if we ignore the issue of powering them, a CV cable is enough for a half-duplex serial connection. you don't need to transfer a lot of data to establish the topology. i think (hand waving!) every module could re-broadcast all the broadcasts it hears (that don't include itself) with its ID appended. those will make their way to the edges where they can be picked up, and would describe all the possible paths through the system.
some microcontroller in each brick with a bunch of uarts would be ideal. then somewhere you need a usb-to-whatever link.
(maybe somebody really clever could put the right set of passive parts in each brick so that every topology of devices would be distinguishable by some sort of analog probing from the periphery. i'm not that clever.)
If we ignore the issue of powering them, a CV cable is enough for a half-duplex serial connection. you don't need to transfer a lot of data to establish the topology. i think (hand waving!) every module could re-broadcast all the broadcasts it hears (that don't include itself) with its ID appended. those will make their way to the edges where they can be picked up, and would describe all the possible paths through the system.
Not too hard. 1-Wire, a very low end LAN from Dallas Semiconductor, would be good for this. The parts are cheap, low-power, and powered over the connection cable.
(1-wire requires 3 wires. You could use stereo phone jacks.)
There are probably musician applications for this sort of thing. Some people like cables.
A similar form of fakery is seen in DJ systems where you have vinyl records that contain not music, but time code.[1] The DJ can do DJ turntable stuff as if playing analogue records. They're just sending time code info to the the control unit which has the audio in memory, and the output is the appropriate audio for the time code.
Perhaps you're imagining less restrictive requirements for it than I am.
> 1-Wire, a very low end LAN from Dallas Semiconductor, would be good for this.
i'm aware of 1-wire. it is master-slave. can you outline exactly how you plan to use it in an unknown and reconfigurable topology, and how many separate master and slave interfaces you expect to have in each brick?
some microcontroller in each brick with a bunch of uarts would be ideal. then somewhere you need a usb-to-whatever link.
(maybe somebody really clever could put the right set of passive parts in each brick so that every topology of devices would be distinguishable by some sort of analog probing from the periphery. i'm not that clever.)