Abstract: A method of controlling a plurality of peripheral units from a single control unit, a program being stored in a memory of the control unit and the peripheral units being in a position to communicate with one another and with the control unit over a common bus in successive frames of a time-division multiplex system, each frame in the time-division multiplex system being subdivided into a number of time slots at least equal to the number of peripheral units, the same time slot in each frame being assigned to a peripheral unit, specifically each peripheral unit transferring information about its status, which information is initiated by the peripheral unit itself, to the memory in the control unit during or at least immediately prior to the time slot assigned to the peripheral unit in the next frame.