Patent ID: 8155061

Claim:
A method of transmitting signals in a control system having at least two units operating on a plurality of transmission channels, one of the units operating as a master unit and the other of the units operating as a slave unit, the method comprising the steps of: detecting a vacant channel among a plurality of transmission channels by a master unit; transmitting a signal by the master unit via the vacant channel; scanning the transmission channels by a slave unit for the transmitted signal, the transmitted signal having a preamble with a length corresponding at least to a period of time required for the slave unit to test the transmission channels and further comprising an address for the slave unit, the scanning step being interrupted when the slave unit detects a predefined system specific characteristic in the preamble of a received message; waiting for a reply from the slave unit by the master unit when having transmitted said signal, and if no reply or an erroneous reply is received the master unit proceeds with the step of detecting the vacant channel by jumping to an another channel of said plurality of transmission channels in a non-sequential manner.