Googol Seconds Counter, Ver. 1

This is a googol seconds counter, and will never complete the entire count. A googol is an extremely large number, 10 to the power of 100, or simply stated as 1 followed by 100 zeros. The systematic name can be ten duotrigintillion or ten sexdecilliard. So why build a counter that will never complete? I like a good challenge, and tinkering in my workshop is a favorite past time of mine. I am pretty sure not many folks will run right out to build this project, lots of components, lots of soldering.

This is a non-microcontroller project, the goal of this project was to use, and show, it just takes a 1 Hz master clock and a whole lot of decade counters to work.

The idea for this counter comes from lonesoulsurfer and his CMOS Counter Clock which is a seconds counter that counts the seconds in a day. And his design was simple to implement with some modifications to hopefully allow this to run for a long time.

This is made in two parts, the Power & Master Clock Board, of which there is 1 board, and the Counter Boards, of which there are 11 boards. Boards are joined with jumper wires.

This project assumes you know how to read schematics, cut header pins, solder, etc.

Circuit description will be stated during the build steps as to what the components are doing.

Gerbers

Both gerber zips can be found here on my Proton drive to use with a manufacturer of your choice, and you can also purchase through PCBWay (affiliated), here for the Power & Master Clock board, and here for the Counter Boards.

Schematics and Parts Lists are available on my Protron drive as well as the links for PCBWay.

The types of parts is not large, but the quantities of some parts is quite large, (not to many times you see a project calling for 103 IC sockets, or ICs!)

I split the Parts into two lists, the Power & Master Clock Board first, followed by the Counter Boards.

Note 1: Resistors are 1/4 watt, and can be 1% or 5% depending on what you have as there is nothing critical in this circuit. I used both 1% and 5%.

Note 2: Header pins are all male, 2.54mm pitch, single row straight, I use some colored pins as well and I will state the colors but you can easily use just all black or what ever color you have on hand. Header pins come in rows of 40 pins, you simply cut or break them into the sizes you need. I state the sizes, such as 1x2, 1x5, etc., which means single row 2 pins long and single row 5 pins long.

Note 3: I use colored header pin jumpers but you can easily use all black or what ever color you have on hand.

Note 4: Female header pins, used as sockets for the LED displays, these are the machined pin type, 2.54mm pitch, single row straight.

Note 5: Male pin headers that are vertical on both boards, Pin 1 is the top of the header and have a square solder pad. If you look at the ICs on each of the types of boards, Pin 1 is at the top left, and the pin headers follow that same idea.

Power & Master Clock Board (only 1 board is needed):

CD4060BE 14-stage counter, x2

16 pin DIP sockets, x2

LM7805 5 volt regulator plus heatsink, screw, isolation washer, silicone pad, x1

1M resistor, x1

10K resistor, x1

32.768 kHz crystal oscillator, x1

SR540 Schottky diodes, x2

100nF 50 volt monolithic disc capacitors, x4

10uF 25 volt electrolytic capacitors, x2

PCB mount DC jack 5.5 x 2.1, x2

tactile switch, 2 pin type, x1

test pins: I use colored bead type test pins, x1 red, x1 yellow, x1 black

header pins: one of each size: 1x1 blue, 1x2 yellow, 1x4 black, 1x5 black

header pin jumpers: yellow x1, green x2

nylon standoffs and screws as needed, for this and the counter boards, so this would be 48 standoffs, 48 panhead Philips 3mm screws (for the tops of the boards), 48 countersunk Philips 3mm screws (for mounting to the frame back panel). The standoffs I use are 3x6mm (3mm screw size and 6mm in length) I also have a set of 4 tall standoffs I keep on the workbench that I use when installing electrolytic capacitors, voltage regulators or other tall parts.

Switching power supply, 12 volts DC 5 amps with a 5.5 x 2.1 barrel plug, center pin +, x1

Switching power supply, 9 volts DC 5 amps with a 5.5 x 2.1 barrel plug, center pin +, x1

Counter Boards (11 boards needed, the parts listed are for 11 boards and the 11th board will contain the least parts):

CD4033BE decade counter with ripple blanking, x101

16 pin DIP sockets, x101

5161AS common cathode 1 digit .56" display 7-segment displays, x101

LM7805 +5 volt regulator plus heatsink, screw, isolation washer, silicone pad, x11

10K resistor, x22

100nF 50 volt monolithic disc capacitors, x132

10uF 25 volt electrolytic capacitors, x22

tactile switch, 2 pin type, x11

test pins: I use colored bead type test pins, x11 red, x11 yellow, x11 black

header pins: 1x2 yellow x11, 1x2 red** (or black) x101, 1x2 blue x11, 1x3 blue x11, 1x3 black x11, 1x5 black x21

header pin jumpers: tall yellow x12, tall green x12, tall red** (or short black) x101

female machined pin headers, order as 40 pin rows then cut to size, 1x10 x101. The female headers are going to be sockets for the 7 segment displays, installing them will be explained.

5 pin jumper cables, x11, female Dupont connectors on each end, length 20 cm.

2 pin jumper cables, x10, female Dupont connectors on each end, length 20 cm.

1 pin jumper cable, x1, female Dupont connectors on each end, length 20 cm.

clear red acrylic, 1mm thick, for use over each set of 7-segment displays. Depending on how you want to mount the red acrylic, that is described in Step 10.

nylon standoffs and screws for the red acrylic, optional, read Step 10 for the ways to mount the acrylic, for mounting the red acrylic to counter boards, standoffs will be 22, and screws will be 44 pan head Philips 3mm screws. The standoffs are 3x15mm (3mm screw size and 15mm in length)

** Will be explained further in Step 5.

Tools:

Soldering iron and plenty of solder, and if mistakes are made, solder wick and liquid flux or a solder extractor.

Flush cutters, used for trimming leads.

Needle nose pliers, used for straightening pins on ICs and LEDs.

Electrical tape, used for holding components in place while soldering.

Isopropyl alcohol and a toothbrush, for cleaning the boards when soldering is completed.

Breadboard, or Pin Header Soldering Tool, used when soldering in header pins.

Small Philips head screwdriver, used when attaching heatsinks to the regulators.

Multimeter with hook probes, used for basic power checks.

Optional but useful, CD4033 & 7-segment LED Tester, I made this to test the 4033s and the 7-segment displays, since both the ICs and the LED displays are socketed in this project, you can just remove and replace. With the tester, you can test the function of every IC to ensure it is operational before starting the entire counter and you can test each LED display as well.

Display case or frame to mount all 12 boards in for display.

Only 1 of these boards is needed. This board is going to monitor the power and will switch to Backup power in the event that Primary power fails. This board takes in two separate switching power supplies, one is 12 volts DC and is Primary, and the second power supply is 9 volts DC and is Secondary. In the event of 12 volts failing, the counter will continue to work uninterrupted. This board has a 5 volt regulator which powers the master clock and provides the 5 volts to do a Reset of the system.

To assemble the board, and only one board is needed, install some short standoffs first, this keeps your board off your work surface. I use 3x6mm hex nylon for this, 3mm for the screw size and 6mm in length.

Install and solder in place the lowest profile parts first; resistors, disc capacitors, test points, and the diodes. For the diodes, pay attention to polarity. I use a piece of tape to hold down each part, solder, trim leads, then continue with the next part.

Functions:

R3 is a pull down resistor on the reset pin, the reset (+5 volts) goes to the counter boards and is not used on this board itself.

R4 is part of the crystal oscillator circuit.

C16 and C17 are part of the filtering circuit of the voltage regulator.

C19 and C20 are decoupling capacitors for the CD4060 ICs.

D1 and D2 are Schottky diodes, fast switching and low voltage drop, and they are large, rated 5 amps at 40 volts. Primary 12 volts comes in on a DC jack, passes through D1 but cannot go back through D2, the other DC jack will have 9 volts coming in on D2 but will not go through D2 since there is 12 volts on that line. When 12 volts is removed (power supply fails), 9 volts will be on the line and power the 5 volt regulator. The two diodes work together to prevent the power supplies from both supplying power. This is a common method for connecting a non-charging battery backup to a circuit.

Test pins, I like test pins. Test pins are right there, labeled, and you can simply connect a multimeter with hook probes to do the first basic troubleshooting when needed, such as, do you have power? TP1 is +12 volts and is yellow, I use yellow exclusively for 12 volts. TP2 is +5 volts and is red, I use red exclusively for 5 volts. And the black test point is universal for ground and is marked GND.

Next items to add are the header pins, and the easiest way to add the pins is insert the male part into a breadboard, turn the board upside down and place over the leads of the test pins, and using various items from your workbench, level the board so the pins are straight vertically, solder in place. Repeat this for each section of header pins. There is 4 separate header pin sections to install.

Next install the tactile switch, then the DC power jacks.

Functions:

H15 (yellow) header pins is basically the switch and connects the 12 volts to energize the 5 volt regulator which powers the clock and the Reset functions.

H16 (black) is in the center of the board and is part of the Reset function, to prevent you or someone else from inadvertently pressing the reset switch, the header requires two header pin jumpers installed side by side to complete the Reset function.

H20 (black) is the Board Out, it consists of two 12 volt lines, two ground lines, and the Reset line. This will connect to the first counter board. H20 is pin specific and pin 1 is shown in the photo.

H30 (blue) is Master Clock, or the 1 Hz clock out to the first counter board.

SW3 is Reset, when pressed, it provides +5 volts to all the Reset pins on U1 through U10 on each Counter Board.

J11 and J12 are DC jacks for the external DC switching power supplies and are marked +12 and +9.

Next, install the 16 pin sockets, I normally use machined pin sockets but feel free to use sockets of your choice.

If you have tall standoffs, go ahead and install them now so they are facing upwards.

Now install the electrolytic capacitors, pay attention to polarity when installing these. Then install the voltage regulator.

Functions:

U12 is the +5 volt regulator with heatsink attached. This provides power for the pair of of CD4060 ICs as well as the +5 volts for the Reset function.

C15 and C18 are filter capacitors for the +5 volt regulator. C15 is on the +12 volt input of the regulator and C18 is on the +5 volt output of the regulator.

X1 is the 32.768 kHz crystal oscillator, we are going to divide that down using the pair of CD4060 ICs to 1 Hz.

U13 and U14 are the CD4060 14-stage counters that provide the Master Clock. The way we are generating 1 Hz, the 32.768 kHz crystal oscillator inputs on pin 11 which is the clock input on U14, we are going to take the output from U14 on pin 15, which is 11th stage and dividing the 32.768 kHz by 1024, which now 32 Hz, and that goes to the clock input pin 11 on U13. We then use the output pin 5 which is 6th stage and dividing 32 Hz by 32 Hz to give us our 1 Hz out, our Master Clock.

Go ahead and clean the bottom of the board with isopropyl alcohol (I use a spray bottle to do this) and lightly scrubbing the board a toothbrush, spray the board again and let any excess alcohol drip off and pat dry with a paper towel or lint free cloth if you have those. This will remove any flux left over from soldering.

Now you can add the ICs and the yellow jumper on H15.

The board is now complete.

There is going to be 11 of these boards, remember a googol is 1 followed by 100 zeros, so the last board to be made will just have components for 1 digit, then we have 10 boards with 10 digits each, and the last board, which will represent the 1 in our number (this assumes our counter lasts longer than the universe itself, fingers crossed) 😀

The steps here are for the first 1 of 10 boards, when you complete this, just repeat 9 more times to get 10 boards the same. Another section will be for the last (11th) board.

To assemble, install and solder the lowest profile components first, resistors, capacitors, test points, and switch.

Functions:

R1 and R2 are simply pull down resistors.

C1 to C10 are decoupling capacitors for the 10 ICs.

C13 and C14 are filter capacitors for the 5 volt regulator.

SW1 is the lamp test switch, pressing that applies 5 volts on the lamp test pin of U1 through U10 on this board only.

Test pins are just that, one for +12 volts (yellow), one for +5 volts (red), one for ground (black).

Lots of header pins to add. As with the Power and Clock Board, easiest way is to use a breadboard to hold the header pin sections and solder them in place.

H1 through H10, 1x2, these are red and fitted with a red jumper to enable 5 volts to each IC. Caveat; these were intended so I could disable an IC so it could be replaced if needed for repair (after disabling the clock on the first board), surprisingly, disabling 5 volts does not turn off the IC, and pulling and reinserting an IC changes the count considerably, so I decided not to continue the red headers or tall jumpers on the remaining boards. So now you have you have several choices of how you want to install these. 1. You could use a wire link in place of each header. 2. You could install a vertical 0 ohm resistor in place of each header. 3. You could use just black headers and short black jumpers. I am using the 3rd choice for the rest of the boards since I do have a load of them on hand.

Functions:

H11 is yellow, 1x2. This will take a tall yellow jumper to complete the +12 volts to this board.

H12 is black, 1x5. This is Board IN and is pin 1 specific, as you look at the board as shown in the photo, pin 1 is at the top of the row, if holding the board on its side and you can read H12, pin 1 is on the left. Important to connect these correctly as they carry the +12 volt and ground lines.

Pin 1 on headers are indicated by a square pad and the rest of the pads will be round, I did forget to note this on the boards, my apologies for my error. If you have some white nail polish and a fine tipped brush, feel free to make a tiny dot to indicate where Pin 1 is, or use a spare board for reference.

H13 is black, 1x5. This is Board OUT and is pin 1 specific, as you look at the board as shown in the photo, pin 1 is at the top of the row, if holding the board on its side and you can read H13, pin 1 is on the left. Important to connect these correctly as they carry +12 volts and ground lines.

H14 is green, 1x3. This will take a tall green jumper. All boards are jumpered between pins 2 and 3. To enable Clock Inhibit (meaning stopping the count), jumper between pins 1 and 2 on the first board only.

H19 is blue, 1x2.

H21 is blue, 1x3.

Lots of sockets to install, there is 10 16-pin sockets, and 10 sets of 1x10 machined pin female headers to install, which will be the sockets for the 7-segment displays.

Go ahead and install a 16 pin socket, paying attention to the correct orientation, tape in place, turn over and solder just two pins in opposite corners. Remove the tape and check to see if the socket is flat on the board, if not, hold the board on its edge, press the socket (not on the pin you are going to touch up), and heat the solder joint until the socket "clicks" into place, repeat with the other corner if needed. Then turn back over, solder the other two opposite corners, then solder the remaining pins. Repeat this for each socket.

For the machined pin female headers, place a 1x10 row on each set of leads of a 7-segment display, and repeat for another 7-segment display. Install both on the board (no tape needed), one on each end of the row and turn the board over, place an item from your workbench (I use a set of cutters or pliers) on one end of the board to make the board sit level. Solder one pin on each end of each row for 1 display. Check to make sure the row is sitting flat on the board, then heat either end to reposition the header, then solder remaining pins.

Repeat with another 7-segment display until you have all the machined pin headers soldered in place.

Now remove the bottom standoffs and place taller standoffs on the top of the board and screwed in from the bottom side.

Now install the electrolytic capacitors and the finally the voltage regulator.

Functions:

For the ICs, first board, U1 and LED1 is the 1's digit, U2 and LED2 is the 10's digit, and so on, from right to left. For the second board, U1 digit comes after U10 on the first board, basically the boards read right to left, and will be positioned from bottom to top.

U1 takes the Master Clock of 1 Hz and simply counts to 10, when it reaches 10 it resets to 0 and starts its count again, and sends a clock pulse to the clock input of U2, when U2 reaches 10 it resets to 0 and sends a clock pulse to U3, and so on with all the counters. The counter advances by 86,400 seconds per day.

C11 and C12 are filter capacitors for the voltage regulator, C11 is on the +12 volt input, and C12 is on the +5 volt output.

Go ahead and clean the bottom of the board with isopropyl alcohol (I use a spray bottle to do this) and lightly scrubbing the board a toothbrush, spray the board again and let any excess alcohol drip off and pat dry with a paper towel or lint free cloth if you have those. This will remove any flux left over from soldering.

Install the jumper caps on H1 through H10, install the jumper cap on H11, and install the jumper cap on H14 pins 2 and 3.

The board is now complete, minus the ICs and LED displays.

Since this board contains only 1 digit, that digit will be on the right side of the board and is the easiest board to assemble.

All of the parts are to be added to the board, EXCEPT U2-U10, LED2-LED10, H2-H10, H13, H19, C2-C10. Just follow the same steps as the previous boards in regards to the order of installing the parts.

The completed board will look like the one in the photo.

If you have my 4033 & 7-segment Tester, go ahead and test the ICs with that tool, testing 2 ICs and LED displays at a time. I used my tester and out of 101 ICs, I did find 17 that were bad.

If you are not going to test them, just proceed with the straightening the pins on all the ICs and the displays.

Install the ICs, paying attention to correct alignment, with the pin 1 or the notch, upwards towards the displays and is indicated on the boards.

Check each IC after inserting by looking along the pins to ensure you have no bent or folded pins.

Install the displays in the female headers, paying attention that the decimal point is in the lower right of each display and is also indicated on the boards.

Now all the counter boards should be fully populated.

Transparent red acrylic is used as the filter over the LED displays, by placing a filter over the displays, it makes reading the display clear.

This can be done two ways. First method is to place a filter over the displays on each counter board, second method is to just use a transparent red sheet of acrylic for the front of the of the frame. I used the first method, and requires more parts.

You will note on each counter board there is a hole on the left and right of the row of LED displays, these are for mounting an acrylic filter over each set of displays. This method does involve more parts as listed in the Supplies list.

To mount the standoffs, insert a 3mm pan head screw from the underside of the board into a hole on either side of the LED row, screw on a standoff, repeat with the other end of the row.

Use an acrylic cutter or utility knife along with a metal straightedge and score the acrylic and break into the dimensions of 2.3cm by 16.3cm, you need 11 pieces of this. Position each filter over the standoffs, mark the centers, and drill 4mm holes for the mounting screws.

Place the acrylic panel over the LEDs and line up the holes, insert 3mm pan head screws into the standoffs to secure the acrylic in place. Repeat with the remaining counter boards.

Power & Master Clock Board.

Insert a tall jumper cap on H15.

Install two tall jumper caps on H16, one on pins 1 and 2 and one on pins 3 and 4, these will be removed later and used only for testing or reset purposes.

Connect a multimeter using hook probes, black lead to the GND test point, red lead to the +12 test point, turn the meter to 20 VDC range.

Plug in the +12 volt power supply, your meter should read +12 volts, indicating you have 12 volts to the board. Now move the red lead to the +5 test point, the meter should read 5 volts.

Remove the test leads, turn off the 12 volt power supply.

Counter Boards.

We are going to test the counter boards one at a time to see them count, do a lamp test, and do a reset. To test we are going to use a cable with 5 wires with female Dupont connectors on each end, and a single wire also with female Dupont connectors on each end.

Note, sometimes the ripple blanking is intermittent and leading zeros may be visible at times.

Place a counter board on the workbench behind the power & master clock board.

Place a jumper on H14 pins 2 and 3.

Connect one end of the 5 wire cable to H20 on the power & master clock board, and place the other end on H12 of the counter board. This cable is polarity specific, the color of wire on pin 1 of H20 needs to go to pin 1 on H12, reason for this is pins 1 and 2 carry +12 volts, pin 3 is Reset, and pins 4 and 5 are ground.

Connect a single wire to H30 on the power & master clock board to H21 pin 1 on the counter board, this is our 1 Hz master clock.

Place a jumper on H21 pins 2 and 3.

Turn on the 12 volt power supply, do a quick voltage check using hook probes on +12 test pin and then on +5 test pin.

If the LEDs are showing random numbers or segments, press Reset on the power and master clock board, the displays should all go blank, U1 will start counting.

Now press Lamp Test on the counter board, all LEDs should show an 8, which is testing each segment of the LED.

Repeat these steps to test each Counter Board.

I am going to show two counter boards connected, the rest of the board connections are exactly like connection board 2. Once all the boards are in place, time to wire everything together. For this you will need 11 5 pin wires with female Dupont connectors on each end, 1 single wire with female Dupont connectors, and 10 2 pin wires also with female Dupont connectors.

The 5 pin wires are specific, pin 1 has to go to pin 1 on the next header, such as, if you have 5 colored wires, and are wired the same on each end, like red, black, yellow, blue, and green, and you put the red on pin 1 of one header, then the red wire has to go on pin 1 of the next header, reason for this is the 5 pin headers carry +12 volts on pins 1 and 2, Reset on pin 3, and Ground on pins 4 and 5.

Power and Clock board, H20 to H12 on 1st Counter board, pin 1 to pin 1 specific.

Power and Clock board, H30 to H21 pin 1 on 1st Counter board.

1st Counter board, H21 jumper on pins 2 and 3, this only happens for the 1st board.

1st Counter board, H14 jumper on pins 2 and 3.

1st Counter board, H13 to H12 on 2nd Counter board, pin 1 to pin 1 specific.

1st Counter board, H19 pin 1 to H21 pin 2 on 2nd Counter board.

1st Counter board, H19 pin 2 to H21 pin 1 on 2nd Counter board.

2nd Counter board, H14 jumper on pins 2 and 3.

2nd Counter board, H13 to H12 on 3rd Counter board.

2nd Counter board, H19 pin 1 to H21 pin 2 on 3rd Counter board.

2nd Counter board, H19 pin 2 to H21 pin 1 on 3rd Counter board.

3rd through 10th Counter boards, just repeat the last 4 steps. 11th Counter board will just use H12 and H21.

After you have the counter tested and working, and counting, remove the jumper caps from H16 on the Power and Clock board to prevent someone from resetting the count.

I will make a frame to hold the counter so I can display it, when I get that completed, I will update this with the steps to follow and photos.

Basically the frame is going to be taller than wide, the Power and Clock board will be at the bottom, and the Counter boards will be placed above the power board in a column, with the 11th board at the top.

The photo shows the placement as to how it will be put in a frame.