I will keep it short I ave been searching for an definitive answer but can't find one. I am using a RS-485 breakout board (pictured below) for a sensor connected to an arduino. I now want to add another sensor to this project so do I need another breakout board for each sensor, or can they all connect to the first one?
And if anyone out there has a pin out for this even better.
if you have sensors with RS485 interface you can attach them to the bus without this board, if your sensor do not have RS485 interface you need a microcontroller and this board for each sensor. The chip on this board is a MAX485 ( https://datasheets.maximintegrated.com/en/ds/MAX1487-MAX491.pdf ) that is basically a 485/422 transceiver without any knowledge about protocols like MODBUS or Profibus, these protocols have to be implemented by an attached microcontroller, i.e arduino
https://arduino-info.wikispaces.com/RS485-Modules <-
the pinout of the module is on page 7 of the datasheet https://datasheets.maximintegrated.com/en/ds/MAX1487-MAX491.pdf, the differential bus lines are connected to A and B
