Hi Squibcakes,

I have 20 PIC serial lines (software, not USART) coming into 1 software serial pin. All of the lines have a 1K resistor in series with the main receiver line. I used a 100K pull up on the receiver input. I have a separate "busy" line that all "talkers" check before sending data to the receiver and to prevent crashes each one has to wait 10ms more than the previous one before it sends. All 20 lines are set as inputs until they have to send. When they are finished, I reset the pin to an input again. Its been working great since May 2005. Steven Collins helped me out with the problem.

Hope this helps!

BobK