I'd like to cascade 2x MIDImerger so I effectively have a 3 -> 1 merge. I saw via this post that someone has already done this, and it was successful:
In that post, they mention that both mergers share the same power supply. Is it possible to simplify it further? For example, if I'm using 2x PIC16F88 and have PIC #1 -> PIC #2:
Can I omit the 6N138 on the cascaded input between the two PICs and connect TX from PIC #1 directly to RX of PIC #2?
I should only need one Power LED and only the second Tx LED. Can I just leave pins RB0 / RA1 of PIC #1 disconnected?
This is the schematic I'm looking at http://www.ucapps.de/midimerger/midimerger_pic16f88.pdf from this page http://www.ucapps.de/index.html?page=midimerger.html
Thanks!