Please help me, small LED display counter

[MrKemp]

Hi everyone i am new to this forum and to electronics, i have a small understanding of electronics but not a great deal especially the programing side of things. Basically i would like to build a LED Display counter circuit that can count up to 15, that works with a two way flick switch so when i flick it one way it adds up and when i flick it down it takes away from the display - for example if i flick the switch up it change the display from 0 to 1 and so forth. What would i need to do to build this circuit.

 

[(*steve*)]

Well, I'd start with an up/down counter like the 4029.

This page describes it, and I think it almost answers all of your questions.

In binary it will count from 0 to 15, up and down.

 

[MrKemp]

thanks steve great help im still a bit confused but i will keep reading it until i understand, its all very new to me trying to under stand all of this binary code and what not.

 

[(*steve*)]

Yes, probably a good thing to do.

What you have asked for can be thought of as something requiring three modules

a) Clock - Something to generate regular pulses to control timing (i.e. when it counts)
b) Counter - in your case a 4 bit up/down counter seems appropriate
c) Display - something to display the information appropriately

Added to this you need various bits of control stuff, such as something to tell the counter which way to count, when to start and when to stop, etc.

Other than the clock, none of the modules is actually trivial, and you'd be looking for ICs that can pretty much do it all for you.

An alternative is to look at a microcontroller. This is a good alternative if you've got any experience writing software. There are some microcontrollers out there (PicAxe, for example) that make your first steps relatively easy ones.

The real answer for you may revolve around what you are currently experienced in, and what your objectives are.