Basic counter circuit
7400, 7476

We've mentioned from time to time in earlier Projects that digital circuits can "count," Here's a Project that's an example of a very simple coumer circuit.

You'll see a NAND multivibrator circuit in the schematic for this Project. The output of the multivibrator serves a double purpose here, it turns LED 2 on and off and also serves as a clock impulse for the flip-flop.

Put the power ON. The result is that LED 1 and LED 2 flash on and off in turn.

But if you think about this circuit for a moment, you'll realize that it is actually counting the pulses made by the multivibrator. Of course, since there's only two pulses from the multivibrator, this counter circuit doesn't count very high.

Yet the same principle is used for other counter circuits. Can you figure out how to use flip-flops to make counters which can count higher?

Keep notes on what you think ... because we're going to find out how in the next few Projects.