Band decoder for all-channel digital tuning system

Claim 2

A television tuning control system, comprising: a tuner having a tunable element operating in several predetermined discrete frequency bands containing a plurality of fixed bandwidth signals identified by assigned channel numbers; tuning frequency counting means, employing preset counts corresponding to said frequency bands and sampling the frequency of said tunable element, for deriving from said frequency information indicative of the channel number of the corresponding receivable television channel; channel number selection means; comparison means coupled between said tuning frequency counting means and said channel number selection means for comparing channel number information from said channel number selection means with channel number information from said tuning frequency counting means; driving means coupled between said tunable element and said comparison means, for driving said tunable element to change frequency in response to said comparison means; and channel band determination means coupled between said channel number selection means and said tuning frequency counting means for segregating said channel numbers according to their location in said several predetermined discrete frequency bands, said channel band determination means establishing said preset counts for said tuning frequency counting means.

Claim 3

The television tuning control system of claim 1, wherein said channel number selection means includes means for binary encoding separate digits of two digit channel numbers and said channel band determination means includes logic means coupled to said means for binary encoding for accepting said separately encoded channel number digits and for producing signals corresponding to segregation of channel numbers according to their location in said several predetermined discrete frequency bands.

Claim 4

The television tuning control system of claim 2, wherein said channel band determination means further includes means coupled to said logic means for developing and holding said preset counts and means coupled to said means for developing and holding for supplying said preset counts to said tuning frequency counting means.

Claim 5

The television tuning control system of claim 3, wherein said tuning frequency counting means includes a modular scaler stage, a units digit counter stage and a tens digit counter stage interconnected for binary counting, said means for developing and holding said preset counts including a plurality of pairs of identical logic gates, each of the stages of said tuning frequency counting means being coupled respectively to the outputs of at least one of said pairs, each of said plurality of pairs having one input connected directly and a second input connected through an inverter to said logic means for receiving signals corresponding to the segregation of said channel numbers.

Claim 6

The television tuning control system of claim 4, wherein each of said stages of said tuning frequency counting means comprises an arrangement of JK flip-flops, each said flip-flop having a clear and a set terminal, and wherein said means for supplying preset counts comprises interconnections between the outputs of said pairs of identical logic gates with said clear and set terminals of said flip-flops for establishing appropriate voltage levels on said terminals to produce binary representations of said preset counts for said stages by setting the states of the individual flip-flops.

Claim 7

The television tuning control system of claim 5, wherein said tuning system includes clock means coupled to individual ones of said pairs of identical logic gates establishing repetitive and distinct reset, count and compare timing intervals, said pairs of identical logic gates being enabled during said reset timing intervals.

Claim 8

The television tuning control system of claim 6, wherein said scaler has a modulus of 6 and wherein said preset counts for the scaler, units and tens stages are respectively: 5,5 and 8 for FCC allocated band 1 channels; 1,5 and 8 for FCC allocated band 2 channels; 5,0 and 7 for FCC allocated band 3 channels; and 3,8 and 2 for FCC allocated band 4 channels.

Claim 9

In a tuning control system for television tuners containing a tuning element operating in several predetermined discrete frequency bands containing a plurality of fixed bandwidth signals each identified by a designated channel number, tuning frequency counting means, employing preset counts corresponding to said frequency bands, sampling the frequency of said tuning element and relating tuning element frequency to channel number information, channel number selection means, channel band determination means for segregating channel numbers according to their location in said several predetermined discrete frequency bands and establishing preset values for said tuning frequency counting means, comparison means for comparing channel number information from said channel number selection means with the channel number information from said tuning frequency counting means, and driving means changing the frequency of said tunable element under control of said comparison means, the method of operating said tuning control system comprising the steps of: encoding the individual digits of channel numbers from said channel number selection means; decoding said encoded channel numbers in accordance with the frequency band in which the corresponding television signal lies; developing appropriate preset counts for said tuning frequency counting means in accordance with the frequency band decoding, wherein said appropriate preset counts are those predetermined counts corresponding to which of said frequency bands has been decoded; and supplying said appropriate preset counts to said tuning frequency counting means.

Claim 10

In a tuning control system for television tuners containing a tuning element operating in several predetermined discrete frequency bands containing a plurality of fixed bandwidth signals each identified by a designated channel number, tuning frequency counting means, employing preset counts corresponding to said frequency bands, sampling the frequency of said tuning element and relating tuning element frequency to channel number information, channel number selection means, channel band determination means for segregating channel numbers according to their location in said several predetermined discrete frequency bands and establishing preset values for said tuning frequency counting means, comparison means for comparing channel number information from said channel number selection means with the channel number information from said tuning frequency counting means, and driving means changing the frequency of said tunable element under control of said comparison means, the method of operating said tuning control system comprising the steps of: encoding the individual digits of channel numbers from said channel number selection means; decoding said encoded channel numbers in accordance with the frequency band in which the corresponding television signal lies; developing appropriate preset counts for said tuning frequency counting means in accordance with the frequency band decoding, wherein said appropriate preset counts are those predetermined counts corresponding to which of said frequency bands has been decoded; and supplying said appropriate preset counts to said tuning frequency counting means.

Claim 11

The method of claim 8, wherein said encoding step employs binary encoding and said decoding step includes the steps of supplying said separately binary encoded individual digits of channel numbers to logic means included in said channel band determination means for segregating channel numbers according to their location in said several predetermined frequency bands, and of producing band signals corresponding to said segregation.

Claim 12

The method of claim 9 wherein the step of developing appropriate preset counts includes the step of holding said preset counts, and the step of supplying said appropriate preset counts to said tuning frequency counting means is performed during predetermined timing intervals.

Claim 13

The method of claim 10, wherein the step of developing and holding said preset counts further includes applying said band signals to a plurality of pairs of identical logic gates included in said channel band determination means, said band signals being applied directly to one logic gate of a pair of identical logic gates, and through an inverter to the other logic gate of said pair.

Claim 14

The method of claim 11, wherein said tuning system includes clock means coupled to individual ones of said pairs of identical logic gates establishing repetitive and distinct reset, count and compare timing intervals, and the step of supplying said appropriate preset counts includes the step of enabling said plurality of identical logic gates during reset timing intervals.

Claim 15

The method of claim 12, wherein said tuning frequency counting means includes a modular scaler stage, a units digit counter stage and a tens digit counter stage interconnected for binary counting, each said stage comprising an arrangement of JK flip/flops, and each said flip/flop having clear and set terminals interconnected with the outputs of said pairs of identical logic gates included in said channel band determination means, wherein the step of supplying said appropriate preset counts includes the step of establishing voltage levels on said terminals for setting the states of the individual flip/flops in accordance with the binary representations of the preset counts.

Claim 16

The method of claim 13, wherein the scaler has a modulus of 6 and wherein the preset counts for the scaler, units and tens counters are respectively: 5,5 and 8 for FCC allocated band 1 channels; 1,5 and 8 for FCC allocated band 2 channels; 5,0 and 7 for FCC allocated band 3 channels; and 3,8 and 2 for FCC allocated band 4 channels.