Darren, use my rs232 drivers.  You can hook up the input sides of the
drivers to your single driving PIC, and the output sides to all the
other "remotes".


Shawn Wilton
Junior in CpE
MicroBiologist

Phone: (503) 881-2707
Email: shawn@black9.net

http://black9.net

Darren Gibbs wrote:
> 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
>
> --
> http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different
> ways.  See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.

--
http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different
ways.  See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.