"BigWallop" wrote in message
...
Hi folks,

I am trying to teach a young lad how to set up binary addressable fire
alarm
systems and no matter how I explain it, or how much I write it down or
draw
it for him, he just can't seem to grasp the concept. Now I know it is the
way I'm trying teach him and not the way he learns (?) so I'm looking for
any suggestions on ways to get this principle over to him.

He's bright when it comes to learning everything else, so it must be the
way
I'm doing it that has him confused. What it the simplest way to describe
this numbering system. I've even given him homework to do, using the
binary
system to count to one hundred, but he still gets it wrong time and time
again.

He needs to know how the DIP switches are configured in each detector to
give them a unique number on the control panel. But I'm now tearing my
hair
out trying to get it through to him. HELP !!!



Many, Many Thank you's to everyone. I used most of your suggestions, and
very creative some of them were (Thanks Witchy), on getting the Binary
numbering system through to a moron. :-))

I sat with him for two and a bit hours today, just him and I, and we went
over it to see where the problem was. He was thinking of the switches on
the detector heads as decimal right enough, as this is the way they are
marked by the makers. So I started him on the very basics of the system
again to see how he would react. He then told me that he'd never even heard
of the Binary way of counting, and that he'd always thought we were winding
him up on the settings of these detectors.

Once I'd shown him the basics and he'd done a few addition and subtraction
sums using it, it seemed to click into place no problem at all. Yipee !!!
Say's I, as you can imagine. I think, with your help, I've just gained
another brilliant security engineer for the team.

Brilliant people. Many, Many Thanks Again.