Freely programmable control unit for working machines - signals at input and output stages linked by control mechanism

The control unit contains a group of stages which are combined by addressing to form a single assembly to which signal lines are connected by cable plugs. One stage of each assembly is selected by an address supplied by the control mechanism in parallel with a number of assemblies and the required assembly is cleared by an auxiliary address. A comparator circuit (V) assigned to the assembly (BG) and used for clearance purposes receives both the auxiliary address (ZA) and an address supplied by the coding of the cable plug (KS). The freely programmable control unit is intended especially for machine tools.