Patent ID: 9672181
Date: 2017-06-06
CPC Classifications: G06F,H04L,Y04S

Claim:
1. A method to address components connected to a bus system, the method comprising: receiving, in a first slave component, a command instructing a second slave component to apply a test signal to the bus system, the first and second slave components being connected to the bus system, the bus system being a local interconnect network (LIN) bus system; determining, in the first slave component, that the test signal is being applied to the bus system by the second slave component; detecting, at an observation point of the first slave component, a direction of a current of the test signal flowing from the first slave component while the test signal is being applied, the direction being either a first current direction or a second current direction different from the first current direction, wherein the current of the test signal flows from a first connection of the first slave component to a second connection of the first slave component when flowing in the first current direction, and wherein the current of the test signal flows from the second connection of the first slave component to the first connection of the first slave component when flowing in the second current direction; and determining, in the first slave component, a location of the second slave component relative to the first slave component on the bus system based on the direction that the current of the test signal flows from the first slave component, wherein the determining the location comprises: storing the location of the second slave component relative to the first slave component in a memory of the first slave component.