[sdiy] TTL Etiquette?

[Metrophage]

I know, I am working on entirely too many projects at once, racing the
decreasing temperature of the garage.

This spring I bought my first laptop, a PowerBook 1400. Kind of like a
jeep, it is very rugged and easy to modify or repair. Parts are
plentiful and cheep. My intention was to use this as a portable MIDI
sequencer. It works well with my multi-port Studio4 interface, but not
the little "Professional Plus" I thought I'd use with it. Talking with
some people formerly of Opcode Systems, and a little reading on RS-422
data communications revealed why this portable interface only works
with very strong serial ports... there are no balanced line drivers or
recievers for the clock and signals!

So this is my entry point to TTL stuff. I used a typical idea for
deriving a 1 MHZ signal from an available 4 MHZ crystal. I got some LS
TTL chips for i/o and buffers… my layout looks compact.... but I am
worried about the unused pins on the buffers and line reciever. I know
this is probably very basic stuff, but I am worried that I should
perhaps tie them to ground, or +5v, or just to each other. Maybe some
unused pins I should orient a certain way, but others I may not need
to? I figured I'd ask about the experiences of people here while I am
deciding upon the wiring and component placement before I solder
anything.
Any ideas? Thanks!

CJ


		
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