not at all,
you can create a fixed pattern 8-channel signal generator with: a bios Flash, n-bit bit counter and a clock ( '555 0r 7404 rc )
use the counter to address the bytes in the flash on the data output you can get the pattern
ah! the bios flash must be strictly a recover part from old MB :-)
you can easly create sequence up to 256*1024-1 states ....
This is one of those interesting solutions that says/asks,
Yes it can be done this way, but wouldn't be cheaper, simpler, faster to use a micro ??
Now you need a programmer to program the flash chip !!
With a micro, you can use a serial port to re-program your message and save it in internal EEPROM.
Or even easier and very cheap:
go to google and enter "LED name badges"
Heres a start:
Donald
Yea, I meant to say Ooooops!
the micro is THE solution if you do the real project , the flash solution, to do some complex state machine have the advantage that can be done with junk box parts , like some counters and the recovered flash , and more important can be an useful idea for other application where the micro can't substain the higer speed of an hardware project, you can say "switch to CPLD or FPGA for even better performance" but I can say "they have a non zero cost".
the net response to the original question is "use the micro, luke"
but the interesting thing of the news , I think, is let serach for more extravagant solution that can be used in some other application
and last bit a flash programmer can be made with junk box parts and can be very useful.
Whoooops! Guess ya got me on that'n! ;-P
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