Make:

• AVR demo platform rocks the color VGA +audio
• Send GPS data to your computer without a microcontroller
• Gloves warn you of the outside temperature
• Homebrew iPod remote allows for easy control for the visually impaired
• Octopulse instrument
• Programmable IR Receiver

wow, I'm on make within an hour, this has filled me with soo much joy.

Oh and I swear if the oracle comes around and bursts my bubble...

That's an interesting idea. Of course you can do just about anything this way you can with ICs.

But...the way you should be using the diodes and transistors is not "shorting things out". That's just wrong. It is not at all the way the "real" chips do it.

I once built something very similar to what you have here except mine took 4-bit binary input and gave the full hexidecimal output. I also allowed myself 7400 series logic chips (my restriction was no programmable chips).

If you do it properly (like a real LED driver chip would do it), or at least using proper electronics principles, this can be a great project idea, and very educational. If you're just shorting out LEDs with diodes...well it's your time to waste.

BTW, if you do this the "right", you'll find those k-maps I referred to earlier very useful in setting up.

And if you call that breadboard full...well don't be so sloppy. All 23 diodes on a board that size wouldn't be very full.

I hope David Cook is in the running for this one:

http://www.robotroom.com/AlphanumericDisplay.html

the oracle: I'm glad you were more polite this time. This is actually how Diode matrix roms work, the short is a controlled short, using a resistor to control the current. Real led driver chips use transistors, and I was trying to see how much I could do without transistors. Right now I'm designing an adding machine that uses no transistors, only leds for a display, resistors to control current, buttons for input, and diodes for logic.

my board was full, 23 diodes, that's 46 leads
8 dip switch, thats 16 leads
led display, thats 10 leads
adding all up that'd be 72 leads.

my breadboard has 230 points, + power strips, which were used for power and ground.
230 minus 72 = 158
minus one side of the dip all for ground
158 - 40 = 118
minus 2 rows for the display ground
118 - 10 = 108
minus the resistor space
108 - 7 = 101.

I have 101 holes open, that may seam like a lot, but remember, on the dipswitch and the display I only have 4 holes on each row to work with, and there's a lot more leds for each one than four.

Plus when I get more diodes on stuff begins to short. I can't make the leads shorter because there's holes under it which needs more diodes.

ok oracle, I'm sorry for everything bad, can we just stop arguing? I appreciate your constructive critism, I'd appreciate it even more without the insults.

The Coleco paddle was all diodes. I made a Flash version of one I got off of Ebay. I was going to do a bit more with it, but shiny objects distracted me:

http://garyfixler.com/coleco.swf

You can play with the full paddle on the right. Click all of its buttons, and click+drag the control stick around to see which pathways light up. It's a pretty ingenious design, and I love those old hand-drawn '80s traces.

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