instructables

Digital Clock But Without a Microcontroller [Hardcore Electronics]

by Neutrino-1

It's pretty easy to build circuits with a microcontroller but we totally forget the tons of work that a microcontroller had to
go through to complete a simple task(even for blinking an led ). So, how hard would it be to make a digital clock
completely from scratch? No coding and no microcontroller and to make it real HARDCORE how about build the circuit
in a perf-board without using any printed circuit boards.

This is really a challenging project to do, not because of how the clock logic works but because of how we are going build
the circuit with all these components together in a compact perf-board.

This project was inspired by this instructable (author: hp07) back in 2018, which would be insanely hard to build in a
perf-board because of the number of connections and the components used. So, I did a bit of digging online to reduce
the complexity but still make it fairly basic and di cult to build in a perf-board.

Other references: scopionz , danyk

Supplies:

These are the list of products which can help you do this project with ease

(A liate Link)

IC 4026: https://amzn.to/30aNELi
IC 555: https://amzn.to/3cwu80V
IC 7411: https://amzn.to/369c2AT
7-segment display: https://amzn.to/30a3Y
Potentiometer: https://amzn.to/3kPp8qZ
Resistors Kit: https://amzn.to/33ZsaCl
Diode: https://amzn.to/367OxYO
Capacitors Kit: https://amzn.to/3kMGox6
Push Button: https://amzn.to/335hQJW
Perfboard: https://amzn.to/2G0QgVi
Acrylic Sheet: https://amzn.to/3kVz4Q1
Power adapter: https://amzn.to/305G7NZ
Bench power supply: https://amzn.to/3kU8Ptb
oscilloscope kit: https://amzn.to/3jaBgm4
Digital Clock kit: https://amzn.to/3l5ymja / https://amzn.to/3l5ymja

Digital Clock But Without a Microcontroller [Hardcore Electronics]: Page 1

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liG2Ksa-v_8

Step 1: Concept of Time [but for NOOBS]

Digital Clock But Without a Microcontroller [Hardcore Electronics]: Page 2

First, we have to understand the answer to a few carry over to the next higher designation [Seconds ->
questions before we can jump into building this digital Minutes ->Hours ->Days->Months->Years ].
clock! how are we going to keep track of time and how
can we de ne time itself? But we are missing a major point here, When should we
increment this counter value? Let's take a look into
The solution to this problem is quite simple (If you think simple physics de nition
of yourself as a rebellious teenager and just pretend over
a century physicists never scratched there head about "The second is de ned by taking the xed numerical value
it). The way we are going to approach this solution might of the cesium frequency ∆ν, the unperturbed ground-state
be counter-intuitive, where rst we'll see how we can hyper ne transition frequency of the cesium 133 atom, to
keep track of time and then later de ne time. be 9 192 631 770 when expressed in the unit Hz, which is
equal to s−1. "
Consider the clock as a counter which can count
numbers up to 0-60 and 0-24 (let's just worry only about If you understood the de nition, you should probably
24hr clock for now) whenever this value exceeds it just take theoretical physic and quit electronics!

Anyway, for simplicity, we'll just assume it's the time functional clock that we are expecting.
taken for a cesium atom to vibrate 9 billion times. Now
when you increment the counter every one second or Now, let's see how we can bring theory into reality, with
time is taken for a cesium atom to vibrate 9 billion times some magic of pure electronics!
you got yourself a clock-sort-of-thing! To this, if we could
just add logic in such a way that seconds carry over to
minutes and minutes carry over to hours when they
reach 60 (and hours reset on 24). This will give us a fully

Step 2: Seven Segment Display

Digital Clock But Without a Microcontroller [Hardcore Electronics]: Page 3

Let's rst gure out the way to display the number(or CATHODE ANODE: All the +ve terminal of the led is
time). The 7-segment displays should be perfect for this connected to a common point, and then this common
build because it gives a retro look, and it is also one of point is connected to the VCC. Now, to turn on any part
the simplest display that's available on the market, it's so of the segment a -ve voltage is applied to the
simple that it's just made of 7 LEDs (8 LEDs, if the point corresponding -ve pin of that segment.
LED, was counted in) placed in a clever way to show
alphanumeric values that can be placed in adjacent with For our application, we'll be using the common cathode
multiple 7-segment displays to show a larger value. version of the 7-segment display, because the digital IC
which we'll be using will output HIGH signal (+ve signal).
There are 2 varieties of these 7 segment displays.
Each segment of this display is named from A to G in a
COMMON CATHODE: All the -ve terminal of the led is clockwise direction and the dot (or point) on the display
connected to a common point, and then this common is marked as 'p', remember the segments with their
point is connected to the ground(GND). Now, to turn on corresponding alphabets, which will be handy while
any part of the segment a +ve voltage is applied to the connecting it to the digital IC's.
corresponding +ve pin of that segment.

Digital Clock But Without a Microcontroller [Hardcore Electronics]: Page 4

Step 3: Placement of Seven Segment Display

This step is going to be a bit tricky because nding the Since this circuit has a lot to solder and to make sure not
exact size of the perf-board is quite di cult and you to lose track of what I'm doing, I soldered the 7-segment
might not nd one. If that's the case you can combine 2 display pins in an alphabetical sequence to the resistors
perf-board to make a larger one. and the ground to the top of the circuit. It seems useless
and complicated, but trust me this will make your job
Placing the 7-segment display is quite simple, just place way easier.
the display evenly with right spacing so you can
di erentiate the seconds, minutes, and hours (refer the While building this circuit I found a cool trick about the 7
image for the placement of the led). segment display, anytime by mistake if you have
inverted the 7 segment display upside down, you don't
If you noticed by now I'm using a bunch of 100ohm have to desolder the display completely and resolder
resistors for each pin of the display, this is totally for again. Every pin will remain the same except for the pin
aesthetics and it's not necessary to use these many G and the pin P, just by adding a simple jumper wire you
resistors. If you can place a 470ohm resistor between the can x the problem. (Check the last 2 images where I
common pin of the 7-segment display and the ground have used a green jumper wire to demonstrate this
that should be good enough. (These resistors are used to problem).
limit the current that's going to go through the LED)

Digital Clock But Without a Microcontroller [Hardcore Electronics]: Page 5

Step 4: Counter

In step-1 we talked about how we can keep track of time the moderately complicated circuit where we'll use the
using counters and that's exactly how we are going to pre-built IC.
implement in this step using electronics.
IC 4026. A 7 segment display counter. It counts the
If you want to know more in-depth about the counter number of clock pulse or the number of turn ON and
and how it works, You should check out this instructable. turn OFF cycle on pin 1 and display's the decimal value
Here I'm just going to focus only on how we are going to from 0-9 on the 7-segment display.
use one and complete this circuit.
The circuit for this counter is very simple, just connect
There is more than one way to implement this counter in the A, B, C, D, E, F, G pins of the 7-segment display to pin
digital electronics. If you're completely insane and have 10, 12, 13, 9, 11, 6, 7, 8 of the IC 4026 and to test this
pretty much got nothing to do in your life build six 7- circuit you can use a switch between the pin 1 and +5v
Segment counter completely from scratch just by using just like the circuit diagram. With this switch, we can
transistors. Since you don't even have time to check out manually increment the counter from 0-9.
my Youtube-channel and subscribe, we'll just stick on to

Digital Clock But Without a Microcontroller [Hardcore Electronics]: Page 6

 Download

https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/F2Z/5G4Q/KFL44KGL/F2Z5G4QKFL44KGL.pdf

Step 5: Placement of IC 4026 [Counter]

If you can build one counter successfully which can Finally, connect the VCC and ground to the power rail
count from 0-9, then the rest of the circuit is just which is running between the resistors and below the IC
replicating the exact same 4026 circuits 5 more times. (You can see the circuit diagram doesn't match much
But doing this there will be few changes to the clock, with the clock which I have done because the resistors
reset, and the carry out (CO) pin of the IC. which are in series is totally unnecessary and it is just for
aesthetic, just replace one 470ohm resistor on the
To make things simpler rst, concentrate on building the cathode side of the 7-segment display).
connection between the seven-segment display and the
seven segment counter, try to use fewer wires as [Try using color code to keep everything simpler later
possible to avoid messier connections and di cult to on]
debug later on. So, use single strand copper wire to
make tracks/connections between the IC and display.

Digital Clock But Without a Microcontroller [Hardcore Electronics]: Page 7

 1

1. 5V (Correction)

Step 6: Clock Signal

Digital Clock But Without a Microcontroller [Hardcore Electronics]: Page 8

When it comes to digital circuits there are only 2 states This might seem not much use at rst, but this timing of
HIGH or LOW (Binary : 0 or 1). This we can relate with a signal is very necessary to keep everything in sync in
switch, when the switch is ON we can say it's a logic digital circuits, that's the reason some digital circuits
HIGH and when the switch is turned OFF we can say it's with clock signals are also called synchronous circuits.
logic LOW. If you can turn ON and turn OFF the switch
with a consistent timing between ON and OFF you can If we can generate a square wave of 1Hz we can
generate a square wave signal. increment our counter every one second just like
seconds on the digital clock.
Now the time taken to create both and high and low The concept here is still pretty vague because we need
signals together is called Time Period. If you can turn ON the time taken for a cesium atom to vibrate 9 billion
the switch for 0.5sec and turn OFF the switch for 0.5sec, times (as we saw in step-1) because that's what will give
then the time period of this signal will be 1second. us one second. This kind of precision using our circuit
Similarly, the number of times the switch turns ON and will be close to impossible but we can do better if we
turns OFF in a second is calledFrequency. can use an oscilloscope (Where the time is pre-
calibrated) to give an approximation of one second.
[Example: 4Hz -> 4 times switch ON and 4 times switch
OFF]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB2iVn8aZaE&t=21s

Step 7: Selecting a Clock Circuit

There are numerous ways to build a clock pulse generator. But here are a few reasons why I used the 555 timer IC and a
few reasons why you shouldn't.

Advantage

The circuit is very simple (Beginner friendly)

Requires a very small footprint
easy to adjust the clock frequency
Can have a wide range of voltage (Not necessary for our digital clock circuit)

Disadvantage

Clock timing is not precise

Digital Clock But Without a Microcontroller [Hardcore Electronics]: Page 9
 The clock signal can be seriously a ected by temperature/ humidity
The clock timing is due to resistors and capacitors

Alternatives for frequency generator or clock pulse generator: Crystal oscillator, Dividing frequency

Step 8: Placement of the Clock Circuit

Place the clock circuit exactly below the seconds part of with lots of wires going around in di erent directions.
the digital clock, this will make connection easier So, just build the clock circuit separately without
between the IC 4026 and IC 555. worrying about the rest of the circuit, and once that's
done, just connect the output(pin 3) of 555 timer IC to
At this point, it was completely useless to take pictures the clock pin of IC 4026.
after each circuit, as the circuits get very complicated

Digital Clock But Without a Microcontroller [Hardcore Electronics]: Page 10

Step 9: Switching/Incrementing Logic

Digital Clock But Without a Microcontroller [Hardcore Electronics]: Page 11

With the previous step we are 3/4th done with the [A quick refresh -> AND gate outputs a HIGH signal when
circuit, now's it's just about guring out how to reset the all the inputs given to it are HIGH or the output will
counter when it reaches 60 and 24. LOW.]

The solution is simple to gure out if the clock reached To use this as a condition we'll use a 3 input AND gate.
60, consider the 2nd seven segment display of the and So whenever we detect the 3 segments of the display
observe the segment E, F, G. This 3 segment will light up light up, the AND gate will output a HIGH signal further
only when it reaches 6 or greater than 6. So, with this, we we can use this high signal to reset one counter and
can gure out when our seconds will reach 60. Similarly, increment the next counter. Coincidently with just one
we can take the hours part of the circuit, Here segment single IC[7411], we can add this logic for hours, minutes,
D, E of the one 7-segment display and segment F of the and seconds.
other display light up only when it's 24 or greater than
24 (with this similar logic you can gure out for 12hr).

Digital Clock But Without a Microcontroller [Hardcore Electronics]: Page 12

Step 10: Placement of IC 7411 Logic Gate

It might be really hard guring out which wire is Place the IC between exactly in between the board
connecting where, but it's way simpler if you know the where it as clock circuit on one side and the other is left
logic and just follow the circuit diagram. The diode in the for the buttons to adjust the time.
circuit is used to separate the 40xx(CMOS) series IC and
74xx(TTL) series IC and the 10k resistor act as a pull-
down resistor for the reset(PIN 15) and the clock(PIN 1).

Digital Clock But Without a Microcontroller [Hardcore Electronics]: Page 13

 1

1. Complete MESSSSSSSSSS!!

Step 11: De-bouncing Circuit

Bouncing of multiple signals is the most common problem faced when we use push buttons. When you press the button
once, multiple pulses will be generated because of the mechanical spring action inside the push button. This will cause a
lot of problems when you try to adjust the time! When you try to set for 5, because of multiple triggers the counter may
overshoot to 6-7.

This is pretty easy to solve and the circuit used to remove this bouncing e ect is called a de-bouncing circuit, but in my
circuit, I have de nitely overcomplicated things by using a Schmitt trigger IC[7414] and a bunch of other components. So
I have updated the circuit which can easily solve this bouncing e ect just by using an RC network.

There is more than one way to remove the debouncing e ect, you can select the one which is easy for you.

Di erent ways to de-bounce a circuit.

Hardware Debouncing
R-C Debouncing
Software Debouncing
Digital Clock But Without a Microcontroller [Hardcore Electronics]: Page 14
 Debouncing IC’s

Step 12: Placement of De-bouncing Circuit

The pushbuttons are connected to the clock pin of hours capacitor as shown in the circuit. This will lter out the
and minutes and the diode is added between the reset multiple triggers caused by the pushbutton, which we
pin of the previous IC and the current IC's clock pin to talked about in the previous step.
avoid reset of minutes or seconds when the pushbutton
is pressed. Then to nish the complete circuit, just add a female DC
jack to the positive and ground rail on the perf board,
To remove the bouncing e ort, it is a lot easier to use an which will take 5v 1amp from a DC adapter.
RC network which is made of 10k resistor and 1uf

Digital Clock But Without a Microcontroller [Hardcore Electronics]: Page 15

 Download

https://www.instructables.com/ORIG/FYH/AJXA/KFS9BP04/FYHAJXAKFS9BP04.pdf

Step 13: Final Thoughts!

Less of nal thoughts and more of an apology, even changes/improvements can be added to this and how
though on the front the clock might be good looking to you can make this a better one so leave a comment
few it's a total blunder on the other side. In my defense I about your ideas.
will tell a few things, this project was done almost 3
years ago and this was the most complicated project For starters, It's really not necessary to cramp in all the IC
that I worked back then so I was learning many things on in a single board. You can use 2 boards, one for just
the go. Secondly, I was very poor at soldering and driving the display and the other one just for the logic
mechanical work back then. If I redo this right now, I can and clock generator. Use a better and precise clock pulse
improve a lot. generator and also can make a great looking case, which
makes the whole project aesthetically appealing.
But, I really wanna know from you, what

Digital Clock But Without a Microcontroller [Hardcore Electronics]: Page 16

Hi! , can I please get its proteus file? @[email protected]

Thanks for sharing this project with us, I like it, you did a pretty good job in it.
Mini MilitiaApp Lock
Glad you liked it!

It's a lovely project! very intense soldering, not an easy job but when you completely understand
how the entire circuit works with basic digital system design logic, it'll knock your socks off! What
a fun journey this was to build a digital clock from scratch without using any microcontroller! Very
insightful instructables has enabled this! A wonderful job done on the details of soldering, placing
the components and logic. Thank you Neutrino-1!

great project - I am considering building but would be looking for much bigger numerals ;-) ...any
suggestions?
but thanks in any case!
You can check out the link to build the display from scratch! The rest of the circuit should remain
same (Just be aware of power management).
As an older contributor I like to see projects which do not involve software. This one can truly be
defined as an electronic clock. Great.
Glad you liked it!

you know what would be fun

adding a few umd chips and making it a vfd clock

Digital Clock But Without a Microcontroller [Hardcore Electronics]: Page 17