Patent ID: 7412548

Claim:
A universal input/output device for an industrial automation control system, said device comprising: a housing; a power supply for connecting to a voltage source; an input/output circuit for communicating with an industrial process; a network adapter circuit for communicating data to and from an industrial automation control system data network; a backplane communication circuit for sending backplane data upstream and downstream; and, a device setup control circuit that performs an initialization process to configure said device as one of: (i) a stand-alone block I/O device; (ii) a network adapter module of a modular I/O device; or (iii) an I/O module of a modular I/O device depending upon how said device is operably connected to said industrial automation data network, wherein said device setup control circuit comprises: means for detecting if said network adapter circuit is directly operably connected to said data network; and means for detecting if said backplane communication circuit is operably connected to a backplane; wherein said device setup control circuit configures said device as one of: a stand-alone block I/O device if said network adapter circuit is directly operably connected to said data network and said backplane communication circuit is not operably connected to a backplane; a network adapter module if said network adapter circuit is directly operably connected to said data network and said backplane communication circuit is operably connected to a backplane; an I/O module of a modular I/O device if said network adapter circuit is not directly operably connected to said data network and said backplane communication circuit is operably connected to a backplane downstream from another one of said universal input/output devices.