US 5,311,030 AGranted

Tape end detecting device for tape decks using center and side prisms for directing light

AssigneeFunai Electric Co., Ltd.

InventorsYoshio Higuchi, Osamu Maeda, Hideo Makino, Masami Okada, Hiroshi Kobayashi, Hiroshi Inoue, Seiji Mori

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Abstract

A tape end detecting device for detecting the end of the tape enclosed within a cassette includes a light emitting element for generating a light pulse signal, a pair of light receiving element, a light guide means comprising a central prism and a pair of side prisms disposed at both sides of said cassette loaded in position, and a tape end signal generating circuit adopted for generating a tape end detecting signal only when it receives the light pulse signal. Therefore, the tape end detecting device operates to generate an output upon receipt of the light signal, but does not generate when the light coming from outside is received.

Claims5

Dependent claims

A tape end detecting device for detecting the end of the tape enclosed within a cassette comprising:

a light emitting means for generating a light pulse signal;
a pair of side prisms disposed at both sides of said cassette loaded in position;
a central prism for directing the light beam from said light emitting means to said first and second side prisms;
a pair of light receiving means for receiving said light signal from said light emitting means through said side prisms, respectively;
and
a tape end signal generating circuit adopted for generating a tape end detecting signal including said light receiving means, which comprises a high pass filter and a comparator for comparing the output voltage of said light receiving element with a reference voltage.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.