If I wanted to drive 3, 7-segment displays and have 3 inputs connected to an AVR using the least amount of pins, would a multiplexer help me do that? Or would I use a multiplexer?
Slightly off-topic. Correct me if I'm wrong, but a Shift Register is alot like a multiplexer(actually prob more like a demultiplexer) but it uses serial to communicate correct?
Multiplexers, Shift registers and Decoders are all different kind of devices. All solutions discussed here so far are Decoders.
I used serial to 8bit parallel shift registers in a big 7-segment clock project recently. Shift registers allow you to easily add more segments to the construction when needed. I had an AVR to drive the display.