I got to thinking about ways to use shift registers and had an idea which as far as I can tell, I can't find yet online.
I'm not saying that it isn't out there, it may be but since I can't seem to find it I'll run it by you guys and tell me what you think.
So lets take 2 or more 74HC595 shift registers and wire them in parallel where all the pins except Q(x) and Latch are tied together.
Then the MCU sends out the data and latches #1, then sends out the data and latches #2 and so on.
So all the shift registers are getting the data but only the latched one pushes it through and in theory shouldn't the other ones hold their previous outputs until latched again?
Assuming this would work, wouldn't it mean just needing one more pin each time you put a shift register in?
So is this a silly idea that would never work, a bad idea, or something that's been done a million times over and I just never was able to find it?