In this tutorial, we are going to make a “Seven Segment Counter Circuit”.
You must have seen digital counters and timing devices with athletes or in different outdoor game fields like badminton, football, cricket, etc. It must be a stopwatch or a timer that helps you to note your time, or to count your time, steps, or runs. Here we design a simple seven-segment counter circuit with timer IC 555 and Decade counter IC 4026(To use the 7 segments with ease, there is a 7-segment driver IC which is IC CD4026) and then a common cathode type seven-segment LED. 7 segment counter circuit is a counter circuit that counts numbers. We count everything, to project or show the count value we need a number display. This circuit will show and increase the number of a digit when the count key is pressed.
Hardware Required
| S.no | Component | Value | Qty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | IC | 4026 | 1 |
| 2. | IC | NE555 Timer | 1 |
| 3. | CC Seven Segment LED | – | 1 |
| 4. | Resistor | 10KΩ , 68KΩ | 3,1 |
| 5. | Capacitor | 1μF, 22μF | 1,1 |
| 6. | Push button switch | – | 2 |
| 7. | Connecting Wires | – | – |
| 8. | Battery | 9V | 1 |
Circuit Diagram
IC 4026 Pin Configuration
Seven Segment Display
Working Explanation
As we can see in the circuit first the timer IC 555 is configured as a monostable multivibrator. Here to give negative trigger input a Push-button switch is connected to the Trigger pin, which is depending on the timing resistor R2 and timing capacitor C1 timer IC to produce a monostable pulse. Capacitor C2 and resistor R3 give balance bias to monostable pulse and then decade counter IC 4026 receives pulse through Clock input pin 1. Each pulse increases the count value of IC 4026 and gives seven-segment numerical output to drive a seven-segment LED. The output pin of counter IC 10, 12, 13, 9, 11, 6, and 7 are wired with the seven-segment pins of a, b, c, d, e, f, and, g respectively. The count value can be reset by pressing the reset push button or it will repeat 0 to 9 counts in ascending order for each clock input. Hence as a timer, IC 555 works as a monostable multivibrator and produces a single pulse when the count key is pressed. Decade counter IC 4026 receives pulse as a clock and counts each clock then drives a seven-segment LED to show the number.
Applications
These seven-segment displays are widely used in digital clocks, meters, and calculators.
