Tape deck with drive motor remote from drive roller

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention utilizes within the tape deck housing a drive motor which can be larger and more powerful than can customarily be fitted within the limited spaces available.
This is accomplished by mounting the motor remotely from the capstan input of the tape cartridge, with an endless drive belt being provided to couple the motor to the drive roller of the tape deck while the drive roller frictionally engages the capstan.
The limbs of the belt which are coupled to the drive roller are disposed at right angles to the direction of cartridge insertion and release movement so that changes in tension of the belt do not change the coupling forces between the drive roller and the capstan.
Also, adjustment of the belt tension can be made by lengthening or shortening the right angularly disposed limbs.
The drive roller is mounted in a carrier which allows the roller to yield in translational movement to comply with precisely determined position for the inserted cartridge.
The yielding movement of the roller carrier is maintained within close tolerances by means of a flexure plate hinge which precludes cocking or tilting of the assembly and which frees it from normal bearing errors, thereby serving to maintain a precise parallel relationship between the axis of the hinge and the planes of the capstan and the cartridge.
Tape cartridge designs have been standardized by providing a reference plane which is adapted to be mated with precision supports in the tape deck.
For ease of insertion and release, relatively generous tolerances are provided in the guideways which receive the cartridge but, at a point close to the fully inserted or "home" position, the cartridge is guided so that its reference plane is pressed against triangularly arranged reference points in the housing, preferably in the form of rollers to reduce friction and against which it is pressed by spring biased rollers on opposite sides of the cartridge.
The entering cartridge also engages a coiled tape spring, in advance of its home position, with the spring uncoiling at uniform resistance as the cartridge moves toward home until such time as it is captured by releasable latches and there held in position for information interchange