Schematic Reference

This circuit shows how a 4017 CMOS decade counter can be used to build a timer circuit. Push-button S1 will discharge capacitor C1 through resistor R2. When S1 is released, C1 will charge up through R1 causing a rising edge at the clock input of IC1. This causes the output Q1 to go high (to the supply voltage). Current will flow through R4 and LED D2 will light. At the same time C2 will begin charging through preset P1 and R6. When the voltage on C2 reaches approximately half the supply voltage it will reset IC1. Q1 will go low, the LED will go off and C2 will discharge through D1 and R3. The circuit will now remain stable in this reset condition until S1 is pressed again. Preset P1 allows the ON time of the circuit to be adjusted between 5 seconds and 7 minutes.

The current consumption of this circuit in its reset state is only a few micro-amps, rising to approximately 8mA mainly due to the LED current, when S1 is pressed. When power is applied to the circuit IC1, can be in an indeterminate state and the LED may be on. Pressing S1 until the LED goes off clears this condition. Alternatively C2 may be connected to the supply rail (as shown dotted in the diagram) this will ensure that IC1 will always power up in a reset state. A disadvantage of this configuration is that any noise on the supply rail will be coupled through to the reset pin of IC1 and may affect the timing period.

Manufacturers of cordless drills generally recommend a battery charging time of three hours. Once the charging time is up the battery must be disconnected from the charger: if you forget to do this there is a danger of overcharging the battery. This circuit, which sits between the charger circuit and its battery socket, prevents that possibility: the contact of relay Re1 interrupts the charging current when the three hours are up. Ten LEDs show the remaining charging time in steps of 20 minutes. The timer is reset each time power is applied and it is then ready for a new cycle. When power is applied IC3 is reset via C4 and R5. When the charging time has elapsed, Q9 (pin 11) goes high, which turns the relay on and interrupts the charging current.

Since Q9 is connected to the active-low EN (enable) input, the counter will now remain in this state. The charging time can be adjusted from about 2 hours 15 minutes to 4 hours 30 minutes using P1. The author set P1 to 30 kΩ, giving a charging time of 3 hours 7minutes. The greater the resistance of P1, the shorter the charging time. The timing of the circuit is not particularly precise, but its accuracy is entirely adequate for the job. When adjusting the charging time it is worth noting that the first clock cycle after the circuit is turned on (from Q0 to Q1) is longer than the subsequent ones. This is because initially capacitor C3 has to be charged to around half the supply voltage.

One of the author’s physics projects required an accurate 1-Hz (seconds) clock signal. Unfortunately, precision 10-MHz quartz crystals are expensive, while another problem was found in the inability of most common or garden 40xx CMOS logic chips to work at such a high frequency. However, a typical CMOS counter like the 4017 has such a high input resistance that its clock input has ‘radio’ properties. The effect is exploited here to convert the stray magnetic field picked up from a mains transformer into a clock signal. Here, the signal is induced in a short piece of wire (approx. 5 cm) connected to the clock input of a CD4017 decade counter for division by 10.

The resulting 5-Hz signal is then divided by 5 by a second 4017 (IC2) to give an output of 1 Hz. LED D1 flashes to indicate the presence of a sufficiently strong magnetic field. The pickup wire should be placed close to the mains transformer, without compromising electrical safety. Always use the greatest distance at which a clock signal is reliably generated. For 1-Hz output from 60-Hz power systems, use output 6 of IC2 (pin 5).

This egg timer, which is both simple and functional, shows once again that it is not essential to use a microcontroller for everything these days. The circuit consists of only two ICs from the standard 4000 logic family, a multi-position rotary switch and a few individual components. The combination of a 4040 oscillator/counter and a 4017 decimal counter is certainly not new, but it is an ideal combination for timers that are required to generate long intervals that can be programmed in steps. The circuit can be directly powered from a 9-V battery, without using a voltage regulator. The signalling device is a 12-V buzzer, which generally works quite well even at a much lower voltage.

We won’t explain the operation of the two ICs here; if you would like to know more about this, we recommend consulting the device data sheets. The RC configuration has been selected for the oscillator circuit of the 4060, since the frequencies of standard crystals and resonators would be too high (even 32.768 Hz is much too high), making it impossible to achieve the desired times. With an RC oscillator, it’s also easier to modify the times to suit our purposes. For instance, if the oscillator frequency is reduced by a factor of two, we obtain a range of 1 to 16 minutes in steps of 1 minute. The range is split into two by taking advantage of the fact that the 4017 has an AND gate at its input (with an inverted input).

The two ranges overlap by two steps. The oscillator has been dimensioned such that the 23 divider output (pin 14) has a period of 30 seconds, so IC2 receives a clock pulse every 30 seconds. This means that the oscillator frequency must be set to 8.5333 Hz. The first output of IC2 is active after a reset, so it cannot be used. If S1 is in position I, pin 14 of IC2 is connected to the positive supply line. This input is used as an enable input. Directly after the first pulse from the 4060, the second output of IC2 goes high (which means after exactly half a minute). The sub-sequent outputs become active in turn at intervals of one clock pulse, and thus generate the states for 1 to 4.5 minutes.

In the second range (II) of S1, the ‘enable’ pin of IC2 is connected to the 212 divider output of the 4060 (pin 1). This output goes high 4 minutes after the reset (which is why it is labelled ‘240 s’, instead of the period time of 480 s). Since the 4060 is an asynchronous counter, this output goes high a short time after the 23 output goes low. This delay provides the proper condition for an extra clock pulse for the 4017. The outputs of the 4017 will thus count upwards once. This means that the second output will become active after 4 minutes, with the rest of the outputs becoming active after 4.5 to 8 minutes. The desired timing interval is selected using switch S2.

The output of S2 is connected directly to emitter follower T1, which energizes the buzzer when the level on the wiper of the switch is high. At the same time, the counter of IC1 is disabled via diode D1 by forcing the oscillator input high. The buzzer thus remains active until the circuit is switched off. The first counter output of the 4060 is connected to an LED (D2), which indicates that the circuit is active and the battery not yet exhausted. The blinking rate is approximately 0.5 Hz. The current through the LED is set to a modest 1mA, since this current represents the majority of the current drawn by the circuit.

This ranges from 0.5 to 1.5 mA, with the average current consumption being approximately 1mA while the timer is running. The buzzer used in our prototype increases the current to around 13 mA when it is energized, but this naturally depends on the actual type used. In principle, the circuit will work with any supply voltage between 3 and 16 V. However, the actual supply voltage should be taken into account in selecting the buzzer. The value of the supply voltage also has a small effect on the time interval, but in practice, the deviation proved to be less than 5 percent - which is not likely to matter too much to the eggs.

We are surrounded by battery operated equipment of all kinds, and this array is growing still. Manufacturers and designers lean over backwards to make sure that their equipment draws a small current and can thus be operated by a battery. This has its flip side, too. because even if the equipment in question draws only a small current, when it is not switched off, the battery is flat after a few days or weeks. The circuit presented here can prevent this happening. It may be added to all kinds of equipment operating from a 9 V battery and switches this off automatically one minute after a preset time has elapsed. The peak switching current is 20 mA, which is more than enough for most applications.

The switch is formed by a p-n-p darlington, T1, which is actuated by push-button switch S1. The very high amplification of the darlington enables it to be kept on fairly long with the aid of a relatively small-value capacitor, C1 (= 100 µF). Resistor R3 limits the charging current of C1 to ensure a long life of S1. Resistors R1 and R2, in conjunction with C1, determine the switch-on time. When this time has elapsed, R1 ensures that T1 is switched off. Since the darlington can handle a UBE of –10 V, a polarity protection diode is not needed.

This circuit disables an alarm clock on Saturdays and Sundays when people like to sleep in but enables normal operation on Mondays to Fridays so that people rise in time for work or school. The core of the circuit is a 4017 decade counter which acts as the day counter and it is used in conjunction with a desk clock which acts the alarm and a watch module with alarm function which provides one clock pulse very day to the 4017. In operation, the watch module feeds a day pulse via transistor Q3 to the clock input of IC1. This has seven outputs connected via day switches (S1-S7) and diodes D3-D9 to Q1 which disables the alarm signal to the speaker via transistor Q2. LEDs1-7 indicate the actual day (if you forget!).

To set the system, set the desk clock for the correct time and for the desired alarm time (eg, 6’o’clock). The watch module is set to the correct time and its alarm set to midnight. The day counter, IC1, is set to the correct day, as indicated by the LEDs, by pushing switch S12 and closing switch S8 or S9. S8 is normally left open to conserve the battery by leaving the LEDs off. As shown on the circuit, switches S1-S7 are set to sound the alarm on Mondays to Fridays and disable it on Saturday and Sunday. However, you can change the days to suit your work habits.

CMOS circuits are known for their low current consumption. This is particularly important for battery-powered circuits. Unfortunately, oscillators often require quite a bit of current. We therefore propose this oscillator circuit that has a very low current consumption (about 3 µA). The circuit is powered from a type LM334Z current source. The current has been set with R4 to about 3 µA. This is sufficient to power IC1 and the oscillator circuit around X1. The oscillator generates, with the aid of a cheap watch crystal and a few surrounding parts, a signal that is subsequently applied to the divider in the 4060 and results in a frequency of 2 Hz at pin 3 (output Q13). The level of the output pulses is a lot lower than the nominal 5-V power supply voltage (IC1 is after all powered from a current source with very low current). That is why the signal on pin 3 of IC1 is amplified and inverted by T1. IC3a finally turns it into a proper square wave with acceptably steep edges.

This circuit is designed to provide delayed relay switching action at power on. The delay is a function of the time constant produced by the combination of R1 and C1. At power on, C1 charges slowly via R1 and the coil of the relay. When the voltage across C1 exceeds both the base-emitter voltage of Q1 and the gate trigger voltage of the SCR, gate current flows. This fires the SCR and switches on the relay. At power off, diode D1 rapidly discharges C1 through the 100O resistor, so ensuring that every time the circuit is restarted, as in a temporary outage, the delay time is maintained.


Just about any NPN transistor can be used for Q1, since after SCR1 fires, it is effectively out of the circuit. In fact, the only part that’s still active after SCR1 turns on is the relay. You can’t get much simpler than that! This circuit can be used to delay speaker turn-on, so avoiding the "thump" that occurs in some stereo systems at power on. A 5-second delay is enough for this application, requiring approximately 560kO for R1 and 10µF for C1. Another application might be as a motor protector in a short power outage.

Using this design, you can construct an electromagnetically impulsed pendulum clock with a 1-second beat. On the prototype, the pendulum rod is 115cm long with a bob adjusted to make it beat every second. It is suspended on a short piece of mainspring from a watch, which is attached to a vertical backboard with a 6mm screw. The rod extends some 15cm below the bob and is fitted with large washes at the lower end. Note that for a pendulum to beat in seconds, there must be 99.4cm distance between the support and the center of mass of the pendulum. Between the bob and the lower end is a 5mm wide white reflector facing back.

Below the rod and 15mm to the left is the impulse solenoid, with a core but no actuator attached. The circuit comprises of four parts: (1) the sensor; (2) the counter and solenoid driver; (3) the clock driver; and (4) the clock. The sensor is built on its own small piece of strip board and is located on the centre line of the backboard behind the reflector. It utilises a Sharp IS471F infrared modulated detector (Farnell cat. 414-2860) to eliminate interference from external light sources. The infrared emitter (IRLED1) must be mounted near to the detector (IRDET1) but be masked from it.

The emitter radiates a coded signal toward the reflector. As the pendulum passes the centre line it reflects the signal back to the detector, which then gives a negative-going output pulse on pin 2. This makes the surface-mount LED (LED1) flash once. It also sends a signal to the counter and clock driver circuits on the main circuit board. Pulses from the sensor are fed into IC1, a 4020 14-stage ripple counter. The counter’s output (pin 6) goes high every 128 counts (seconds). These long duration pulses are inverted by transistor Q1 and differentiated by the 10nF capacitor and 22kO resistor, providing a narrow trigger pulse for a 7555 CMOS timer (IC2).


The 7555 is wired as a monostable, driving the base of transistor Q3 with a relatively short pulse width suitable for energising the impulse solenoid. LED2 flashes in unison with solenoid pulses, and can be mounted right on the solenoid as a visual aid. Pushbutton switch S2 is used to provide gentle starting pulses to get the pendulum swinging smoothly at the outset. Switch S1 resets the counter to zero. With this arrangement, the pendulum is set swinging and when it is to the left of centre, S1is pushed. Thus, the pendulum moves right to left on even numbered counts. At the 128th count, the solenoid gives a shot pull to the left just as the pendulum is passing through the centre line and moving right to left.

The distance of the solenoid below the pendulum is adjusted so that it does not jerk the pendulum but adds a gentle nudge. The clock driver circuit also derives its timing from the output of the sensor. Negative-going pulses from the sensor are inverted by Q4 before being fed into a 4013 flipflop. On the output side, pins 12 & 13 go high in turn for one second. These pulses are too long to directly drive the clock coil, so they’re logically "anded" with the short pulses from the sensor using two gates of a 4093 NAND Schmitt trigger (IC4). The outputs from these gates then drive an adapted quartz clock movement.

A suitable clock can be made from a standard quartz movement by isolating the coil and removing the battery. See SILICON CHIP, Dec. 1996, page 38 for full instructions or October 2001 page 37 for brief notes. This is an experimental clock so you may have to try various solenoids to find one that works for you. If necessary, the solenoid pulse duration can be changed by varying IC2’s timing components. If the suspension is too stiff, try impulsing at 64 beats from pin 4 of IC1, but note that the aim is to get the freest pendulum movement possible. The Synchronome and Hipp clocks were impulsed at 30-second intervals, so your clock could be even better.

In the prototype, the reflector was made from the back of an adhesive cable clip snapped on to the pendulum rod. The white back was masked to give a 5mm wide central vertical strip, giving clean, short pulses as the pendulum passes. Current drain is several milliamps, so the prototype was powered from an SLA battery fed from a float charger. A pendulum beating in seconds is called a Royal pendulum. Its length is the same as one in a typical long case (grandfather) clock.

Add a cheap stopwatch to this circuit to produce an accurate reaction timer. The circuit is wired in parallel with the start/stop button in the watch via a 2.5mm socket, which fits snugly in one corner of the casing. The person conducting the test (the "tester") resets the stopwatch and turns on the reaction timer’s power switch (S3). The person being tested (the "subject") places his or her fingers near the "STOP" push-button switch (S4). Next, the tester covertly sets a delay time with VR1 and selects either the LED or buzzer alarm via S2. To initiate the sequence, the tester then presses the "START" switch (S1). This triggers 555 timer IC1, which is wired as a monostable. Its output (pin 3) goes high for 2-12 seconds as determined by the setting of VR1. At the end of this delay pin 3 goes low and triggers IC2, another 555 timer in monostable mode.


The output from IC2 (pin 3) activates the alarm (buzzer or LED) for about 0.5s. After inversion by Q1, it also triggers IC3, another 555 monostable. The positive pulse from IC3 turns on Q2, briefly closing the start/stop switch circuit in the watch. The watch starts to count up. After a short period, the subject reacts to the alarm and pushes the "STOP" button (S4), freezing the stopwatch. The reaction time can then be read off with 1/100th of a second accuracy. Comparative reaction times could be measured when a subject is: rested or tired, silent or talking, before or after a night out, using a mobile phone, etc. For motoring realism, rig up dummy accelerator and brake pedals, with the brake switch making the stop contact. Or take it to your club and test people as they enter and after they’ve been "steadying their nerves" at the bar.

This 9-minute timer switch can be used to control the light in a toilet or bathroom. The timer is started by pushing S1 and stopped by pushing S1 again. If you forget to turn it off, the controlled light will go off after nine minutes. If you need the light on continuously non-stop, you need to press S1 (turn on) and then S2 (cancellation of timer) within 9 minutes and in this case the light will be on until you switch it off with S1. IC1 is a is 4013 dual flip-flop. Flip flop IC1a is toggled on and off by switch S1 and it controls the relay which is switched by FET Q2. IC1a controls IC1b which is connected as an RS flipflop to enable or disable IC2, a 4060 oscillator/divider. This has its timing interval set by the components at its pins 9, 10 & 11. The relay should have 250VAC mains-rated contacts and these are connected in parallel with an existing wall switch.

This up/down timer was designed to control a power antenna on a late-model vehicle. Normally, this vehicle uses a body computer to control the antenna. However, the person who owned the vehicle wanted to install his own high-powered audio stereo system. The original stereo system was tied in with the body computer and this meant that a separate antenna controller was required for the after-market sound system. Also, the power antenna fitted did not have limit switches inside, hence the need for a timed control circuit. Here's how the circuit works. first, assume that the radio antenna control output is not switched on - ie, the radio is switched off.

In that case, relay RLYC will be off and so relay RLYA will also be off, as is the motor. Conversely, when the radio is switched on, the radio antenna control output line switches to +12V. And when that happens, RLYC closes its contacts and applies power to the circuit. As a result, C2 (330OF) quickly charges via D4, while Q4 is biased on via D5 and R5. This ensures that Q3 and relay RLYB remain off. At the same time, Q2 is is turned on, thus turning on RLYA and applying power to the motor. This drives the antenna in the up direction. During this time, C1 charges via R2.


When the voltage across the capacitor reaches +8.1V, Q1 turns on via ZD1 and so Q2 turns off and switches off the relay - ie, this gives the "up" timeout. Using the values shown for C1, R2 and ZD1 gives an "up" duration of approximately 6 seconds - long enough to fully extend the antenna. D1 discharges C1 (via resistor R1) when the +12V supply is later removed. When the radio is switched off (or a CD placed into the stereo unit), the radio antenna control output switches back to 0V. This does several things: first, it turns Q4 off and this allows Q3 to turn on due to the stored charge in C2. Q3 and RLYB now turn on for about six seconds - ie, while C2 discharges via R4 - and this switches power to the motor in the opposite direction to drive the antenna down. Diodes D4 and D5 are there to prevent C2 from discharging back via the circuitry around on Q1 and Q2.

Here's how to build a pendulum-controlled clock which can be made really accurate. Retro? - yes, but an interesting project all the same. You'll need a spare quartz clock which must be adapted by first isolating the two pads on the chip which lead to the coil. You then have to connect wires to these pads and feed them out through a hole in the case (see SILICON CHIP, December 1996, p38, for full instructions, or October 2001, p37, for brief notes.) You'll also need a spare battery driven pendulum from another, or the same, clock. As originally used, these pendulums are for appearance only and play no role in timekeeping.

The salvaged unit should be mounted on a substantial vertical backboard. You'll find that the pendulum swings pretty fast and it must be slowed down by adding weights near the lower end. However, it's not the mass of a pendulum that controls its rate - instead, it's the distance from the support to the centre of mass that counts. The aim is to make the pendulum operate so that it takes exactly 1s for a full "to and fro" swing - ie, 0.5s "beats". Fine adjustment on mine was made by adding an adjustable (up and down) weight to the pendulum rod. This consisted of a small G-clamp fabricated from a brass strip and held by a small screw.


At the bottom end of the pendulum attach an inverted T-shape aluminium vane, about 10mm wide and as thin as possible. This should be painted black. This vane is used to trigger a photo-interrupter which is attached to the backboard. The lengths of the arms of the "T" are made so that when the pendulum swings one way, the interrupter triggers - ie, the light is no longer blocked. Conversely, when the pendulum swings the other way, the vane must continue to interrupt the light. This means that, with the pendulum swinging in 0.5s beats, we get a short pulse from the photo-interrupter at 1s intervals.

This pulse is inverted by IC1a and inverted again by IC1b which then clocks IC2, a 4013 flipflop. IC2 alternately produces 1s-long pulses at its pin 12 & 13 outputs. These outputs are then fed to IC1c & IC1d respectively, where they are gated by the short pulses on pin 4 of IC1b. This produces two short pulses to drive the clock in alternate directions at 1s intervals. And that's all you need to drive the clock. Alternatively, this circuit could be a master clock and could be used to drive several slaves, all remaining in time. And model train enthusiasts could drill one or more holes in the vane to make their "railway" clocks run at what ever speed they need.

The circuit can be built on a small piece of strip board. Note that the photo-interrupter should be mounted with the photocell facing the backboard. This minimizes the risk of interference by ambient light. The photo-interrupter is available from Jaycar - Cat.ZD 1901. A footnote for horologists - if you have a clock with a Hipp butterfly escapement, you could rid yourself of the trailing arm and contact arrangement and replace it with a vane and photo-interrupter set so that as the arc of the swing becomes too small, a pulse is missed. This could then be detected by a 555 missing pulse detector circuit which would then energize the impulsing magnet.

This particular timing circuit can be used to time one-shot events from a few seconds to a few hours. And in standby mode (ie, with RLY1 and LED1 off), its power consumption is very low. The heart of this circuit is a low-cost CMOS 4011 quad NAND gate, with IC1a & IC1b configured as a standard Set/Reset flip-flop. Briefly pressing switch S1 to start the timing sequence pulls pin 1 of IC1a low and, as a result, pin 3 switches high. Two things happen while pin 3 is high: capacitor Cx begins charging via potentiometer Rx; and (2) pin 11 of IC1d will be low, which means that transistors Q3 and Q1 are both on.

As a result, both LED 1 and relay RLY1 are also on. RLY1 and LED 1 remain on until Cx has been charged up to about 70% of Vcc (ie, the supply rail). At this point, pins 8 & 9 of IC1c are pulled high and so its pin 10 output goes low and resets the flip-flop by applying a low to pin 6 of IC1b. This causes pin 3 of IC1a to go low and so LED1 and RLY1 switch off and the timing period ends. At the same time, pin 4 of the flip-flop goes high and this turns on transistor Q2 while ever the flip-flop is held reset. This ensures that Cx is discharged, so that the circuit is ready the next time S1 is pressed.

Diode D1 and its associated 10µF capacitor reset the flip-flop when power is first applied, so that LED1 and RLY1 remain off until S1 is pressed. D4 is included to protect Q1 against the back-EMF that's generated when the relay switches off. Choosing appropriate values for Cx & Rx for a given time delay is straightforward. The formula is T = 1.24 x Rx x Cx, where T is the delay time in seconds. As an example, let's assume that we require a time delay of 10s using a value of 100µF for Cx. Now we just need to calculate the value of Rx as follows:

• Rx = 10s/(1.24 x Cx) = 80,645O

In this case, an 82kO resistor would be the closest value. You can use either a fixed resistor for Rx or you can use a potentiometer (or trimpot) which can be adjusted to give the required time delay. Note that the value of Rx should not be any more than a few megohms. Power for the circuit can be derived from any 12V DC source. This is then fed to 3-terminal regulator REG1 to derive a 9V rail to power the circuitry. The exception here is the relay circuit, which is powered from the 12V rail. Diode D3 protects the circuit against incorrect supply polarity.

This circuit enables the on/off times of a 555 timer to be independently varied over a wide range. This is not possible with a conventional 555 circuit with the RC network being charged from the positive supply rail and discharged via pin 7. Instead, the capacitor at pins 2 & 6 of IC1 is charged and discharged from the output at pin 3. Furthermore, the charging and discharging circuits are different, being isolated by diodes D1 & D2.


Therefore the capacitor at pins 2 & 6 is charged via diode D2 and trimpot VR2 and discharged via D1 and trimpot VR1. With this arrangement you can have very long on times combined with very short off times and vice versa, or you can adjust the duty cycle to exactly 50% and so on. This circuit also employs a second 555 timer (IC2) as an inverter so that complementary pulses are available, if required. If not, delete IC2.