On Tue, May 03, 2005 at 08:48:32AM -0400, Olin Lathrop wrote:

> If the PC is in the loop, then why bother with TCP on the PIC at all?
> Communicate any data with the PC using a simple binary protocol over the
> serial line, and have the PC serve the web pages.
> 
> Something doesn't add up here.

I used to waver back and forth on this point. But I realized that by using 
the standard TCP/IP infrastructure that I could get a well tested stack
on the PC side for no cost. So instead of having to write and test for
both ends (even if it's simple) I would focus on the PIC. In short if
I needed to pick a simple binary protocol, then why not pick UDP/IP/SLIP?

I had always been thinking of this along a multidrop sensor situation. So
with EIA-485 and a simple UDP/IP/SLIP stack you can ring up a bunch of
nodes. Of course there's still the contention issue, but that's another story.

BAJ
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