Patent ID: 7447552

Claim:
An automation device, with which a multiplicity of physically distributed functional units communicate with each other by means of a common transmission protocol, having a microcontroller, which is assigned at least one clock generator and one memory unit, and which is connected at least to one data source, which is designed to output a data bit-stream to be transmitted, and to one data sink, designed to accept a received data bit-stream, characterized in that connected to a group ( 115 ) of associated input/output connections (which can be addressed together) of the microcontroller ( 110 ) is a resistor network ( 162 ) comprising a plurality of resistors ( 1621 to 162 n ) whose respective first connection is connected to one of the input/output connections and whose respective second connections are connected together and are connected to an input of an amplifier ( 161 ), the resistances of the resistors ( 1621 to 162 n ) follow a sequence n*R, where 1≦m≦n and where n is the number of input/output connections which have been connected and m is the ordinal number of the respective input/output connection beginning with m=1 for the LSB, and each input/output connection is actively switched to the associated logic level in order to output each logic state.