Hardware Controll

[octopi]

I think you mean a diode zylum
Diodes only allow electrons to flow in one direction.


Keyboards, and mice (PS/2) are serial devices. They work by sending there data serially (using a clock)
You could hook on up to a serial port..(thats what a serial to ps/2 convertor does)


I'm building a project right now that consists of an LED matrix
(5x7), and an atmel at90s2313 microcontroller, and a AT keyboard.

You push a letter on the keyboard, and it shows the led in the matrix.
Right now I'm waiting for my latest shipment to come in, and I'm also working on connecting the keyboard to the atmel, it should be pretty easy to do, I just don't have any time

[the_short1]

you should take a picture of taht and post on compsci.... taht would look sweet.... waht color of LED's are you going to be using, and/or are they going to be SuperBright ones...(light bulb apears white, but color is different)

[octopi]

Um, since I'm not a crazy mofo.

I'm using one of these
http://www.jameco.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prmenbr=91&prrfnbr=3090&cgrfnbr=501&ctgys=
So I don't have to wire millions of led's together

The above thing uses common anode coloumns and common cathode rows, you multiplex it to make an image. (Multiplexing is how a tv works, on a tv theres an electron gun shooting across the screen one pixel at a time, but it does it at such a fast rate that your eye sees it as one thing, due to 'persistance of vision')
Multiplexing a LED Matrix, basically consists of turning one coloumn on at a time, and then you also supply power to the row.

code:

A   B   C    D        1  X        2        3  X        4

If I wanted to turn those two leds on, I'd turn coloumn A on, and supply power to 1, and 3

Multiplexing basically just saves the number of IO lines you need on your microprocessor.

[Jodo Yodo]

Wow, that's really cool. I didn't know that Turing could manipulate the hardware.