RS232-RS485

First post, so here goes.

Apologies if this is not in the right category.

I've been asked to design a RS485, multidrop network to interface with data terminals (DCE) that spit their information out in RS232. The problem is I haven't touched anything to do with RS485 since uni - 5 years ago!

The reason behind using RS485 is that we may need to connect more DCE's at a later date.

I've read up a little about it here:http://www.lammertbies.nl/comm/info/RS-485.html, but am still a little fuzzy on the subject and wikipedia hasn't helped at all (goes mostly into the history if anything!)

I've been looking at RS232 - RS485 conversion by searching the web and have found very little.

My question is:
Am I right in thinking that you can't just plug in an RS232 DCE on a RS485 network? (from what I understand slew rate would be a problem of one)

And is there a simple solution - IC, circuit with as few components as possible to convert RS232 to RS485?

I did find this circuit: http://www.rmv.com/232-485.pdf - would this be a valid solution?

Has anyone done something like this, and if so, what pearls of wisdom can you offer?

Many thanks!

 

Thanks, that's helped a bit more to understand.

 

Excellent!

I knew an IC solution was around

 

Just hada a look on http://www.findchips.com

its quite a rare IC.....not to mention a bit expensive.

Reckon it could be done by a mirco controller?