Front panels

[Charles Anthony]

The front panel I want to build is for my DPS8-M (aka Honeywell 6180)
emulator.

http://8bitaficionado.com/2010/09/22/multics-honeywell-6180-mainframe-panel-on-ebay/

(Now it's a pretty big panel, so I'm thinking 1/4 scale.)

I'm mostly interested in the lights; having functional switches would be
nice, but not critical.

(My background: good grasp of basic digital electronics; did some wirewrap
boards back in the early eighties. Poor soldering skills, no workshop. Mad
software skillz.)

I would like to build it reasonably cheaply.

So I would start with a simple SBC; Beaglebone or the like, that can
function as a USB device. I can write the S/W to push a bunch of bits down
to it.

What I don't know how to do is drive 500 or so LEDs.

I am guessing a bunch of shift registers, but I've pretty much reached my
design limits. I need some guidance on locating and understanding the
technology to run that many LEDs.


TIA,

-- Charles