Tape Cartridges - Quantum Scalar 1000 Operator's Manual

22 June 2004
The Cartridge Accessor has:
• A gripper assembly for mounting a cartridge gripper and
a barcode scanner.
• A cartridge gripper picks and places cartridges in
storage cells, tape drives, or the Insert/Eject station.
A barcode scanner reads the external labels on the
•
cartridges. The barcode scanner is used during the
inventory and teach processes.
• An X-Axis drive for moving the gripper assembly the
length of the rails in the CM and the EMs.
• A Y-Axis drive for moving the gripper assembly vertically
in the CM and the EMs.

Tape Cartridges

Each tape cartridge in the Scalar 1000 must have an external
label that is operator and machine readable to identify the
barcode number. The external label contains a minimum of
5 characters and a maximum of 16 characters for the barcode
depending on the operating modes.
The Scalar 1000 can operate in one of three modes:
• Default Mode - six characters (up to two additional
characters are ignored)
• Media ID mode - six characters, plus one or two media
identifiers, or for AIT, a checksum character (ignored).
• Extended Mode - 5 to 16 characters, may include media
identifiers and checksum values.
The barcode number is composed of uppercase A to Z
characters and numeric 0 to 9 characters. The Scalar 1000
currently supports Code 39 and Storage Technology-type
labels.
In Media ID mode, seven or eight characters are used to
identify the cartridge and type. The cartridge type is one or
two characters that are either separate from or included with
the barcode label.
For additional information, see Understanding Barcodes on
page 10.
Internal Components 2-13