Doug Warner wrote:
My 8-10 year old Sharp microwave oven has died from a shorted HV
capacitor. I'll probably fix it, if the part is still available.

If not, I'd like my next oven to "listen" to popcorn, and shut off
after the popping rate slows to a threshold level. My current oven's
popcorn mode always comes up about 40 seconds short.

Are there any current models with "ears"?

Most of the ovens I have seen that have a popcorn auto-setting do it by sensing
the amount of moisture in the oven. It guarantees that the popcorn doesn't
burn, but it (as you say) grossly underestimates the cooking time leaving lots
of unpopped kernels.

We just bought a new 1200 watt Sharp and I have yet to find a power setting and
time combination that does a good bag of popcorn. I think the wattage might
simply be too high and the lower power levels do nothing more than cycle full
power off and on at different intervals. Our older Panasonic 1000 watter did a
perfect bag of corn at 2:35 with almost no unpopped kernels. On the new one I
have to choose between many unpopped kernels or burnt corn. I point this out
because even with me standing there listening to the popping I still can't get
good results. That means an oven that did its own listening (if such a thing
exists) might not do any better if the power level is not correct.