CN1186939A - Refrigerator that can display the operating status - Google Patents

Abstract

A refrigerator capable of displaying its status when power is cut off and re-powered, the refrigerator includes a memory for storing information; a speaker for reflecting the information with sound; a microcomputer for controlling the speaker and an operating part for operating the microcomputer. When power is restored after a power outage, information about the state of the refrigerator is stored in memory. This information includes the status of power restoration; the temperature of the refrigerator when power was restored; and the duration of the outage. Based on this information, the user can determine how fresh the food in the refrigerator is.

Description

Can display running status

the refrigerator

The present invention relates to a refrigerator, in particular to a refrigerator capable of displaying its operating status when the power is turned on again after a power failure.

The refrigerator includes a food refrigerating chamber and a freezing chamber (hereinafter referred to as a cooling chamber) for storing and cooling food, respectively. In order to maintain the low temperature in the cooling chamber, the refrigerator requires continuous power supply.

Therefore, when the power supply is stopped due to a power failure or other reasons, the temperature in the cooling chamber rises rapidly. The temperature rise of the cooling chamber causes the decline of freshness preservation, especially when the electricity is stopped for a long time, the food in the cooling chamber will deteriorate. When the power is re-energized in this case, the food in the cooling chamber can be cooled or frozen again, so it is difficult for the user to determine the freshness of the food based on its appearance.

Yet in traditional refrigerator, also do not have a kind of function of reminding user that power supply has been disconnected because of power outage or other reasons, perhaps only have a kind of function of notifying that power outage phenomenon once took place. So, if there has been a power outage, the user cannot get reliable information about how much the temperature has risen and how long the power outage has been in total, and therefore, the user may wrongly judge the freshness of the food stored in the refrigerator.

The present invention aims to overcome the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, so the object of the present invention is to provide a refrigerator with a function of notifying the user of information about the temperature of the cooling chamber etc. .

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a refrigerator, which includes: a controller; a temperature sensor for detecting the temperature of the cooling chamber; a memory controlled by the controller, after the power failure ends, the memory stores Regarding status information, this information includes the temperature information of the cooling chamber detected by the temperature sensor; and a display controlled by the controller, which shows that a power failure has occurred and the information.

Preferably, the refrigerator further includes an operating member for operating the controller by operating from the outside so that conditions and information are displayed by the display.

The information also includes the total time elapsed from the end time when the power outage ended to the time the information was displayed.

In addition, the refrigerator of the present invention also includes a device for detecting the time when the power outage occurs; wherein the information includes the time of occurrence and the elapsed time from the time of occurrence to the end time of the end of the power outage. Therefore, the user can know exactly how fresh the food is according to the continuous power-off time and the temperature of the refrigerator.

The display preferably includes: a sound chip that converts information into a sound signal; an amplifier that amplifies the sound signal sent by the sound chip; and a speaker that outputs the sound signal amplified by the amplifier, so that the The information is then displayed audibly. So the information can be displayed with sound.

Through the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, the present invention will be more clearly understood, and various purposes and advantages of the present invention can be fully demonstrated, in the accompanying drawings:

Fig. 1 is the perspective view of refrigerator of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a front view of Fig. 1, which shows the state when the door of the refrigerator is opened;

3 is a block diagram of a device for displaying information about power outages according to the present invention;

Fig. 4 is the flow chart of device operation step shown in Fig. 3; With

Figure 5 is a memory map of the sound chip.

The present invention will be described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a refrigerator of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a front view of FIG. 1 showing a state in which a door of the refrigerator is opened. The refrigerator has: a body 1 constituting the outer shape of the refrigerator; a freezer compartment 2 and a refrigerator compartment 3 formed in the body 1; and doors 4 and 5 for opening and closing the freezer compartment 2 and the refrigerator compartment 3, respectively.

Temperature sensors 12 and 14 for detecting the temperature of the freezing chamber 2 and the refrigerating chamber 3 are respectively arranged in the freezing chamber 2 and the refrigerating chamber 3 . An operating panel 15 with a display and an operating element is arranged on the door 4 of the freezer compartment 2 . The display includes: a light-emitting diode (LED) 29 for displaying the fact that a power failure has occurred; and a speaker 26 that externally displays information about the state of the refrigerator with sound when the power failure is over and the power is turned on again. . The operating element includes a push button switch 17, and the user controls the display by operating the operating element.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an apparatus for displaying information about power outages of the present invention. The device comprises: temperature sensors 12 and 14; and a microcomputer 20 to which signals from the operating element 16 are fed. The microcomputer 20 incorporates a memory, and the temperatures detected by the temperature sensors 12 and 14, respectively, are stored in the memory. An output signal from the microcomputer 20 is input to a display 28 . The display 28 includes: a sound chip 22 ; an amplifier 24 , a speaker 26 and an LED 29 . Therefore, the display 28 is controlled by the microcomputer 20 . In addition, the microcomputer 20 is also connected to the reset circuit 10 .

FIG. 4 is a control process performed by an apparatus having such a structure.

When the refrigerator is powered again after a power failure, the reset circuit 10 sends a reset signal to the microcomputer 20 . Since the reset signal is input, the microcomputer 20 executes an initialization process at S30, which is a process required to operate the programmed program. After the initialization process, in S32, the microcomputer 20 displays to the user the situation that the power failure has taken place by making the LED 29 in the display 29 glow.

When LED 29 was luminous, microcomputer 20 read the temperature in freezing chamber 2 and refrigerating chamber 3 by temperature sensor 12 and 14, and reads out current time from the real time clock of adornment. The information read by the microcomputer 20 is stored in the memory of the microcomputer 20 at S34.

When this storage of information ends, the microcomputer 20 calculates the time elapsed since power supply was resumed at S36. The total elapsed time is calculated using the time difference between the current time read by the real time clock and the time at which the power cycle started stored in memory. The elapsed time is continuously counted until the user presses the button switch 17 on the operating member 16 to "ON" at S38.

When the user presses the button switch 17, the microcomputer 20 outputs the information stored in the memory at S40. This information includes the temperatures in the freezing compartment 2 and the refrigerating compartment 3 when the power supply is resumed, and the total time elapsed until the push button switch 17 is pushed to "ON". The output of the microcomputer 20 is input to the sound chip 22 in turn.

The sound chip 22 reads out the data stored in it according to the control signal of the microcomputer 20, and then composes the sound signal. The composed sound signal is input into amplifier 24 . The amplifier 24 amplifies the audio signal and inputs it to the speaker 26, and then outputs the information by audio at S40. In this case, the magnification of the amplifier 24 is controlled by the microcomputer 20 according to the user's manipulation of the operating member 16, so that the volume of the output sound can be adjusted.

When the sound display is completed, the microcomputer 20 turns off the LED 29 at S42. Microcomputer 20 calculates the total time of elapse again, until the user presses button switch 17 to " ON ", when button switch 17 is pressed to " ON " again, the information stored in the memory is displayed with sound again.

Figure 5 is a memory map of the sound chip. Data for converting a numerical value from 1 to 50, hours, minutes, degrees of temperature, etc. from an initial address to a sound is stored in the sound chip 22 . The sound chip 22 extracts the data stored in the corresponding address according to the control signal of the microcomputer 20, and generates a sound signal therefrom. For example, if the information of 50° C. needs to be output by sound, the sound chip 22 extracts the data stored in addresses 49 and 52, and if the information of one hour needs to be output by voice, then the data stored in addresses 00 and 50 is extracted. The extracted data is then converted into a sound signal.

As described above, according to the present invention, when a power outage occurs due to power interruption or other reasons, the user can determine that the power outage has occurred and determine information on the current temperature inside the refrigerator.

In the above-described embodiment, the microcomputer 20 in the described example is operated after repowering, but by disposing an auxiliary device for detecting the time point when the power failure occurs, the time of the power failure and the duration of the power failure can be displayed. duration. In other words, even if there is a power failure, the microcomputer 20 can continue to operate by using a backup battery. Thereafter, the microcomputer 20 reads the time at which the power failure occurred from the real-time clock, and stores the time in the memory. In addition, the microcomputer 20 calculates the continuous power failure time based on the time difference between the time when the power failure occurred and the power supply time when the power is re-energized, and then outputs the time by sound according to the user's operation. Therefore, the user determines the duration of the power outage according to the time when the power outage occurs, and knows exactly how fresh the food is according to the duration according to the temperature of the refrigerator.

While the present invention has been described in detail, it will be apparent that the invention has been described by way of illustrative example only and the invention is not so limited, the spirit and scope of the invention being defined only by the appended claims.

Claims (5)

1. A refrigerator comprising: a controller; A temperature sensor for detecting the cooling chamber temperature; a memory, which is controlled by the controller, and after the power outage is completed, the memory stores relevant state information, the information including the temperature information of the cooling chamber detected by the temperature sensor; and a display controlled by the controller, the display showing the occurrence of a power outage and the information stored in the memory. 2. The refrigerator according to claim 1, further comprising: An operating element is used to operate the controller by external manipulation so that conditions and information are displayed by the display. 3. The refrigerator according to claim 1, wherein the information includes a total time elapsed from an end time when a power outage ends to a time when the information is displayed. 4. The refrigerator according to claim 1, further comprising: a device for detecting when a power failure occurs; wherein The information includes the time of occurrence, and the elapsed time from the time of occurrence to the end time of the end of the power outage. 5. The refrigerator of claim 1, wherein the display comprises: A sound chip for converting information into sound signals; an amplifier for amplifying the sound signal emitted by the sound chip; and A loudspeaker is used to output the sound signal amplified by the amplifier, so as to display the information by sound.

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