hub and threader pin which can otherwise lead to failures in the automatic insertion of the leader block into the cartridge and/or take-up hub.

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Vista, CA, United States of America

Thomas C Kadien