The circuit shown here is of a simple 0 to 9 display that can be employed in a lot of applications. The circuit is based on asynchronous decade counter 7490(IC2), a 7 segment display (D1), and a seven segment decoder/driver IC 7446 (IC1).
The seven segment display consists of 7 LEDs labelled ‘a’ through ‘g’. By forward biasing different LEDs, we can display the digits 0 through 9. Seven segment displays are of two types, common cathode and common anode. In common anode type anodes of all the seven LEDs are tied together, while in common cathode type all cathodes are tied together. The seven segment display used here is a common anode type .Resistor R1 to R7 are current limiting resistors. IC 7446 is a decoder/driver IC used to drive the seven segment display.
Working of this circuit is very simple. For every clock pulse the BCD output of the IC2 (7490) will advance by one bit. The IC1 (7446) will decode this BCD output to corresponding the seven segment form and will drive the display to indicate the corresponding digit.
- The circuit can be assembled on a perf board.
- Use 5V DC for powering the circuit.
- The clock can be given to the pin 14 of IC2.
- D1 must be a seven segment common anode display.
- All ICs must be mounted on holders.