Patent ID: 7591438

Claim:
A method of controlling operation of an ice shaver/blender to produce a consistent, blended material comprising the steps of: providing: (a) an ice shaver assembly comprising an ice hopper, an ice agitator that is connected to and rotatably driven by a shaver motor, a blade mounted adjacent the ice agitator, and a shaved ice chute adapted to dispense shaved ice into a blender jar; (b) a blender assembly comprising the blender jar and a blender motor operatively connected to a cutter assembly, wherein the cutter assembly is mounted in the blender jar for blending material placed within the jar; (c) an energy control switch that activates and controls the amount of energy delivered to the blender motor during operation of the motor; and (d) a feedback sensor electrically connected to the energy control switch, wherein the feedback sensor is adapted to detect an attribute associated with the operation of the blender motor and send a signal to the energy control switch based on the attribute detected; adding ice into the ice shaver; activating the ice shaver to shave and dispense ice into the blender jar; adding material to the blender jar; activating the blender motor; recording the signal from the feedback sensor to the energy control switch at predetermined time intervals and comparing the signals over time; and deactivating the blender motor when a predetermined relationship is found in the comparison of signals recorded from the feedback sensor.