I have an idea for a microcontroller system that I could use some ideas on. What I've got in mind is a network of processors, small ones like (say) the PIC16F690, joined via RS-485 (2-wire party bus). The basic purpose is a distributed data collection and delivery system. There would be a "master" which could query the other processors or give them orders, which would set up how the pins would be used--some pins as analog or digital inputs, some as outputs, some doing PWM or getting input from keypads or driving LCD units etc. The master would interface to a computer via USB, which would be how the inputs and outputs would be programmed, and it might be powered off the port if the network wasn't too big. But it would be a nice feature if the user could unplug the computer (assuming an alternative power supply was connected) and let the network keep working as it was programmed to do, assuming that there was a need for a system that passed data among the processors rather than always to or from the computer.
All this is exactly what microcontrollers are made for, but is there any way that a user could set up any sort of complex operation without writing code? I can imagine simple stuff like "Set up pin 8 of unit 3 as an input, and pin 4 of unit 9 as an output; drive the output from the input." That could be programmed via text or a simple graphical process on the computer. But what about logical combinations, or delays, or handling analog quantities or digital quantities made up of multiple inputs? Maybe the answer is that just as microcontrollers are made to do the processing, computer languages are made to tell them how to do it! But I have this notion that it should be possible to set the difficult stuff up in advance so that a user could make it do all it's capable of doing without writing code. Or is that a dream?
I'd appreciate suggestions.
All this is exactly what microcontrollers are made for, but is there any way that a user could set up any sort of complex operation without writing code? I can imagine simple stuff like "Set up pin 8 of unit 3 as an input, and pin 4 of unit 9 as an output; drive the output from the input." That could be programmed via text or a simple graphical process on the computer. But what about logical combinations, or delays, or handling analog quantities or digital quantities made up of multiple inputs? Maybe the answer is that just as microcontrollers are made to do the processing, computer languages are made to tell them how to do it! But I have this notion that it should be possible to set the difficult stuff up in advance so that a user could make it do all it's capable of doing without writing code. Or is that a dream?
I'd appreciate suggestions.