Control device for cooking apparatus with timer function, utilizing an interruption procedure

Claim 1

A control device for a cooking apparatus, comprising: a housing including a heating chamber and an operation section; cooking operation means, arranged in said operation section, for allowing cooking operations; display means, arranged in said operation section, for displaying at least numerical information; cooking time-setting means for setting cooking time in said operation section, upon rotation of a rotating shaft thereof; encoder means, coupled to said cooking time-setting means, for generating first and second pulse trains for providing a phase difference corresponding to a rotational direction of said rotating shaft of said cooking time-setting means, the number of pulses in said first and second pulse trains corresponding to an angular position of said cooking time-setting means; and control means, connected to said heating chamber, said cooking operation means, said display means, and said encoder means, for executing an interruption procedure in response to said first and second pulse trains from said encoder means, counting the number of pulses of said first and second pulse trains, fetching the number of pulses as cooking time-setting information set by said cooking time-setting means, sending the cooking time-setting information to said display means, and sending a control signal corresponding to the cooking time-setting information to said heating chamber, in accordance with the operation of said cooking operation means.