> There are even some new temperature sensors that uses an extra wire which=
 can
> be used to find out in which physical order the sensors are located on th=
e bus.

Real men [tm] use TDR :-).
I once did a job where somebody wanted me to use TDR to do just this
as part of a commercial many many station multi drop system
(bidirectional multistation signalling all over an inductive powering
loop). I looked at the TDR timings and then assured them that there
were far easier ways to achieve the desired result. (This lead to my
only US patent - since expired. Not at all marvellous as patents go -
but fun to have had and good precedence for power and signalling
transfer over inductive loop systems. I must dig it out and look at
the date - maybe I predate Maxim :-) ).

There are historically numerous systems which derive slaves' addresses
by polling and random duration backoff on collision algorithms, or
which even assign addresses to unruly addressless rabble at start up
using similar means.

I suspect, that Maxim's concern is systems which talk to their
products or which are talked to by Maxim master systems, and that they
have neither interest or claim in anything which just uses 2 wires
(signal plus return to convey  bidirectional signalling and power - or
just signalling, but is incompatible with their systems. But, I may be
wrong.


                  Russell
--=20
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