Patent ID: 8547108

Claim:
A generic mate-in interface for enabling a connection between a test box unit and specific mate-in interfaces, each one of the specific mate-in interfaces having a unique specific mate-in interface ID, the specific mate-in interfaces for connecting to harness/equipment connectors, the generic mate-in interface comprising: a test box connector for connecting to the test box unit, the test box connector having a unique test box connector ID and contacts, a portion of the contacts being reserved for communicating the unique test box connector ID and an other portion of the contacts being reconfigurably assignable; upon connection of the test box connector to the test box unit, the unique test box connector ID is used in determining an assignment of the other portion of the contacts into generic level subsets; upon connection of at least one of the specific mate-in interfaces to the generic mate-in interface, the unique specific mate-in interface ID is used in determining an assignment of the contacts in at least one of the generic level subsets into specific mate-in level subsets.