Digital clock using 4026 ic
Introduction:
A digital clock displays the time using numbers and it has many applications like cars, railway
stations, houses, offices, etc. in order to provide accurate time and date. In this type of
applications, normally we use RTC (Real Time Clock) ICs to display the time and date
accurately.
Circuit Diagram Digital Clock Circuit using 4026 ic
Components required:
· 555 Timer
· IC 4026
· IC 7411 (Three input AND Gate)
· 7-Segment common cathode display
· 1.5uF Capacitor.
· 470 ohm and 470 kilo ohm resistors.
· 9V Battery
About components:
555 Timer:
The 555 is basically a monostable Multivibrator. The important characteristics of a Monostable
Multivibrator is as long as the pin 2 receives a positive trigger the output at pin 3 will be of low
state. And when negative trigger was fed into the pin 2, the output at the pin 3 will go high for a
specific period of time. This time was decided by the Resistor and Capacitor connected with it.
You can see my post "How to properly use 555 timer" for help, link is given at the end of page.
IC 4026:
The 4026 IC is a 16-pin CMOS seven-segment counter from the 4000 series. It counts clock
pulses and returns the output in a form which can be displayed on a seven-segment display.
This avoids using a binary-coded decimal to seven-segment decoder, but it can only be used to
display the (decimal) digits 0-9.
IC 7411:
The IC 7411 is basically AND Gate having three inputs and one output. This IC contains three
AND Gates.
Working:
The working of the circuit starts with the 555 timer where it was wired as a monostable
Multivibrator. The 555 timer generate clock pulse after a second and output of 555 is connected
to pin 1 of IC 4026 which is a seven segment display decade counter which is used to drive a 7
segment display with input clock pulse. Here the clock pulse was obtained from the monostable
multivibrator and fed into the pin 1 of first ic 4026. Pin 2 was usually grounded since giving high
signal to this pin will inhibit the input clock signal to pin 1 and pin 3(Enable Clock) is always
taken High.
Initially when the circuit is switched ON the 7 segments will indicate "00:00:00" count and as
soon as the negative trigger was given to 555 high pulse will be obtained from pin 3. The high
pulse was fed to first IC and therefore it increments its count with each clock, displaying 1 to 9 in
its seven segment. As soon as 10 counts was incremented by IC a high to low signal was
obtained from its pin 5 which indicates the completion of ten increments.
The pin 5 was connected to the clock pin of the next 4026 IC. Therefore whenever 10 counts
was completed by the 7 segment, the high to low signal at the pin 5 will feed a single clock
pulse input to the second IC and therefore the corresponding 7 segment will be incremented
one value. For a digital clock we must reset second IC when it reach to number 6 because we
want seconds count upto "59" therefore we used IC 7411 (Three input AND Gate). In the same
manner fourth IC will count from 0 to 6 and then value in the fifth IC will be incremented by one.
This is all about for seconds and minute of clock. Now for hours we must reset fifth and sixth IC
when number reached to “23” so we put one more three input AND gate.
Advantages:
Less expensive.
Easy to understand time concept.
Give time more acurately than analog time.
Easier to read time.
Disadvantages:
easy to misread (sometimes an 8 looks like a 0)
very limited viewing angle.
only run on electricity.
lit screens can sometimes too bright enough to make it difficult to sleep.
Applications:
Digital clock.
Timers in microwaves, cars, telivisions etc.
