🚀 go-pugleaf

	I have what seems to be a very simple problem, although my
knowledge in this area is very limited.  The problem is this:

	I have two 12 position switches that select settings on
a High Voltage Electron Microscope (it's trivial what they control).


	What I want to do is connect a series of eight 14-segment
alphanumeric LED's to each of them and then have each positon on each
switch correspond to a different "canned" 8 character message.
There will be a total of 12 different messages (one for each position
on a switch.  Both switches control the same 12 functions but 
independently).

	I am somewhat familiar with decoder/drivers for these 
displays and I thought of using a diode matrix, but my solution
came out with about 500 diodes.  It was suggested to me to use
a single board CPU (such as an old Z80) with either a non-volatile
RAM or an EPROM and tie the decoder/drivers to the memory bus.
This solution seems feasible to me, but is a little beyond my knowledge
to be cost/time effective.

	Another idea was to use an old PC we have and either
use a D/A board or the serial/parallel ports somehow.

	If anyone knows of any solution or pointers to
where I can find some information/books on this problem
I would be greatly indebted.  Please excuse my ignorance
in this area (as I stated in the beginning, my knowledge of
this is very limited).
			TIA,
				Paul

p.s. - please e-mail me if possible, I seldom read this newsgroup.





Paul Connally            	paulc@boulder.colorado.edu
University of Colorado  	High Voltage Electron Microscope Lab
MCDB  -  Box 347 		"A higher potential for 
Boulder, CO  80309		                 better penetration."