right you are of course, I should have known but I've been confusing it with RS422 since this is also present on the motor controllers.
However: as i understand, rs485 needs very low voltage difference between the signals to tell 1 from 0. Thus I should be able to use a "common" voltage of 2.5 volts using a voltage divider, or maybe even the 3.3v pin, and perform the differential signaling with 0 and 5 volts respectively. Am i wrong? The tristating is more of an issue i suppose, knowing when to do it and if it can be done quickly enough.
Or is it still doomed to fail?