13

Counters and Oscillators

Due date: Sunday, November 22 (midnight) Reading: HH sections 8.03, 8.25, 5.14, 5.19 (pgs. 473478, 524525, 286291, 300-303) Though specialized, the counter is possibly the single most likely digital circuit that you are likely to use. We will see how typical counters work, and also how to interface data with an LED display. Of course, counters and many other circuits often require a clock as well, and we will discuss two types of oscillator circuits that can serve this purpose. Note that we wont end up using the circuit from last week, you can clean it up to make space on your breadboard.

13.1

Binary Counter

The 74LS193 chip is a typical 4-bit binary counter. It has several useful features: it can count up or down, it can be initialized to an arbitary value, and it has outputs to faciliate cascading multiple chips. Figure 1 shows the pin designations, with the following descriptions: Vcc, Ground: Supply voltages as usual. Qi : Output bit i. Bit A is the least signicant. Up: Increments counter output by one when a rising edge is received. Down: Decrements counter output by one when a rising edge is received. Clear: When high, forces all output low. Load: When low, each output Qi is set to the value at input Di . Carry: Goes low when output wraps from 1111 to 0000 when counting up. Borrow: Goes low when output wraps from 0000 to 1111 when counting down. Note that a trigger input (Up or Down) that is not being used must be held in the high state. Wire up the chip with Clear tied to ground and the Down trigger tied to 5 V. Drive the Up trigger with the Sync pulse from your function generator, with a frequency of 1 Hz. Monitor the outputs Qi with channels 0-3 of the digital reader, and verify that they count up at the expected rate. Drive the Down trigger instead and verify that the output counts down.

B B A

1 2 3 4 5

16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 C D A

C D

6 7 8

Figure 1: Pin designations for 74LS193 4-bit binary counter. 1

Note, by the way, that if you include the trigger signal itself as data, you really have ve bits of counting capacity. If more capacity is needed, it is easy to cascade multiple chips. Put your counter back into the upward counting mode. Then get a second 74LS193 and wire it up like the rst, but take the Up trigger from the Carry output of the rst chip. Monitor the four new outputs on channels 4-7 of the digital reader, and verify that the eight output bits together count from 0 to 255.

13.2

LED Display

Watching the counter output on the Digital Reader is not very satisfying, nor practical. Let us instead display the result on an LED numerical display. The HP 5082-7340 display is convenient, because it has built in logic and drivers to convert a binary number to the appropriate combination of illuminated LED bars. It displays one digit in hexadecimal notation (4 bits), so you will need two displays. The pinouts for the 5082 are shown in Fig. 2. Here In1 refers to the 1s-place bit, In2 refers to the 2s-place bit, etc. The Latch input causes the display to hold its current value while the input is high. The Blank input causes the display to go dark while the input is high. For our purpose, they should both be tied low. Wire up both displays, using the four bits from the rst counter to drive one and the four bits from the second counter to drive the other. Verify that when the circuit is on, it counts properly from 00 to FF. Try increasing the frequency of the clock signal. How fast can it go so that you can still tell that the numbers are counting correctly?

13.3

Binary-Coded Decimal

Of course, we dont usually work in hexadecimal notation. When working with numbers meant to interface with humans, the normal practice is to use the binary-coded decimal (BCD) convention. Here counting is done in base ten, but the numbers are stored in binary representation. A 4-bit BCD counters output would thus go:

8 7 6 5

1 2 3 4

In2 In4 In8 Blank

1 2 3 4

8 7 6 5

In1 Vcc GND Latch

Bottom View

Top View

Figure 2: Pin designations for the HP 5082-7340 LED hexadecimal display. Note the identier dot on the bottom of the package.

0000 (0) 0001 (1) 0010 (2) 0011 (3) 0100 (4) 0101 (5) 0110 (6) 0111 (7) 1000 (8) 1001 (9) 0000 (0) etc The four bits are not used as eciently as in a binary counter, but in most situations, bits are cheap. When you need to convert binary data to BCD, you can use chips like the 74184/74185. (The 184 converts BCD to binary, and the 185 converts binary to BCD.) For small circuits, however, it is more likely to be convenient to simply work in BCD throughout. For instance, the 74LS192 is a BCD counter that is pin-compatable with the 74LS193. Try simply replacing both 193 chips with 192s. Does your display now count in decimal? Make sure you understand why you dont need to change the display chip too. If you were storing data in a RAM chip, would it matter whether it were binary or BCD? One warning: encountering BCD where you dont expect it can be very confusing. If you are looking at a binary signal and see the sequence 01110011, you would normally interpret it as hex 73, or decimal 115. With BCD coding, however, it represents decimal 73 (hex 49). These are simply not the same, and if you dont know which coding is being used, you cant be sure what the value is. Its good to be aware of this ambiguity.

13.4

Timer

So far we have been using the function generator signal for our clock, but if you were building a real circuit, you would not typically want to rely on an external signal. There exist a variety of easy ways to generate an oscillating signal of your own. One of the most convenient is the 7555 timer chip, shown in Fig. 3. The core logic is shown in part (b). Here the op amps are serving as comparators, which we will see more of in the next lab. Since there is no negative feedback, the op amp output simply rails postive or negative depending on whether the positive or negative input signal is higher. To operate as an oscillator, the 7555 is wired as in part (c). Also, the Reset signal must be tied high. Since Trig and Threshold are tied together, refer to their common value as T. Dene , , and as in the diagram, so that we can refer to them while analyzing the circuit. Suppose that T is initially low. Then will be low and high. Since is high, the lower NOR is false and will be low. That makes the upper NOR true, and thus the output is high. The capacitor will therefore begin to charge, with time constant RC . Eventually, the T signal reaches Vcc /3, causing to go low. Since the output is high, the lower NOR is still false and remains low and the output doesnt change. Continue this analysis as the capacitor continues to charge. What happens next, and 3

Vcc Threshold

Out

Gnd Trig Out Reset

1 2 3 4

8 7 6 5

Vcc Discharge Threshold Control

Out

Threshold, Trig
C

Trig

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure 3: (a) Pin designations for 7555 timer. (b) Core logic functionality. Note that the Reset, Discharge, and Control signals are not shown; consult the datasheet for more information. (c) External wiring for operation as an oscillator. then what happens after that? Demonstrate that the output will oscillate with a frequency on the order of 1/RC . In fact, if you work through the math of the exponential charging and discharging functions, you nd the oscillation frequency should be 1/(1.4 RC). Wire up a 7555 chip, using a 200 pF capacitor and a 100 k resistor. Verify that the output oscillates and compare its frequency to the expected value. You will probably want to measure R and C to make an accurate comparison. Replace the resistor with a 100k pot. What is the maximum frequency the circuit can produce? Choose a resistor/capacitor pair to give a 1 Hz signal, noting that the device manufacturer recommends using a larger R and a smaller C to minimize the output current required. Use your timer signal to drive your counter, so that you have a self-contained circuit. Two notes: First, the 7555 (and a handful of similar chips) are CMOS versions of the original NE555 TTL chip, which is still available. However, the 555 chip draws a substantial current spike from the power supply when it switches, and it can be dicult to prevent that spike from aecting other parts of your circuit. The 7555 does not have that problem. Second, the 555 and its relatives can do considerably more than just oscillate. It can be wired to act as a monostable multivibrator, the oscillation frequency can be modulated, the pulse width can be varied, and various other possibilities. If you have an electronics problem involving the generation of some kind of timed pulses, it would be worth looking through some application notes for the 555 chip.

13.5

Quartz-crystal Oscillators

It is dicult to achieve timing precision better than about 0.1% using the 7555 timer, or any other RC-based circuit, due to thermal drifts in the component values. When greater precision is required, the preferred solution is the quartz oscillator. This consists of a quartz crystal that is precisely cut so that it vibrates mechanically at a particular frequency. Quartz 4

74HC04

10M 100k

Crystal 20 pF 20 pF

(a)

(b)

Figure 4: (a) Equivalent electronic circuit for a quartz crystal. (b) Oscillator circuit based on a quartz crystal. is a piezo-electric material, so when it is subject to strain, it generates an voltage at its surface and vice versa. It is therefore possible to drive the mechanical vibration with an electronic signal. The resulting system is somewhat complicated, but it works out that the crystal acts electronically as the circuit of Fig. 4(a). Such a circuit could of course be constructed electrically, but the advantage here is that the resonant frequency is stable to typically a few parts per million. Quartz crystal oscillators are used, for instance, to generate the timing in standard wristwatches, where 1 ppm corresponds to an error of about 1 second per week. The simplest way to generate an oscillating signal using a quartz crystal is with the circuit of Fig. 4(b). Here the rst NOT gate is unstable, since its output drives its input. The arrangement of resistors and capacitors ensures that the instability is large enough to permit oscillation at the crystal frequency. The second NOT gate serves as a buer, to ensure that the output signal has a standard logic level and that loads on the circuit do not aect the oscillation. Wire up this circuit using a 74HC04 CMOS chip and a 1-MHz crystal. Also, lter the chips power supply pin with a 1 F capacitor. Adjust the resistor to obtain oscillation. The signal will be clearer if you use a 10 scope probe. Measure the duration of ten periods and compare the resulting frequency to the expected value. It is likely that any error you see is due to the scope, rather than the crystal. Try replacing the 1-MHz crystal with a 4-MHz and a 12-MHz crystal. You will likely need to readjust the pot for each. Are you able to achieve oscillation? The 12-MHz crystal may be dicult; can you guess what the problem most likely is? When you are nished, clean up your circuits. In the next lab, we will look at converting between analog and digital signals.