How to send Serial Data to multiple devices.

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  • Hello,

    Here is what we want to do :
    We have 192 devices that using PIC16f628A. Each device has own ID. Each device controls a stepper motor driver.

    All devices is connected to Espruino Board with a serial cable. I mean it is a 1-n connection. Espruino TX port is 1 and there is 192 RX port connected to this Espruino TX port.

    We have this kind of sytax;
    START-(15,25,35)(5)-END
    START-(22,23,23)(15)-END

    This syntax means that ;
    Devices with the ID of 15,25, and 35 will run stepper motor 5 times.
    Devices with the ID of 22,23, and 23 will run stepper motor 15 times.

    My aim is sending data to all devices at the same time.

    What do you think? Is it a good way to connect 192 devices to a single TX port? What kind of problem will I have?

    Thanks for your ideas.

  • RS232 isn't really suitable for multiple devices. RS485 might be a better choice, especially for 192 devices.

  • I've seen RS232 used for multiple devices before, but I'm sure 192 devices would be too many. I'll second @RobR, RS485 is probably your best bet.

  • Thank you for your ideas, I think you are right about RS485, I'm going to use Max485 Chip and I'm not going to change any thing in software.

    Thank you!

  • As others have said, RS485 might work better. However if you already have hardware designed for RS232 reception (especially if you don't have long distances involved), another option might be to have several RS232 transmitters, all transmitting the same data.

    I don't see any problems with your serial protocol at all though, as long as there is no chance of a receiver getting confused about the start of a frame.

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How to send Serial Data to multiple devices.

Posted by Avatar for fobus @fobus

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