Patent ID: 8379509

Claim:
An electronic device protection system comprising: a working electronic device having an interface, working electronic device components, and a working electronic device switch connected between the interface and the working electronic device components; a protection electronic device having protection electronic device components for protecting the working electronic device components; and a protection communication path connecting the working electronic device switch and the protection electronic device, wherein the protection electronic device is configured to control the working electronic device switch to connect the working electronic device interface, through the working electronic device switch, either to the protection electronic device components through the protection communication path or to the working electronic device components, wherein the protection electronic device is further configured for sending a message to an addressable location selected from a sequence of addressable locations on a protection communication path, determining whether a message response is received from a further working electronic device connected to the protection communication path at the addressable location, adding the further working electronic device connected to the protection communication path at the addressable location to the protection group and repeating the sending and the determining for a next addressable location in the sequence of addressable locations where a message response is received, and ending the protection group at a previous addressable location in the sequence of addressable locations where a message response is not received.