Patent ID: 7072736

Claim:
A method to determine when a media handling system configuration is valid, the configuration comprising N modules linked so that a first module is linked to a second module, the second module is linked to a third module, and so forth, and an (N−1)th module is linked to an Nth module, the direction from the first module to the Nth module defined as downstream, each module characterized by a type and an order, each module's type having a corresponding type value that is a member of a predetermined group of type values, each module's order having a corresponding order value that is based on the module's linkage in the configuration so that the first module has an order value of 1, the second module has an order value of 2, the third module has an order value of 3, and so forth, the (N−1)th module has an order value of (N−1) and the Nth module has an order value of N, at least one module having a type value of feeder, thus forming a feeder module, the media handling system including a controller and a communication means, the method comprising: a) by a feeder module, feed a sheet of media; b) by each module downstream of the feeder module: b1) process the sheet, thus forming a sheet processing; b2) form a reporting message including a reported time value based on the sheet processing and a reported type value based on the module's type value; and b3) send the reporting message to the controller; c) by the controller, for each module downstream of the feeder module: c1) receive a reporting message from the module, the reporting message containing the module's reported time value and the module's reported type value; c2) determine an order value for the module based on the module's reported time value, thus forming a determined order value; and c3) determine a type value for the module based on the module's reported type value, thus forming a determined type value.