The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 25, 1994
Filed:
Jul. 29, 1992
Naoto Arifuku, Saitama, JP;
Kenji Okuda, Saitama, JP;
Pioneer Electronic Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
The present invention relates to a position detecting apparatus for and method of detecting a position of a transport unit, wherein the transport unit is used to pick up a designated disk from a disk container containing a plurality of disks to transport the disk thus picked up to a disk playback unit. The present invention accumulates the number of pulses output by an encoder of the transport unit as the unit moves upward or downward along an encoder channel. The accumulated count is used as a position count for determining the position of the transport unit between the disk container and the playback unit. A second encoder generates a pulse train corresponding to the movement of the transport unit along the second encoder channel. The second encoder channel having a plurality of recesses spaced at a wider pitch than in the encoder channel. A comparison between the level of the pulse train generated by the second encoder and the odd or even number of accumulated pulses output by the encoder indicates whether or not pulse output has been missed. If it is determined that a pulse output has been missed, the transport unit is moved to a predetermined position, and the position count is reset to a number corresponding to the predetermined position.