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:
Nov. 02, 1999
Filed:
Mar. 27, 1997
Steven L Magnusson, Boulder, CO (US);
Exabyte Corporation, Boulder, CO (US);
Abstract
A method of determining a vertical (e.g., axial) offset distance between a first and a second transducing element of a helical scan tape drive involves varying a ratio of a rotational velocity of the drum to a linear tape speed of the tape while transducing a magnetic pattern between at least one of the transducing elements and the tape. The pattern transduced is read and used to determine information pertaining to the vertical offset distance. In one mode of the invention, a vertical offset distance between a read transducing element and a write transducing element is determined by using a peak magnitude of a read signal. In a second mode of the invention, the linear tape speed is first set to a value at which tracks recorded by a second write transducing element are rendered unreadable, and a resultant noise signal acquired. Then the linear tape speed is slowly varied through a range of values to obtain a value at which tracks recorded by the second write transducing element are not rendered unreadable, and thereat a non-noise signal acquired. A threshold linear tape speed at which the non-noise signal begins is used to determine the vertical offset distance between the first and second write transducing elements.