<story><title>How many Devices can you Connect to the I2C Bus?</title><url>https://www.bluedot.space/tutorials/how-many-devices-can-you-connect-on-i2c-bus/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>jpm_sd</author><text>I2C is not a wired network standard! It&amp;#x27;s designed to be used between chips on the same PCB, typically with the same power supply rail (although level shifters are available) and the same ground reference plane. Yes, ground planes matter for best performance.&lt;p&gt;Breakout boards are meant for a quick test. Then you&amp;#x27;re supposed to design a PCB with the devices you need all in one place. SparkFun spaghetti will only end in tears.&lt;p&gt;The other thing that sucks about I2C is that you never know what hard-coded addresses you will be limited to, until you&amp;#x27;ve selected all your parts, dug into the datasheets and then discovered the inevitable collisions.&lt;p&gt;In 20 years of PCB design I think the largest number of I2C devices I&amp;#x27;ve had on one bus is maybe 30? And that was pushing it.</text></comment>
<story><title>How many Devices can you Connect to the I2C Bus?</title><url>https://www.bluedot.space/tutorials/how-many-devices-can-you-connect-on-i2c-bus/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>jeff_ciesielski</author><text>This is a nice breakdown, however it is leaving out one interesting piece: Active slew rate controllers.&lt;p&gt;In some cases where you need to exceed the typically allowed bus capacitance either due to a high number of attached devices, or over a long cable run (it happens...it sucks, but it happens), you can use a part like the LTC4311 which, rather than using resistors to passively pull the bus lines to a resting high state, detects the direction changes and actively assists in pulling the lines to their intended states.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.analog.com&amp;#x2F;media&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;technical-documentation&amp;#x2F;data-sheets&amp;#x2F;4311fa.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.analog.com&amp;#x2F;media&amp;#x2F;en&amp;#x2F;technical-documentation&amp;#x2F;data...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>