[Trimmed down from an article in comp.os.linux.development.system
 by joev@mikasa.WPI.EDU]

Parts Required
--------------

1  Small piece of perfboard   (RS 276-150a)
1  10-bar LED display         (RS 276-081b)
10 150 Ohm Resisters          (2 * RS 271-1312)
1  25pin Male D-Sub Connector (These two items came from)                       
?  =>9 conductor cable        (an old printer cable     )

Pin Assignments
---------------

Pin 1 is near the chamfer on the DIP
casing.                                  pin 20 (ground)
                                         |
               150ohm       1    LED     |
pin 2 (D0) ----/\/\/-------+-----|>|-----+
                            2            |
pin 3 (D1) ----/\/\/-------+-----|>|-----+
                            3            |
pin 4 (D2) ----/\/\/-------+-----|>|-----+
                            4            |
pin 5 (D3) ----/\/\/-------+-----|>|-----+
                            5            |
pin 6 (D4) ----/\/\/-------+-----|>|-----+
                            6            |
pin 7 (D5) ----/\/\/-------+-----|>|-----+
                            7            |
pin 8 (D6) ----/\/\/-------+-----|>|-----+
                            8            |
pin 9 (D7) ----/\/\/-------+-----|>|-----+

Note: 2 of the LEDs weren't connected. Since the resisters come
in packs of five, I went ahead and hooked up the remaining resistors
to the LEDs... I suspect I can use them to keep tabs on my Ethernet
card or drives...
