Patent ID: 7190125

Claim:
A lighting control device for controlling a light intensity level of a lamp, said lighting control device comprising: an intensity level switch; a control switch; an air gap switch; and a microcontroller operatively coupled to the intensity level switch, the control switch, and the air gap switch, wherein, in a normal operational mode, the intensity level switch enables a user to select a desired light intensity level between a minimum intensity level and a maximum intensity level, the control switch enables the user to toggle the lamp between an on state and an off state, and the air gap switch enables the user to interrupt power supplied to the microcontroller and to the lamp, and wherein the microcontroller is adapted to cause the lighting control device to enter a programming mode after detecting that the control switch had been actuated when the microcontroller was being powered up and that the control switch has remained actuated for at least a prescribed period of time after the microcontroller was powered up.