Ethernet shield + SPI device

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi.

I am using an arduino to control some chips via SPI (pin 11/13).

I would like to add ethernet to my project via ethernet shield.

BUT

the shield uses SPI pins (11/13) too... to communicate with arduino.

Does someone have any idea of how I could use ethernet shield and still be able to control my spi chips ?

Thanks very much in advance for any kind of advice.

artcontr.

2

You could either multiplex (this I have tried and know it works) the chip-select (CS) line of the SPI, for communicating with them alternately, or you could dedicate a second digital output as a second chip-select for activating your other device while halting the communication with your Ethernet shield. (this should work, but I haven't tested it.)

3

Thank-you for your answer.

Communicate with one while halting an other would mean I could only use half the speed of spi for each device. I need a very high speed for my led spi controller.

Is there any other solution ? Maybe with 2 arduinos ?
Is there a non-spi way to communicate between 2 arduinos ?

Thank you for your time.
Artcontr

4

the two Arduinos can communicate via I2C

5

Thank you for your answer.

I found that adafruit library can be set in a "soft spi" mode. So it leaves the "hard spi" pins available for ethernet shield.
Soft spi is of course not as fast as hard spi but it might be enough for many applications.

I'll try the I2C trick with 2 arduinos if the soft spi isn't fast enough.

Thank you again,
artcontr.