The part I don't get is how do you use a couple of diodes to stop. I don't have any real experience with counters or dividers.
have a look at https://tinyurl.com/23jvjxtj the top counter just keep counting from 0 to 15 ,the bottom one gets to 9 (q0 and q3 high),on the next clock pulse outputs q1 and q3 are the next to go high,causing the and output to go high which resets the counter back to 0
I get the overall concept. It's the finer details that somewhat elude me I think I just need to get a a circuit together and play with it. Thank you for that cool simulation. I've played with that simulation tool in the past I think it is incredibly underrated for what it is.