Digital Counter Display Circuit

Why Counters

Digital counters have become increasingly useful in many areas of modern life where number counts over a given range is crucial. They have found widespread applications in the laboratories, production lines, service centres, aerospace, military, computer, education, sports and many other areas of life.

Normally, an input clock signal of a given frequency determines the rate at which a Digital Counter operates. A display system is normally incorporated to digital counters so that the number counts can be visualised. 

Design Details

For this implementation, 555 timer and 74LS192 counter IC was adopted to actualize the Digital Counter that counts from 0 to 9. The 555 timer provides the input clock signal required for the counter IC. The 555 Timer design has been featured on this blog! 

The counting values are displayed using a 7 segment display. 74LS48 IC was used to decode the BCD (Binary Coded Decimal) count from the 74LS192 for display on the common cathode Seven-Segment display. You need to use 74LS47 if you are using common anode 7-segment display. The schematic of the system is presented below. 

Figure: The schematic of the Digital Counter

Results

The result from the constructed system is sampled in video 1. For a better understanding of the schematic, watch video 2. 

Video 1: Counter with 555 Timer input clock of 1 seconds

Video 2: 0 to 99 Counter simulation

End Note

Sets of this Digital Counter can also be cascaded further to realise a Digital Clock.