JPH04336010A - Rice cooker - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a rice cooker in which the condition of power is displayed so that power can be effectively utilized. CONSTITUTION:A control panel 3 is provided with a display means 20 (not shown) by which the power to be supplied to a heating means 17 (not shown) is displayed. And, the display means 20 is made up of indicators 4c for indicating the electric power to be supplied to the heating means 17. Thus, both the progress of rice-cooking and the condition of power can be known for effectively utilizing the power.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a rice cooker, and more particularly to a display means provided on the surface of a rice cooker body for displaying electric power supplied to a heating means.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 5 is a front view of a conventional rice cooker, and FIG. 6 is an enlarged view of its main parts. In the figure, 1 is the case body,
2 is a lid, and 3 is a control panel provided on the side of the case body 1. 4 is an operation sheet in the control panel 3, 4a is a plurality of small round display windows, 4b is a square display window, and on the back side of each display window 4a is a light emitting diode (
(hereinafter referred to as LEDs) are opposed to each other, and a liquid crystal display corresponds to the display window 4b to display characters and the lighting status of the LEDs. 5 is a rice cooking key for starting rice cooking, and 6 is a cancel key.

In such a conventional rice cooker, when the rice cooking key 5 on the control panel 3 is pressed, the display window 4a for "rice cooking" lights up, and the pot inside the case body 1 is heated by a heater (not shown). The rice is then cooked. When the rice is cooked, the display window 4a for "keeping warm" lights up, and the cooked rice is kept warm in the warming process. During rice cooking, the display window 4b displays rice cooking operations in characters such as "preheating,""cooking," and "mixing," to inform the user of the progress of rice cooking.

0004

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In the conventional rice cooker as described above, the LED or liquid crystal display on the control panel 3 indicates that rice is being cooked. However, even during preheating for the same rice-cooking operation, the power of the electric power changes as the rice-cooking operation progresses, and there is no indication to distinguish between the power state of the electric power, that is, whether it is full power or low power. Since this display was not displayed, it was difficult to understand the progress of the rice cooking operation even during the preheating and rice cooking processes. In addition, there were inconveniences such as users unknowingly using other electrical appliances at the same time even when they were at full power, causing the breaker to trip due to exceeding the allowable power.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a rice cooker that can display the power status of the electric power and use the electric power effectively.

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems] A rice cooker according to the present invention is provided with display means for displaying the electric power supplied to the heating means on the control panel. Further, the display means is constituted by a display that displays the amount of electric power supplied to the heating means.

[0007]

[Operation] When rice cooking starts, the LED for "Rice Cooking" lights up and the characters "Preheat" on the LCD display are displayed on the display window.
The heater is automatically energized. After the preheating process is completed, “cook the rice”
When the text appears and the rice cooking process progresses and the water in the pot boils and all the water is gone, the temperature will rise rapidly. When the rice reaches the cooking completion temperature, the heater stops energizing, the word "murashi" is displayed, and the rice is cooked through the steaming process. During preheating and cooking, the "power" LED lights up at full power and turns off at low power to notify the power status.

[0008]

[Embodiment] Fig. 1 is an explanatory diagram of the configuration of an embodiment of this invention, and Fig. 2
2 is an electrical circuit diagram of the rice cooker shown in FIG. 1. FIG.

In the figure, reference numeral 3 denotes a control panel having an operation sheet 4, etc., and having a configuration similar to that shown in FIG. are facing each other, and a liquid crystal display correspondingly displays characters such as "rice cooking" on the display window 4b. Also,
A display window 4c for "power" is provided to indicate the power status of the electric power using an LED, and the LED lights up when the electric power to the heater 17 (described later) is at full power, and turns off when the electric power is at low power.

7 is a temperature sensor, 8 is an input circuit, 9 is a memory, 10 is a CPU, 11 is a heater output circuit, 12 is a display output circuit, 13 is a 1-chip microcomputer (hereinafter abbreviated as microcomputer); Memory 9, C
Built-in PU10 etc. 14 is a transistor, 1
5 is a relay, 16 is its contact, 17 is a heater, 18 is an AC power supply, and the contact 16 is activated by the output signal from the microcomputer 13.
is connected, the heater 17 is energized, and the electric power is also controlled. 19 is a display drive circuit; 20 is a display means including an LED and a liquid crystal display; an output signal from the microcomputer 13 is used to drive the LED of the display window 4c for "power" via the display drive circuit 19;
or the liquid crystal display of the display window 4b.

Next, the operation of the present invention will be explained using FIG. 3. First, place a pot filled with rice and an amount of water appropriate for the amount of rice in the rice cooker, close the lid, and turn on the power. Next, when the rice cooking key 5 of the control panel 3 is pressed, the display window 4a for "rice cooking" lights up, and the characters "preheating" are displayed on the display window 4b. Then, the microcomputer 13 operates to energize the heater 17 and start the preheating process. In the preheating process,
First, a large amount of electric power is supplied to the heater 17 to make it a strong flame. At this time, the "power" display window 4c lights up to display the high power state of the supplied power. When the preheating temperature reaches t1 with high heat heating, the heat is switched to low heat and the "power" display window 4c goes out to display low power. For example, as shown in Fig. 3, on/off control is performed by the microcomputer 13 to maintain the temperature at a constant temperature, and the water heated to around 40°C, which is easily absorbed, is used to prepare the rice before moving on to the rice cooking process. absorb enough moisture.

[0012] When the preheating time T1 has elapsed, the rice cooking process begins, and the character display on the display window 4b changes from "preheating" to "cooking". Rice is cooked with the electric power set to high power, and when the rice cooking progresses and the temperature of the internal water reaches boiling temperature t2 (100° C.), the electric power is switched to low power and the temperature becomes constant. When the water disappears and the temperature rises, and the temperature detected by the temperature sensor 5 reaches the rice cooking completion temperature t3, the power supply to the heater 17 is automatically stopped and the rice is cooked. As soon as the rice is cooked, the steaming process begins, and the text on the display window 4b changes from "cooked rice" to "steamed rice" and the rice is steamed for T2 hours, resulting in delicious rice.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of another embodiment of the present invention. Control panel 3 shown in the embodiment of FIG.
In this example, the display window 4c for displaying the electric power using an LED in FIG. 1 is omitted, and instead, the amount of electric power is displayed as a numerical value 4d on a liquid crystal display facing the display window 4b.

In this embodiment configured as described above, rice is cooked in the same manner as in the embodiment shown in FIG. Then, the power of the electric power during the rice cooking operation is displayed in wattage (4d), for example, 600W, through the display window 4b, and the progress of the rice cooking operation is notified along with a character display such as "preheating".

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited thereto, and can be modified as appropriate, for example, as described below. (1) Although the control panel 3 has been described by exemplifying the case where it is provided on the side of the rice cooker, the present invention may also be applied to a case where the control panel 3 is provided on the lid. (2) Although we have shown an example in which power is displayed using one LED through the display window 4c as a means of displaying power, it is also possible to use two-color LEDs to display the information in different colors, or by providing a plurality of LEDs. May be displayed. (3) Furthermore, although an example has been shown in which the power of the electric power is displayed as a numerical value 4d on the liquid crystal display, characters such as "full power" may also be displayed, or a bar graph may be displayed. (4) Furthermore, the electric power may be notified using a notification means such as a buzzer or voice.

[0016]

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, in this invention, the control panel is provided with a display means for displaying the amount of power supplied to the heating means, and this display means is a display device for displaying the amount of power supplied to the heating means. With this configuration, it is possible to know both the progress of rice cooking and the power status of the electric power, and the electric power can be used effectively.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration explanatory diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an electrical circuit diagram of the rice cooker of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the operation of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a configuration explanatory diagram of another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a front view of a conventional rice cooker.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view of the main part of FIG. 5;

[Explanation of symbols]

3 Control panel 4 Operation sheet 4a, 4b, 4c Display window 4d Numeric value 5　Rice cooking key 7 Temperature sensor 13 1-chip microcomputer 17 Heater 19 Display drive circuit 20 Display means

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A main body that houses a pot and is covered with a lid whose upper part opens and closes, a heating means provided inside the main body to heat the pot, and an operation key and a rice cooking operation provided on the surface of the main body. a control panel including an indicator to display;
What is claimed is: 1. A rice cooker comprising a timer function and a control section for controlling rice cooking operations, etc., characterized in that the control panel is provided with a display means for displaying electric power supplied to the heating means. 2. The rice cooker according to claim 1, wherein the display means is a display that displays the amount of electric power supplied to the heating means.