Digital Dice

Joey Chan (065271769), Kenneth Lau (

December 7, 2012
TEL4M 01
Mr. Patterson

Purpose: to build a digital dice using the 74161, 74LS04, 7400 and 7805 ICs. We
will follow the pictures given and make connections to the schematic diagram.
Daily Journal Entries
Date

Achievements/ Difficulties

What we plan to do next

November 20

Gathered all parts and

started to build the
circuit

Finish the IC report for

next class

November 22

Joey restarted his

circuit

Solder ground and power

connections

November 27

Continued testing and

soldering

Solder the clock onto the

board

Solder the IC bases and

voltage regulator in

Had a difficult time

making ground one
long continuous wire
November 29

Continued testing and

soldering

Solder the wires that

connect the logic gates
together

December 3

Continued testing and

soldering

Solder the LEDs, the

button and the battery
connector on.
Finish the circuit

December 5

Finished the circuit

December 7

Present project to the

class

Build a base for the circuit

Circuit Operation:
When the button is held down the capacitor, resistor 1, resistor 2, and two
inverters make constant clock pulses. The binary counter takes the pulse and it is
fed into pin 2. Every pulse adds to the binary counter which is outputted through
pins 12-14. Pin 1 of the 74161 is set to high so that the counter is synchronous.
When the counter reaches the max count, pin 15 outputs high. The high pulse is
then inverted and fed into pin 9. When pin 9 is low it loads the input from pins 3-6.
So this counter starts at 1010 and resets to 1010 after 1111. Using NAND and NOT
gates the outputs are redirected and changed to form every dice layout (Fig-1).
Fig-1:
Outp
ut

LEDs On

Number formed
on Die

1010

2, 3, 4, 5,
6, 7

1011

1, 2, 3, 6,
7

1100

4, 5, 6, 7

1101

1, 2, 3

1110

4, 5

1111

Personal Reflections:
While researching this project I have found out how all of the ICs function,
and how they all work together to form a project that has a practical use. Following
the diagrams made the project much easier. Seeing how an experienced technician
would set up the circuit should aid me when I build a different circuit without any
visual guide. In the beginning I was rushing the circuit a bit so I had some misplaced
connections. When I was trying to fix some connections I ripped off many copper
rings using the solder sucker. I have to make sure that the copper ring is thoroughly
heated before I extract the solder. After I finished following all the steps my circuit
did not function properly. It seemed to favour the randomization of 3 and 1. The
first thing I did to try fix my problem was to compare my circuit to the diagram
which fixed one problem where I had switched two connections. This fixed the
problem but it still glitches once in a while. I figured out that the button sometimes

short circuits and it is hard to maintain a stable connection. Overall, this project was
fun and I would use this project once in a while.
-

Joey