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Edwin,

>Absolutly true. But how about the little ram-space in a PIC, let's say a
>16C71. If you send a command in text, even if it's a little one, I don't
>think you have enough ram to store it before decoding?? And I hope I'm
 wrong....

I have been programming the 6502 for a long time and the PIC for a very
short time.  So it is easy for me to forget that the PIC needs a
diferent concept of programming.  It is very bit orentated.  So you
are right, a text protocal would be impractical on a PIC.


>An other question. Multi-master mode. I'm a little bit confused about this
>term. I would expect that this is a situation where a number of slaves are
>being controlled by more than 1 master (why?). Or are we speaking about this
>mode because a slave becomes a master when it's talking???

I have a situation that redefines the relationship between master/slave.
The master sends out a time of day packet every so often.  The slaves
correct their time of day (if they have been powered down and unable
to count interupt cycles) using this time packet.  It is possible for
the master to be off line and not sending time packets.  If the slaves
don't get a time packet within a certain amount of time, they start
negoattion the time amoung themselves by sending out their own time
packets.  And the results is that all the times that are bad are set
to the same time as the slave with the best time.  So as long as
all the slaves don't get powered down at the same time, they keep good
time without the master.  This is a case of a slave temporary taking
control as a master while the main master is gone.

   ---------
   Bill Cornutt
   billcorn@infoserv.com
   Located in Ione California USA.
   A small town in Northern California.
   Sitting against the foothills of the Mother Lode.
   ----------------------------------------------------