How Digital Clocks Work ?

Rima BOUBEGHEL

Telecommunications & Networking

 The best way to understand the different components of a digital clock and how
they work together is to actually walk through the steps of building your own clock.
Here we will build just the "seconds" part of the clock, but you can easily extend
things to build a complete clock with hours, minutes and seconds.

The first thing we need is a power supply. We built

one in the electronic gates article. That time, we used
a standard wall transformer that produced DC (direct
current) power and then regulated it to5 volts using a
7805. For our clock, we want to do things slightly
differently because we are going to extract our 60-Hz
time base from the power line. That means that we want an
AC rather than a DC transformer, and we will use a part
called a bridge rectifier to convert the AC to DC.
Therefore, we need the following parts for our power
supply:
1/3/20XX E X E M P L E D E T E X T E D E P I E D D E PA G E 2
- 12-volt AC transformer (Jameco part #115602)
- Bridge rectifier (Jameco part #103018)
- 7805 5-volt regulator (TO-220 case) (Jameco part #51262)
- Two 470-microfarad electrolytic capacitors (Jameco part #93817)
- 5.1-volt zener diode (Jameco part #36097)
- 1-K-ohm resistor (Jameco part #29663)

A few notes on the parts used:

- The difference between the AC transformer we are using here and the DC
transformer we used in the article on gates is that the AC transformer preserves the 60-
Hz sine wave found in 120-volt household current. If you want to use your volt-ohm
meter to measure the voltage of an AC transformer, be sure you use an AC voltage
range rather than a DC range.

1/3/20XX E X E M P L E D E T E X T E D E P I E D D E PA G E 3
 We use the bridge rectifier to convert the AC to DC. One of the terminals on the
rectifier will be marked with a "+" from that you can find the minus and AC inputs.
There is no polarity to an AC transformer, so it does not matter which transformer
lead you connect to which AC lead of the rectifier.
 The 7805 and capacitors are wired just like they were in the electronic gates article.
 The resistor and the zener diode extract a 60-Hz signal from the transformer's sine
wave. A diode is a one-way valve for electrons. A zener diode is also a one-way valve,
but it also passes electrons in the other direction if they are above a certain voltage.
The zener diode therefore turns a 10-volt sine wave into a clipped wave oscillating
between 0 and 5 volts. This is perfect for clocking the TTL counters. The 1-K-ohm
resistor makes sure that the current to the zener diode is limited so we do not burn out
the diode. The diode will have a band painted on one end -- this band should be the
end connected to the resistor.

1/3/20XX E X E M P L E D E T E X T E D E P I E D D E PA G E 4
 Circuit Diagram
Here's a circuit diagram for the power supply and
time base.
As we saw in the article on electronic gates, the
power supply is the most difficult part!
To create the rest of the clock you will need:
At least four 7490 or 74LS90 chips
At least two 7447 or 74LS47 binary-to-7-segment converters
At least 20 resistors for the LEDs in the 7-segment displays (330 ohms would be fine.)
Some normal LEDs.
At least two common-anode (CA) 7-segment LED displays (Jameco part # 17208 is typical.)
Breadboards, wire, etc.
1/3/20XX E X E M P L E D E T E X T E D E P I E D D E PA G E 5
 The number of chips, resistors and LEDs you need depends on how many digits you are
interested in implementing.

The final piece you need to create is a setting mechanism. On a breadboard, it is easy to
set the clock just move the input wires to drive higher-frequency signals into the minute-
hand section of the clock. In a real clock, you would use pushbuttons or switches and gates
to do the same thing.
If you happen to take your bedside clock or watch apart, one thing you will notice is that
there are probably not 15 TTL ICs inside. In fact, you may not be able to find a chip at all. In
most modern clocks and watches, all of the functions of the clock (including the alarm and
any other features) are all integrated into one low-power chip (in a watch, the chip and
display together consume only about a millionth of a watt). That chip is probably embedded
directly into the circuit board. You might be able to see a blob of black plastic protecting this
chip. That one tiny chip contains all of the components we have discussed here.
1/3/20XX E X E M P L E D E T E X T E D E P I E D D E PA G E 6
Now you have a complete understanding of how digital clocks work. The next time you
look at the clock beside your bed or at your digital wristwatch, you can do so with a new
respect for what is going on inside!

1/3/20XX E X E M P L E D E T E X T E D E P I E D D E PA G E 7
 Thank you for your attention!

1/3/20XX E X E M P L E D E T E X T E D E P I E D D E PA G E 8