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If there is only one SPI master and 8 SPI slave devices, How to we connect them together?

I am not allowed to have 8 dedicated Slave select pins on the master, nor am i allowed to daisy chain the complete setup

I was asked this question in an interview and i am not able to figure it out.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ What about a MUX for the CS lines? How many Chip Select lines are you allowed? \$\endgroup\$
    – Puffafish
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 9:12
  • \$\begingroup\$ I am not sure how many are allowed,the Mux is a good idea,but i think the idea is to reduce the chip select pins if we are using a MCU with a low pin count.Can this be done in software?? bit banging.. \$\endgroup\$
    – AK47
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 9:15
  • \$\begingroup\$ So you use 4 pins out of the MCU into a MUX to give you your 8 chip select lines. Hence reducing the chip select lines out of the master MCU. \$\endgroup\$
    – Puffafish
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 9:18
  • \$\begingroup\$ CS pin will go to a 1x8 demux. Select lines will be 3 digital pins of MCU. \$\endgroup\$
    – Mitu Raj
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 9:31
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Mitu Raj: If its not too much trouble could you draw me a basic block diagram of it.It would be very help full. \$\endgroup\$
    – AK47
    Commented Apr 17, 2019 at 4:53

2 Answers 2

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To reduce pin count, the normal way would be to use a demultiplexer that take 3 pin binary code and gives out 8 pin individual signals. Such as 74HC251.

That is, you can't use any "automatic /SS" features of SPI but must handle /SS manually by setting 3 pins. Optionally use a 4th pin to the /CS of the demux if you want to shut off all communication with no slave selected.

MOSI, MISO and clock are all connected to all nodes with no logic in between.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Without having any sources for the claim, I'd say this is the most common way to deal with multi-slave SPI. It seems far more common than daisy chain. \$\endgroup\$
    – Lundin
    Commented Apr 16, 2019 at 9:38
  • \$\begingroup\$ Could you draw me a basic block diagram.it would be very helpful in understanding the pin connections \$\endgroup\$
    – AK47
    Commented Apr 17, 2019 at 4:55
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ArunKumar Read the 74HC251 datasheet and take it from there. There's only one way to use it so it should be mostly self explanatory. \$\endgroup\$
    – Lundin
    Commented Apr 17, 2019 at 6:49
  • \$\begingroup\$ Thanks i understood it perfectly.so the 3 inputs S0,S1 and S2 go to the MCU and act as CS combinations(2^3=8 combinations). And the outputs I0 to I7 will go to the 8 slaves. \$\endgroup\$
    – AK47
    Commented Apr 17, 2019 at 8:59
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enter image description here

This is the idea, that we were talking about. De-muxing the CS pin using 3 control pins from the MCU, so that only one slave will be selected at a time. It just saves four pins. MOSI, MISO and CLK pins will however be common. A simple 1x8 demux example: 74hc138

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