Control device

Abstract

In a control device, comprising a plurality of base components connected to one another in series by a composite signal line including a plurality of address signal lines, a control unit fitted onto one of said base components, and a plurality of controlled units adapted to be controlled by said control unit and each fitted onto a selected different one of the remaining base components, the control unit selects one of the address signal lines in the composite signal line, and produces an address signal thereon. The base components associated with the controlled units are provided with respective terminators each corresponding to one of the address signal lines, and these terminators are connected to the corresponding controlled units while the remaining address signal lines are simply passed on. Thereby, the addresses of controlled units are allowed to be automatically set up by the control unit. Thus, the initializing step involving the determination of addresses for the controlled units can be carded out simply and with a reduced possibility of errors. Also, the base components may have an identical structure, and this contributes to the simplification of the handling and the reduction in the fabrication cost.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.