Interfacing with multiple PICs

Hi there,

I'm a newbie as it comes to PIC programming. I've read a few tutorials, and know most theory things about programming a PIC. I'm programming using MPLab and PICBasic.

I want to build quite a big project, so I could use the help of some experts here who are willing to help me make this work.

What I want to do.
- I want to build a switch board, which's switches I can control with my feet.
- This board contains 24 momentary stomp switches (2PDT).
- Every switch has it's own LED.
- These switches control relays. Stomp on, stomp off.
- On this floor board, there's an LCD display (HD44780, 20 chars x 4 lines), too.
- This display should display preset number, song title, and perhaps some other information.

- Most of the relays are inside a 19" rack unit, a few metres away from the floor board.
- I want to be able to save presets, which contain the state of each of the relays. These presets are selected via a few of the stomp switches.

- The rack unit also receives the preset up/down commands.
- Inside the rack unit, there are several guitar effects who's potentiometers' values should be stored inside the preset, and have to be set by the PICs and digital potentiometers inside the rack unit.
- The rack unit should also change the MIDI programs of some external 19", MIDI-equipped effects units.
- The rack unit also contains one or two displays of the same type as the one in the floor board.

- I want to be able to save, edit and rename presets from the unit itself.

What I know.
- I know that this is a major project for a newbie like me
- I know I'm going to need some sort of serial connection between the floor board and the rack unit.
- I know the basics about a PIC's architecture and about programming a PIC.
- I know lots about electronics, circuits etc
- I know that this is going to be a pain in the ass to debug.

What I have.
- I have several PICs to blow on this project:
4x 16F877A
3x 16F873A
3x 16F876A
2x 16F19
- I have access to a PIC programmer board
- I have the necessary skills like soldering, drawing circuit designs, etc
- I have 35x 5V switching OMRON relays.
- I have all of the needed materials for this project, like the stomp switches, displays etc.

Other things I thought about
- I think it would be most convenient if the floor board's PIC(s) contain only the information for it's internal display, and for the ON/OFF state of each of the effects, while the rack unit's memory contains all of the information about the potentiometers and MIDI stuff.

I know this is a very big project.

I have looked at the BASIC Stamp II's midi program, which I think I can use in PICBasic.

I think I need to take this step by step.

My questions:
1. Is there some software that allows me to design a certain simple shematic (containing a few LEDs, relays and PICs) which can understand the PICs so I can test what I'm doing?
2. Can anyone help me programming a serial interface protocol for this?

That's about it for now, I'm sure there will be more questions from my side, but I really hope someone wants to dive into this with me and help me get this working.

Regards,
Stan.