Pairing a box is the process by which you take a virtual box and join it to a real life box, hence 'pairing'.

1. To pair a box, first you must connect a physical box to the network

   • see: Connecting boxes to the network

2. Physical boxes can only be paired if a free, compatible virtual box already exists in Devices

   • see: Adding boxes

3. Select the box you want to pair in devices

4. Under the Connection tab, the 'Pair with device' button should be available to click (will show as blue)

   • the status light on the box will begin to flash GREEN

5. Clicking this will show you all the available boxes that this virtual box can be paired to (e.g. if it is an RFID Master, only RFID Masters will be available in the list)

6. Select the desired serial number - these are shown on the left of every box - and click the 'Pair' button in the top right (or cancel if you do not want to pair)

7. The box will pair to COGS software

   • On the box the status light will go solid GREEN
   • You will be able to see the box's IP and MAC address in the Connection tab
   • The serial will show next to the 'Unpair this device' button

8. To un-pair the box, click the 'Unpair the device' button

• A virtual box can be paired and un-paired from a physical box as many times as you wish. Once a box is paired in the software, the software remembers which boxes it is paired to and connects to them automatically when the project pack is opened

  <aside> 💡

  • N.B. when COGS is not running, all boxes on the network become free agents. So if another project pack is opened on the same network, they are all available to be paired to that project. The boxes themselves have no memory of what they have been paired to previously. Only if a project pack is running with paired boxes, will boxes be removed from pairing lists on other instances of COGS running on the same network. </aside>

• If you change the name of a box after it has been paired, the box will momentarily disconnect and reconnect

Watch the Connecting Hardware to a Local Area Network tutorial here for more information.