Polling and data communication system having a pulse position to binary address conversion circuit
First Claim
1. A pulse position to binary address converter for converting a physical position of a remote station on a data highway to a binary address for addressing the remote station comprisinga bidirectional data highway,a plurality of remote stations connected to said data highway at spaced locations thereon, said remote stations each including means responsive to a poll command on said data highway for issuing a reply signal to a predetermined time following a reception of said poll command corresponding to the physical location for each of said remote stations,controller means for issuing a poll command onto said data highway,clock signal generating means,bit counter means arranged to count clock signals from said clock signal generating means,memory means connected to said counter means andaddress counter means connected to said memory means to address storage locations in said memory means, said controller means being responsive to said reply signal from each of said remote stations to produce a corresponding transfer control signal which is applied to said memory means for enabling said memory means to transfer the count stored in said bit counter means at the time of the application of said transfer control signal to said memory means to a memory location as determined by a count stored in said address counter means and circuit means for applying each of said transfer control signals to said address counter means to increment the count stored in said address counter means following each transfer of a count from said bit counter to said memory means whereby each stored count in said memory means is a binary address of a corresponding remote station.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A poll command is sent by a central station to a plurality of remote stations connected along a data highway system. Upon receipt of the poll command, a remote station which desires to transmit data to the central station, responds with a reply pulse in a specific time position following the poll command. The position of the reply pulse is measured relative to the end of the poll command from the central station. Upon transmission of the poll command by the central station, a counter is started at the central station to count clock pulses arranged to occur at the end of each possible reply pulse position. Upon receipt of a reply pulse from a remote station, the count in the counter, which represents the binary address of the replying station, is stored in a memory and a memory address counter is incremented to control the storing of successive binary addresses in consecutive memory locations.
71 Citations
21 Claims
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1. A pulse position to binary address converter for converting a physical position of a remote station on a data highway to a binary address for addressing the remote station comprising
a bidirectional data highway, a plurality of remote stations connected to said data highway at spaced locations thereon, said remote stations each including means responsive to a poll command on said data highway for issuing a reply signal to a predetermined time following a reception of said poll command corresponding to the physical location for each of said remote stations, controller means for issuing a poll command onto said data highway, clock signal generating means, bit counter means arranged to count clock signals from said clock signal generating means, memory means connected to said counter means and address counter means connected to said memory means to address storage locations in said memory means, said controller means being responsive to said reply signal from each of said remote stations to produce a corresponding transfer control signal which is applied to said memory means for enabling said memory means to transfer the count stored in said bit counter means at the time of the application of said transfer control signal to said memory means to a memory location as determined by a count stored in said address counter means and circuit means for applying each of said transfer control signals to said address counter means to increment the count stored in said address counter means following each transfer of a count from said bit counter to said memory means whereby each stored count in said memory means is a binary address of a corresponding remote station.
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5. A data communication system for converting a relative position of a remote station on a data highway to a binary address for addressing the remote station comprising
a bidirectional data highway, a plurality of remote stations connected to said data highway at spaced locations thereon, said remote stations each including means responsive to a poll command on said data highway for issuing a reply signal at a predetermined time following said poll command corresponding to the relative position on said data highway for each of said remote stations, controller means for issuing a poll command onto said data highway, clock signal generating means, bit counter means arranged to counter clock signals from said clock signal generating means, memory means connected to said counter means and to said controller means, address counter means connected to said memory means to address storage locations in said memory means, said controller means being responsive to said reply signal from each of said remote stations to produce a corresponding transfer control signal which is applied to said memory means to transfer the count stored in said bit counter means at the time of the application of said transfer control signal to said memory means to a memory location as determined by a count stored in said address counter means and circuit means for applying each of said transfer control signals to said address counter means to increment the count stored in said address counter means following each transfer of a count from said bit counter to said memory means whereby each stored count in said memory means is a binary address of a corresponding remote station.
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9. A data communication system for converting a relative position of a remote station on a data highway to a binary address for addressing the remote station comprising
a bidirectional data highway, controller means connected to said data highway for issuing a poll command onto said data highway, a plurality of remote stations connected to said data highway, said remote stations each including means responsive to said poll command on said data highway for selectively issuing a reply signal at a predetermined time following a reception of said poll command corresponding to the relative position on said data highway for each of said remote stations, and address generating means connected to said controller means for converting each time duration between said poll command and each of said reply signals from said remote stations to corresponding addresses for each of said remote stations issuing said reply signal.
- 12. A method of converting a plurality of remote station relative positions on a data highway to separate binary addresses comprising the steps of issuing a command on the data highway to the remote stations, starting a counting by a counter of the output signals from a clock source following the end of said command, effecting a reply signal on the data highway from each remote station to said command at a time following a reception of said command corresponding to a relative position of each of said remote stations on said data highway, transferring the count stored in the counter to a memory upon the occurrence of a reply pulse from the remote station and concurrently incremeting a memory address register to store successive counts from the counter in consecutive memory locations.
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18. A method of converting a plurality of remote station relative positions on a data highway to separate respective binary addresses comprising the steps of issuing a command on the data highway to the remote stations, selectively effecting a reply signal on the data highway from each remote station to said command at a time following a reception of said command corresponding to a relative position of each of said remote stations on said data highway;
- and converting each time duration between said command and each of said reply signals from said remote stations to corresponding addresses for each of said remote stations issuing said reply signal.
- View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21)
Specification