To infinity and beyond!

So building on the thermometer, i want it to be displayed on a 4 digit 7 segment display... i want to use a shift register to control the LEDs.. but first im going to have to learn what they are and how to use them.

This is from the arduino website but is condensed into my own report

74HC595 Shift Register

"8-bit serial-in, serial or parallel-out shift register with output latches; 3-state."

So this shift register is 8 bit, it can access 8 bits of information in a single machine instruction. Because each bit has two possible states "on" and "off" and there are 8 bits, this gives 256 possible combinations... e.g. 2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2 = 2^8

Serial output

Uses "synchronous serial communication" which means we can pulse one pin on and off communicating a data byte, bit by bit, the bits are separated by pulsing the clock pin.

Parallel output

"asynchronous communication" uses the Serial.begin() function of arduino, the data rate must be set on the sender and receiver. When the whole byte (8bits) are received the register deals them out to each output pin, then they are executed at the same time.

Connecting another

There is an option to use the serial out pin the transmit the serial information out to another register unchanged. Meaning you can transmit 16 bits of information where the first 8 will be passed though the first chip and expressed in the second.

3 states

Means HIGH, LOW and high impedance. This means the entire chip is set to low current, high voltage. Its uses include an LED array that might need to be controlled by different micro controllers depending upon its setting.

The Pin-Outputs are.....

	PINS 1-7, 15	Q0 " Q7	Output Pins
	PIN 8	GND	Ground, Vss
	PIN 9	Q7"	Serial Out
	PIN 10	MR	Master Reclear, active low
	PIN 11	SH_CP	Shift register clock pin
	PIN 12	ST_CP	Storage register clock pin (latch pin)
	PIN 13	OE	Output enable, active low
	PIN 14	DS	Serial data input
	PIN 16	Vcc	Positive supply voltage

What happens inside the chip?

When the clockPin (SH_CP) switches from LOW to HIGH the shift register reads the state of the dataPin (DS). When the shift register is full the latch is switched to HIGH this sends the information to the storage register then to the outputPins.. The rabbit hole gets deeper... 

Creating a circuit

Turning it on

GND (pin 8) to ground

Vcc (pin 16) to 5V

OE (pin 13) to ground

MR (pin 10) to 5V

Connect to Arduino

DS (dataPin) (pin14) to Arduino DigitalPin 11

SH_CP (clockPin) (pin 11) to Ardunio DigitalPin 12

ST_CP (latchPin) (pin 12) to Arduino DigitalPin 8

So whats next..?

Well the code in example two looks interesting i can type a number into the serial and the corresponding LED will illuminate( Pin 15 is 1). I can see how the hardware side works, now ive got to work on the programming..

Phillip`s data sheet for 74HC595