Patent ID: 7012518

Claim:
A dimmer control system for controlling power supplied to a load comprising: (a) a master unit connected in a communication control loop in series with one or more remote units, wherein said master and remote units each have a power level display for displaying a power level to be supplied by the system to the load, and control unit circuitry to allow two-way communication between the master unit and the remote units of the power level; (b) a dimmer load line supplying power to the load, wherein said communication control loop is superimposed in series on the dimmer load line; and (c) said communication control loop having a first encoding circuit for encoding communication messages by a first encoding method for transmission from the master unit to be decoded by the remote units in order to update the power level display of the remote units for the power level to be supplied by the system to the load, and a second encoding circuit for encoding communication messages by a second encoding method different from the first encoding method for transmission from any remote unit to be decoded by the master unit in order to set the power level to be supplied by the system to the load in accordance with user input entered on any of the remote units.