Tony Pan wrote: > > The possibility is there. That's why we want to have a good "random" number > so that the starting time can be distributed as widely as possible within a > certain window to reduce the possibility. > > There is no way we can stagger the starting time for the boards have no > communications among themselves. If the boards have access to the AC mains you could set each board to a different part of the AC cycle, either with dipswitches or hardwired as different "model" boards. Or you could combinee the two systems, part hardwired to the AC cycle, with some random timing added. This would make it impossible for ALL the boards to get the same random start time... -Roman -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.