![]() ![]() U1 is the PIC24FJ64GA306 micro controller, I chose this chip because it has four UART peripherals and was the cheapest I could find by shopping around on Farnell and microchipdirect. The circuit for the board is pretty basic as we are simply using a larger 16-bit PIC micro controller to do most of the work for us. ![]() ![]() If you don't want to make your own then I also have a limited number of assembled boards available. Here is a guide to recreate and build my SPI to 4 x UART bridge for use in your own projects. By using the SPI interface and my design you can communicate with up to four serial UART peripherals simultaneously. If the controller does not have an SPI peripheral then it can simply be driven using a bit banged software approach using standard I/O pins with no major downfalls. These modern microcontrollers commonly also feature a peripheral named SPI which is typically a lot faster then a UART based serial peripheral and can be used to talk to multiple devices by use of individual chip select signals from the controller. To move to a different chip may mean rewriting your entire code so is there an easier way? The Arduino Mega 2560 offers two serial UART peripherals but what if that is not enough or you need something more affordable for mass production. A recent project I undertook was a mobile alarm system which used Bluetooth proximity to arm / disarm the system, GPS to track the location, Accelerometer to track movement and GSM based SMS messages to inform the owner where their item is. However now and then you need to combine several communications style modules together into a single design. Most modern microcontrollers and devices like the Raspberry Pi have at least one serial UART peripheral so you can do a lot with these devices. In fact a huge range of external electronics can be added to your system via a serial UART connection: GPS, GSM (mobile phone), RFID, RS232, LIN, Ethernet, Zigbee, Modbus, DMX, 4D systems graphical LCDs to name a few more. ![]() Many modules like the Wifi ESP8266 and the Bluetooth HC-06 are available for peanuts but they each require a UART based serial peripheral on your controller to work effectively. If your a fan of electronics then you like me will often find it annoying on the lack of hardware serial ports on modern devices. ![]()
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