Device for controlling pickup arm movement in linear tracking pickup arm apparatus

A device for controlling movements of a pickup arm in a linear tracking pickup arm apparatus, comprising:

• a pickup arm;
• means for supporting said pickup arm for vertical and horizontal movements;
• carriage means for carrying said pickup arm and said supporting means and being movable in direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of said pickup arm;
• means for driving said carriage means;
• and
• means of photo-electricity converting type for detecting a horizontal offset angle of said pickup arm and comprising a light-emitting element and a light-receiving element which receives a light beam of an amount corresponding to said offset angle,
• the improvement comprising:
• offset angle signal generating means connected to said offset angle detecting means for generating an offset angle signal of a value and a polarity corresponding to a magnitude and a direction of a detected offset angle of the pickup arm;
• means for controlling the movement of said carriage means and being responsive to the offset angle signal to drive said carriage means to move said pickup arm so as to reduce said offset angle;
• light-emitting element controlling means including means for detecting a position of said pickup arm for turning out a light-emission of said light-emitting element of said offset angle detecting means when the pickup arm is at one of its predetermined positions to thereby disable offset angle detecting means;
• and
• manual controlling means including manually operable switch means for delivering to said carriage controlling means a carriage dirving signal in accordance with a manual operation of said switch means when said off-set angle detecting means is disabled.