JPH0449913A - Rice boiling jar - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To discriminate a warmth retaining state just after rice has been boiled from a rice boiling state without increasing costs by providing a control means for flashing either a rice boiling lamp or a warmth retaining lamp at the time of the warmth retaining state. CONSTITUTION:If warmth retaining operation starts after rice has been boiled, a warmth retaining light emitting diode 19 is lighted at a step n1. At a step n2, a thermosensitive element 28 output is referred to for determining whether temperature of a bottom part of an inner pot is lower than 71 deg.C, for example, and if the temperature is lower than 71 deg.C, power is supplied to a warmth retaining heater 9 at a step n3. At a step n7, a microcomputer IC 7 lights a light emitting diode 18 for boiling rice in a flashing state. Accordingly, a user can easily recognize, only by seeing the lighting state of the light emitting diode 18 for boiling rice, whether a rice boiling jar is in rice boiling operation or in warmth retaining operation after rice has been boiled. Thus, cooking planning becomes easy and usability of the rice boiling jar is improved.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] <Industrial Application Field> In addition to the rice cooking function and the warming function, the present invention provides a so-called freshly cooked rice cooking function that achieves a similar heating state immediately after cooking by reheating rice that has been kept warm. This invention relates to a rice cooker having a heat retention function.

<Conventional technology> Conventionally, rice cookers have been equipped with two types of heaters: a rice cooker heater and a heat retention heater that generates less heat than the rice cooker heater.When cooking rice, electricity is applied to the rice cooker heater to powerfully heat the inner pot and cook rice. After the rice cooking is completed, the power supply to the rice cooking heater is stopped and the power supply to the heat retention heater is controlled to perform the unevenness process after the rice cooking process and the subsequent heat retention (for example, 60
A rice cooker designed to perform a temperature of ~7°C) is used.

Recently, in such a rice cooker, by operating the rice cooking switch during the warming operation, electricity is supplied to the rice cooking heater for a predetermined period of time (for example, about 50 minutes).
The rice is heated to a higher temperature than in the normal warming process (for example, 11
Rice with a so-called "freshly cooked and warm" function has been put into practical use, allowing rice to be kept at a temperature similar to that of freshly cooked rice by keeping it warm at around 0°C.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> In general, it is difficult to determine whether the operating state of a rice cooker is in the cooking operation state where the rice cooker is energized, or in the warming operation state where the heat retention heater is energized. A rice cooking lamp and a warming lamp are provided to indicate whether or not there is rice.

However, during the period mentioned above when keeping the food warm after cooking,
Since the rice-cooking heater is energized, conventionally a rice-cooking lamp is turned on in response to this. For this reason, the user cannot distinguish between the rice cooking operation state and the freshly cooked and keeping warm operation state, and therefore, the user cannot know whether the rice is cooked or not.
There was a problem that the preparation for cooking became difficult.

In order to solve this problem, it may be possible to provide a third lamp that lights up when the rice is freshly cooked and the rice is kept warm, in addition to the warming lamp and the rice cooking lamp, but in this case, the cost would be high, and the third lamp would be too expensive. In addition to requiring space for installation, increasing the number of lamps complicates the user's judgment.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned technical problems and provide a rice cooker that can distinguish between the freshly cooked rice keeping operation state and the rice cooking operation state, and which does not increase the cost. do.

<Means for Solving the Problems> The rice cooker of the present invention to achieve the above object includes a rice cooker for cooking rice, a heat-retaining heater for keeping the rice warm after cooking, and a lamp that lights up during rice cooking operation. In a rice cooker that has a rice cooking lamp and a heat retention lamp that lights up during the heat retention operation, in addition to the rice cooking operation and the heat retention operation, the rice cooker performs a freshly cooked heat retention operation in which the rice is kept warm at a high temperature by energizing the rice cooking heater.
The rice cooker is provided with a control means for blinking at least one of the rice cooking lamp and the heat retention lamp during the freshly cooked rice heat retention operation.

The freshly cooked rice heat keeping operation may be performed by operating a start switch for starting the rice cooking operation during the heat keeping operation.

<Function> According to the above configuration, at least one of the rice cooking lamp and the warming lamp is lit in a blinking state during the freshly cooked rice keeping operation, and the user can control the rice cooker's rice cooking operation, warming operation and freshly cooked keeping warm operation. It is possible to easily recognize which operating state the device is in.

<Example> Embodiments will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings showing examples.

FIG. 1 is an electrical circuit diagram showing the electrical configuration of a rice cooker according to an embodiment of the present invention. This rice cooker is a microcomputer T
Program control in C7 realizes multiple types of heating operations, such as cooking rice porridge and rice, quick-cooking rice cooking operation that omits the water absorption process, and normal rice cooking operation that includes the water absorption process.

An alternating current voltage (AC 100 V) from a commercial alternating current power source is passed through a step-down transformer 1, rectified by a diode bridge 2, smoothed by a smoothing capacitor 3, and then applied to a constant voltage circuit 4. The voltage from this constant voltage circuit 4 is the operating voltage Vc
As c, the signal is supplied from the power supply line 5 through the line 6 to the above-mentioned microcomputer IC 7, which is provided as a control means and includes a CPU (central processing unit), memory, and the like.

The AC voltage from the commercial AC power source is also applied to a rice cooking heater 8 used for cooking rice and a warming heater 9 used for keeping rice warm after cooking. A connecting piece 1.1 of a relay lO is connected in series to the rice cooking heater 8. In addition, a triac 12 is connected in series to the heat insulating heater 9.
or connected.

[Relay] A transistor 14 that is turned on/off by a control signal from the microcomputer IC 7 is connected in series to the coil 13 of 0. By making the transistor 14 conductive, the coil 13 is excited and the rice cooker heater 8 is energized. be done. A diode 15 connected in parallel to the transistor 14 is for absorbing back electromotive force generated by the coil 13 when the relay 10 is switched by the transistor 14.

A transistor 16 whose conduction/cutoff is controlled by a control signal from the microcomputer IC 7 is connected to the gate of the triator 12 connected in series to the heat-retaining heater 9 . Therefore, by controlling the timing of conduction/cutoff of the transistor 16 by the microcomputer IC7, the triac 1
By controlling the conduction phase angle of 2, the amount of heat generated by the heat retainer 9 can be controlled.

Also connected to the microcomputer IC 7 is a rice-cooking light emitting diode 18 provided as a rice-cooking lamp that is lit when the rice-cooking heater 8 is energized, and further is lit when the heat-retaining heater 9 is energized. A heat-retaining light emitting diode 19 that functions as a heat-retaining lamp is connected. Furthermore, a menu switch 20 is provided at an easily accessible position on the surface of the rice cooker, and is capable of cyclically changing and setting the plurality of types of heating operations described above each time the rice cooker is operated. A start switch 21 for starting the selected rice cooking operation and a cancel switch 22 for canceling various settings are connected.

The microcomputer IC 7 includes a timer (not shown) for setting, for example, a rice cooking start time, and this set time is displayed on a timer display 23 realized by, for example, a liquid crystal display device. The microcomputer IC7 is
When a time is set in the timer, the timer light emitting diode 24 is turned on. To set the time to the timer, press the timer switch 25 while visually checking the timer display 23.
This is done by operating ゜26. One of these timer switches 25 and 26 is for advancing the set time, and the other is for delaying the set time.

Note that, except when setting the time to the timer, the timer display 23 displays, for example, the current time.

With the above-described configuration, when the inner pot is set (this is detected by the pot detection sensor 27) and the menu switch 20 is used to select, for example, the normal rice cooking operation, the operation follows the program stored in the microcomputer IC 7. , the power supply to the rice cooking heater 8 is controlled, and the rice is cooked through a water absorption process, a cooking process, a boiling process, and a shading process. Control of power supply to the rice cooking heater 8 is as follows:
This is done so as to obtain a predetermined temperature curve based on the output of the heat-sensitive element 28 that is in contact with the lower surface of the inner pot, and energization of the heat retainer 9 may also be carried out as needed.

When the rice is cooked, the microcomputer TC7 turns on transistor 1.
A control signal for shutting off the rice cooker heater 8 is derived, and the power supply to the rice cooking heater 8 is thereby stopped.

In place of this, the microcomputer TC7 derives a control signal to turn on/off the transistor 16, thereby controlling the conduction phase angle of the triac 2, supplying controlled power to the heat insulating heater 9, and controlling the conduction phase angle of the triac 2. The heat retention operation is performed in this way. This heat-retaining operation refers to the output of the heat-sensitive element 28 and adjusts the temperature of the rice in the inner pot to 60°C, for example.
The temperature is maintained at about ~70°C.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the microcomputer IC 7 when the above-described configuration performs so-called freshly cooked rice keeping at a high temperature such as freshly cooked rice.

In this embodiment, freshly cooked food can be kept warm by operating the start switch 21 during the heat keeping operation (that is, when the heat keeping light emitting diode 19 is lit).

When the rice is finished cooking and the warming operation is started, the warming light emitting diode 9 is turned on in step nl. Then, in step n2, it is determined whether or not the temperature at the bottom of the inner pot is, for example, 71°C or lower, with reference to the output of the heat-sensitive element 28. If the temperature is lower than 71°C, step n3 is performed, in which the temperature at the bottom of the inner pot is determined to be lower than 71°C. Electricity is supplied, and when the temperature exceeds 71''C, the electricity supply to the heat-retaining heater 9 is stopped in step n4.

In step n5, it is determined whether or not the start switch 21 has been operated, and if it has not been operated, the process returns to step n1 and the normal warming operation is continued. Start switch 21
When this operation is performed, in step n6, both the rice cooking heater 8 and the warming heater 9 are energized, thereby reheating the rice in the inner pot.

Then, in step n7, the microcomputer IC7 turns on the rice cooking light emitting diode I8 in a blinking state.

In step n8, with reference to the output of the heat sensitive element 28, it is determined whether the temperature at the bottom of the inner pot is, for example, 110°C or less, and if it is 110°C or less, the process returns to step n6. In this way, the rice is reheated until it reaches a temperature of about 110°C, which brings the temperature of the rice almost to the temperature immediately after it is cooked, so that delicious rice can be obtained.

In step n8, the temperature at the bottom of the inner pot is 110°C.
When it is determined that the temperature exceeds 1, the power supply to the rice cooking heater 8 and the heat-retaining heater 9 is stopped in step n9. Further, in step n9, the clock time of a timer (not shown) that starts a timing operation in response to the operation of the start switch 21 in step n5 and counts a predetermined time (for example, 3000 seconds) is referenced, and the predetermined time (for example, 3000 seconds) is referenced. 3000 seconds)
When the predetermined time period has elapsed, the blinking rice-cooking light emitting diode 18 is turned off in step nlO, and then the process returns to step n1.

If the predetermined time (3000 seconds) has not elapsed, the process returns to step n6.

In this way, the start switch 21
By operating the , it is possible to maintain the temperature of the rice at approximately 110"C for a predetermined period of time (3000 seconds). For example, the above predetermined time period (3000 seconds) can maintain the temperature of the rice at approximately 110"C. This is the heating time, which is determined with the aim of raising the temperature more uniformly and gradually.

As described above, in the rice cooker of the present embodiment, the rice cooking light emitting diode 18 is lit in a blinking state during the freshly cooked rice keeping operation. Therefore, users of this rice cooker should:
It is possible to easily know whether the operation state is the rice cooking operation state or the freshly cooked rice warming operation state by visually checking the lighting state of the rice cooking light emitting diode 18. This allows the user to determine whether the rice is cooked or not, making preparations for cooking easier.

Moreover, in this embodiment, the lighting state of the existing lamp (light-emitting diode 18 for cooking rice) is changed to display the state of the hot-cooked rice keeping operation, so there is no increase in cost.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments. For example, in the above embodiment, the rice cooking operation is program-controlled. However, the rice cooking operation does not necessarily have to be program-controlled. For example, when the rice cooking switch is operated during the warming operation, the rice cooking lamp It is sufficient if a control means for blinking is provided. Also,
In the above-mentioned embodiment, the light-emitting diode 18 for cooking rice is lit in a blinking state during the operation of keeping the rice freshly cooked, but instead of this, the light-emitting diode 19 for keeping warm is blinked,
Alternatively, both the light emitting diodes 18 and 19 may be made to blink. Various other design changes may be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

<Effects of the Invention> As described above, according to the rice cooker of the present invention, the user can:
It is possible to easily recognize which operating state the rice cooker is in: rice cooking operation, warming operation, or freshly cooked warming operation. Therefore, since it is possible to recognize whether the rice is ready or not, preparations for cooking can be made better.

In addition, since the existing lamp (rice cooking lamp or warming lamp) is used to indicate when the rice is freshly cooked and is being kept warm, the cost does not increase significantly.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an electric circuit diagram showing the electrical configuration of a rice cooker according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the warming operation of freshly cooked rice. 7... Microcomputer IC (control means), 8... Rice cooking heater, 9... Heat retention heater, 18... Light emitting diode for rice cooking (rice cooking lamp), 19... Light emitting diode for keeping warm (heat retention lamp) 1...Start switch

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A rice cooker comprising a rice cooker for cooking rice, a heat-retaining heater for keeping the rice warm after cooking, a rice-cooking lamp that lights up during the rice-cooking operation, and a heat-retaining lamp that lights up during the heat-keeping operation. In the rice cooker, in addition to the rice cooking operation and the heat keeping operation, a freshly cooked rice keeping operation is performed in which the rice is kept warm at a high temperature by energizing the rice cooking heater, and at least one of the rice cooking lamp or the warming lamp is blinked during the freshly cooked rice keeping operation. A rice cooker characterized by being equipped with means. 2. The rice cooker according to claim 1, wherein during the heat-keeping operation, the rice-warming operation is performed by operating a start switch for starting the rice-cooking operation.