Hello kgabo,
Your Cisco Cat 2960 X should "sense" your access controller device just like any other Ethernet capable host.
When you mention you cannot ping the controller, it doesn't necessarily mean the problem is with your Cisco Cat 2960 X.
Based on the short description, we still need to narrow down where the issue might be.
Follow a bottom-up troubleshooting approach would be a good start point:
0) Verify the correct IP address & Default Gateway is configured on your access controller device.
1) When you connect your access controller to your Switch, do you see a green light start blinking on the corresponding port's LED?
2) Once that is verified, do you see the Mac Address of the access controller on the Switch's CAM table? Please use the command, ''show mac address-table interface interface-id" where 'interface-id' should be the port where you are connecting the access controller.
3) Finally, try pinging your access controller device from a computer that is directly connected (and properly configured with the network settings) to the same Switch and resides also on the same VLAN as the controller device.
I hope this helps.
Best Regards.