Hello all,

I am just getting started in the PIC world, and could use some
help.  Not only am I a beginning PICer, I am also a software
engineer who is very familiar with embedded controllers but
couldn't design a circuit to save his life.  I'm familiar with
components, but I don't know how to make them work together.

Let me tell you where I'm currently at, in order to help you
help me better.  I have just bought a DT001 and DT101 from
DonTronics, and Myke Predko's book, "Programming and
Customizing the Pic Microcontroller".  I'm looking forward to
building and playing with the platform.  I've already downloaded
and installed MPLAB 3.4, and I'm starting to get familiar with it
as well.

The project I have in mind is a device with two 2-digit readouts
(four 7-segment LEDs), and two sets of 2 pushbutton inputs.  The
readouts will initially display "20" at powerup.  The buttons are
used to increment or decrement the corresponding readout by 1.
The software for this should be a piece of cake.  The hardware,
although, is a different story (for me, at least).

At first pass, it seems to me that I do not have enough I/O lines
available on the 16F84 to drive four 7-segment LEDs.  That fact
dictates some additional circuitry that is beyond my capacity to
design.  Now it seems I should have bought a DT111 for the
extra space, but oh well, I'll just use a breadboard for now.

If anyone of you reading this could help me come up with a
circuit to do what I have in mind, or point out any problems with
my approach, I would appreciate it very much.

Thank you all for your time.

Patrick Murphy
murphy@syspac.com  (home)
pmurphy@az76.honeywell.com  (work)