Howdy,

I have a PIC that's sending commands over the built in serial port to
one other PIC.  I want to expand now and have 4 "remote" devices, so I
want to send the serial output from the first PIC to 5 other PICs.  I
tested a passive "split", essentially wiring all 5 RX pins to the one
TX pin (the "slave" boxes are each about 50ft from the "master"; I used
MIDI cables).  It essentially works, though I do notice a few dropped
commands here and there.  I suspect this is not an electrically sound
way to do things. Should I use some kind of splitter/amp chip to drive
the 5 50ft lines?  Should I connect ground through the MIDI cables
(right now I've only connected the one TX->RX wire)?  I'm basically a
software guy, so any advice would be much appreciated.

thanks,

darren

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