be careful what you ask for ...
Greetings, NewToIt,
you said:
For a digital display you could use the same method each digit in the output would then require 4 outputs. I know their is a simpler way ...
there is (usually) a way to drive a four digit display unit using only eight output wires ... but it's not simpler, it's much more complicated ... first of all, the display must support "strobing" ... but then most of them do ...
read this:
previous thread about thumbwheels and digital displays
and then post again if you want to go further and need help ...
here is a preview of the basic approach that I used years ago to help students understand the problem ... this should be the first step in writing the program ...
first delete all of the program rungs from your processor ...
then manually turn on the proper output bit pattern for a BCD display of "1" ... then manually turn on the strobe bit for the 1000's digit ... the 1000's digit should light up as a "1" ... now turn off the strobe bit for the 1000's digit ... the 1000's digit should now stay a "1" ...
then manually turn on the proper output bit pattern for a BCD display of "2" ... then manually turn on the strobe bit for the 100's digit ... the 100's digit should light up as a "2" ... now turn off the strobe bit for the 100's digit ... the 100's digit should now stay a "2" ...
then manually turn on the proper output bit pattern for a BCD display of "3" ... then manually turn on the strobe bit for the 10's digit ... the 10's digit should light up as a "3" ... now turn off the strobe bit for the 10's digit ... the 10's digit should now stay a "3" ...
then manually turn on the proper output bit pattern for a BCD display of "4" ... then manually turn on the strobe bit for the 1's digit ... the 1's digit should light up as a "4" ... now turn off the strobe bit for the 1's digit ... the 1's digit should now stay a "4" ...
so now the display should be reading "1234" ... and you've only used four wires for the BCD output signals and four wires for the strobe output signals ... a total of eight wires ... now "ALL" you have to do is write a program to automatically handle all of those steps that you just performed manually ... this is not a trivial task ... give it your best shot and post your code if you run into too much trouble ...