Patent ID: 8310091

Claim:
A monitoring system, comprising: a controller comprising a plurality of input terminals, a plurality of setting terminals, and a plurality of control terminals; a plurality of sensors; a plurality of electronic devices; and a plurality of input and output (I/O) devices, wherein a sum of the sensors and the electronic devices is equal to a number of the I/O devices, each I/O device comprises an input circuit, an output circuit, and a connector, the connector is connected to one of the sensors or one of the electronic devices, the input circuit is connected between an input terminal of the controller and the connector, the output circuit is connected between a control terminal of the controller and the connector, the output circuit comprises a voltage regulator connected to the setting terminals of the controller, wherein the controller outputs a control signal to the output circuit and controls the I/O device to function as an input device or an output device, wherein when the I/O device functions as an input device, the input circuit converts a detecting signal of the sensor to a voltage signal and transmits the voltage signal to the controller; wherein when the I/O device functions as an output device, the output circuit supplies power to the electronic device and the controller detects the voltage of the electronic device via the input circuit.