JPH09266853A - Rice cooker - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the rate at which the power of a storage battery is consumed during waiting time. SOLUTION: This rice cooker comprises a base part, having a gas burner and a main body controller 7 or the like, and a container part provided in such a way as to be separated from the base part and capable of being-placed in a stationary position on the top of the base part, and having an inner cooker and an auxiliary controller 15 or the like. A commercial power supply and a secondary power supply from a storage battery can be fed to the main body controller 7 in the base part, and a main body microcomputer 25 in the main body controller 7 has the function of shifting to a sleep mode in which, if the stop of the commercial power supply is detected by a transistor Tr1 while rice is not cooked, a high-frequency oscillator XT2 is stopped and only low power consumption action by a low-frequency oscillator XT1 is effected while other power consumption is not permitted. Similarly, an auxiliary microcomputer 35 in the auxiliary controller 15 is held stopped in response to a sleep-mode signal of the main body controller 25.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a rice cooker that uses an external AC power source as a primary power source and a storage battery having a built-in secondary power source.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A rice cooker uses an AC power source as a primary power source and consumes power required for rice cooking, while it has a built-in storage battery such as nickel-cadmium storage battery as a secondary power source. Charging is performed at the same time as the cooking rice to be used, and the charged electric power is used as a power source for the microcomputer except when cooking rice (standby time).

[0003]

Since the rice cooker usually cooks rice for 20 to 30 minutes, the remaining time is the waiting time. Therefore, the power consumption of the storage battery is large during the standby time, the battery life is shortened, and depending on the battery capacity, the battery may run out while waiting for the reserved rice cooked by the timer. For example, normally used 360mA
In a rice cooker with a storage battery of capacity h, even if you try to set a timer reservation for 12 hours, if the capacity used for cooking rice per time is 100 mAh, the power consumption per hour will be (360-100). It is necessary to make / 12≈22 mA or less, but since about 40 mA is actually consumed, the above timer setting cannot be performed.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, the present invention provides a rice cooker which extends the time during which the storage battery can be continuously used by one charge so that the electric power of the storage battery can be suitably used. The configuration is as follows:
It is characterized in that it is provided with a power consumption suppressing means for operating the control unit with a minimum required power consumption except when rice is cooked when the AC power is not supplied.

[0005]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 1, the rice cooker includes a lower base portion 2 and a jar portion 3 separately mounted on the base portion 2 at a fixed position. First, the base section 2 is provided with a gas burner 6 provided with three electromagnetic valves 5a to 5c on a gas pipe 4, and a main body controller 7 for controlling these is provided with a plug 12 for obtaining a commercial power source and a secondary power source. The respective storage batteries 8 are provided. On the other hand, the jar portion 3 has an inner pot 17,
In addition to the lid 18, an operation unit 13 having switches such as rice cooking, heat retention, and a timer, and a display unit 14 for displaying the current time, rice cooking, rice cooking completion, and the like are provided, and a sub controller 15 serving as a control unit for these is also provided. It is built in here. The connection terminal 19 is provided on the upper surface of the base portion 2 and the lower surface of the jar portion 3.
a and 19b are provided respectively, and both connection terminals 19a and 19b are electrically connected in a state where the jar portion 3 is placed on the base portion 2 at a fixed position, for power supply for rice cooking and heat retention, and for temperature control. It is possible to deliver electric signals between the base portion 2 and the jar portion 3. Further, 9 is a pot bottom sensor for detecting temperature, which is located at the bottom of the inner pot 17 when the jar portion 3 is set,
Reference numeral 16 is a lid sensor for detecting the temperature, which is also installed on the lid 18, and the output signal of the pot bottom sensor 9 is the main body controller 7
Further, the output signals of the lid sensor 16 are input to the sub-controller 15, respectively. Reference numerals 10 and 11 respectively denote a frame rod and an ignition electrode arranged near the gas burner 6.

FIG. 2 is a circuit block diagram of the main body controller 7 and the sub controller 15. First, commercial power supplied through the power transformer 20a is converted into direct current by the rectifying / smoothing circuit 20, the coil 22 of the power switching relay 21 is energized, and the relay 23 is connected to the NO side. Is converted to a circuit power supply via. The main body microcomputer 25 detects the presence or absence of commercial power by the power failure detection circuit 26, and charges the storage battery 8 by the charging circuit 27 when the commercial power is supplied. On the other hand, when the power failure or the plug 12 is not in the plug-in state, the coil 22 of the power switching relay 21 is not energized, so the relay 23 is switched to the NC side, the storage battery 8 is connected to the power circuit 24, and the circuit power is turned on. You will get it. Further, the main body microcomputer 25 includes a communication circuit 28 that communicates with the sub controller 15 and supplies electric power under the control of the main body microcomputer 25, and the main body microcomputer 2
5, a WD circuit 29 for detecting runaway and monitoring of circuit power supply, a solenoid valve drive circuit 30 for controlling opening / closing of the solenoid valves 5a to 5c, an igniter control circuit 31 for sparking the ignition electrode 11, and a frame rod 10. A flame detection circuit 32 for monitoring the flame and a bottom sensor circuit 33 for sending a temperature detection signal from the bottom sensor 9 to the main body microcomputer 25 are respectively provided. On the other hand, in the sub controller 15, the power supplied from the main body controller 7 causes the power supply circuit 34 to obtain a circuit power source for the sub microcomputer 35 and the like, and the communication circuit 36 communicates with the main body controller 7. Reference numeral 37 is a voltage monitoring circuit for monitoring the circuit power supply, and 38 is a lid sensor circuit for detecting the temperature by the lid sensor 16 to detect boiling. Therefore, according to the rice cooker 1, the main body controller 7 causes the igniter control circuit 31 and the solenoid valve drive circuit 30 based on the rice cooking command sent from the sub-microcomputer 35 by the input operation to the operation unit 13 on the jar unit 3 side. Are operated to open the gas flow path to the gas burner 6 and ignite the gas burner 6, and the combustion state is monitored by the flame detection circuit 32. Then, the main body controller 7 monitors the detected temperature obtained from the pot bottom sensor 9 via the pot bottom sensor circuit 33, and based on a known rice cooking sequence, the solenoid valve 5
The rice is cooked by controlling the opening and closing of a and 5b.

The main body controller 7 and the sub controller 15 have a function of switching to a low power consumption mode (sleep mode) which suppresses power consumption during a standby time other than rice cooking. This function will be described below.
FIG. 3 is a peripheral circuit diagram of the main microcomputer 25 and the sub microcomputer 35. The left is the main controller 7, and the right is the sub controller 15. The main body microcomputer 25 is a transistor Tr
₁ (hereinafter simply referred to as Tr ₁ ; similarly, in other circuit elements as well, the second and subsequent times are simply indicated by symbols).
It is judged whether 0V is ON or OFF (power failure state), and AC10
When 0V is ON, Tr ₁ is ON and the main unit microcomputer 25
The input port P _o of L becomes Lo, and conversely becomes Hi at the time of power failure. When the AC 100V is turned on, the main body microcomputer 25 operates with the high frequency oscillator XT ₂ and turns on Tr ₂ and Tr ₃ , respectively.
The data can be read from the sub controller 15 by reading the analog port AN ₁ while the data is sent to the sub controller 15 side by turning it off / on.
In the sub controller 15, the ON / OFF operation of Tr ₂ and Tr ₃ of the main body controller 7 stores the power in the capacitor C ₁ via the diode D ₃ to obtain the circuit power supply V _DD2 and the analog port AN ₂ in reading the data, in the ON / OFF of Tr _8, the sub-microcomputer 3
5 sends data to the main body controller 7 side. Further, this sub-microcomputer 35 uses a high-frequency oscillator XT as an oscillator.
_It is equipped with ₃ and operates in XT ₃ in the normal mode.

Here, when the main unit microcomputer 25 detects a power failure by Tr ₁ and it is not during rice cooking, the mode shifts to the sleep mode. That is, the main microcomputer 25 is the sub-microcomputer 3
Data for shifting to the sleep mode is sent to 5, and the main body microcomputer 25 turns off Tr ₄ through the output port P ₃ .
Here, the field effect transistor FET ₁ is turned on and the power supply of the sub controller 15 is secured, while Tr ₅ is turned off.
Therefore, AN ₁ cannot read. Next, the main body microcomputer 25 turns off Tr ₂ and Tr ₃ , respectively, and switches the oscillator to the low-frequency oscillator XT ₁ ,
Stop ₂ Therefore, in the main body controller 7, the main body microcomputer 25 only performs the low frequency operation (low power consumption operation) at XT ₁ , and other power consumption is not performed, but the power supply to the sub controller 15 side is maintained.
Also, in the sub controller 15, when the sleep mode signal is received, Tr ₇ and Tr ₈ are turned off respectively, and XT ₃
Is turned off to perform sleep control. At this time, since power is supplied from the main body controller 7, the circuit power supply is secured by C ₁ and the regulator 39, but the sub-microcomputer 35 and the like are in an operation stop state.

Comparing the current consumption of the main microcomputer 25, it is 8 mA in the normal mode (XT ₂ = 8 MHz) and 15 μA in the sleep mode (XT ₁ = 32.76).
8 KHz). Similarly, in the entire main body controller 7, the current consumption of several tens of mA in the normal mode is reduced to several tens of μA in the sleep mode. Also in the sub-microcomputer 35, it is 6 mA (XT ₃ = 8 MHz) in the normal mode and 0 (oscillation stopped) in the sleep mode. Similarly, in the entire sub controller 15, the current consumption of several tens mA in the normal mode is reduced to several μA in the sleep mode. Therefore, as described above, for example, 3
When a storage battery with a capacity of 60 mAh is adopted, the power consumption per hour of standby time is about 40 mAh in normal mode.
However, it can be suppressed to about 100 μAh in the sleep mode. Therefore, it is possible to extend the life of the storage battery, and it is possible to set a wide timer reservation time width based on the storage battery capacity.

When returning from the sleep mode to the normal mode again, the timing is the case of timer rice cooking using the power of the storage battery 8. It goes into sleep mode during the timer reservation time, returns when time is up, and cooks rice. The user can directly operate the operation switch 40 such as the rice cooker switch.
When is pressed. By canceling the power failure or inserting the plug 12
When C100V is restored. There are three possibilities. In the first case, the main microcomputer 25 here operates the XT ₁ as described above even in the sleep mode, and the clock,
The timer is counting. Therefore, it is possible to return from the sleep mode by generating a timer interrupt by counting XT ₁ . By this timer interruption, the sleep mode is released at regular time intervals (every 1 second), and the low frequency operation is performed. Then P
_When Hi is output from ₃ and Tr ₄ is turned on, F
Since ET ₁ is turned off and Tr ₅ is turned on, reading by AN ₁ is possible, and it is confirmed whether the sleep mode release signal is output from the sub-microcomputer 35 or the timer has timed up. Update the time.
When the sleeve release signal or the time-up of the timer is detected, XT ₂ is oscillated to return to the normal mode,
Information such as the current time is sent to the sub-microcomputer 35 side, and rice cooking control is started. If it is not necessary to return from sleep mode, set P ₃ to Lo again and turn on FET ₁ .
Then, the operation is stopped at the low frequency.

In the following cases, the main body and the sub-microcomputers 25 and 3
Since all 5 can be restored by interrupting the determined input port at the rising or falling edge, when the switch 40 is pressed, the sub-microcomputer 3
A falling external interrupt is generated at P ₆ of 5, the sleep mode is resumed, XT ₃ is oscillated, and the XT ₃ is activated. Further, in order to notify the main body microcomputer 25 of the sleep mode release, Tr ₇ and Tr ₈ are turned on respectively. After that, the main unit microcomputer 25 that receives the sleep mode release signal
However, XT ₂ oscillates and returns to the normal mode, and the rice cooking control becomes possible.

In this case, when AC100V is re-energized, Tr ₁ is turned on, an external interrupt at the falling edge is generated in the main body microcomputer 25, and the sleep mode is restored. Therefore, XT ₂ oscillates and returns to the normal mode. However, in order to restore the sub-microcomputer 35 side, Tr ₄
Turn on and turn off FET ₁ . FET ₁ is off
Then, the charge of C ₂ is discharged through R ₁ , and C ₂ , R
₁ , the timer set by the cutoff voltage of FET ₂ operates. When this time is up, Tr ₉ turns on, an external interrupt occurs at P ₅ , the sub-microcomputer 35 returns from the sleep mode, and turns Tr ₇ and Tr ₈ on, respectively. This sleep release signal causes the main unit microcomputer 25 to
₂ and Tr ₃ are turned ON / OFF respectively to start the normal mode operation. Note that F is not an external interrupt
When the power supply is stopped by turning off ET ₁ and the electric charge stored in C ₁ is lost, the sub-microcomputer 35 can be reset and returned from the sleep mode.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, even in the case of the separate type rice cooker having the microcomputer in the jar portion and the microcomputer in the base portion, it is of course possible to shift to the sleep mode. It is possible to return to normal mode from. Especially when the timer is up, the switch is operated and the commercial power is restored,
It is easy to use because it is configured to automatically return to the normal mode by interrupting the sleep mode. In the above-mentioned embodiment, the transition to the sleep mode and the return operation to the normal mode have been described for the separate type rice cooker, but the integrated rice cooker also has the function of transitioning to and returning from the sleep mode. This is possible, and in this case, the number of the microcomputer as the control unit is one, so that the configuration can be further simplified.

[0014]

As described above, according to the present invention, in the rice cooker,
Minimize the power consumption of the storage battery as a secondary power source 1
The usage time can be extended by charging once. Therefore, the power is not cut off during the standby time such as the timer reservation and the usability is not impaired.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a rice cooker.

FIG. 2 is a circuit block diagram of a main body controller and a sub controller.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of peripheral circuits of a main body microcomputer and a sub-microcomputer.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... rice cooker, 2 ... base part, 3 ... jar part, 5a
~ C ... Solenoid valve, 6 ... Gas burner, 7 ... Main body controller, 8 ... Storage battery, 15 ... Sub controller, 25
..Main microcomputer, 35..Sub-microcomputer

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An external AC power supply as a primary power supply, and a built-in storage battery as a secondary power supply, respectively. When the AC power supply is provided, the AC power supply is used to operate and the storage battery is charged. A rice cooker provided with a control unit for rice cooking and heat retention that operates by using the charging power of the storage battery when the AC power is not supplied, wherein the control unit does not cook the rice when the AC power is not supplied. The rice cooker is provided with a power consumption suppressing means for operating the control unit at a minimum required power consumption except the time.