On Monday, Apr 12, 2004, at 17:24 US/Pacific, Jan-Erik Soderholm wrote:

>> It seems like the shift register solution is better design
>> because it just feels wrong to waste so many IO pins...
>
> And instead wasting time on more complicated programming ?
>
Ah, but you should only have to do the 'complicated programming' ONCE,
and then you can put as many shift registers as you want out there with
little additional effort.  And there are LOTS of types of shift
registers, including high current drivers and fancy SPI chips.

OTOH, more chips add a lot of complexity to a design when it comes to
actually getting it built.  And space issues, too.  I'd lean toward
using a bigger chip unless the rest of the circuit is already complex,
or unless the next-bigger chip gets expensive (relatively speaking.)

On the third hand, I have my "stock" of PICs and I'd rather use one of
those (which tend to be SMALL pics) than have to order something new.

BillW

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