Programmable interoperable appliance remote control

A system for operating an appliance, the appliance responding to an activation signal transmitted from an existing radio frequency transmitter, the system comprising:

• a receiver operable to receive any of a plurality of radio frequency activation signals;
• a transmitter operable to transmit any of the plurality of radio frequency activation signals;
• and
• control logic in communication with the receiver and the transmitter, the control logic operating in a learn mode and an operate mode, the control logic in learn mode determining and storing a new transmitter identifier different from any existing transmitter identifier received in at least one rolling code activation signal transmitted by the existing transmitter, the control logic in operate mode generating a new activation signal different from any activation signal transmitted by the existing transmitter, the new activation signal including the new transmitter identifier.

A method of programming a programmable radio frequency appliance remote control comprising:

• receiving a signal from an existing radio frequency remote control, the signal based on one of a plurality of activation schemes;
• determining if the received signal was generated using one of a plurality of rolling code activation schemes;
• if so, storing an indication as to which rolling code scheme was used to generate the received signal;
• and
• determining and storing a new transmitter identifier different from an existing transmitter identifier associated with the existing transmitter.