Twin disk player

A disk player for loading and unloading a pair of disks while closing and opening a door to the disk player under control of a single motor capable of rotating in both the clockwise direction and the counterclockwise direction. During rotation in one direction of the motor a plurality of connecting gears transmit the power of the motor to a driver for the pickup, which reads the information on the disks, and to moving rack. The moving rack causes rotation of a cam gear for disengaging a disk holder and rotation of a fitting for slightly opening the door. This causes a gear rack to engage the plurality of connecting gears to thereby open the door fully so that the pair of disks can be inserted or removed from the door. After the disks are inserted in the door the motor reverses direction and pulls the door shut by reverse operation of the components used in the opening of the door.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates to a twin disk player, and particularly to a twin 
disk player which enables the records of a disk to be reproduced 
accordingly as a disk holder and a door may be opened and shut, and 
simultaneously a pickup may be consecutively driven by a single driving 
motor mounted on a main chassis. 
Generally, the records which are recorded in the disk are reproduced by 
loading the disk on a turn table and holding the disk by means of a disk 
holder, and thereafter driving the turn table and a pickup. In the turn 
table, a motor is used as a power source to drive the turn table. Also, a 
door is mounted to load the disk on the turn table and is designed to be 
moved in and out within the disk player when loading and unloading the 
disk. 
However, the conventional disk player with the above mentioned 
configuration loads only a single disk on the turn table to reproduce the 
records of the disk. Recently, the customers wish to have a so called twin 
system in which two disks are simultaneously loaded on one disk player and 
each disk is selectively driven as needed. In this respect, the twin 
system has been partly developed to satisfy the customer's desires. 
The conventional twin disk player uses a pair of turn tables, two motors 
for separately operating the turn tables, a motor for opening and shutting 
a door, and a motor for driving a pickup, wherein each of the four motors 
has a characteristic operation which is consecutively performed. 
Each operating time of the motors should be adequately established, 
however, the establishment of the proper time is very difficult and 
additional devices are required to drive the four motors. Accordingly, the 
above configuration causes the disk player to be complex and the volume 
thereof to be large. Further, there is the problem that it is difficult to 
systematically drive each of said motors and to smoothly run disk player. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
It is an object of the present invention to provide a twin disk player in 
which the driving of a disk holder, the opening and shutting of a door, 
and the driving of a pickup may be performed by a single driving motor, 
and the consecutive operations may be accurately and smoothly accomplished 
by simplifying the overall configuration of the disk player. 
A twin disk player having a pair of turn tables and a pair of motors for 
driving the turn tables on a main chassis, uses: a single driving motor 
being able to rotate in both the clockwise and counterclockwise direction; 
transmitting means being engaged with a gear rotatably mounted on the 
shaft of the driving motor for transmitting the power of the driving 
motor; operating means being moved by the transmitting means; holder 
opening and shutting means being rotated by the movement of the operating 
means for moving up and down a disk holder; and door opening and shutting 
means for moving a door with the operating means.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
The present invention will be now described in detail with the accompanying 
drawings. 
As shown in FIG. 1, each of a pair of turn tables 2 and 4 are driven by 
each of a pair of motors 3 and 5 mounted on a main chassis 1. A pair of 
guide bars 6 and 6a are mounted between the turn tables 2 and 4. A pickup 
7 is rectilinearly reciprocated along the guide bars 6 and 6a to 
selectively operate two disks which are mounted on the turn tables 2 and 
4, respectively. 
Further, as shown in FIG. 2, a moving rack 8 with a pushing member 8a and a 
driving rack 9 for driving the pickup 7 are provided at one side of the 
pickup 7. A lever 10 is provided in the inside of the driving rack 9 to be 
inserted into, or to be detached from a holder guide 11 formed at one side 
of the main chassis 1. A freely rotatable rotating member 12 is provided 
beneath the holder guide 11 to be rotated by the pushing member 8a which 
is formed in the moving rack 8. A cam gear 13 with a cam part 14 on the 
surface thereof is disposed at the left side of the rotating member 12 to 
be engaged with the moving rack 8. 
On the other hand, a pinion gear 15 is disposed to simultaneously be 
engaged with both the moving rack 8 and the driving rack 9. A driving gear 
19 is rotatably mounted on the shaft of a driving motor 18. A pinion gear 
15a concentrically formed with the pinion gear 15 is driven via each of 
connecting gears 19a, 19b, 16, and 16a which is successively engaged with 
the driving gear 19. Connecting gears 17 and 17a are successively engaged 
with the connecting gear 19a which is concentrically formed with the 
connecting gear 19a. 
Further, a door 20 is provided on the top of the main chassis 1 and an 
opening and shutting rack 21 is formed at one inner side face of the door 
20 to be engaged with the connecting gear 17a. A fitting member 22 which 
is operated by the rotating member 12 is provided at the other inner side 
face to open and shut the door 20. 
Referring to FIG. 5, a disk holder 23 is mounted on the upper portion of 
the door 20 to be rotated by a hinge member 24 which is disposed on the 
main chassis 1. A projecting member 25 is disposed in a downward direction 
on the disk holder 23 to raise and lower the disk holder 23 by the cam 
part 14 which is disposed on the cam gear 13. 
The operation and effect of the present invention with the above 
configuration will not be explained in detail. 
When an operating button (not shown) is pushed to load the disks on the 
turn tables 2 and 4 under the door 20 not being opened, as shown in FIG. 
2, the motor 18 is driven to rotate the driving gear 19 rotatably mounted 
on the shaft of the motor 18. Further, the connecting gears 19a and 19b 
are rotated in accordance with the rotation of the driving gear 19. 
Sequentially, the pinion gear 15a is rotated in accordance with the 
rotation of the connecting gears 16a and 16b which are successively 
engaged with the connecting gear 19a. Also, the connecting gear 17 in mesh 
with the gear 19b and the connecting gear 17a in mesh with the connecting 
gear 17 are rotated in accordance with the rotation of the connecting gear 
19b, respectively. 
At this time, since the opening and shutting rack 21 is not engaged with 
the connecting gear 17a, the door 20 is not moved and the connecting gears 
17 and 17a is idly rotated. 
On the other hand, when the pinion gear 15a is rotated in the clockwise 
direction as shown in FIG. 3, the pinion gear 15 concentrically formed 
with the pinion gear 15a is simultaneously engaged with both the moving 
rack 8 and the driving rack 9, and is rotated to move the moving rack 8 
and the driving rack 9. Accordingly, the moving rack 8 for opening and 
shutting the door 20 and the driving rack 9 for driving the pickup 7 are 
moved down as shown in FIG. 3. The lever 10 formed at one side of the 
driving rack 9 is contacted with the holder guide 11 to be inserted into 
the holder guide 11 in accordance with the downward movement of the racks 
8 and 9. Sequentially, the driving rack 9 is stopped and simultaneously is 
disengaged with the pinion gear 15. Also, the pickup 7 connected with the 
driving gear 9 is stopped. Further, the moving rack 8 is successively 
moved down to rotate the cam gear 13. At this time, the cam part 14 
disposed on the top of the cam gear 13 is simultaneously rotated to push 
up the projecting member 25 which is disposed on the bottom of the disk 
holder 23. 
Namely, the disk holder 23 is ascended, around the hinge 24 at one side of 
the disk holder 23, to move the door 20. The moving rack 8 is successively 
moved to push and rotate the rotating member 12 by means of the pushing 
member 8a formed at one side of the moving rack 8 as shown in FIG. 3. 
The fitting member 22 which is formed at the lower part of the door 20 is 
pushed toward the right direction as shown in FIG. 3 according to the 
rotation of the rotating member 12. Consequently, the door 20 is slightly 
moved toward the right direction and the rack 21 of the door 20 is engaged 
with the connecting gear 17a being idly rotated and is moved toward the 
right direction to open the door 20 under the disk holder 23 being opened, 
as shown in FIG. 4. 
Under the door 20 being opened, when two disks are inserted into the door 
20, the driving motor 18 is reversely driven to reversely rotate the 
connecting gears, 19a, 19b, 16a and 16. Therefore, the rack 21 in mesh 
with the connecting gear 17a is moved toward the left direction to shut 
the door 20. When the door 20 is completely shut, the rack 21 of the door 
20 is separated from the connecting gear 17a and is disengaged with the 
gear 17a to idly rotate the connecting gears 17 and 17a. At the same time, 
while the door 20 is moved toward the left direction, the rotating member 
12 is pushed to the initial position by being again contacted with the 
fitting member 22. Accordingly, the racks 8 and 9 are moved to the initial 
position by being engaged with the pinion gear 15 which is reversely being 
rotated by the driving member 18. 
On the other hand, the cam gear 13 engaged with the moving rack 8 is 
reversely rotated to separate the projecting member 25 of the disk holder 
23 the cam part 14 of the cam gear 13. The disk holder 23 is again 
rotatably moved down around the hinge member 24 to load the disks on the 
turn table 2 and 4. 
Further, the pickup 7 connected with the driving rack 9 is moved near to 
the turn table 2 by the driving motor 18, and thereafter the driving motor 
18 is stopped. As above mentioned, when the disks are loaded on the turn 
tables, the signals are applied to the pickup 7 and the spindle motor 3 
and 5 to rotate the disks. Thereafter, the motor 18 is again driven and 
the pickup 7 is selectively moved to reproduce the records of the disks. 
At this point, although each of the connecting gears 17 and 17a is being 
rotated, the door 20 would not be opened since the connecting gear 17a is 
separated from the opening and shutting rack 21. Also, when the records of 
the disk is completely reproduced under the above mentioned state, the 
pickup is again moved to open the door 20. 
As mentioned above, the disk holder and the door may be opened and shut, 
and the pickup may be consecutively driven by the single driving motor 
according to the present invention. Therefore, each operation may be 
smoothly performed to surely and smoothly accomplish the loading and 
disloading of the disk, and the reproducing of the records. 
The invention is in no way limited to the embodiment described hereinabove. 
Various modifications of disclosed embodiment as well as other embodiments 
of the invention will become apparent to persons skilled in the art upon 
reference to the description of the invention. It is therefore 
contemplated that the appended claims will cover any such modifications or 
embodiments as fall within the true scope of the invention.