Pneumatic monitoring system for a magnetic tape drive
AssigneeStorage Technology Corporation
InventorRobert M. Ariniello
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A pneumatic monitoring system for a magnetic tape drive includes a single sensor which includes a differential pressure transducer. Points in the tape drive to which vacuum is applied are coupled to one side of the sensor and points in the tape drive to which pressure is applied are coupled to the other side of the detector. The sensor produces an analog voltage representing the state of the pneumatic system. It is digitized and applied to a microprocessor which compares the sensor voltage to present ranges for calibrated conditions of the tape drive. If the sensed voltage is outside of these ranges, error conditions are indicated.
Claims12
A pneumatic monitoring system for a magnetic tape drive in which vacuum and pressure control the movement of magnetic tape in said drive comprising:
- a pressure bus coupled to a plurality of points in said tape drive at which pressure controls the movement of said magnetic tape;
- a vacuum bus coupled to a plurality of points in said tape drive at which vacuum controls the movement of said magnetic tape;
- a sensor connected to said pressure and to said vacuum bus, said sensor producing a signal proportional to the levels of vacuum and pressure present at said points;
- and
- means for comparing said signal to preset ranges for calibrated conditions of said tape drive, said means indicating an error condition if said signal is outside of said ranges.
A pneumatic monitoring system for a magnetic tape drive in which vacuum and pressure control the movement of magnetic tape in said drive, said tape drive being operated in a startup mode and thereafter operated in a run mode in which the digital data is written to and read from magnetic tapes on said drive, comprising:
- a pressure bus coupled to at least one point in said tape drive at which pressure controls the movement of said magnetic tape;
- a vacuum bus coupled to at least one point in said tape drive at which vacuum controls the movement of said magnetic tape;
- a sensor connected to said pressure and to said vacuum bus, said sensor producing a signal proportional to the levels of vacuum and pressure present at said points;
- an analog to digital converter, the signal from said sensor being connected to said analog to digital converter;
- a digital microprocessor, the output of said analog to digital converter being applied to said microprocessor for monitoring the condition of vacuum and pressure in said tape drive;
- means in said microprocessor for storing the magnitude of said output of said sensor as a calibration signal produced during said startup mode;
- and
- means for comparing the output of said sensor to said calibration signal modified by an offset value, during said run mode to monitor changes in said vacuum and pressure during said run mode.
A pneumatic monitoring system for a magnetic tape drive in which vacuum and pressure control the movement of magnetic tape in said drive comprising:
- a pressure bus coupled to at least one point in said tape drive at which pressure controls the movement of said magnetic tape;
- a vacuum bus coupled to at least one point in said tape drive at which vacuum controls the movement of said magnetic tape;
- a sensor connected to said pressure and to said vacuum bus, said sensor producing a signal proportional to the levels of vacuum and pressure present at said points, said sensor being a differential pressure transducer, said pressure bus being coupled to one port, and said vacuum bus being coupled to the other port of said transducer, said pressure and vacuum buses being automatically switched between thread pressure and run pressure and between thread vacuum and run vacuum by the use of pneumatic diodes.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.