It is known to use a motor in a tape player for automatically actuating some mechanisms such as (1) a head shift mechanism which moves a head to and away from a tape loaded in the tape player, (2) a fast-forwarding and rewinding mechanism which commutes an idler gear between its forward-drive and reverse-drive modes, and (3) a channel changing mechanism which effects reversion of tape travelling directions to continue reproduction or recording of a tape as it is, without drawing out the tape cassette to revert it when the tape reaches the end. To transmit the motor power to these mechanisms, it is usual to use a transmission means which includes a cam gear unlocked at the beginning of actuation of the respective mechanisms and disposed for rotation with the motor power, so that the rotation of the cam gear is converted to a linear movement of a power plate to actuate said mechanisms.
In such a tape player, the fast-forwarding and rewinding mechanism, for example, includes two electromagnetic plungers and two cam gears to provide independent driving means for the forward-drive (fast-forwarding) mode and the reverse-drive (rewinding) mode, respectively, and operates as follows:
To effect a fast-forwarding operation, the plunger of the forward-drive mode is merely energized to let the associated cam gear rotate and to displace the power plate forward. The driving means for the reverse-drive mode is kept undriven at this moment. An idler gear is displaced to the forward-drive reel base accordingly and effects a fast-forwarding tape travel. Instead, to effect a rewinding operation, the driving means for the reverse-drive mode is merely actuated to displace the idler gear to the reverse-drive reel base.
To change the tape player from the stop mode to a play mode, the both plungers are concurrently energized to actuate the both driving means to displace a head to the tape.
Provision of two independent driving means to effect fast-forwarding, rewinding and play operations allows omission of a mechanism exclusively used for tape reproduction, and leads to a simpler and easier construction and operation of the tape player.
To effect a channel changing operation in such a tape player, the prior art employs another plunger and another cam gear exclusive for channel changing operation in addition to those for the fast-forwarding and rewinding modes, so that the exclusive cam gear rotates when a channel changing switch is pushed, and transmits the motor power to the channel changing mechanism.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds