Okay, so I decided to play with PNP's, and it looks like I can use the original 74LS138 (3 to 8 decoder) but without the invertor chip IF I use PNP's. Theres not much of a price change so I could swap back and forth depending on availability. However..... Transistors appear to have a decay rate which means I get "ghosting", and in the dark, its pretty bad. They dont switch off right away, but take a little time. either that, or they switch on a little too quickly (which I think is more likely) so you get a small echo before the column actually swaps.
I'll play with the code a little as it may be just a case that I need to pause a little before swapping data channels or something.
However, that problem aside, there does appear to be either a power, or serial issue, as the display is freezing. That is, it stops scrolling. Now since it still displays a solid image, I know the PIC is still runing (or I'd only get a single verticle line), which leads me to think its going out of sync with the serial, OR getting reset or something. its very odd whatever it is.....
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