master/slave w/CCS questions

[eblancha]

So I am currently working on my first uC project. I am using 16F88’s and Olimex’s MCP-USB programmer. I just received the PCW compiler last week. I need to use 4 ADCs and 2 digital output pins per microcontroller and I am planning on using the UART to interface with the computer through RS485 and 232 and the internal oscillator. I’ve been reading a lot of the forums and I still have a few issues that I cannot grasp. I just need the 16F88’s to output high or low when I tell them to, and to give me and A/D conversion after turning on some other devices.

1. My system will require up to 32 16F88’s so obviously I’ll need to do some master/slave protocol. When/how do I assign a unique address to each microcontroller?

2. How would I go about making sure that the RS232 line is clear before sending information on it? Do I use something like kbhit() ?

3. I get how to put which pin to use with READ_ADC and OUTPUT_HIGH/LOW, but how would I broadcast the specific microcontroller address that I am trying to communicate with?

4. Since the CCS compiler has functions like READ_ADC and OUTPUT_HIGH, when it comes to actually programming the uC, do I just have to initialize the UART, A/D pins, and I/O pins to what they need to be and then that’s it? Or do I still have to program out the process in MPLAB for the A/D conversion and stuff like that?

I realize some of these questions might require rather lengthy explanations so any help at all that you guys could provid would be greatly appreciated. I’ve been reading the stuff on microchip’s website, I mainly just can’t figure out the big picture on using the microcontrollers with CCS. Sorry to be another annoying new guy asking simple yet long questions.

Thanks
Eric

[PCM programmer]

These are the CCS driver and example files for a RS485 multi-drop bus:
c:\program files\picc\examples\ex_rs232_485.c
c:\program files\picc\drivers\rs485.c

[Guest]

[future]

PCM programmer:

What do you think about the EX_PBUSR.C solution?