I am looking to control a Maxim 6954 IC (4 wire 7 segment led driver with I/O expander) with a computer through a serial port via VB6 program. I imagine I need some type of serial controller or can I hook the chip up directly to the port??? Anyhow any direction would be greatly appreciated!!!

thank you
curtis

 

I'm not sure it's going to work. Are you familiar with the SPI interface? It is not related to the RS-232 serial interface. Here is a link to some information - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_Peripheral_Interface_Bus.

You might need a microcontroller to act as an RS-232 to SPI bridge.

 

My mistake I thought RS-232 and SPI was the same.

What I am trying to do is control 16, 7-segment led displays via a VB6 program from my computer...does anyone have any suggestions as of the best route???
thank you so much.