I have a fairly new job and have been working incredibly hard to put out a good image. For a months I've been doing pic programming (8051, atmel, etc.) small projects. The previous project the Engineer has been giving me all circuitry design involved but this last project was a really easy one and I designed the circuitry myself (very easy it was a standard Hbridge for a motor) but this newest project (maybe they are testing me) they want me to design completely myself. It's not a hard project but I'm trying to think HOW to design and execute it. Background for me is I have a crappy AS in electronics which I didn't really get to utilize until many years later, and I'm fairly good at small programming projects (as I used to do it for a hobby). My project (and I would just like a bit of help in the right direction) is as follows. I need something along the lines of 50-100 Voltages read from one area and displayed in another. My plan is to use RS485 for the long distance. What I intend to do is have small microcontrollers read lets say 8-10 voltages (I havn't decided what I'm using yet) and bus them all up like I2C so I'll have 5-10 microcontrollers communicate with lets say my "MASTER" controller on a computer 200 feet away. Am I going about this in the right way or is there some IC to do this for me that is cheaper. I'm just trying to get a BOM for parts I want ordered and I'm not sure if it's my inexperience or not but it seems like it's pretty pricey. I don't expect anyone (obviously) to do my job for me but if you can tell me if I"m on the right path I'd really appreciate it. Thanks for your read and sorry for my newbieness!

 

The professional approach would be to specify and go buy the proper equipment, only resorting to a custom design and build if all commercial options have been exhausted. If they want you to reinvent the wheel, you're duty is to at least make sure they know that. If they acknowledge they are testing you, well then you know the game.

I believe something like the LabJack U3 would do most or all of what you want.