Why on earth would a person take a cheap-as-crap Aroma 10 cup programmable rice cooker, which broke very shortly after its first use (the first time we used the Delay function was when it died), and spend hours diagnosing and fixing it?

Well, because a) I'm bored, b) I absolutely hate giving Aroma the benefit of another purchase because their cheap crap failed just outside the warranty, and c) I love doing this crap.

It was like a riddle. The clues were the parts, and my tools like a voltmeter. The answer? The component that converts the 10-18VDC to the controller chip's 5vdc was lacking a heat sink and failed. Please, someone try to explain to me which genius decided to take a voltage regulator chip, which always get hot, and put it inside a rice cooker, without any kind of heat dissipation provisions? Gee. Aroma...

Okay, so. I took the board and traced some lines. The chip is actually a full-blown computer, with ROM, program RAM, and a 4/8MHz CPU all on board. It has inputs and outputs to take the buttons and sensors and output relay, LED, and display functions. It takes 5 volts, no more than 6 and no less than 2.5. It was getting zero due to the blown regulator chip.

So I take a 5vdc power supply I had laying around from a USB device I don't even care about (or is self powered) and try plugging it into the terminals. Sure enough, the screen comes to life with some error code on the screen (it was disconnected from the sensor/power board). Yay! So I plug it in, carefully arrange the pieces, and give it power once again. The good ol' "--" on screen shows up. I press "Warm/Off". The relay clicks on and it starts warming. Again and it clicks off. I press "Cook". The light comes on but nobody's home... long story short I didn't realize it has a pre-cook delay to learn temperatures and whatnot. It clicked on after 30 seconds. Wow!

So... with a bit of electronics knowledge and a hell of a persistence (this is the third time I've tried fixing this thing, it's been in the cupboard for months broken) I now have a working rice cooker.

Why on earth am I posting this? Well, for a few crappy reasons. One, because I want a few people to know I'm not dumb as a rock. Two, because I wanted to do yet another nice thing for my mom, who I apparently put way down in an earlier thread (I should note that I've done countless good things for her, and we DO get along well). Third, to show that those things that may end up in the trash DO, in fact, have an easily-fixable problem.

We're havin' RICE tonight! To EAT!

edit: Because this thread is worthless without pics...

That's all the parts laid out... well, on my chair. I'm now trying to put it back together... which is always as fun as pulling it apart

Lo and behold... the "prototype" to the world's most frankenized rice cooker.


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'87 Fiero GT, Automatic, 153k miles, stock everything, just trying to make it all work again.
Shameless self promotion: PIP giving you problems? Check out http://hostfile.org!

[This message has been edited by Falcon4 (edited 12-21-2006).]

Yet, you still manually downshift an auto, to save on brake pads.

Did I, or did I not say I would stop doing that? I believe I did. I believe I even explained why I thought it was a good idea. Now how does that relate to this?

As Click and Clack say, brake pads are cheaper and easier to replace than a tranny or clutch.

A computer inside a rice cooker?? Does this make anyone else a little uncomfortable? And BTW, no heat sink on the regulator chip... should've asked me! That's the first thing I would have checked, right after the flux capacitor...

Edit: Seriously though... how could *anything* relate to a thread about a computer inside a rice cooker?

[This message has been edited by FieroGT42 (edited 12-21-2006).]

Well, the reasoning behind the thread is about those losers that tell me I'm a "dumb kid" that disses his mom. Those people could always chime in...

As far as a "computer" goes, well... it's not a "computer" in the regular sense of the word. It doesn't store data or interface with the user any more than a toaster has a button pressed and pops the toast out when the cycle is done. It's just a chip that has a pre-programmed... program... in it, that reads the sensor data and runs through a cycle until x is done. It could easily be done with plain analog electronics... but it's cheaper to program one chip and have it take the place of countless components.

Yeah, I'm a programmer, IT anaylst, etc. so I know exactly what you mean. Neato.

I guess I'm old school, I just use a cookpot on a stove to make rice. So far I've had a zero% failure rate with my method.

John Stricker

quote Originally posted by jstricker: I guess I'm old school, I just use a cookpot on a stove to make rice. So far I've had a zero% failure rate with my method. John Stricker

I personally never even knew they made a rice cooker, if it only does one thing it must do it damn well.

I guess everyone had fun with Falcon4's tranny comments. I say it's time to move on because he learned his lesson. Making perfect rice everytime is almost impossible. These cooking pots guarantee you will get perfect rice each and every time. If the guy has the talent to fix it and make it better, let him do it. Rice can be real nasty stuff when it isn't cooked right. At least Falcon4 has the talent to do this. Not to many people would attempt to do this nor would they know how. Let's give the guy a little credit here. It's always interesting to see how others find solutions to problems.

[This message has been edited by avengador1 (edited 12-21-2006).]

I find what & how you did it VERY cool!
Despite my "Bongfirewall", stuff got through and I actually learned something!
Thanx!

[This message has been edited by Boondawg (edited 12-21-2006).]