logic chip experimenter's kits - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: ampdoctor
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 10, 2012, 03:34:27 pm
content: I was thinking that I would like to assemble a 'kit' of logic chips for experimental purposes, and for the life of me I'm having a time trying to come up with a nice useable selection. I've been considering putting together a collection of AND, OR, NAND, latches, inverters, multiplexers, darlington arrays, things like that. If you were going to put together this package what would you consider to be an essential or very useful parts list.

author: A-sic Enginerd
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 10, 2012, 04:39:41 pm
content: I seem to recall my first Intro to Logic Design lab kit (going back 20 yrs here) had all that plus:flip-flops7 seg LED driver and associated LEDa very simple ALU (don't recall part, but it was about as basic as one can get)a simple SRAMhandful of LED's and resistors (so you can actually see the output)Lab assignments started with some very simple things just to get a first hand visual of how the various gates worked. Moved on to simple FSM designs, which included doing the K-maps (shudder), then implement them with said kit. Last lab had us do something with setting up some flops to drive the inputs to the ALU and the output shown on the LEDs and / or 7 seg display, moving some bits back and forth from the SRAM, that sort of thing.After that we jumped into writing ABLE / PLDShell and implementing in PLD's. Don't know that I would go as far as PLD's for what you're looking for.

author: firkingdom
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: May 11, 2012, 09:18:34 am
content: Yes, one can take the discrete component path. There are FPGA boards like thesehttp://www.digilentinc.com/Products/Catalog.cfm?NavPath=2,400&Cat=10There reason I like FPGA is allows for one test quite complex designs such microcontrollers and SoCs. While discrete componeonts are not bad for getting a feel for how it works. I would just recomend LEDs, 7-Segment displays, A small amount of memorie, 7 segment decoders, a good piles 7400 series or similar logic gates. Also flipflops, and good source generating clock signals, such as wave form generator or an actual quartz oscillator at the frequency end. Also tactile buttons and also switches are hand for getting input into the syste.There are also logic simulators like LOGISM that give one a pretty good feel for working with logic, my only complaint with Logism is it can not generate VHDL code the circuits, I guess you could use the WEB ISE to draw circuit schematics instead of programming.

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 11, 2012, 02:36:14 pm
content: Sorry for hacking into the thread...But what are the common 7 seg LED drivers out there?

author: TerminalJack505
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 11, 2012, 03:39:13 pm
content: Quote from: Dave.S on May 11, 2012, 02:36:14 pmThe most common would probably be the 4511 and its variants, 74HC4511, etc. This is a BCD to seven-segment (common cathode) decoder.

author: ampdoctor
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 11, 2012, 06:00:23 pm
content: Actually it would be very nice to be able to order up some sort of digital lab kit but I've looked and haven't found one yet, which is why I'm looking for input to do this manually. Anyway, been working on a list over here and this is what I've got so far. I know there are repeats or equivalents but if anybody wants to start adding to this maybe we could compile a good working starter kit.AND gates: CD4081, 74LS08OR gates: CD4071, 74LS32NAND gates: CD4011, 74LS00/10/20LATCHES: CD4043B/4044BFLIP-FLOPS: CD4013TRANSISTOR ARRAYS:ULN2803/2804CA3045/3046

author: pickle9000
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 11, 2012, 06:36:08 pm
content: 4049 hex buffer4066 / 4016 quad bilateral switch, this one is very handy, switch analog sigs.uln2003 for a transistor array / output driver is my favorite....mike

author: Bored@Work
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 11, 2012, 07:25:49 pm
content: Quote from: ampdoctor on May 11, 2012, 06:00:23 pmUse more "modern" technologies than the CD and 74LS ICs. E.g. at least the (also getting old) 74HC. Easy to handle and easy to get.Get the pocket bookhttp://www.ti.com/general/docs/lit/getliterature.tsp?literatureNumber=scyd013b&fileType=pdfand pick your ICs from the 74HC or an even more modern series.