JPH0359681B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to an electric rice cooker for use in general households.

Structure of the conventional example and its problems When cooking rice in a rice cooker, in order to cook the rice deliciously, the rice must be soaked in water for a certain period of time, and the starch in the rice must be 30% or more, which is one of the conditions for converting the starch into A. It is necessary to satisfy the requirement of the presence of moisture. This time required varies from 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on the water temperature, so the rice cooker had the disadvantage of being extremely difficult to use.

Conventionally, in order to compensate for this drawback and cook rice more deliciously, the heat power and the time for which the heat is applied are controlled by program control using a microcomputer. Like, ``At first it's slow'' soaking process A, ``Medium boiling'' process B, ``Turn off the heat when it starts to sizzle'', keep it boiling process C, ``Don't remove the lid even if the baby cries.''
Generally, a process called steaming step D is performed automatically. A neural flowchart of this process is shown in FIG. However, with this configuration, in the "first stage" flooding process A,
For example, the rice is held at 40°C for about 15 to 20 minutes, which lengthens the total cooking time.

Therefore, if you need to cook rice in a hurry,
Alternatively, in preparation for the case where rice is cooked after being soaked in water for a long time, a switch is provided to omit the soaking step A, as shown in FIG. With this switch, if the soaking step A is omitted, the rice cooking time can be shortened by the amount S shown in FIG. 1a.

However, if you operate this switch incorrectly,
This resulted in the problem that the soaking process was omitted against the user's wishes, resulting in a bad taste of the rice.

Purpose of the Invention The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems by providing a switch for omitting the submergence process, and is configured to prevent the switch from being operated erroneously and inadvertently omitting the submergence process. The present invention provides a rice cooker with improved usability.

Structure of the Invention The present invention includes a switch that omit the function of holding the temperature at a constant temperature for a certain period of time as a submersion process, and a notification device that notifies the end of rice cooking, omission of the submergence process, etc. by sound etc., and operates the switch to cook rice. In this case, the notification device is configured to make a specific notification. Program control of the above-mentioned water immersion process can be achieved by programming a microcomputer, and the notification device is composed of a three-terminal piezoelectric buzzer, etc. and a transistor, and the control terminal is connected to the output terminal of the microcomputer. The omitted switch is connected to the input terminal of the microcomputer.

With the above configuration, when a switch for omitting the submersion process is operated, a specific notification operation is performed at the same time as rice cooking starts, so that the submergence process will not be omitted inadvertently.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS Figures 4 and 5 show the electrical configuration of a control circuit for a rice cooker that programmatically controls each step of rice cooking.

Further, FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of the program.

In Figure 4, 1 is a mask ROM for the rice cooking method.
This is a microcomputer located at

A switch 2 is connected to the input terminal of the microcomputer 1, and is used to omit the soaking process in which rice and water are kept at a constant temperature for a certain period of time. Reference numeral 3 denotes a notification device using sounds or the like, which is connected to the output terminal of the microcomputer 1 and performs notification operations under the control of the microcomputer. 4 is a rice cooking start switch, which is automatically turned off when rice cooking is finished. Reference numeral 5 denotes a power control element consisting of a relay, a triax, etc., which controls the energization of the electric heating element 6.

Reference numeral 7 denotes a rice cooking container containing rice and water, and 8 a temperature sensor provided in contact with the rice cooking container 7, which inputs temperature information of the rice cooking container 7 into the microcomputer 1. 9 is a display device such as an LED, which lights up to inform the user of each step of rice cooking.

Fig. 5 is an electric circuit diagram showing a specific configuration, and the switch 2 for omitting the submergence process is composed of a 2-circuit 2-contact switch as shown in the figure, with all off at the neutral position 2c and all off at the 2d position. The submersion process is omitted, and at the position 2e, the submergence process is performed.

The notification device 3 includes a transistor 3a and a three-terminal buzzer 3b, and is connected to the output terminal of the microcomputer 1 via a resistor 3c, and the buzzer sounds when the output terminal becomes low level.

Reference numeral 5a is a relay contact for supplying current to the electric heating element 6a, and reference numeral 5b is a tryout for controlling the heat-retaining power for supplying electricity to the electric heating elements 6b, 6c, and 6a. The gate P of the triax 5b is connected to the output terminal of the microcomputer 1. 8 is a thermistor used as a temperature sensor, and 9 is an LED used as a display device.

Figure 6 shows the microcomputer with this configuration.
This is a general flowchart of the rice cooking program stored in the ROM. Immediately after starting rice cooking,
Check whether or not pre-cooking is omitted, and if it is omitted, the submergence step A is bypassed, a buzzer alerts, and the cooking step B.
The process proceeds to the boiling maintenance step C, and unless the submersion step A is omitted, the flow proceeds to the submergence step A and the cooking step B in sequence.

To explain the operation in the above configuration, first,
When the submersion step omission switch 2 is placed on the submergence step side 2e and the rice cooking start switch 4 is turned on, rice is cooked according to the rice cooking characteristic curve shown in FIG. 1a based on the general flowchart shown in FIG. 6. The temperature of the rice cooking container 7 is inputted by the temperature sensor 8, and the electric power is adjusted accordingly.During the soaking process, electric power is supplied as shown in the figure until t1 in Figure _1b , and the rice and water are kept at a constant temperature. is maintained. When the microcomputer measures time for t ₁ hour, the next cooking step B begins, and the electric heating element becomes 100% energized as shown at P ₂ in Figure 1b. During this time, the temperature of the rice cooking container 7 is
It is detected between θ ₁ and _{θ 2} in Figure a, and the amount of rice in the rice cooking container is estimated based on the elapsed time t _x during this time, and the boiling maintenance step C
The electric power is determined by the calculation P ₃ =(t _x ), and the boiling maintenance step starts from t ₂ .

When the rice cooking is completed, the rice cooking start switch 4 is automatically shut off at _t3 by the operation of the thermostat using the Curie point of the thermal ferrite, and the steaming process begins. When the steaming process D is completed, a buzzer is used to notify the user, and then the process moves on to keeping warm.

If you want to cook rice in a hurry, or if you want to cook rice when it has already been soaked in water, switch the soaking step omission switch 2 to the omission side 2d. When the rice cooking switch 4 is turned on, the rice cooking starts from the cooking step as shown by the dotted line in FIG. In this case, since the buzzer gives a specific notification, the rice cooker is easy to use and can always cook delicious rice without inadvertently omitting the soaking step A.

The water immersion process omission switch 2 is connected in such a way that it always shorts the reset terminal of the microcomputer 1 and resets it when changing the switch, so even if the switch is changed quickly, the
The configuration is such that it achieves the desired behavior.

In the above embodiment, the notification device 3 is configured using a three-terminal buzzer, but it may also be configured mechanically using a bell or the like. Then, a specific notification can be made.

Effects of the Invention As is clear from the above embodiments, the rice cooker of the present invention includes a submersion step for holding rice and water for a certain period of time, a switch for omitting this submergence step, and a switch that is turned on to omit submergence. If you want to use a rice cooker, you can create an easy-to-use rice cooker that can be washed and cooked immediately by making a notification using a specific sound when cooking starts.
We have added a function that allows you to shorten the rice cooking time when you are in a hurry, and we have added a sound alert to prevent you from inadvertently omitting the soaking process due to accidentally operating the switch. To provide an easy-to-use rice cooker that cooks rice deliciously. In addition, since the sound notification device is different from the notification of the completion of rice cooking when the submergence step is omitted, the notification device used to notify the completion of rice cooking can be used to notify the omission of the submergence step, and the notification device The number of parts can be reduced by using both.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1a is a temperature characteristic curve showing the rice cooking operating characteristics, Figure b is an operating characteristic diagram showing the power curve, Figure 2 is a general flowchart showing the same operation, and Figure 3 is a general flowchart showing the conventional operation. 4 is a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of an embodiment of the rice cooker of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is an electrical circuit diagram of the same.
Figure 6 is the general flowchart. 1... Microcomputer, 2... Flooding process omission switch, 3... Notification device, A... Flooding process.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. It has a function of holding the rice at a constant temperature for a certain period of time as a submersion process and then cooking the rice, and is equipped with a switch that omits the submergence process, and a notification device that notifies the end of rice cooking, omission of the submergence process, etc. by sound, and when the switch is activated. When the rice cooker is activated to cook rice, the notification device makes a specific notification different from when the rice cooking is finished, etc.