I am looking for a simple pulse counter circuit.

A single monetary push button switch would act as the input.

When eight pulses are received an output would go high (or low).



Brian Krupicka

trains@dbcomserv.com

 

Need more information. What happens with the 9th input? Does the output stay high or go low? After 8 counts, does the counter freeze until it is manually reset? If I push the button 53 times, is there only 1 output pulse, or 6 (8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48)?

What is the power source voltage? What does the output drive?

Depending on the answers, this might take only one chip - CD4017.

ak

 

Any decade or binary counter would work. The switch will need debouncing.

 

Need more information. What happens with the 9th input? Does the output stay high or go low? After 8 counts, does the counter freeze until it is manually reset? If I push the button 53 times, is there only 1 output pulse, or 6 (8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48)?

What is the power source voltage? What does the output drive?

Depending on the answers, this might take only one chip - CD4017.

ak

After 8 counts the circuit needs to reset to "0".
The output would revert back to the rest state low (or high), depending on the IC being utilized.
The voltage would be either 5V or 12VDC.
The output will drive a small current reed relay coil.

 

After 8 counts the circuit needs to reset to "0".
The output would revert back to the rest state low (or high), depending on the IC being utilized.
The voltage would be either 5V or 12VDC.
The output will drive a small current reed relay coil.

So you mean the output will go momentarily high at the 8th count and then reset?
If so then how long should it remain high?

How much current does the relay coil take at what voltage?

 

It should remain high for .25 seconds.
The relay draws 2ma of current.

 

Relay off
Push button 7 times, relay stays off
Push button 8th time, relay turns on for 0.25 s, turns off
Keep pushing button forever, relay stays off forever
Only way to reset the circuit is to remove and reapply power

correct?

ak

 

First pass based on thin specs. It might be possible to drive the relay directly from the 4017, depending on the actual current and dropout voltage.

R1-C1 - power on reset
R2-C2 - pushbutton debounce
R3-C3 - relay ON time
C4 - chip decoupling

ak

 

The OP stated that he wanted the circuit to reset at the 8th pulse (post #4).
AK, connecting C1 to the drain of Q1 instead of VCC should do that at the end of the relay pulse (perhaps with the addition of a diode across R1 to conduct the reverse current when Q1 turns on).
That should also provide a power-on reset through the relay coil.

Edit: I have a concern that C2 will tend to weld the contacts of SW1.
Perhaps there should be a small resistor added in series with pin 2 of SW1.

Edit 2:
Below is an LTspice simulation of AK's circuit with the changes I suggested to generate a reset at the end of the relay pulse.
It generates a .25s relay pulse (as determined by the R1C1 time-constant) after every 8 push-button actuations.