Hi,

I'm using the mm5450 of Micrel with a Pic16c84 and it works great!.

I'm displaying 3 1/2 digits for a clock counter (12:00-00:00) and other
second counter for seconds (30-00) , using 33 of the available pins and
the last one is for a sound in a speaker or something like that...

        if you want to use for 16 led segments, may be you must multiplex
it, using one mm5450 to drive 4 16-segments leds (using the first 32 bits
for 1-16 common entries (common anode)  and the last 2 bits to multiplex
the transistors that will be used in the anode. (4 transistors with a
combination 00,01,10,00, for activate each one)..

The clock time is about 0.5 Mhz, enough to multiplex several digits..
and using 1 MM5450 you just use 2 pins in the pic if you want other, just
use another pin for data and the clock as common.

I hope it helps..

Armando
Salamanca, Guanajuato
Mexico.

On Wed, 18 Aug 1999, John Mitchell wrote:

> On Wed, 18 Aug 1999, Russell McMahon wrote:
>
> > Pavel,
> >
> > There are numerous LED driving ICs around. An oldie but a goodie is the
> > MM545X family which drives about 32 segments (40 pin dip) and has large
> > current drive capability, segment current control, doesn't need segment
> > resistors and has a very simple 2 wire serial interface [...]
>
> here's a (little) more info:
>
> The MM54X chips are from Micrel -- I found the MM5450 and MM5451.
>
> My new best friend QuestLink.com has more information:
>         http://www.questlink.com/Index/Listing/0,1121,0_0_183100,00.html
>
>
> - j
>