Encoder systems

Claim 1

POSITION SENSING APPARATUS COMPRISING IN COMBINATION, A FIRST MOVABLE MAGNETIC MEMBER AND A SECOND MOVABLE MAGNETIC MEMBER, SAID FIRST AND SAID SECOND MOVABLE MEMBERS EACH HAVING SPACED MAGNETIZED AREAS FORMING A BINARY CODE PATTERN CONSISTING OF A NUMBER OF MAGNETIC TRACKS, AND A PLURALITY OF SATURABLE REENTRANT MAGNETIC CORES, EACH CORE HAVING AT LEAST ONE EXCITATION WINDING AND ONE READOUT WINDING ON EACH OF SAID CORES, SAID CORES BEING ADJACENT EACH OF SAID MEMBERS FOR DECODING SAID TRACKS, SAID PLURALITY INCLUDING A SINGLE CORE MEMBER FOR DECODING THE LEAST SIGNIFICANT TRACK OF SAID PATTERN ON SAID FIRST MEMBER AND A PAIR OF CORES FOR EACH OF THE REMAINING TRACKS ON EACH OF SAID MEMBERS; THE SEPARATION BETWEEN THE TWO ELEMENTS OF EACH PAIR, MEASURED IN QUANTUM UNITS OF SAID LEAST SIGNIFICANT TRACK, BEING SUBSTANTIALLY THE SAME ON EACH OF SAID REMAINING TRACKS; ONE CORE MEMBER OF EACH PAIR BEING SPACED IN LEADING RELATION TO SAID CODE PATTERN WITH RESPECT TO SAID SINGLE CORE MEMBER AND THE OTHER CORE MEMBER OF EACH PAIR BEING SPACED IN LAGGING RELATION WITH RESPECT TO SAID SINGLE CORE MEMBER; MEANS APPLYING AN ALTERNATING SIGNAL TO EACH EXCITATION WINDING AND LOGIC MEANS FOR READOUT OF EACH LAGGING CORE OR EACH WINDING OF EACH LEADING CORE IN DEPENDENCE UPON THE RELATIVE POSITION BETWEEN SAID SINGLE CORE MEMBER AND SAID FIRST MOVABLE MEMBER, SAID LOGIC MEANS INCLUDING AT LEAST ONE DETECTOR CONNECTED TO EACH OF SAID READOUT WINDINGS, A FIRST BISTABLE DEVICE, A SECOND BISTABLE DEVICE, FIRST GATING MEANS FOR GATING SIGNALS REPRESENTIN THE POSITIONS OF SAID FIRST MAGNETIC MEMBER, AND SECOND GATING MEANS FOR GATING SIGNALS REPRESENTING THE POSITIONS OF SAID SECOND MAGNETIC MEMBER, SAID FIRST BISTABLE DEVICE SELECTIVELY APPLYING TO SAID FIRST GATING MEANS THE OUTPUT SIGNAL FROM THE DETECTOR DETECTING THE SIGNAL FROM THE READOUT WINDING ON SAID SINGLE CORE, SAID SECOND BISTABLE DEVICE SELECTIVELY APPLYING THE OUTPUT SIGNALS FROM SAID FIRST GATING MEANS TO SAID SECOND GATING MEANS, THE COMBINED OUTPUT SIGNALS FROM SAID FIRST AND SECOND GATING MEANS REPRESENTING THE RELATIVE POSITIONS OF SAID FIRST AND SECOND MOVABLE MAGNETIC MEMBERS.