I was struck by a sudden realization.
It grows. Slowly but surely, it's expanding.
I'm not sure exactly what "it" is, yet -- right now it's functioning as a digital combination lock, though the hardware itself is generic enough to take on a multitude of other roles. I'm giving serious consideration to investing in some cheap TTL logic gates, in order to split the relatively meager amount of inputs/outputs (14 digital I/O, 6 analog input) into a multitude of possibilities. If you don't know what I'm referring to yet, I'm talking about things like AND, OR, XOR logic gates mounted on little chips, so combinations of digital signals can be converted into a multitude of additional possibilities, and a few well-placed capacitors can easily make up for any slight lag in processing cycles.
(As a quick example, primary AND and XOR gates (one of each) linked up to both pins 1 and 2, along with two secondary AND gates with one pin linked to pin 1 or 2 (depending on which secondary gate it is), the other pin of each linked into the output of the XOR. Here is the worst diagram ever, to demonstrate.) I expect I'd probably custom-build splitter boards like this, perhaps each splitting four inputs/outputs at a time (for a total of 15, potential), then chain them together. Modular design makes me happy. (Update: I believe I can make a 4->13 conversion with 12 AND gates, and 3 XOR.)
Of course it's all theory right now, but I'm almost certain I can make it work, though it's going to start sprawling across a multitude of breadboards and will require some custom C libraries to be written to handle the whole thing. I think this is largely why I got started in electronics in the first place -- out of the desire to create some kind of functional behemoth which knows no limits, slowly spreading larger and larger as the months go by, existing for no purpose than to grow.
I think I'll name it Daoloth.
I'm not sure exactly what "it" is, yet -- right now it's functioning as a digital combination lock, though the hardware itself is generic enough to take on a multitude of other roles. I'm giving serious consideration to investing in some cheap TTL logic gates, in order to split the relatively meager amount of inputs/outputs (14 digital I/O, 6 analog input) into a multitude of possibilities. If you don't know what I'm referring to yet, I'm talking about things like AND, OR, XOR logic gates mounted on little chips, so combinations of digital signals can be converted into a multitude of additional possibilities, and a few well-placed capacitors can easily make up for any slight lag in processing cycles.
(As a quick example, primary AND and XOR gates (one of each) linked up to both pins 1 and 2, along with two secondary AND gates with one pin linked to pin 1 or 2 (depending on which secondary gate it is), the other pin of each linked into the output of the XOR. Here is the worst diagram ever, to demonstrate.) I expect I'd probably custom-build splitter boards like this, perhaps each splitting four inputs/outputs at a time (for a total of 15, potential), then chain them together. Modular design makes me happy. (Update: I believe I can make a 4->13 conversion with 12 AND gates, and 3 XOR.)
Of course it's all theory right now, but I'm almost certain I can make it work, though it's going to start sprawling across a multitude of breadboards and will require some custom C libraries to be written to handle the whole thing. I think this is largely why I got started in electronics in the first place -- out of the desire to create some kind of functional behemoth which knows no limits, slowly spreading larger and larger as the months go by, existing for no purpose than to grow.
I think I'll name it Daoloth.