KR100365924B1 - Cooker - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a cooker having a main body, an operation panel, and a cooking heat source, the operation panel comprising: a support plate provided on one surface of the main body; An operation unit installed on the support plate to enable displacement operation; A memory storing a plurality of upper cooking types, a lower cooking type attached to each of the upper cooking types, and respective cooking conditions for the lower cooking types; Upper menu display means provided on the support plate to display the upper cooking type in response to the displacement of the operation portion; Submenu display means which is provided on the support plate and displays the subcooking type attached to the upper cooking type in response to the displacement of the operation unit; A selection unit for selecting the desired cooking type and the sub-cooking type from the upper cooking type and the lower cooking type displayed by the upper menu display means and the lower menu display means; A control unit for controlling the cooking heat source to perform the cooking conditions of the sub-cooking type according to the selection of the selection unit; The operation portion includes a rotatable rotary knob, and the upper menu display means is characterized in that it has an annular display portion for sequentially displaying the upper cooking type around the rotary knob. This makes it possible to display various cooking menus, to easily select the displayed cooking menu, and to achieve efficiency in the use of the operation panel area and the display of the cooking menu.

Description

Cooker {Cooker}

The present invention relates to a cooker, and more particularly, to a cooker having an improved structure and function of an operation unit.

Hereinafter, the microwave oven will be described as an example of a cooker.

In general, a microwave oven cooks food by using a magnetron that generates electromagnetic waves. The microwave generation time and the intensity of the magnetron, that is, the heating time and the heating temperature vary depending on the food, and the cooking of the microwave can be distinguished automatically and manually according to the method of selecting the heating time and the heating temperature.

In the manual cooking, the user can arbitrarily select the heating time and the heating temperature, and the controller drives the magnetron according to the selected heating time and the heating temperature to cook.

In contrast, in the automatic cooking, information about a plurality of cooking menus having different heating times and heating temperatures is stored in the memory in advance, and a user may select a desired cooking menu using a cooking menu display unit provided on the front of the microwave oven. . When the user selects the cooking menu, the controller reads information about the selected cooking menu from the memory and drives the magnetron according to the information to perform cooking.

9 shows an operation panel for selecting a cooking menu of a conventional microwave oven employing an automatic cooking method. As shown, the operation panel of the conventional microwave oven has the support plate 101 attached to the front of the machine room (not shown) formed in the microwave oven. Four rectangular cooking menu display units 110 are provided in the upper region of the support plate 101, and a rotary knob 120 for selecting a cooking menu is provided below the cooking menu display unit 110. A cooking menu selection start button 121 and a cooking start button 122 are provided in the left and right corners of the lower end of the support plate 101, respectively.

In the right region of each cooking menu display unit 110, a plurality of submenu display bars 111 indicating submenus such as popcorn, warming and thawing are arranged up and down, and one upper menu indicating an upper menu in the left region. Display bars 113 are arranged (A, B, C, D). The lower menu light emitting diode 115 is disposed on the left side of each lower menu display bar 111, and the upper menu light emitting diode 117 is disposed on the left side of the upper menu display bar 113. The light emitting diodes 115 and 117 are fixed to a PCB (not shown) positioned between the support plate 101 and the machine room so as to be exposed to the outside of the support plate 101.

The upper menu light emitting diode 117 emits light when the rotary knob 120 is in a rotational position corresponding to each of the four cooking menu display units 110, and the lower menu light emitting diode 115 is rotated the knob 120. Emits light when it is in a rotational position corresponding to each submenu display bar 111 in each cooking menu display unit 110. The light emitting diodes 115 and 117 emit light by a light emitting diode driver (not shown) that operates according to the operation of the cooking menu selection start button 121 and the rotary knob 120.

Referring to the cooking menu selection operation of the operation panel of the conventional microwave oven having such a configuration as follows.

First, when the user presses the cooking menu selection start button 121, the light emitting diode driver emits light emitting diodes 115 and 117 of the cooking menu display unit 110 corresponding to the rotation position of the rotary knob 120. In this case, the user may rotate the rotary knob 120 to select a desired upper menu and a desired lower menu.

When the light emitting diodes corresponding to the desired upper menu and the lower menu light up, the user selects a desired cooking menu by operating a menu selection switch (not shown). The menu selection switch is configured to interlock with the operation of the rotary knob 120.

Next, when the user presses the start button 122, the controller (not shown) reads cooking information corresponding to the cooking menu selected by the user from the memory and drives the magnetron.

However, according to the operation panel of the conventional microwave oven having such a configuration, since the front panel has a limited area, there is a problem that only a limited number of cooking menus can be displayed.

In addition, when the number of the cooking menu display unit or the lower menu display bar increases, not only is it inconvenient to select the cooking menu but also the number of light emitting diodes increases, which causes a complicated circuit configuration.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a cooker capable of displaying various cooking menus and cooking conditions with a simple configuration in a relatively small space.

1 is a perspective view of a microwave oven according to the present invention;

2 is an exploded perspective view of the microwave oven operating panel according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

3 is an exploded perspective view of a microwave oven operating panel according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

4 is an exploded perspective view of a microwave oven operating panel according to a third embodiment of the present invention;

5A, 5B, and 5C are schematic views of the LCD screen of FIG. 4 in which upper cooking types, lower cooking types, and cooking conditions are sequentially displayed;

6 is an exploded perspective view of a microwave oven operating panel according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention;

7 is a block diagram of a control unit according to the present invention;

8 is a flowchart of a cooking selection control method according to the present invention;

9 is a plan view of a conventional microwave oven operating panel.

<Description of Symbols for Main Parts of Drawings>

1: body 3: cooking chamber

10: operation panel 11: support plate

12: display unit 20: PCB

30: rotary knob 31: mark portion

33: indicator display unit 35: ring-shaped display unit

40: LCD screen 60: Display LCD screen

According to the present invention, there is provided a cooker having a main body, an operation panel, and a cooking heat source, the operation panel comprising: a support plate provided on one surface of the main body; An operation unit installed on the support plate to enable displacement operation; A memory storing a plurality of upper cooking types, a lower cooking type attached to each of the upper cooking types, and respective cooking conditions for the lower cooking types; Upper menu display means provided on the support plate to display the upper cooking type in response to the displacement of the operation portion; Submenu display means which is provided on the support plate and displays the subcooking type attached to the upper cooking type in response to the displacement of the operation unit; A selection unit for selecting the desired cooking type and the sub-cooking type from the upper cooking type and the lower cooking type displayed by the upper menu display means and the lower menu display means; A control unit for controlling the cooking heat source to perform the cooking conditions of the sub-cooking type according to the selection of the selection unit; The operation portion includes a rotatable rotary knob, and the upper menu display means is achieved by a cooker, characterized in that it has an annular display portion for sequentially displaying the upper cooking type around the rotary knob.

Preferably, the selection unit includes a selection switch operated by pressing the rotary knob.

Preferably, the annular display unit includes a plurality of icons for displaying the upper cooking types, and further includes an LCD corresponding to each icon of the annular display unit.

Preferably, the sub-menu display means displays the sub-cooking types sequentially on the annular display portion corresponding to the rotation position of the rotary knob, and the sub-menu display means corresponds to the rotation position of the rotary knob. It is effective to have a display unit that displays the cooking type sequentially.

Preferably, the display unit sequentially displays the sub-cooking types one by one, and the display unit arranges a plurality of the sub-cooking types one by one to effectively highlight and display the sub-cooking types corresponding to the rotation positions of the rotary knob.

Preferably, the upper menu display means includes a display portion for sequentially displaying the upper cooking type according to the operation of the rotary knob, and the lower menu display means includes the lower cooking according to the upper cooking type selected through the selection unit. It is effective to display the type sequentially on the display unit.

Preferably, the display unit sequentially displays the upper cooking types one by one. Preferably, the display unit lists a plurality of the upper cooking types and highlights the upper cooking types.

It is effective that an indicator is formed to indicate the rotational position of the rotary knob, and it is effective that the indicator is provided in the rotary knob.

Preferably, the indicator includes a plurality of LEDs provided around the rotary knob to correspond to the rotational displacement of the rotary knob.

Preferably, the plurality of LEDs emit light continuously during a cooking operation.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a perspective view of a microwave oven according to the present invention, Figure 2 is an exploded perspective view of a microwave oven operating panel according to a first embodiment of the present invention, Figure 3 is a microwave oven operating panel according to a second embodiment of the present invention An exploded perspective view of.

As shown in FIG. 1, the microwave oven according to the present invention includes a main body 1 partitioned into a cooking chamber 3 and a machine room, a door 7 which opens and closes the opening of the cooking chamber 3, and a machine room (not shown). It has an operation panel 10 attached to the front side. The machine room houses a magnetron and a high voltage transformer and a high voltage capacitor for driving the magnetron.

As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the operation panel 10 of the microwave oven according to the present invention includes a support plate 11 attached to the front of the machine room and a PCB 20 installed behind the support plate 11. Have

In the center area of the support plate 11, an operation unit provided to be displaceable to find an upper cooking type, a lower cooking type and a cooking condition is provided. In addition, the support plate 11 is provided with an upper menu display means for displaying a plurality of upper cooking types and a lower menu display means for displaying a plurality of lower cooking types attached to each upper cooking type. The operation panel 10 is provided with a memory (not shown) which stores a plurality of upper cooking types, lower cooking types attached to each higher cooking type, and cooking conditions for the lower cooking types.

In the first and second embodiments, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, the rotary knob 30 is provided as an operation unit for finding the upper cooking type, the lower cooking type and the cooking conditions. Preferably, the rotary knob 30 further has a function of selecting a higher cooking type and a cooking condition. The selection function is performed by a selection switch (not shown) for selecting the upper cooking type, the lower cooking type, and the cooking condition by pressing the rotary knob 30. Furthermore, the rotary knob 30 preferably has a cooking menu selection start function and a stop function. The rotary knob 30 is provided with a mark portion 31 for indicating the rotational position according to the rotation of the rotary knob 30. In order to indicate the rotational position of the rotary knob 30, an indicator display unit 33 may be provided around the rotary knob 30 together with or instead of the mark portion 31.

The upper menu display means is a ring-shaped display unit 35 provided around the rotary knob 30 and the indicator display unit 33 to sequentially display a plurality of upper cooking types. The annular display part 35 in FIG. 2 is comprised by the some icon which shows a different type of cooking. The lower menu display means is a rectangular display portion 12 which is provided on the support plate 11 to sequentially display the lower cooking type attached to the icon for displaying the upper cooking type in response to the rotational displacement of the rotary knob 30. The display unit 12 may sequentially display cooking conditions attached to the selected subcooking type.

Preferably, the lower portion of the support plate 11 is provided with a selection cancel button 39 for canceling the upper cooking type, lower cooking type, cooking conditions selected by the rotary knob 30, and can be used for various purposes. A button 37 can be further provided. This auxiliary button 37 may be used in place of, for example, a cooking menu selection function, a cooking menu selection start function, or a cooking start function of the rotary knob 30.

On the other hand, the PCB 20 is provided with a liquid crystal screen 40 partitioned into a plurality of display regions 40a, 40b, ... to correspond to the icons provided on the annular display portion 35 of the support plate 11. . In FIG. 3, each of the upper cooking types displayed on the LCD screen 40 divided into a plurality of display regions 40a, 40b,..., Is displayed on the annular display unit 33.

The PCB 20 has a plurality of LEDs 43; 43a, 43b as an indicator for indicating the rotational position of the rotary knob 30 corresponding to each icon at a position corresponding to the indicator display portion 33 of the support plate 11. ) Is provided. Each of the LEDs 43a, 43b and the like is emitted by an LED driver 45 (see Fig. 7) that operates according to the cooking menu selection start operation of the rotary knob 30. In addition, the LEDs 43a, 43b and the like are provided to correspond to the display areas 40a, 40b, 40c, etc. of the liquid crystal display 40, so that the rotary knob 30 may display each of the display areas 40a, 40b, 40c, etc. When positioned at, the light can be selectively emitted to inform the user of the selection of higher cooking types more reliably. That is, when the position of the rotary knob 30 is located in the display area 40a of the LCD screen 40, only the display area 40a of the LCD screen on which the rotary knob 30 is positioned may emit light. The corresponding LED 43a provided inside the region 40a can be made to emit light further. Of course, the display area 40a of the liquid crystal display on which the rotary knob 30 is positioned can emit light only the LED 43a without emitting light.

The PCB 20 is provided with a display liquid crystal display 60 at a position corresponding to the display portion 12 provided on the support plate 11. The display liquid crystal screen 60 may perform a function of a timer for displaying cooking time and the like in normal times. When the selection signal of the upper cooking type is input through the rotary knob 30 or the separate auxiliary button 37, the display liquid crystal display 60 sequentially displays the lower cooking types and cooking conditions attached to the upper cooking type. You can easily find the cooking menu you are looking for. In addition, the display liquid crystal display 60 may further display the upper cooking type corresponding to the icon indicating the upper cooking type, and thus the user may grasp the selected upper cooking type.

4 is an exploded perspective view of a microwave oven operating panel according to a third exemplary embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a schematic view of the LCD screen of FIG. 4 sequentially displaying upper cooking types, lower cooking types, and cooking conditions. Hereinafter, the description of the same parts as the above-described parts will be omitted.

In the central region of the support plate 11, a rotary knob 30 is rotatably provided for finding and selecting an upper cooking type, a lower cooking type, and cooking conditions. The rotary knob 30 has a rotating function and a cooking selection function for finding a desired upper cooking type, lower cooking type and cooking conditions, and preferably have a cooking menu selection start function and a cooking start function. An indicator display unit 33 and a ring-shaped display unit 35 for displaying cooking specifications are provided around the rotary knob 30, respectively.

The PCB 20 is provided with an annular liquid crystal display 40 at a position corresponding to the annular display portion 35 of the support plate 11. The liquid crystal display 40 is divided into a plurality of display regions 40a, 40b, and 40c capable of displaying hierarchical cooking type, lower cooking type, and cooking conditions hierarchically and sequentially. Here, the upper cooking type, the lower cooking type, or the cooking conditions are displayed in each display area 40a, 40b, 40c, or the like. Each display area of the LCD screen 40 is operated by the LCD screen driving section 42 (see FIG. 7).

Inside the liquid crystal display 40 of the PCB, a plurality of LEDs 43 are provided at positions corresponding to the indicator display portion 31 of the support plate 11 so as to correspond to each display area. The LED 43 is driven by the LED driver 45 (see FIG. 7), and selectively emits light when the rotary knob 30 is positioned in the display area of the LCD screen 40. For example, as shown in Figs. 5A, 5B and 5C, when the rotary knob 30 is located in the display area 40b for displaying a confectionery of higher cooking type, the corresponding light emission inside the display area 40b. The diode 43b emits light. When the upper cooking type is selected by the rotary knob 30, a plurality of lower cooking types attached to the confectionery are displayed in each display area 40a, 40b, ..., and when the lower cooking type is selected, The cooking conditions associated with each subcooking type are displayed sequentially.

6 is an exploded perspective view of a microwave oven operating panel according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention. As shown in these figures, the operation panel 10 according to the fourth embodiment has a support plate 11 attached to the front of the machine room and a PCB 20 installed behind the support plate 11.

The central region of the support plate 11 is provided with a rotary knob 30 for selecting and selecting an upper cooking type, a lower cooking type, and a cooking condition. The upper region of the supporting plate 11 includes a plurality of upper cooking types and each upper cooking type. The rectangular display portion 12 which sequentially displays a plurality of sub-cooking types, cooking conditions and the like corresponding thereto is provided.

An indicator display unit 33 is provided around the rotary knob 30 of the support plate 11, and a select button 39 is provided below the support plate 11 to cancel the cooking specification selected by the rotary knob 30. And, it can further provide an auxiliary button 37 that can be used for various purposes.

The PCB 20 is provided with a plurality of LEDs 43; 43a, 43b ... so as to correspond to the indicator display portion 33 of the support plate 11. Each of the LEDs 43a, 43b and the like is emitted by an LED driver 45 (see Fig. 7) that operates according to the cooking menu selection start operation of the rotary knob 30. The PCB 20 is provided with a display liquid crystal screen 60 at a position corresponding to the display portion 12 provided on the support plate 11. Since the rotary knob 30 and the display unit 12 disclosed in FIG. 6 have the same operation method as the rotary knob 30 and the display unit 12 according to another exemplary embodiment, a description thereof will be omitted.

A control unit for controlling the operation of the microwave operation panel having such a configuration is shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 7, the control unit 50 according to the present invention includes a rotation position determination unit 51 for determining a rotation position of the rotation knob 30 based on the rotation angle of the rotation knob 30, and cooking. A cooking specification determining unit 55, a magnetron driving unit 17, and an LED driving unit 45 for determining a final cooking specification, that is, an upper cooking type, a lower cooking type, and cooking conditions, based on a selection signal from a specification selection switch (not shown). ) And a drive signal generator 53 for generating a drive signal of the liquid crystal display driver 42.

Referring to FIG. 2 which is an exploded perspective view of the operation control unit according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 8 which is a flowchart of the cooking menu selection control method according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The description is as follows.

First, the user operates the rotary knob 30 to start the cooking menu selection (S10). For example, the cooking menu selection can be started by pressing the rotary knob 30 for a predetermined time or by rotating the predetermined angle in one direction. Alternatively, the cooking menu selection may be started by pressing a separate auxiliary button 37.

At this time, when the cooking menu selection start signal is input to the control unit 50, the control unit 50 displays a plurality of higher cooking types on the annular display unit 35, which is a higher menu display means, according to the input cooking menu selection start signal. The LCD screen driving signal is generated to control the LCD screen driving unit 42 (S20).

When the upper cooking menu is displayed on the annular display unit 35, the user rotates the rotary knob 30 to position the rotary knob 30 in the desired upper cooking type. While the user rotates the rotary knob 30, the rotation position determining unit 51 of the controller 50 determines the rotational displacement of the rotary knob 30. If it is determined that the rotational position according to the rotational displacement of the rotary knob 30 is determined, the controller 50 generates an LED driving signal so that the LEDs 43a and 43b corresponding to the rotational position of the rotary knob 30 emit light, thereby driving the LED driver. (45) is controlled (S30).

Next, the user presses the rotary knob 30 to select the upper cooking type displayed on the indicator display unit 40 corresponding to the lighted LED 43 (S40).

When the user selects the upper cooking type, the display liquid crystal display 60 displays the lower cooking type attached to the selected upper cooking type (S50).

The sub-cooking type can be changed to another sub-cooking type by the rotational displacement according to the rotation of the rotary knob 30, and the desired sub-cooking type is selected from the sub-cooking types to be changed (S60).

When the upper cooking type and the lower cooking type are selected, the user selects the cooking condition by operating the rotary knob 30 in the same manner as selecting the lower cooking type (S70, S80).

When the user selects an upper cooking type, a lower cooking type or a cooking condition, the cooking specification determiner 55 of the controller 5 determines the final cooking specification by combining the selected upper cooking type, the lower cooking type and the cooking condition. (S90). When the final cooking specification is determined, the user manipulates the rotary knob 30 to generate a stop signal (S100). Alternatively, a separate auxiliary button 37 that can be used as a stop button may be pressed to generate a stop signal.

When the cooking start signal is input to the controller 50, the controller 50 controls the magnetron driver 17 by generating a magnetron driving signal so that food can be cooked according to the selected final cooking specification (S110).

While the magnetron 15 is operated to cook, the controller 50 controls the LED driver 45 to continuously emit a plurality of LEDs 43a, 43b,... To indicate that cooking is in progress ( S120).

When the user incorrectly selects the upper cooking type, the lower cooking type, and the cooking condition, the selected cooking specification may be canceled by pressing the deselection button 39 in any of steps S10 to S120.

In the above embodiment, the LEDs 43a and 43b are installed along the circumference of the rotary knob 30 to display the selection of the upper cooking type, the lower cooking type and the cooking conditions. (40a, 40b, 40c, etc.) can be made to emit light.

In the above-described embodiment, a description is given of sequentially displaying the upper cooking type, the lower cooking type, and the cooking conditions one by one on the display liquid crystal screen, but the upper cooking type, the lower cooking type, Cooking conditions can be displayed.

On the other hand, the above description is for a microwave oven, but this is an example, so that the present invention can be applied to other cookers that employ an automatic cooking method such as a baking machine and a gas oven, as described above.

Although the above-described embodiments have been described with respect to the installation of a rotationally displaceable rotary knob, it is of course possible to find or select an upper cooking type, a lower cooking type, a cooking condition, or the like by installing a slide movable slide control part or a joystick. .

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to increase the space utilization of the operation panel and to easily display the cooking menu and cooking conditions in a simple configuration.

Claims (16)

In the cooking apparatus which has a main body, an operation panel, and a cooking heat source, The operation panel A support plate installed on one surface of the main body; An operation unit installed on the support plate to enable displacement operation; A memory storing a plurality of upper cooking types, a lower cooking type attached to each of the upper cooking types, and respective cooking conditions for the lower cooking types; Upper menu display means provided on the support plate to display the upper cooking type in response to the displacement of the operation portion; Submenu display means which is provided on the support plate and displays the subcooking type attached to the upper cooking type in response to the displacement of the operation unit; A selection unit for selecting the desired cooking type and the sub-cooking type from the upper cooking type and the lower cooking type displayed by the upper menu display means and the lower menu display means; A control unit for controlling the cooking heat source to perform the cooking conditions of the sub-cooking type according to the selection of the selection unit; And the operation unit includes a rotatable rotary knob, and the upper menu display means has an annular display unit for sequentially displaying the upper cooking type around the rotary knob. The method of claim 1, And the selector comprises a selector switch operated by pressing the rotary knob. The method of claim 1, The ring-shaped display unit is characterized in that it comprises a plurality of icons for displaying the upper cooking type, respectively. The method of claim 3, And a LCD corresponding to each icon of the ring-shaped display unit. The method of claim 4 And the sub-menu display means sequentially displays the sub-cooking types on the annular display portion corresponding to the rotation position of the rotary knob. The method of claim 4, wherein And the sub-menu display means has a second display portion for sequentially displaying the sub-cooking types corresponding to the rotational position of the rotary knob. The method of claim 6, And the second display unit displays the sub-cooking type corresponding to the rotation position of the rotary knob. The method of claim 6, And the second display unit sequentially displays the sub-cooking types. The method of claim 1, And an indicator for displaying the rotational position of the rotary knob. The method of claim 9, The indicator comprises a plurality of LEDs provided around the rotary knob to correspond to the rotational displacement of the rotary knob. The method of claim 10, And the plurality of LEDs continuously emit light during a cooking operation. The method of claim 9, And the indicator is provided on the rotary knob. The method of claim 1, And the upper menu display means includes a first display unit for sequentially displaying the upper cooking types corresponding to the rotation position of the rotary knob. The method of claim 13, And the upper menu display means displays a lower cooking type according to the upper cooking type selected through the selection unit. The method of claim 14, And the first display unit sequentially displays the upper cooking types one by one. The method of claim 14, And the first display unit displays the upper cooking type corresponding to the rotation position of the rotary knob.