Thank you so much! This seems like a much better way of doing things!

I just googled the things you said, and couldn't understand why do the RS485 modules all have 4 pins, but the FTDI cable has 6 wires coming out of it?

https://purenitetech.com/product/ezsync010/ This documentation mentions terminator1 and terminator2, where do they go?

Also, can you add embedded C code to each of the microcontrollers using this method? Or is it just for serial communication?