Author Topic: Looking for a electronics kit....binary counter  (Read 2659 times)

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Offline golashTopic starter

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Looking for a electronics kit....binary counter
« on: March 20, 2015, 02:08:38 am »
Hi All
I'm just starting out in electronics and found this great video.

I would like to find a kit I could build similar to the video but with
8 segment display for the binary and the whole numbers. The 8 segment
option seems more elegant than LED's.
I did a search but didn't find anything.

Thanks
 

Offline Alex Eisenhut

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Re: Looking for a electronics kit....binary counter
« Reply #1 on: March 20, 2015, 03:13:32 am »
Hi All
I'm just starting out in electronics and found this great video.

I would like to find a kit I could build similar to the video but with
8 segment display for the binary and the whole numbers. The 8 segment
option seems more elegant than LED's.
I did a search but didn't find anything.

Thanks

You probably meant 7 segment display?
Hoarder of 8-bit Commodore relics and 1960s Tektronix 500-series stuff. Unconventional interior decorator.
 

Offline SL4P

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Re: Looking for a electronics kit....binary counter
« Reply #2 on: March 20, 2015, 03:55:00 am »
You may be jumping ahead of yourself a little.
Get the binary counter working first - so you get the idea of bits, 2^n and ripple counters.

To add a 7(8) segment LED will simply give you four blinking LED segments without any 'digits' displayed.
(They're just different shaped LEDs!) - or you can spend $ on a digit with decoding built-in....

Your next step may be understanding the various methods to decode the 4-bit binary into the LED 7-segment positions...
This could be a BCD to 7-segment decoder chip, or perhaps a diode array to light the appropriate segments for each digit's shape.  The diode array is a better idea for learning - as it will teach you a lot more about the underlying electronics and logic than buying a black chip.
(Keep an eye on the current capability of the various outputs!)

Also you have to decide how you want to drive the LED segments (Common Anode or Common Cathode) - which in turn will define how you select, drive & connect up the LED 'decoder'.

Simply - ONE DIGIT:
   4-bit counter
   BCD to 7-segment decoder
   7-segment LED display

Then you can choose how to cycle between 0-F (hex), or restrict the counting range to 0-9 (decimal)...
There's always more than one way, and even more things you can add later...
Once all the above is working - swap out the discrete 4-bit counter for a single TTL 74-series chip...
or the countr and decoder for a CMOS 40xx chip...  (no numbers - you have to find them !)

EDIT: Just found this page - explains a lot for you:
COUNTERS: http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/counter/count_1.html
DECODE & DISPLAY: http://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/combination/comb_6.html
« Last Edit: March 20, 2015, 06:39:50 am by SL4P »
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Offline digsys

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Re: Looking for a electronics kit....binary counter
« Reply #3 on: March 20, 2015, 03:55:33 am »
Well, 7 Segment + DP
There are heaps of kits out there for this kind of thing, literally 100's. What country are you in?
Hello <tap> <tap> .. is this thing on?
 

Offline golashTopic starter

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Re: Looking for a electronics kit....binary counter
« Reply #4 on: March 20, 2015, 11:23:22 am »
Hi
Thanks for the great explanation-SL4P. I'm in the US.
 


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