595 tester like thing

[Zane]

I am looking for some help designing a tester for 595's that sends the right information to the chips to turn on all channels at once and then stop sending the information. It would have a binary counter so you can chose how many chips that you want to send this information. Any help on this one?

side note* I wasn't intending this to be used as a real tester but it could be. im just trying to make a little alarm like thing.

[pete]

It's called Vixen.....LOL

Vixen has a channel test (two checked boxes in a bigger box) You can do just what you said. turn all on/off or choose individual channels to turn on/off.

Pete

[Zane]

I know that but i was looking for something external to do it. all i want to have attached to the 595 board is the power supply and the sensors that im going to be useing

[ErnieHorning]

I’ve always just used the PC’s parallel port. I used to write a short program that I could modify. Now I just use Vixen.

What you’re asking for would probably be best done with a micro though. This way you could just use a binary switch to set the number of channels.

[P. Short]

I'm not sure about everything that Zane wants (especially why he wants a counter), but couldn't it be done with just an NE555 (output connected to both the clock and latch enable)?

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Phil

[Zane]

the counter is just mechanical switches that use basically binary to count how many chips that you are going to be sending the information to.

[P. Short]

Why do you care how many chips there are? If you are using a mechanical switch, why not just continue writing until the switch is opened again? It's not like there is any point in stopping at just 64 clocks (or however many circuits there are).

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Phil