TCIC User’s Manual
34
Communication Protocol
There are 26 allowable addresses, referenced by the lower case
letters a-z.
The address ‘a’ is a special address: every board will respond to this
address. In single board RS485, RS232 and USB applications, the
board will always be given the address ‘a’, which is also the factory
set default.
Selecting the board
To SELECT a TCIC board, the ‘:’ command is used, followed by the
address character. (A CR character is not required).
E.g., sending “:e” will SELECT the board that has the address ‘e’.
Note, the TCIC does not send any answer on a ‘:’ command.
Once selected, a TCIC board will respond to the main command set
and the STATUS LED (LED2) will be illuminated.
De-Selecting the board
To DE-SELECT a TCIC board, simply transmit the ‘:’ command with
an alternative address.
For example, suppose there are 3 TCIC boards on the RS485 bus,
with addresses b, c & d:
To access board ‘b’ transmit “:b”

(this will SELECT board ‘b’ and DE-SELECT boards ‘c’ & ‘d’)

To access board ‘c’ transmit “:c”

(this will SELECT board ‘c’ and DE-SELECT boards ‘b’ & ‘d’)

To access board ‘d’ transmit “:d”

(this will SELECT board ‘d’ and DE-SELECT boards ‘b’ & ‘c’)