The present subject matter relates generally to cooking appliances, and more particularly to an oven appliance having an adaptable port capable of detecting a type of oven accessory plugged therein.
Conventional residential and commercial oven appliances generally include a cabinet that defines a cooking chamber for receipt of food items for cooking. Heating elements are positioned within the cooking chamber to provide heat to food items located therein. The heating elements can include, for example, radiant heating elements, such as a bake heating assembly positioned at a bottom of the cooking chamber and/or a broil heating assembly positioned at a top of the cooking chamber.
When cooking certain food items, it may be important to check or monitor the temperature within the cooking chamber, as well as the temperature of the food item, e.g., in order to ensure the food item is adequately cooked. As such, certain oven appliances include a temperature sensor for sensing the temperature within the cooking chamber. For example, the temperature sensor can be a resistance temperature detector (RTD), thermistor, or thermocouple located within a conductive sheath that extends into the cooking chamber. The temperature sensor is typically electrically insulated from the temperature sensor housing. Moreover, certain oven appliances include a probe assembly that generally includes a temperature probe configured for insertion into a food item for sensing the temperature of the food item, a wire or antenna that sends signals to and receives signals from the temperature probe, and a controller in communication with the wire/antenna to interpret the signals such that the temperature of the food item may be displayed or communicated to a user.
While such probe assemblies may accurately detect and display the temperature of food items within the cooking chamber, such probe assemblies present various challenges. For example, conventional ovens only have a single plug for the probe. Thus, the plug can be used for, at most, two accessories by detecting the ambient resistance thereof.
Accordingly, an oven appliance having an improved port that addresses one or more of the aforementioned challenges would be useful.
Aspects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the following description, or may be obvious from the description, or may be learned through practice of the invention.
In one aspect, the present disclosure is directed to an oven appliance assembly. The oven appliance assembly includes an oven appliance having a cabinet defining an oven cavity, a heat source disposed within the oven cavity, and a port having a socket. The oven appliance assembly also includes at least one oven accessory comprising a probe, a plug, and at least one resistive element. The plug includes a unique configuration for engagement with the socket of the port. The oven appliance assembly also includes a controller communicatively coupled with the oven appliance and the oven accessory. As such, the controller has at least one processor for performing a plurality of operations, including but not limited to determining a type of the oven accessory engaged with the port of the oven appliance based on a resistance value of the at least one resistive element of the oven accessory.
In another aspect, the present disclosure is directed to a method for operating an oven appliance having a port defining a socket. The method includes inserting a plug of an oven accessory into the socket. Further, the oven accessory has a probe, the plug, and at least one resistive element. The plug has a unique configuration. As such, the method also includes determining, via a controller of the oven appliance, a resistance value of the resistive element(s) of the oven accessory. Further, the method includes identifying, via the controller, a type of the oven accessory based on the resistance value of the resistive element(s) of the oven accessory. Moreover, the method includes selecting a cooking cycle for the oven appliance based on the type of oven accessory.
In yet another aspect, the present disclosure is directed to an oven appliance assembly. The oven appliance assembly includes an oven appliance having a cabinet defining an oven cavity, a heat source disposed within the oven cavity, and a port having a socket. The oven appliance assembly further includes a plurality of oven accessories compatible with the oven appliance. Each of the plurality of oven accessories includes a probe, a plug having a unique configuration for engagement with the socket of the port, and at least one resistive element. The oven appliance assembly further includes a controller communicatively coupled with the oven appliance for determining a type of each of the plurality of oven accessories when a respective plug is engaged with the port based on a resistance value of each of the resistive element(s) of the plurality of oven accessories.
These and other features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following description and appended claims. The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
A full and enabling disclosure of the present invention, including the best mode thereof, directed to one of ordinary skill in the art, is set forth in the specification, which makes reference to the appended figures.
Reference now will be made in detail to embodiments of the invention, one or more examples of which are illustrated in the drawings. Each example is provided by way of explanation of the invention, not limitation of the invention. In fact, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. For instance, features illustrated or described as part of one embodiment can be used with another embodiment to yield a still further embodiment. Thus, it is intended that the present invention covers such modifications and variations as come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.
Referring now to the figures,
Further, as shown, the oven appliance 10 includes an insulated cabinet 12 that defines an oven cavity, such as a cooking chamber 14. More particularly, the cooking chamber 14 is defined by various interior surfaces 15 of the cabinet 12. The cooking chamber 14 is configured for the receipt of one or more food items (e.g., food item 70) to be cooked. Moreover, as shown, the oven appliance 10 includes a door 16 rotatably mounted to the cabinet 12, e.g., with a hinge (not shown). A handle 18 is mounted to the door 16 and assists a user with opening and closing the door 16 in order to access the opening 20 to the cooking chamber 14. For example, a user can pull on the handle 18 to open or close the door 16 and access the cooking chamber 14 through the opening 20.
In addition, the oven appliance 10 can include one or more seals (not shown) between the door 16 and the cabinet 12 that assist with maintaining heat and cooking fumes within the cooking chamber 14 when the door 16 is closed as shown in
As shown, various sidewalls of the cabinet 12 define the cooking chamber 14. For this embodiment, the cooking chamber 14 includes a top wall 30 (
In some embodiments, a gas fueled or electric bottom heating element 40 (e.g., a gas burner or an electric heating element) is positioned in cabinet 12, e.g., at a bottom portion of the cabinet 12. Accordingly, the bottom heating element 40 may be used to heat the cooking chamber 14 for both cooking and cleaning of oven appliance 10. The size and heat output of the bottom heating element 40 can be selected based on the e.g., the size of the oven appliance 10.
In yet other embodiments, a top heating element 42 may be positioned in the cooking chamber 14 of the cabinet 12, e.g., at a top portion of the cabinet 12. Thus, the top heating element 42 may be used to heat the cooking chamber 14 for both cooking/broiling and cleaning of the oven appliance 10. Like the bottom heating element 40, the size and heat output of top heating element 42 can be selected based on the e.g., the size of the oven appliance 10. In the example embodiment shown in
As further depicted in
In certain embodiments, the oven appliance 10 may also include a controller 50, e.g., configured to control one or more operations of the oven appliance 10. For example, the controller 50 may control at least one operation of the oven appliance 10 that includes one or more of heating elements 40 and 42. Further, the controller 50 may be in communication (via a suitable wired or wireless connection) with the heating element 40, the heating element 42, a user interface panel 51, a temperature sensing device, and other suitable components of the oven appliance 10, as discussed herein. In general, the controller 50 may be operable to configure the oven appliance 10 (and various components thereof) for cooking. Such configuration may be based, for instance, on a plurality of cooking factors of a selected operating cycle or mode, e.g., as selected at user interface panel 51.
By way of example, as shown in
Additionally, the controller 50 may also include a communications module 56 to facilitate communications between the controller 50 and the various components of the oven appliance 10. Further, the communications module 56 may include a sensor interface 58 (e.g., one or more analog-to-digital converters) to permit signals transmitted from the various components of the oven appliance 10, e.g. via one or more sensors 60, 62, to be converted into signals that can be understood and processed by the controller 50. It should be appreciated that the sensors may be communicatively coupled to the communications module 56 using any suitable means. For example, as shown, the sensors 60, 62 are coupled to the sensor interface 89 via a wired connection. However, in other embodiments, the sensors 60, 62 may be coupled to the sensor interface 58 via a wireless connection, such as by using any suitable wireless communications protocol known in the art.
As used herein, the term “processor” refers not only to integrated circuits referred to in the art as being included in a computer, but also refers to a controller, a microcontroller, a microcomputer, a programmable logic controller (PLC), an application specific integrated circuit, and other programmable circuits. Additionally, the memory device(s) 85 may generally comprise memory element(s) including, but not limited to, computer readable medium (e.g., random access memory (RAM)), computer readable non-volatile medium (e.g., a flash memory), a floppy disk, a compact disc-read only memory (CD-ROM), a magneto-optical disk (MOD), a digital versatile disc (DVD) and/or other suitable memory elements. Such memory device(s) 85 may generally be configured to store suitable computer-readable instructions that, when implemented by the processor(s) 58, configure the controller 50 to perform various functions.
Furthermore, the controller 50 may be positioned in a variety of locations throughout the oven appliance 10. As illustrated, the controller 50 may be located within the user interface panel 51 of the oven appliance 10 as shown in
In some embodiments, the user interface panel 51 includes input components or controls 53, such as one or more of a variety of electrical, mechanical or electro-mechanical input devices. Controls 53 may include rotary dials, push buttons, and touch pads. Further, the controller 50 may be in communication with the user interface panel 51 and controls 53 through which a user may select various operational features and modes and monitor progress of the oven appliance 10. In additional or alternative embodiments, the user interface panel 51 may include a display component 55, such as a digital or analog display in communication with controller 50 and configured to provide operational feedback to a user. In certain embodiments, user interface panel 51 represents a general purpose I/O (“GPIO”) device or functional block.
Referring now to
Referring particularly to
Accordingly, the oven appliance 10 can be compatible with a plurality of different types of oven accessories 104. In particular, as shown in
In the illustrated embodiment, as an example, the plug 108 may have a unique TRRS configuration for engagement with the socket 102 of the port 100. Thus, in such embodiments, the TRRS socket 102 of the oven appliance 10 can detect a sensor between the tip and the sleeve and can also read an identifying high temperature resistance value between the two rings. In addition, as an example, the resistive element(s) 112 described herein may include any suitable element, such as a resistor. In particular embodiments, for example, the resistive element(s) 112 may include one or more film resistors. As such, the resistive element(s) 112 described herein may be high temperature resistors (e.g. greater than 275 degrees Celsius (° C.), having a large resistance range (e.g. from about 20 ohms up to about 30 megohms), with very tight tolerances (e.g. as tight as 0.10%), and power ratings up to 22 Watts at 25° C. derates to zero at 275° C.
Accordingly, the controller 50 is communicatively coupled with the oven appliance 10 for determining a type of oven accessory 104 being used when a respective plug 108 is engaged with the port 100 based on a resistance value of the resistive element(s) 112 of the oven accessory 104. Such oven accessories may include, for example, a food probe (such as a meat probe), a pan/dish/stone probe, a coffee roaster probe, or similar. Since each oven accessory 104 has a unique resistor value that identifies what type of accessory it is, the controller 50 can select an appropriate cooking cycle to use with the particular type of oven accessory 104. In particular, the probe 106 of the oven accessory 104 may include at least one temperature sensor for measuring a temperature of a food item or associated pan during the cooking cycle. Similarly, such temperature sensors may include a food temperature sensor, a pan temperature sensor, a stone temperature sensor, a dish temperature sensor, a coffee roaster temperature sensor, or any other suitable temperature sensor now known or later developed in the art.
Furthermore, as depicted particularly in
In another embodiment, the memory device(s) 54 described herein may have at least one of a table 114 or equation stored therein. For example, as shown in
Referring now to
As shown at (202), the method 200 includes inserting a plug 108 of an oven accessory 104 into the socket 102. As shown at (204), the method 200 includes determining, via a controller, a resistance value of the resistive element(s) 112 of the oven accessory 104. As shown at (206), the method 200 includes identifying, via the controller, a type of the oven accessory 104 based on the resistance value of the resistive element(s) 112 of the oven accessory 104. As shown at (208), the method 200 includes selecting a cooking cycle for the oven appliance 10 based on the type of oven accessory 104.
This written description uses examples to disclose the invention, including the best mode, and also to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the invention, including making and using any devices or systems and performing any incorporated methods. The patentable scope of the invention is defined by the claims, and may include other examples that occur to those skilled in the art. Such other examples are intended to be within the scope of the claims if they include structural elements that do not differ from the literal language of the claims, or if they include equivalent structural elements with insubstantial differences from the literal languages of the claims.