Method of identifying an unknown or unmarked slave device such as in an electronic blasting system

1. A method of detecting unidentified slave devices in a system including a master device and a plurality of slave devices, comprising the following steps:

a) providing each slave device in the system with an identification and pre-loading one or more slave device identifications into the master device;

b) after step a), connecting at least one slave device to the system;

c) after step b), issuing a detection command on the system from the master device; and,

d) after step c), issuing a response only from any slave devices on the system that have not been identified to the master device, each said response including the slave device's identification.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein said response further includes other information pertaining to the slave device.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of said master device issuing a request for other information to any slave devices that responded in step d).

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein if a slave device responds in step d), step c) is repeated until no slave device responds in step d).

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein step b) includes the step of connecting a plurality of slave device to the system, and said system and slave devices are configured and/or programmed so as to preclude more than one slave device from simultaneously responding in step d).

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein step a) includes the step of logging the identifications of a plurality of slave devices.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising the step of setting a detection status flag high in each slave device the identification of which has been logged, wherein said detection status flag high represents a slave device is deemed to have been identified to the master device.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of issuing a clock sequence on the system after issuing said detection command, said clock sequence comprising sequential clock pulses.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising the step of slave devices counting said sequential clock pulses.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising the step of setting a detection status flag high in any slave devices that responded in step d).

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein said sequential clock pulses are correlated to possible identifications of slave devices by one or more calculations that include a cyclic redundancy check of identifications of slave devices and parameters sent by the master device.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein said system is an electronic blasting system, said master device is a blasting machine, and said slave device is an electronic detonator.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein said detection command is issued along with data representing the identification of all slave devices for which identifications were pre-loaded in the master device in step a), and step d) includes the step of each slave device receiving said detection command checking said data against the identification provided to said slave device in step a).

14. A method of detecting unidentified slave devices in a system including a master device and a plurality of slave devices, comprising the following steps:

a) providing each slave device in the system with an identification;

b) after step a), connecting at least one slave device to the system;

c) after step b), issuing a detection command on the system from the master device; and,

d) issuing a clock sequence on the system after issuing said detection command, said clock sequence comprising sequential clock pulses correlated to possible identifications of slave devices such that each sequential clock pulse corresponds to a different multiplicity of possible identifications; and,

e) issuing a response only from any slave devices on the system that have not been identified to the master device, said response including the slave device's identification.

15. A method of detecting unidentified slave devices in a system including a master device and a plurality of slave devices, comprising the following steps:

a) providing at least one slave device with an identification residing in a fixed memory in the slave device, and pre-loading one or more slave device identifications into the master device;

b) after step a), connecting at least one slave device to the system;

c) after step b), issuing a detection command on the system from the master device; and,

d) issuing a response to said detection command from any slave devices on the system that have not been identified to the master device, each said response including the slave device's identification.