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Previous: Global weather simulation model | Main | Next: Broke store
July 19, 2006 12:03 AM
Broken: Panasonic microwave
Yale Kozinski writes in:
This is the front panel of my Panasonic microwave oven. Can you figure out how to simply heat something for a specified time?
Didn't think you could. Well, you have to press the "Power Level" button, then turn the dial to the desired cook time. Turning the dial doesn't do anything unless you press "Power Level" first. This has so far confused everyone who tries to use it.
Thats not broken. My microwave is the same way (although it has buttons instead of a knob.)
Although im confused about the function "Inverter Turbo Defrost..." whats the deal?
"Thats not broken. My microwave is the same way (although it has buttons instead of a knob.)"
Well, that certainly put my mind at rest. Not non sequitur in the least...
I am totally writing "Inverter Turbo Defrost" on a piece of tape and sticking it on my non-genius microwave. Or maybe on my furnace.
honestly, I'd probably just hit "popcorn" until my food resembled what I wanted to be. or I'd subsist entirely on popcorn.
Ok, here to spoil the fun:
I have one of the same Panasonic perpetual-electronic-dial type things, so it's not that puzzling for me, but 'Sensor Reheat' and 'Sensor Cook' doesn't mean to cook the sensor...it means using it to heat the object inside said microwave to a set level.
The inverter stuff is just so that the unit outputs more power through the magnetron with lower input power consumption. Sort of like a switching power supply. Also, it allows the output power to be fully varied. The turbo defrost is so that the inverter stuff varies the output power so that somehow stuff gets defrosted properly, in and out.
I'm not exactly a fan of the dial approach, but whatever. Either this, or the backup unit, a 500W unit from the 1970s, which just works as intended - no power levels, no randomness. Just input the time and hit 'start' (ok, one bit of randomness - it'll accept 99:99 as a valid time.)
My nuker has a feature that you just push start, and you get 30 secs on high. push it again and you get another 30. I have no time for fussin' with buttons.
Where is the inverter turbo urine reheat button?
Remember the old thumb rule about being 10% smarter than the machine you're trying to operate? If this thing's a genius, by definition very few people will be able to operate it. (Maybe geniuses 1320W or above?)
My parents' microwave from the mid or late 80s also required you to first hit Power (for power level) and then pick a level from the number pad. Granted there was no dial, but since it was our first microwave, picking a power level before setting time seemed very ordinary to me. In fact microwaves with quick start buttons or no power levels used to confuse me.
Anyway, assuming this is a late-model microwave, the name "the Genius" wouldn't be ironic, it might be apropo, as in it takes the family genius to operate it. ;^)
Surely you had a chance to play with the microwave in the shop or to read through the manual before purchase? If you don't like how it worked, don't buy it! Or now that you do know how it works and don't like it, take it back and get your money back.
Maybe it came with an apartment or something. I think it's strange that you can turn the turntable off. What would be the advantage to that?
I think what's most broken is having to use a dial to set the time. It shouldn't take longer to set something for 5 minutes than it does for 30 seconds (except that one extra button press).
Turntables only work with items that are smaller than themselves. If you wanted to cook something in a large rectangular dish, you'd need to turn off the turntable so it wasn't constantly being whacked against the side of the microwave.
Did we all miss that "the Genius" name indicates that this modelis only to be purchased and operated by an ACTUAL genius? Any one below confirmed status on the IQ test chart shouldn't be buying one. (Sorry, Yale, hope it was a gift from an admirer -- we won't tell.)
Hey, did the urine/place-to-pee thing start with the the item about the support post in the store that was blocking the shelf? That was the first time I recall seeing it.
Wow, looks like the designers didn't know what they were doing.
Genius? I think NOT!
Broken? COMPLETELY!
Full agreement in that this is broken in the "unnecessarily complicated and unintuitive" sort of way.
Also, how come it has all sorts of buttons for this fancy specific stuff, and then one utterly random one for popcorn? Was that the token user-friendly feature?
I've always hated the microwaves that require a power setting before you can set the time and start it. I used one where you had to press power 0 for the highest setting and then set the time and start. Most employees just press a quick start button that counted up and beeped each minute.
I was shopping around for a new microwave just last weekend, and at a high-end appliance shop they had a whole bunch of microwaves with user interfaces like that. I mentioned to the salesguy that it didn't seem very usable, and he said, "Oh, no, it's real easy, see?" and then proceeded to not have any idea how to heat a cup of water for 30 seconds (he did an excellent job of changing the clock and setting the display language to German though).
Rules for microwave interface design:
1. Place unlabeled buttons in bag.
2. Shake bag.
3. Empty buttons onto table. Tweak until layout is symmetrical.
4. Place labels in bag.
5. Shake bag.
6. Draw a label out of the bag for each button.
I find it funny that there's a button: "More/Less". As in, I'll cook this entree for 5 min...more or less??
My microwave lets you close the door and press one of the number keys to cook for that period in minutes, so pressing the "1" key turns the microwave on for one minute.
Now *that's* genius!
I recently bought a new Sharp MW. You have to open the door to access all the buttons. At first I thought it was dumb as Hell but then I finally realized I have to open the door anyway. It just takes some getting used to.
Least it has a keypad to enter time and doesn't need hitting power button first.
Because this one has a dial for time and requires entering power level first I say: BROKEN.
I don't know if it's broken. Maybe there should be a website called:
_____"This isn't broke, but it sucks butt just the same."
This product would get posted there, I bet...
RaleighRob, the "more/less" button is usually for people who use the "quick minute/quick start" function. If you want 2min. 10sec. you press "quick minute" 2 times and then "more" once. (at least on most microwaves I have used)
As far as the power level thing, most older microwaves with a touch pad require you to first enter a power level, however, it is less common on newer microwaves, as well as un-necessary, since 95% of the time most people use the highest power setting.
Verdict: broken
>>>>"it will accept 99:99 as a valid time"
>>why is 99 min, and 99 secs not a 'valid' time?
Actually, on most(??) microwaves, 99:99 would equate to 100 minutes and 39 seconds. This is a little known but broken feature built into microwaves by design. Send me $5 and I'll tell you why that is...
Pressing the More/Less button obviously allows you to reverse the microwave effect -- as the timer runs down, you may inadvertently microwave your food too much. So you simply press the More/Less button before the cooking time runs down completely, causing the timer to run backwards. This in turn causes the microwave to extract some of the previously injected energy. Of course, you may extract too much energy (if you have too slow a reaction time, of example), so you simply press the More/Less button again, thereby causing the timer to begin counting down again and adding energy. You can keep this up -- timer counts down, timer counts up -- until you manage to catch the cooking time at just the right moment. Very handy feature.
>>>>"it will accept 99:99 as a valid time"
>>"why is 99 min, and 99 secs not a 'valid' time?"
"Actually, on most(??) microwaves, 99:99 would equate to 100 minutes and 39 seconds. This is a little known but broken feature built into microwaves by design. Send me $5 and I'll tell you why that is..."
Because most microwaves only have 4x7-segment displays. So it wouldn't be able to correctly display 100 minutes, well, it could end up as 00:39, but that's dangerously confusing. Then again, I don't know who would ever need to run the unit for that long of a time.
Also, it's a valid time, but after the first 100 seconds, it starts over from 59 for the next 'normal minute'.
"I think it is broken that you have a microwave from the 70's or 80's"
I don't get how it's broken. It's 'broken' if it's literally broken. In this case, it's not.
"Enjoy the new comments system! This should cut down on irrelevant posts."
Yay, it finally 'Remembers personal info' correctly now. :)
>>Because most microwaves only have 4x7-segment displays. So it wouldn't be able to correctly display 100 minutes, well, it could end up as 00:39, but that's dangerously confusing.
While you are right that this (and most) microwaves cannot display 100 minutes because of the digit limitation, that is not the reason why 99:99 equals 100 min and 39 sec.
To illustrate various entries and the actual time you would get:
90 = 1 min 30 sec
190 = 2 min 30 sec
290 = 3 min 30 sec
The question is: Why did they decide to do it this way? Take 190 for example. Typing in 190 is ambiguous. Do you mean 190 seconds or 1 minute 90 seconds? Since it is ambiguous, and since it was decided many years ago trying to get consumers to only enter minutes then seconds was doomed to fail, the first two digits in microwaves are engineered to count down from 99 to 0 and then reset back to 59. The result is that any entry from 60 to 99 in the right most two digits count as seconds. In other words (for example) you can enter 2 minutes 30 seconds as either 2:30 or 1:90. They are equivalent. And, if in fact you really want 190 seconds you would have to enter 310 or 270 (your choice).
"Enjoy the new comments system! This should cut down on irrelevant posts."
Dear Mark,
The new comments system would be great, except for one thing: I CAN'T POST COMMENTS ON OLDER POSTS THAT I HAVE ONLY RECENTLY READ AND WOULD LIKE TO COMMENT ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please fix this imediately.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Dylan
Actually, on this microwave the more/less button works in conjuction with the sensor cook feature, to allow you to cook things more or less done. You select the type of food you have in there, and then you can press more/less to cycle through the fine tuning selections. It's also not very well designed, if you ask me.
In spite of these weird behaviors, it's actually a pretty good microwave, and I really like the cooking features (which is why I bought it, the crappy interface notwithstanding).
my family's microvave broke the other day and we replaced it with this one, and then promptly returned it. the reason? want to cook something for 1:15 your out of luck. you can do 1:10 or 1:20, but not any old time. i was actualy going to submit it myself. to paraphrase: Very Very Broken.
>>>>Because most microwaves only have 4x7-segment displays. So it wouldn't be able to correctly display 100 minutes, well, it could end up as 00:39, but that's dangerously confusing.
>>While you are right that this (and most) microwaves cannot display 100 minutes because of the digit limitation, that is not the reason why 99:99 equals 100 min and 39 sec.
>>To illustrate various entries and the actual time you would get:
90 = 1 min 30 sec
190 = 2 min 30 sec
290 = 3 min 30 sec
The question is: Why did they decide to do it this way? Take 190 for example. Typing in 190 is ambiguous. Do you mean 190 seconds or 1 minute 90 seconds? Since it is ambiguous, and since it was decided many years ago trying to get consumers to only enter minutes then seconds was doomed to fail, the first two digits in microwaves are engineered to count down from 99 to 0 and then reset back to 59. The result is that any entry from 60 to 99 in the right most two digits count as seconds. In other words (for example) you can enter 2 minutes 30 seconds as either 2:30 or 1:90. They are equivalent. And, if in fact you really want 190 seconds you would have to enter 310 or 270 (your choice).
It's not that microwaves are programmed to do this, it's that there not programmed to do anything about it. The program should be something like this:
>a:b
>#Reading Input#
>(a*60)+b=time to m'wave
>#Countdown#
>When b=00,
>>a-1
>>b+59
BTW, A m'wave that beeps at me when I enter 1:90 should be considered broken. If it beeps at me when I enter 0:90 *is* broken, since it's sometimes used on packaging.
Comments on this entry are closed
Previous: Global weather simulation model | Main | Next: Broke store
_@_v - why do you need to cook and reheat the sensor?
Posted by: she-snailie_@_v at July 19, 2006 12:26 AM