System and method for communicating with and controlling toy accessories

In combination for use in a system including a central station, an auxiliary accessory having dumb and smart status of operation at different times and a plurality of accessories and a plurality of pads each manually operable to provide first binary indications providing an address to an individual one of the accessories and second binary indications providing commands for operating the individual one of the accessories and each operable to provide the first and second binary indications to the central station for the transmission by the central station to the accessories of the first and second binary indications from each of the pads,

• a first line extending between the central station and the auxiliary accessory to provide first signals representing the first and second binary indications to the auxiliary accessory, the auxiliary accessory being responsive to the signals to provide second signals representing third binary indications when the auxiliary accessory operates a smart accessory,
• a second line extending between the central station and the auxiliary accessory to communicate the second signals from the auxiliary accessory to the central station,
• a third line extending between the central station and the auxiliary accessory for providing clock signals to the auxiliary accessory for synchronizing the communication of the first signals from the central station to the auxiliary accessory, and the communication of the second signals from the auxiliary accessory to the central, station when the auxiliary accessory is a smart accessory,
• a fourth line extending between the central station and the auxiliary accessory for communicating a third signal from the auxiliary accessory to the central station to indicate that the auxiliary accessory is ready to receive the first signals from the central station when the auxiliary accessory is a smart accessory,
• a fifth line extending between the central station and the auxiliary accessory for communicating a fourth signal from the central station to the auxiliary accessory to indicate that the central station has completed the communication of the first signals to the auxiliary accessory,
• the first signals being in successive groups,
• means at the auxiliary accessory for processing the first signals in the successive groups,
• means at the auxiliary accessory for indicating to the central station that it is processing the first signals in each of the successive groups and for indicating to the central station when it has completed the processing of the first signals in each of the successive groups, and
• means in the central station for delaying the transmission of the first signals in each of the successive groups until the auxiliary accessory indicates to the central station that the auxiliary accessory has completed the processing of the first signals in the previous one of the successive groups.