[TriEmbed] ChainDuino (on Kickstater)

[Bill Farrow]

On Fri, Aug 22, 2014 at 3:29 PM, Rodney Radford <ncgadgetry at gmail.com> wrote:
> Very nice, but I am a little confused on the connection topology.  This
> device shows 2 ethernet jacks where the boards are connected in series (A ->
> B -> C -> D...) which would be very limiting when it comes to running boards
> around the house.  They also mention a 6 pin header and a 6 wire IDC option
> on board.

The idea is to daisy-chain them using the RJ45 sockets using off the
shelf CAT5 cables. This would work quite nicely if you wanted to wire
a greenhouse or a perimeter fence.

The 6 pin connector is so you can use a continuous run of CAT5 cable
to connect multiple devices by crimping an IDC header onto the CAT5
wires inline for each device.

You are correct: if you already have CAT5 wiring in your house, it is
most likely in a star topology, and I'm not sure that you could make
this work considering the RS485 termination requirements.

Bill