Can we use UART COMMUNICATION with MCP23017?

Question

I am using MCP23017 as a GPIO expander with Arduino in my project. I have too many serial devices and no pins left on Arduino for UART communication.
I am wondering if I can use this MCP23017 GPIO expander pins for UART communication or not?

bask185 · Answer

I can think of one way.
In theory you could use the GPIO pins of the mcp23017 to control a couple of 2-way multiplexers. With these multiplexers you could split your Rx/Tx pins to more than one serial bus.
May it be obvious that you cannot used the split busses at the same time. So depending on your specific use-case this may or may not be a solution.

Majenko · Answer

No. No you can't. Serial takes precise timing and fast reactions. Things you can't do with a remote device like that.
Instead there are SPI UART devices specifically for the job, such as the MAX3107.

Can we use UART COMMUNICATION with MCP23017?

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