The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 25, 2000
Filed:
Aug. 12, 1998
Peter Hans Schulmeyer, Austin, TX (US);
Joachim Kruecken, 81927 Muenchen, DE;
John M Pigott, Phoenix, AZ (US);
Other;
Abstract
A method and apparatus for assigning unique addresses to each generic 'node' in a distributed control system that contains a main controller (52) coupled to a plurality of generic nodes (54) via a distributed communication bus (55). The main controller (52) provides currents and/or voltages to the communication bus (55) via a supply (58). In one embodiment, each node (54) processes the current and voltages to store reference voltages and distance voltages proportional to its distance along the communication bus (55). In another embodiment, each node (54) signals to the main controller (52) when the distance voltage reaches a certain value relative to the reference voltage. The main controller (52) processes the arrival times of these signals to determine a relative distance to each node (54). This distance information is used to assign a unique address to each generic node (54) for identification during normal mode of operation.