Programmable appliance remote control

• US 20060192685A1
• Filed: 05/03/2006
• Published: 08/31/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lear Corporation
• Original Assignee: Lear Corporation
• Inventors: Chuey, Mark D.
• Granted Patent: US 7,812,739 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/13.24
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 17/02 using a radio link
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/20 Binding and programming of remote control devices
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/31 Voice input
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/50 Receiving or transmitting feedback, e.g. replies, status updates, acknowledgements, from the controlled devices
• CPC Class Codes: G08C 2201/62 Rolling code

Abstract

A universal remote control is provided. For each channel supported, a mode is initially established as rolling mode. For a fixed code appliance, a fixed code is received and stored, and the mode changed to fixed mode. When an activation request is received, the mode associated with that activation input is examined. If the mode is rolling mode, a sequence of rolling code activation signals is transmitted, each based on one of the plurality of rolling code transmission schemes. If the mode is fixed mode, at least one activation signal is transmitted based on a fixed code transmission scheme and including the stored fixed code.

Claims

1. A system for wirelessly activating an appliance, the appliance responding to one of a plurality of transmission schemes, the system comprising:

a transmitter operative to transmit a radio frequency activation signal;

at least one user activation input, each activation input identifying a channel;

a programming input;

memory holding data describing a plurality of rolling code transmission schemes associated with a rolling code mode and a plurality of fixed code transmission schemes, at least one fixed code transmission scheme associated with each of at least one fixed code mode; and

control logic in communication with the transmitter, the at least one user activation input, the programming input and the memory, for each channel the control logic maintaining a channel mode set initially to a rolling code mode, the channel mode changing to one of the at least one fixed code mode if the channel is trained to a fixed code received from the programming input, the control logic in response to an assertion of the user activation input associated with the channel generating and transmitting an activation signal based on each transmission scheme associated with the mode maintained for the channel.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein:

the at least one fixed code mode is a single fixed code mode.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein:

the at least one fixed code mode is a plurality of fixed code modes.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein:

the fixed code has a code size and the control logic determines the fixed code channel mode based on the code size of the fixed code.

5. The system of claim 3 wherein:

the control logic determines the channel mode as one of the fixed code modes through guess-and-test user interaction.

6. The system of claim 1 wherein:

the channel mode may be reset to rolling code mode.

7. The system of claim 1 further comprising:

a data port operative to download data describing at least one scheme into the memory.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein:

the control logic generates and transmits activation signals based on a popularity of schemes, thereby reducing an average activation latency time.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein:

the memory holds a different counter value for each of the plurality of rolling code transmission schemes.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein:

the at least one activation input is a plurality of activation inputs.

11. The system of claim 10 wherein:

each of the plurality of activation inputs comprises a switch and the user programming input comprises the same plurality of switches.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein:

the fixed code is parallelly received.

13. The system of claim 1 wherein:

the fixed code is serially received.

14. A method of controlling an appliance activated by a radio frequency activation signal described by a transmission scheme, the transmission scheme one of a plurality of possible transmission schemes including a plurality of rolling code transmission schemes and a plurality of fixed code transmission schemes, the method comprising:

establishing a mode as rolling mode;

if user input indicating a fixed code appliance is entered, receiving a fixed code from the user, storing the received fixed code and changing the mode to fixed mode;

receiving an activation request from a user;

if the mode is rolling mode, generating and transmitting a sequence of rolling code activation signals, each activation signal based on one of the plurality of rolling code transmission schemes; and

if the mode is fixed mode, generating and transmitting at least one activation signal, each of the at least one activation signal based on one of the plurality of fixed code transmission schemes, each of the at least one activation signal including the stored fixed code.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein:

the at least one transmitted fixed code activation signal is a plurality of fixed code activation signals.

16. The method of claim 14 wherein:

each of a subset of the plurality of fixed code transmission schemes is used to generate at least one of the plurality of fixed code activation signals.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein:

membership in the subset is based on a size of the stored fixed code.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein:

the subset is determined from a plurality of subsets by user guess-and-test interaction.

19. The method of claim 14 wherein:

if user input indicating a fixed code appliance is entered, a sequence of different fixed code activation signals is transmitted, each transmitted signal based on the received fixed code, until user input indicates activation of the appliance.

20. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

resetting the mode to rolling mode based on user input.

21. The method of claim 14 further comprising:

learning at least one transmission scheme through a data port.

22. The method of claim 14 wherein:

an order in the sequence of rolling code activation signals is established based on the popularity of each of the rolling code transmission schemes.

23. The method of claim 14 wherein:

each rolling code transmission scheme includes a separate counter value, each counter value used to generate a rolling code value.

24. A method of activating a remotely controlled appliance, the appliance responding to an activation signal based on at least one of a plurality of activation schemes, the method comprising:

receiving an assertion of one of at least one activation input;

determining if the asserted activation input is associated with a programmed fixed code; and

if the asserted activation input is not associated with a programmed fixed code, transmitting a plurality of different rolling code activation signals each based on a different rolling code activation scheme.

25. The method of claim 24 wherein:

if the asserted activation input is associated with a programmed fixed code, transmitting a plurality of different fixed code activation signals each based on one of a plurality of fixed code activation schemes.

26. The method of claim 24 further comprising:

determining which one of a plurality of fixed code activation signals activates the appliance by transmitting a sequence of different fixed code activation signals until user input indicates success in activating the appliance.

27. The method of claim 24 further comprising:

determining which subset of a plurality of fixed code activation signals activates the appliance by transmitting a sequence of different fixed code activation signals until user input indicates success in activating the appliance.

28. The method of claim 24 wherein:

each of the plurality of different rolling code activation signals is based on a different counter value.

29. The method of claim 24 further comprising:

modifying the plurality of rolling code activation schemes based on data received from a data port.

30. The method of claim 24 wherein:

the programmed fixed code is manually entered by a user.

31. The method of claim 24 wherein:

the plurality of different rolling code activation signals are transmitted in an order based on popularity of each rolling code activation scheme.