Set the address, see the switches, in both directions
A DIP switch bank is binary written in plastic: each switch carries a weight, and the address is the sum of the weights switched on. This calculator works both ways. Give it an address and it draws the switch bank set correctly; set the switches yourself and it reads the address back. The three conventions that differ between devices are all handled openly: which end of the bank carries the smallest weight, whether ON reads as 1 or 0, and any offset the equipment adds, because those three choices, not the arithmetic, are where DIP switch settings go wrong.
Your switch bank
Encode: address to switches
Decode: switches to address
Set each switch as it is (or as you plan it) and the decoded address appears in the results. The selectors rebuild to match the switch count you chose above.
Disclaimer: This calculator gives estimates for general information only. It is not financial, medical or other professional advice. Switch conventions vary by manufacturer; confirm the weighting order, polarity and offset against your equipment’s manual before relying on a setting.
What this calculator does
It converts between the two languages a DIP switch bank speaks: the numeric address the equipment responds to, and the physical pattern of switches that produces it. Encoding starts from the address, subtracts the equipment offset to get the switch value, and expresses that value in binary across your bank under your weighting order and polarity, drawing the bank so you can set a real device switch by switch without translating in your head. Decoding runs the other way: the pattern you enter is weighted and summed, the offset added back, and the address reported. A positions summary lists every switch with its weight and state, because on real hardware, crouched in front of a fixture or a panel, a checklist survives where a picture sometimes does not.
How to use it
- Match the conventions to the manual before the number. Weighting order and polarity are properties of the device, not the address. The giveaway checks: many devices print tiny weights beside the switches (1, 2, 4…) and an ON marker at one end. Enter those three settings once, correctly, and every address on this page follows; get one backwards and every result is a mirror image of the truth.
- DMX lighting is the classic case. A fixture’s start address (1 to 512 in a universe) is set on 9 or 10 switches, switch 1 = weight 1, ON = 1, offset 0 in the usual convention, with a 10th switch often doing something else entirely (a function or termination switch) on some fixtures. This page’s 9-switch option and the offset field exist for that world; the fixture manual decides what its extra switch does, and no calculator should pretend to.
- Decode the existing bank before you change it. When commissioning or troubleshooting, read the current switches into the decode section and note the address the equipment is actually on. Mismatches between the documented address and the physical one are astonishingly common, and finding one with this page takes a minute; finding it by re-addressing a working device the wrong way takes an afternoon.
- One switch wrong is a different address, not a broken one. Binary has no “close”: a bank set for 53 with switch 6 missed is a bank set for 21, and the equipment will answer happily at 21. The drawn bank and the position list are both provided so the physical setting can be checked twice, once visually and once by weight.
- Respect the range. Eight switches address 0 to 255 switch values (plus offset). If the address you need does not fit, the honest answer is a bigger bank or a different addressing method on that device, and the calculator says the maximum rather than wrapping the value around into a wrong setting.
How it is calculated
- Switch value = address – offset. Weights: with switch 1 as the smallest, switch k carries 2^(k-1); with switch 1 as the largest, switch k carries 2^(count-k). Encoding decomposes the switch value into weights, largest first; a switch whose weight is in the sum is set to the ON-equals-1 state per the polarity. Decoding sums the weights of switches in the 1 state and adds the offset.
- The maximum switch value is 2^(switch count) – 1, and the maximum address is that plus the offset. Binary decomposition is exact; there is no rounding anywhere in this tool.
Worked examples
Address 53 on an 8-switch bank, switch 1 = weight 1, ON = 1, no offset. 53 = 32 + 16 + 4 + 1, so switches 1, 3, 5 and 6 are ON (weights 1, 4, 16, 32) and switches 2, 4, 7 and 8 are OFF. The bank reads ON, OFF, ON, OFF, ON, ON, OFF, OFF from switch 1, which is the pattern this page draws.
The same 53 with switch 1 as the largest weight. Now the weights run 128, 64, 32, 16, 8, 4, 2, 1 from switch 1, and 53 needs switches 3, 4, 6 and 8 ON: OFF, OFF, ON, ON, OFF, ON, OFF, ON. Same address, same bank size, entirely different pattern, which is why the weighting order is a first-class setting here and why “the DIP settings for 53” is a meaningless phrase without it.
Decoding switches 1, 3 and 6 set ON (standard order). The weights sum 1 + 4 + 32 = 37, so the equipment sits at address 37 (switch value 37, offset 0). And with an offset of 1, address 10 encodes a switch value of 9: switches 1 and 4 ON (1 + 8), the off-by-one arrangement that catches out anyone who assumes every device starts counting at all-switches-off equals address zero.
Reading your results
Set the physical bank from the drawing, then verify from the position list, weight by weight. If the equipment does not respond, work the checklist in order of likelihood: conventions first (order, polarity, offset, each confirmed against the manual), then the count (an address above the bank’s maximum was never settable), then the boring physical causes (a switch not fully seated is the single most common fault in the entire technology, a half-thrown DIP switch connecting to nothing). The decode direction doubles as the audit tool: whatever the bank physically says after your setting is the address the equipment believes, and this page will tell you what that is.
Limitations
- Not every switch on a bank addresses. Manufacturers routinely assign some switches to functions (modes, termination, test patterns) among the address switches. This calculator treats every switch as an address weight under the chosen convention; where the manual gives a switch another job, that switch is outside the addressing and the bank here should be read with it excluded.
- Conventions are documented per device, not universal. The three settings cover the variations the brief and real equipment present, but exotic schemes exist (BCD-encoded switches, grey-code dials, switches that set two different parameters by bank position). Where a device’s scheme is not plain binary with an offset, its manual’s table outranks any general calculator.
- Rotary and hexadecimal variants are different tools. Hex rotary switches (0 to F) and thumbwheel BCD encode digits, not binary addresses; their arithmetic looks similar and is not the same, and forcing them through this page would produce confident wrong answers.
- The setting is only as physical as the switches. Aged DIP switches make intermittent contact; a bank that decodes correctly on this page and reads wrongly on the device is usually a switch to clean or replace, not an arithmetic problem.
Frequently asked questions
How do I set a DMX address of 101?
On a standard 9-switch fixture bank (switch 1 = weight 1, ON = 1, offset 0): 101 = 64 + 32 + 4 + 1, so switches 1, 3, 6 and 7 ON, the rest OFF. This page will draw it: choose 9 switches and enter 101. Two checks worth the seconds they take: the fixture’s channel footprint (a 16-channel fixture starting at 101 occupies 101 to 116, so the next fixture starts no lower than 117), and whether the fixture’s 10th switch, if fitted, is an addressing switch or a function switch on that model.
Why is my device at the wrong address when I set the switches “correctly”?
Almost always a convention mismatch rather than wrong arithmetic. The three suspects, in order: the board weights from the other end (switch 1 is the largest weight, and your pattern is reversed), the polarity is inverted (ON reads as 0 on that device), or the equipment counts from 1 (offset 1). Decode your physical bank under each candidate convention here; the one under which it reads as the address you intended is the device’s true convention, and the manual will confirm it.
What is the highest address on 8 switches?
255 as a switch value (all eight switches contributing, 1 + 2 + 4 + … + 128), plus whatever offset the equipment applies: 255 at offset 0, 256 at offset 1. It is also why DMX fixtures need 9 switches (512 values) and why an 8-switch device claiming addresses above its range is describing bank switching or a second bank, a different scheme that its manual must explain.
Do the switches read left to right as switch 1 to 8?
On the device, switch numbers are printed beside the bank; trust the printing, not the direction you happen to view it from, because banks are mounted in every orientation. On this page the bank is always drawn and listed from switch 1, with its weight shown, so the translation from page to hardware is by the printed numbers, one switch at a time. Turning the device (or this page’s drawing, mentally) to match the mounting is the user’s one indispensable step.
Related calculators
Method: exact binary weighting under the selected order, polarity and offset conventions, in both directions, exactly as defined on this page. Last reviewed: 13 October 2026.