Quote:
Originally Posted by Quoth
Unless you want to program a start time, you don't need any buttons on a microwave. Give the uses of a Microwave oven, time programming is going to be rare.
Actually Microwave oven uses a magnetron and they only go at one power. The power setting simply cycles it on and off, thus 100W instead of 800W is on & off cycle of 1/8th & 7/8ths.
I saw one the other day with even a mechanical timer (like wind up kitchen timer) for cooking time.
Many have overly complicated panels of poor design. You can still buy ones with simply two knobs, power and time. Simple. Ours is electronic so the time counts down on the display. The display doubles as a clock when idle, though you can't program a start time.
<rant>
So many things such as car radio, alarm clock, cooker, recorders, etc lose all settings on a power cut. It's reasonable for safety that if there is a power cut that cooking is cancelled, but sheer greed or stupidity to not have a 5 to 10 year life easily changed backup battery for a clock and 32.768 kHz crystal instead of counting mains frequency (both together adds less than $2), and a 50c Flash/EEPROM for the car radio settings. We have had both of those for over 30 years.
</rant>
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Concerning the knob, that was what I brought up in my original comment. A rotating knob is simple and intuitive. Rotate it to the appropriate time and let it go. If you need a time delay, just add a second knob. Set the delay with the first knob and then the cooking time with the second knob.
I know about the drawback of having all settings lost if the power is cut. I have a CD/MP3 player made by Philips that is excellent but it has one drawback: When the player turns off, everything resets to the defaults. It was a minor irritant but it's worth a mention.
Also, I had a CD player in my car with an anti-theft system. The way it worked was simple: You take any CD and insert it in the CD player to become the Key CD. Then you remove the Key CD. From that point on, if the CD player loses power you have to insert the Key CD into the player to reactivate it. Only the specific CD you designated as the Key CD will work. Without the Key CD the CD player is basically inert (the only thing it will do is ask you to insert the Key CD). It was a strong deterrent for theft since all they would get is an inert piece of electronics.
I made the mistake of not taking the Key CD with me while I was moving. When I had to replace my car battery I found that my CD player would not work. I ended up having to replace the car stereo.