title: Connecting output pins to input pins
body: <p>I'm pretty much a beginner with hands on electronics so I've decided to throw myself in at the shallow end with an arduino uno r3.</p>
  
  <p>I've started a project and am happy dealing with leds, lcd displays and simple buttons but the project uses a home phone keypad that has 8 pins which, depending on the combination of pins bridged tells you which button has been pressed.</p>
  
  <p>For example, if power is applied to pin 1
   - if pin 5 has power then button 4 is pressed
   - if pin 6 has power then button 1 is pressed
   - if pin 7 has power then button 7 is pressed
   - if pin 8 has power then button * is pressed</p>
  
  <p>My plan is to use 4 digital output pins and 4 digital (/ analog?) input pins. I'll set the first digital pin to high and check the value at each of the 4 inputs. Then move onto the second output and so on.</p>
  
  <p>Am I going to blow some pins up on the arduino by connecting an output to an input? If not I'll continue.</p>
  
  <p>Or, is there a better way?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks in advance.</p>