Possible solutions to figure out the configuration of the preamp with this microcontroller

[Lilybell]

Hi! I'm new here.

I am building home automation hifi audio preamplifier, which consists of motherboard and arbitrary number of audio zones.

Every zone is represented with PCB volume controller board (volume control IC with stereo audio input and audio output).

Now, the end user will be able to upgrade/downgrade this pre-amp with adding/removing audio zones (minimal 1 zone - classic stereo, maximum 8 zones - true zone preamp).

At power on, the motherboard with main microcontroller (Microchip PIC32MX795F512L) will have to figure out the configuration of preamp, i.e., figure out the number of zone pcbs, inserted into motherboard.

What are the possible solutions for this task?

 

[BobK]

If you mean how can the microcontroller detect how many preamp boards are installed, that is trivial. You simply need one connection on each preamp connector that the preamp board will ground when installed. This line will be attached to an input pin on the micro and have a pullup (internal to the micro) turned on. At startup, the micro reads each of these lines, and the ones that read "0" are installed, ones that read "1" are not installed.

Bob