How about a couple latch chips (a column select latch and row latch) and a for each character and updating to the next column on every sweep? You'll probably want transistors to better drive them. Even a 0.7" LED matrix taht I am using is almost begging for transistors, right now it is directly driven by an 'F872, I am not using multiple displays. There are tricks to save here and there but a large set of LED matrices is going to cost you. Jeff ----- Original Message ----- From: rad0 > I want to tinker with an 8 x 5 led matrix... > > and I want to use a master to serially send out two bytes, the first being a > reference number for each matrix, followed by a second number > to turn on or off each dot in the matrix... > > and my solution so far has been to use a 16F876 to set up one pin > to listen for a reference number, then use the next number to turn on the > dots... > > well, there's got to be a cheaper way to do this... with the cost of the pic > and > the dot matrix together....the entire thing gets to be quite pricey....even > the cost > of just the dot matrices sort of makes me shudder.... -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu