Impingement/convection/microwave oven and method

Abstract

A combination oven that is operable with convection air, impingement air and microwave energy in various combinations thereof. The oven has an oven chamber and a fan box that are located front to back. A fan in the fan box circulates heated air by discharging via openings in a top and a bottom and taking in via an intermediate opening of a baffle plate. Impingement plates are easily installed and removed in the oven chamber to provide impingement air upwardly or downwardly. At least one of the impingement plates is installed and removed by a sliding motion. Microwave energy is provided through the side walls of the oven chamber.

1 . A method of using a computer to control an oven that comprises at least one microwave generator, said method comprising:
 sampling an output of a temperature sensor located in the vicinity of said microwave generator for a current temperature of said microwave generator;   determining whether said current temperature is acceptable; and   if said current temperature is unacceptable, causing said oven to be disabled.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said microwave generator comprises at least one magnetron. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said oven is disabled automatically or manually by an operator as instructed by an error message notification generated by said processor. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said current temperature is unacceptable if it is greater than a predetermined overheat temperature. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein said current temperature is also unacceptable if it is less than a predetermined cold temperature. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein said current temperature is unacceptable when the current temperature fails a comparison test with a reference value a predetermined number of times. 
     
     
         7 . A method of using a computer to control an oven that comprises at least one microwave generator, said method comprising:
 running said microwave generator for N cooking stages and a remainder cooking stage at a predetermined duty cycle, where N is the total cooking time for a food product divided by a predetermined cooking stage period and the remainder is a remainder of said division.   
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 7 , further comprising:
 calculating N and the remainder; and   calculating the on and off time of the microwave generator for the N cooking stages and the remainder cooking stage, based on the predetermined duty cycle.   
     
     
         9 . A method for using a computer to control an oven that comprises an oven chamber, said method comprising:
 sampling an output of a temperature sensor located in said oven chamber for a current oven temperature;   determining if said current temperature is too hot;   if said current temperature is too hot, notifying an operator to place ice in said oven chamber;   repeating said sampling and determining steps until the oven chamber is determined to be cool; and   notifying the user that the oven chamber is cool.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , further comprising: adjusting a speed of a cooling fan of said oven to a higher speed to assist in the cool down mode. 
     
     
         11 . A method for using a computer to control an oven that comprises a cooling fan, said method comprising:
 sampling an output of a temperature sensor for a current temperature; and   adjusting a speed of said cooling fan based on said current temperature.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein a location of said temperature sensor is selected from the group consisting of: ambient, oven chamber and temperature sensitive components. 
     
     
         13 . A method for using a computer to control an oven, said method comprising:
 displaying to an operator a plurality of profile entry parameters;   modifying said profile entry parameters based on one or more inputs provided by said operator; and   using said modified profile entry parameters to control the operation of said oven.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein said profile entry parameters are selected from the group consisting of: language, alarm volume, alarm sound, manual mode, automatic mode and temperature units. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 13 , wherein said profile entry parameters are sequentially displayed to said operator. 
     
     
         16 . A method for using a computer and a data carrying key to control an oven, said method comprising:
 detecting an input from a key reader that reads said key;   identifying from data carried by said key an operation of upgrade firmware, program download or program upload; and   executing said identified operation.   
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 16 , further comprising:
 transferring the data of the identified operation;   doing a checksum of the transferred data;   validating the transferred data; and   notifying an operator that the operation is completed.