Tape cartridge positioning apparatus

Claim 1

A tape cartridge positioning apparatus for an endless magnetic tape cartridge player, the player including a player housing with an opening through which an endless magnetic tape cartridge is laterally inserted, and a deck in the player housing On which the cartridge is deposited and to which are mounted a rotary capstan for driving the tape in the cartridge and at least one magnetic head for audibly reproducing the tape, comprising: a cartridge moving lever on said player deck reciprocally movable in a direction parallel to the plane of the deck and perpendicular to the path of insertion and removal of said cartridge, said cartridge moving lever being movable to and from two positions and having means for engaging a cartridge inserted in the player housing to move the cartridge from a non-play position to a play position where the tape in the cartridge is driven by the capstan and played back by the magnetic head and back to the non-play position; a lever moving means for moving the cartridge moving lever from a first lever position where it engages a cartridge in the non-play position to a second lever position where the engaged cartridge is moved to the play position and for returning the cartridge moving lever from the second position to the first position, said lever moving means including a swing lever swingable provided on the deck, an eccentric frictional wheel rotatably mounted on the swing lever and operable to be rotatably driven by abutment with the capstan in relation to swingable movement of the swing lever, a rotary member in contact with and rotated by rotation of said wheel and operable to make a half revolution in response to every one revolution of said wheel, a link member having ends which are pivoted to a point offset from the center of the rotary member and to a point of the cartridge moving lever for connecting the rotary member with the cartridge moving lever, and a spring member for biasing the swing lever in a direction where the wheel abuts against the capstan; a control means for controlling operation of the lever moving means, said control means having a stopper lever movable between a first stopper lever position where it may engage the swing lever and thereby arrest movement of the swing lever and a second stopper lever position where the swing lever and stopper lever are disengaged, a solenoid operable when energized to move the stopper lever from the first stopper lever position to the second stopper lever position and establish disengagement of the stopper lever from the swing lever, and a control circuit for controlling current supply to the solenoid, the stopper lever when in said second position preventing the wheel to fully contact the capstan to thereby stop rotation of the wheel, said stopper lever being operable, when said solenoid is energized, to be disengaged from said swing lever and to reengage said swing lever at the end of each full revolution of said wheel, said rotary member being operable to move said cartridge moving lever from said first lever position to said second lever position when said rotary member is rotated through a half-revolution by said wheel being rotated through one revolution and to return said cartridge moving lever to said first lever position when said rotary member is rotated through its next half-revolution by said wheel being rotated through its next revolution.