A method and apparatus for controlling a post-print processing system for producing printed products. The system comprises a plurality of replaceable individual devices which are arranged one after another in a row and/or parallel and are connected to a joint control unit for adapting the system to successively following different production orders. The method includes supplying the joint control unit with information relating to the type and position of the individual devices in the post-print processing system and activating the individual devices based on the information. The information relating to the position of the individual devices is determined in the post-print processing system based on the position of the individual devices in a first data processing network comprising a ring circuit. The individual devices send out a data telegram corresponding to the position of the respective individual devices via a second data processing network to the joint control unit.

A communication system includes a communication device functioning as a master device and a plurality of slave devices communicably connected to the communication device via a communication line, the communication device setting a prescribed address in an added slave device based on a position of the added slave device in a topology composed of a plurality of slave devices, judging whether a change has possibly occurred in the topology when the prescribed address is set in the added slave device, if there is an erroneously set slave device whose address was erroneously set, specifying that slave device, when it is judged that a change has possibly occurred, and resetting the address of the specified erroneously set slave device to an original address.

A communication system includes a communication device functioning as a master device and a plurality of slave devices communicably connected to the communication device via a communication line, the communication device setting a prescribed address in an added slave device based on a position of the added slave device in a topology composed of a plurality of slave devices, judging whether a change has possibly occurred in the topology when the prescribed address is set in the added slave device, if there is an erroneously set slave device whose address was erroneously set, specifying that slave device, when it is judged that a change has possibly occurred, and resetting the address of the specified erroneously set slave device to an original address.