So for my first arduino project, I decided to make an led cube. I bought a deumilanove and it successfully ran the 3 by 3. Now I want to make a 4 by 4 led cube, but I need more pins. That's why I've decided to use shift registers to help. My plan is to connect 2 Motorola MC74HC164N shift registers to the arduino, but I don't know how I can do this. I checked the shiftout tutorial for help on how to do it, but what threw me for a loop was that the shift register there had 2 clock pins while mine only has 1. Can you guys help me set up a diagram on how to wire up the shift registers?
Motorola MC74HC164N shift register datasheet = Motorola 74HC164 datasheet pdf
The missing 2nd clock input (latch, RCLK, ST_CP are names for it) will not be a problem if you just want to make a few LEDs go on and off.
The biggest difference between you model and the 595 is this:
The 595 uses the ST_CP line to indicate when all the 8 bits have been sent to it and the data should be regarded as valid and transfered to the output buffers. You can use this signal line to address different 595 chips and choose which one should get the data you'll be sending out. First you set ST_CP to LOW to "activate" the chip, then you send the data, then you set ST_CP to HIGH to display the data. If you don't set ST_CP to HIGH the data will be ignored and the output pins keep the state they had since the last valid data came in.
The 74HC164N does not have this storage layer to remember the last good set of data. So everything you send to the chip will immediately show up on the outputs. Therefore it has only one clock input. This may or may not be a problem for you. If you need an instant change on the outputs for all pins going from the old data to the new data, you'll need the 595 chips. If you don't mind actually seeing how the bits move keep using the 164.
Shift registers without the latch are ideal for scrolling marquee displays as every time you push a bit in all the other bits move along 1.