Counter chips

[nwagers]

how do you plan on using the serial output of the chip? to input into one of the digital inputs on the rc? I suggest using two / 16 counters (74191) cascaded to give you 255 combinations input those into a seperate stamp then use resistors to weight the outputs of that stamp 1-2-4-5-16-32-64-128 and input that to an analog input. Toggle a relay (make sure you regulate it (7805)) so you can reset the counter (load all 0's). Use the stamp to create a pulse for a reset. The seperate stamp needs to output the total counts since the last reset because there will be a difference in time between the rc input and the toggle on the relay (your reset pulse). It's possible to do this in a similar fashion using serial inputs but I think it would be far too slow based on the rc timing.