by

|   Dec  3, 2008 at  5:39pm

These can be great on breadboard projects because all the outputs are on one side and in order.

by

|   Jun 17, 2009 at  1:29pm

The name string for this product ("Shift Register 8-Bit - 74HC595") should probably say "SIPO" or "serial-in parallel-out."

by

|   Feb 15, 2010 at  6:06am

This product is actually compatible in the following ways:

i)PISO
ii)SIPO
iii)SISO
iv)PIPO

by

|   Apr  6, 2010 at  1:43pm

There is a great tutorial over at arduino.cc that explains how to use these shift registers. Find it here http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/ShiftOut

by

|   Apr 29, 2010 at  9:10am

Another tutorial on how to use this with Arduino is here: http://bit.ly/cwzmxN

by

|   May 15, 2010 at  3:52am

NEED MOAR POWA!!!!
na, but seriously though, i tried the tutorial from the arduino site and USB is not enough to power the 8 L.E.D's

by

|   May 22, 2010 at  8:03pm

I got one of these and it was defective. There was a resistance of 1.5 ohms (yes, I was reading the meter right. It was not megaohms or anything) across the power pins, so it would just cause a ground short.

by

|   Jun  3, 2010 at  9:02am

Any idea when these will come in stock?

by

|   Jun  4, 2010 at 10:51am

Ditto

by

|   Jun  8, 2010 at  3:05pm

It should be back in stock a little later this week.

by

|   Jun  8, 2010 at  3:31pm

Cool, thanks.
I'll be using these for an 8*16 led matrix that will be a 16 step chiptune-esque sequencer.

by

|   Jun 30, 2010 at 11:10am

Am I correct that the vcc pin is what actually puts the power to the output pins when they're activated? For more than a few LEDs you'd need to use external power rather than the arduino. Right?

by

|   Jul  8, 2010 at  5:53am

Anyone have a good tutorial on how to get started using this with an ATMega168 (or similar AVR)? I'd like to control a 7-segment LED with just a few pins. (I've seen those Arduino ones, but I'm writing code in C and compiling with AVR-gcc.) Thanks.

by

|   Jul  8, 2010 at 10:24am

There probably isn't a tutorial out there specifically written for interfacing a Serial In/Parallel Out shift register with an ATMega micro.

However there is most definitely tutorials/textbooks out there about implementing serial links, how shift registers work, writing code for Atmel microcontrollers, etc. I would try google first, then a university library of some sort.

Also, if you are only looking to drive a 7 segment display just use one of these:
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9622
or this IC:
http://web.mit.edu/6.s28/www/datasheets/DM74LS47.pdf

by

|   Jul 23, 2010 at  4:20am

I found this instructable to be well-written and enlightening: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-use-a-74HC595-Shift-Register-with-a-AVR-ATt/

by

|   Jul 24, 2010 at  3:49pm

How about publishing that tutorial in a PC-friendly format? I don't have anything that will open tar.tz files.

by

|   Jul 28, 2010 at  8:55pm

tar, tgz and tar.gz originate from Linux, but you can read them easily on any Windows machine using the excellent multi format archiver 7Zip (open source) :
http://www.7-zip.org/download.html
This reads and writes most archive formats, including their own increasingly popular 7z format (LZMA, better compression than zip format)