Serial 595 Adapter

[holtm]

I have a custom 595 board from last year that I converted using a PIC16F688 to receive a 485 serial signal. The 595 board had a quad 485 receiver chip on the board to receive 3 485 signals from a converter box from the parallel port of the computer. This 485 receiver was replaced by a daughter board with a PIC. I use another PIC16F688 to create the serial signal from the standard parallel Olsen plug-in. However, with a yet to be written plug-in, a serial signal could be used. I could post photos and schematics if anyone is interested. I think we could get a Vixen plug-in written if there is interest.

[P. Short]

I'm having trouble figuring out what the inputs and outputs to your board are... I'm not sure, but I think that you had one PIC to convert the parallel port output for a 595 board to a single-wire asynchronous serial format, and another PIC to convert it back again (presumably as some sort of wireless or other extender) to drive an actual 595 board. Is this right? And everything is non-dimming?

--

Phil

[holtm]

Yes, that is basically it. I just used Cat 5 cables. All non-dimming. Just a way to get the 595 and renard signals on the same Cat 5 cable. (2 pair for dual renards, 1 pair for this odd 595 serial and 1 pair for power/ground) However half of it could be used for those who don't have a parallel port (drop the first PIC in favor of a Vixen plug-in and serial port)