I'm %100 sure it's been asked before many times, but seriously can't find an answered question here.
let's say I have 5 logic outputs from a chip.
in order to OR them into a single Hi/Low signal, can I use a single 74hc32 chip as the diagram ?
My question is whether it's OK to feed an OR gate input of a chip through its own ouptut.
(thus kinda making a 5-input-single-output OR gate)
Yes that is possible, but take the propagation delays into account. These will stack for every stage you wire in series.
Therefore, propagation delays from different inputs to the output will be slightly different. In your example 1,2,4,5 will have thrice the stated prop. delay, whereas input 9 will have only twice the stated prop. delay.
When you said "feed its output to its own input" I thought you meant:
This would not work with an OR gate as it would forever output "1". Also the power-up state is undefined.
Besides that, your circuit will work fine, except propagation delays will not be matched so when several inputs change at the same time, the output may glitch before settling.
If you want faster propagation times, there are chips in the 74 series offering OR gates with more than 2 inputs, for example 74xx260, 74xx4078, etc.
