"BigWallop" wrote
| I don't know how many bits you're talking about, but consider
| supplying him with a simple look-up table rather than trying
| to teach him the system.
| I've given him a calculator to use when he needs to, and he knows how to
| convert the decimal number into binary on it. But then he tells me it
gets
| him even more confused because the number that comes up on the screen is
| just 1's and 0's and he doesn't know how to make the DIP switches look the
| same as them.
| I've even explained that when it shows a 1 it means it's ON, and similarly
| when O it is OFF, but then he'll either turn it upside down or make a
| balustrade of swapping it over to the switches themselves.

Then you either give him a lookup table with ONs and OFFs in the same layout
as the DIPs on the detectors like (assuming ON is UP):

1 ON
OFF OFF

-----------------------------
2 ON
OFF OFF

-----------------------------
3 ON ON


-----------------------------
4 ON
OFF OFF
-----------------------------

OR you spend half-an-hour one evening setting all the dip switches on the
detectors to different, then writing in magic-marker the number in 'normal'
inside the cover, so Laddo just has to copy the 'normal' number off the
detector onto the plan or location list as he installs each one.

OR you spend an hour one evening, setting all the dip switches in the
detectors, writing the number in magic-marker inside the cover, making the
list of locations or marked up plan, so all Laddo has to do is put detector
318 in location 318 on the plan.

Owain