Patent ID: 6873876

Claim:
A system for programming a household appliance having an electronic control that manages the execution by the appliance of a plurality of programs consisting of treatment phases, the system including: a microcontroller, a first memory associated with the microcontroller, the first memory storing as write protected during the manufacturing of the appliance first information that is used by the control system to execute a given number of first programs of the appliance, the first programs allowing the immediate use of the appliance after the completion of manufacturing; a control panel residing on the appliance, the control panel including user-operated controls for the selection and the control of the execution of the first programs, communication means for interfacing the control system to an external electronic programming device, a writeable and erasable second memory resident on the appliance for storing second information provided by the external programming device, once the appliance has been marketed and/or installed at a user's premises, the second information allowing the control system to execute second programs which are in addition to and different from the first programs, the second programs being user-defined, and allowing the user to select and command the execution of the second programs through the control panel residing on the appliance, the second information being encoded and stored in the second memory for an undetermined time, until the user directs a subsequent modification or cancellation of the second information through the external programming device.