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Time Counter From Manual Pulses

dellsam34

Apr 23, 2017
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Hi everyone,
I need help to build a time counter with a 6 digit display HH:MM:SS, The input signal will not be from a clocked circuit, It is rather an open choice from a pulse generator 1 second per pulse, The pulse generator is not part of this circuit, All what I want is the counter with a 6 digit display, The pulse input should be 2 wires or 2 pins, in open status nothing happens, when shorted together it is one pulse or one second until it opens again, The zero reset is by turning off power.
The pulse generator could be a spinning wheel with contacts, when it spins it makes the 2 wires in the time counter close and open fast or slow based on the wheel speed, Although it is just a fun project, It could serve as magnetic tape transport time counter.
 

(*steve*)

¡sǝpodᴉʇuɐ ǝɥʇ ɹɐǝɥd
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Jan 21, 2010
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Google "digital clock schematic". These days you'd probably use a microcontroller. If I had to put something together like this in an afternoon, I'd probably grab an arduino.
 

dellsam34

Apr 23, 2017
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Thanks Steve for the reply, I googled with no luck, All the ones I found are based on real time clock mostly IC 555, I want that clock signal to be manual based on pulses, As for Arduino, I'm not really that tech savvy.
 
Last edited:

dellsam34

Apr 23, 2017
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Ok, Forgot the seconds, Thy are not really important for my application, If I take a circuit like this and read seconds/minutes as minutes/hours, If I have to modify this circuit to tap to the pin that generates the clock signal and isolate it what the modification will be ?
 

AnalogKid

Jun 10, 2015
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Any digital clock circuit is a time counter. Your operating description in post #1 is not at all clear, but if you want a timer to be enabled/disabled by an external circuit or switch, that is not a difficult modification to any clock or stopwatch circuit. Is the intent to accumulate the total of several time intervals?

ak
 

dellsam34

Apr 23, 2017
8
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Any digital clock circuit is a time counter. Your operating description in post #1 is not at all clear, but if you want a timer to be enabled/disabled by an external circuit or switch, that is not a difficult modification to any clock or stopwatch circuit. Is the intent to accumulate the total of several time intervals?

ak
Sorry for the confusion, No that's not what I want, Let me try to make it simple:
I need a digital time counter with 4 digits 7 segments display MM:SS, It counts time up by pressing a button, Every time the button is pressed it counts only one second up and stops until the button pressed again, Kind like event counters but instead of counting as 99.99 decimal format, it should count as 59:59 time format, Hope this clears up the confusion.
 

davenn

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Sep 5, 2009
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Every time the button is pressed it counts only one second up and stops until the button pressed again, Kind like event counters but instead of counting as 99.99 decimal format, it should count as 59:59 time format, Hope this clears up the confusion.

but it isn't really counting hours and minutes, is it? so what is the point in specifying a digital time clock ?
 

davenn

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Sep 5, 2009
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All the ones I found are based on real time clock mostly IC 555,

there is no problem there, is there ?
remove the 555 oscillator section of the circuit and replace it with your own solution
 

dellsam34

Apr 23, 2017
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there is no problem there, is there ?
remove the 555 oscillator section of the circuit and replace it with your own solution
Yes that's kind what I'm looking to do, great idea, Do you recommend a pre built circuit that I can modify easily?
 

AnalogKid

Jun 10, 2015
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So it is a simple 4-digit counter that increments one count whenever the input is toggled, with the modification that has it count modulo-60 and modulo-24. Yes?

ak
 

AnalogKid

Jun 10, 2015
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The 60 minutes part is a given. Do you want the hours section to roll over at 23 hours or 99 hours?

ak
 
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