My PTZ camera controller has died and I'm trying to design and build one myself. It uses a Pelco D protocol (2400 baud, 1 start, 8 data, no parity, and 1 stop) with RS485. Pelco D requires 7 bytes to be sent. The camera does not respond back so the transmission is Simplex. This is the first time I ever tried to use serial communication with a microcontroller, so I have no clue what I'm doing. There's only 20 PTZ commands that I'll be using. Each of which has 7 bytes of data. I'm using a MAX1487 with either a PIC16F84 or 16F627 because I have them in my parts cabinet.

My questions are first, can I use either of these PICs for this application? And second, can this be done without using any serial ports on the Microcontroller? Since I'm only using two port pins on the PIC, I can control the transmission manually without using any UARTs. I know this will lead to timing issues which I can resolve with some trial and error.