Appliance programmer with integrated circuit
AssigneeWhirlpool Corporation
InventorJoseph Karklys
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An appliance programmer, in particular an automatic washer programmer, employs a memory circuit and sequence control for establishing a predetermined program. The program may be altered by two techniques. A first technique includes the utilization of a circuit for sampling the circuit connections of the programmer so that any number of steps of the program can be varied to alter the entire program. This technique provides for the manufacture of an integrated circuit to establish a predetermined program and application of that circuit in a variety of appliances with different program requirements. A second technique utilizes operator control switches for manually altering the program and includes apparatus for locking out program modifications after a predetermined time interval at the initiation of program selection.
Claims8
In an appliance which performs a plurality of operations, an electronic control for stepping the appliance through an operating program which comprises a sequence of the operations, said electronic control comprising:
- a clock having a plurality of outputs for supplying electrical timing pulses at a plurality of discrete intervals;
- a sequence control connected to said clock for establishing a sequence of operations, the timing of said operations being controlled by selected timing pulses;
- a memory circuit connected to said sequence control and to said clock for generating a sequence of output signals;
- a plurality of output circuits connected to said memory circuit for performing said sequence of operations in response to said sequence of output signals;
- a source of reference potential and at least a single terminal for connection thereto;
- program modifying means connected to said clock and said terminal and having an output connected to said memory circuit, said program modifying means comprising gating means which is enabled at the start of the program to be responsive to the electrical potential at said terminal to pass a timing pulse from one of said clock outputs to the memory circuit, said timing pulse operating on said memory circuit in place of one of said selected timing pulses.
In a laundry appliance which performs a plurality of laundry operations in a treatment zone, an electronic control for stepping the laundry appliance through an operating program which comprises a sequence of the laundry treatment operations, said electronic control comprising:
- a clock for supplying electrical pulses at a plurality of discrete time intervals;
- a sequence control for establishing a sequence of the laundry operations, said pulses controlling the durations of said operations;
- a memory circuit connected to said sequence control and to said clock for generating a sequence of output signals;
- a plurality of output circuits connected to said memory circuit for performing said sequence of laundry operations in response to said sequence of output signals;
- and
- program modifying means connected to said memory circuit including means for sensing the electrical condition of selected circuit connections which are connected to a source of reference potential and means enabled by said sensing means to pass selected clock pulses to thereby control certain of said operations, whereby the sequence of laundry operations is automatically modified in accordance with the sensed electrical reference potentials at said circuit connections.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.