Mungo Henning wrote: >output the patterns for a suitable-worded message (and it's >not "wheeeee!" that I'm thinking of :-) Back around 1981 I designed a unit which did exactly that. In fact, we used three columns of LEDs - red, yellow and green and by combining them we were able to get a number of interesting colors. Since this is a "dot matrix" all sorts of graphics were possible. The timing to get one color to lay on top of another was a little tricky but once it was worked out it was quite effective. The electronics was built around an RCA 1802 processor - anyone else ever use one of these? No interrupts, no onboard timers, no call instruction, all indirect addressing. A fun project. The person who came up with the idea actually got a patent on it. I can look up the number if anyone is interested. (Relative to the thread on intellectual property - this other guy had the idea, I did the work, he got the patent. What's wrong with this picture?) -- Bob Fehrenbach Wauwatosa, WI bfehrenb@execpc.com