CONSTRUCTION

STANDALONE DIGITAL CLOCK

„ K. KRISHNA MURTY with a 3.2768MHz crystal is employed
for more accuracy. With both pins 12

H
ere is a standalone digital and 13 (A and B) held high, crystal
clock that does not require frequency is divided by 65,536 and the
software and programming. output is available at pin 8.
The clock has many features like wide This output has a dual role to play. from pin 8 of IC2 are fed to cathode 1
supply range, 12-hour/24-hour display It is directly fed to the 50Hz input of and cathode 2 of the display through
modes, on-chip alarm output (900Hz LM8560 at pin 25 as reference fre- transistors T1 and T2.
tone), 50/60Hz frequency selection, quency. The internal circuitry in the Regular seven-segment displays
snooze, on-chip battery backup oscil- clock divides this into minutes and cannot be used with this IC as it sup-
lator sleep timer (maximum of 59 min- hours and feeds the appropriate driv- ports only duplex display. Instead of
utes or 1 hour 59 minutes). ers. 50Hz frequency is used for dis- making common connection of all the
play duplexing. 50Hz output signals cathodes of the seven segments from
Circuit description all the four digits, here all the cath-
At the heart of this clock is IC LM8560. odes are divided into two and
The user-selectable 50/60Hz AC fre- driven by alternate cycles of 50 Hz
quency available from the secondary and anodes are driven by
of the transformer can be clocked into duplexing. One of the duplex dis-
the chip and it also has an on-chip os- plays is Sanyo’s SL1498T.
cillator to back up the clock in the case The AC mains is stepped
of power down. However, in this down by transformer X1 to deliver
project, a crystal oscillator and divider a secondary output of 15V at 500
IC (CD4541) is used for this precision mA. The transformer output is rec-
job as the mains frequency in many tified by full-wave bridge rectifier
countries is generally well below the BR1, filtered by capacitor C3 and
50Hz mark and is not that stable for regulated by IC3. 12V battery is
an accurate clock application. used for backup. Piezobuzzer PZ1,
PARTS LIST
LM8560 supports duplex display. used for alarm, is driven by transistor
Semiconductors:
This time-shared duplexing has the IC1 - LM8560 clock T3. Sleep timer pin drives relay RL2
advantage of reducing the number of IC2 - CD4541 programmable with the help of transistor T5.
display pins to 14 and the chip has timer An actual-size, single-side PCB lay-
IC3 - 7812 12V regulator
only 28 pins. Pin-out of IC LM8560 is T1 - BC558 pnp transistor out for the standalone digital clock is
shown in Fig. 1. T2-T5 - BC548 npn transistor shown in Fig. 3 and its component lay-
DIS1 - 0.56-inch, 4-digit
Fig. 2 shows the circuit of the duplex display out in Fig. 4.
standalone digital clock. CD4541 is a D1-D3 - 1N4007 rectifier diode
programmable timer that consists of a BR1 - 1A bridge rectifier Settings and display
16-stage binary counter, an integrated Resistors (all ¼-watt, ±5% carbon): modes
R1-R14 - 680-ohm
oscillator to be used with external tim- R15 - 1-mega-ohm Display management of LM8560 is car-
ing components, an automatic power- R16, R17 - 10-kilo-ohm ried out with switches S1 and S2 (SPST
R18, R19, R21 - 2.2-kilo-ohm switches), which provide all the four
on reset and output control logic, R20, R22 - 4.7-kilo-ohm
which results in a division of 65,536 display functions such as real time,
Capacitors:
times. Frequency-division 8, 10, or 13 C1, C2 - 33pF ceramic disk alarm time, and sleep timer and sec-
binary stages are also programmable C3 - 1000μF, 35V electrolytic onds display. 50Hz operation is en-
C4 - 1μF, 25V electrolytic
with this IC. Frequency division is se- abled by connecting pin 26 to Vcc. If
lected by input pins 12 and 13. When Miscellaneous: pin 26 is left unconnected, the clock
X1 - 230V AC primary to
the mode input (pin 10) is held high, 15V, 500mA secondary shifts to 60Hz mode because this pin
the output at pin 8 is continuous transformer is internally pulled down.
RL1, RL2 - 12V, 1C/O relay
square wave. PZ1 - Piezobuzzer If pin 28 is left unconnected, the
It has a built-in oscillator controlled S1, S2 - SPST or on/off switch clock stands in 12-hour mode and by
by external component. Nevertheless S3- S6 - Push-to-on switch pulling it to Vcc the clock shifts to 24-
XTAL - 3.2768MHz crystal
in the present schematic, an oscillator hour mode. In 12-hour mode, PM LED

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CONSTRUCTION
supply, all the lit
segments begin to
blink and the unit
switches to a
power-failure-de-
tection mode. The
power-failure-de-
tection display is
cancelled by acti-
vating Hours set S4
or Min set S5.
Alarm time dis-
play. When switch
S2 is closed, the
clock shifts to
alarm display
mode. In this
mode, alarm time
can be set in much
the same way as
the normal display
with hours and
minutes set
switches (S4 and
S5, respectively).
Pressing the
hour-set switch S4
pulls pin 22 to Vcc
and the clock incre-
ments hours at 2Hz
rate. But in this
shows real mode, if both switches are pressed si-
time in hours multaneously, the alarm time is reset
and minutes. to 12:00 in the 12-hour mode or 00:00
Pressing in 24-hour mode.
hour-set Sleep display. When switch S1 is
switch S4 closed, the clock changes to sleep dis-
makes the play mode. Ten’s of hours display is
clock incre- blanked and sleep counters are set to
ment hours 59 minutes. Pressing hour-set switch
at 2Hz rate. S4 while S1 is closed sets the display
Pressing to 1:59 minutes in this mode. By press-
minute-set ing minutes set switch S5 now, the
switch S5 sleep display decrements at 2Hz rate.
makes the Seconds display. When switches S1
clock incre- and S2 are closed, the clock enters sec-
ment min- onds display mode. If the minute switch
utes at 2Hz S5 is pressed now, the clock changes to
rate. Pressing hold mode. Pressing hours and min-
b o t h utes switches (S4 and S5, respectively)
switches at simultaneously makes the clock to
the same reset the time to 12:00 in the 12-hour
time incre- mode or 00:00 in 24-hour mode.
ments both Normal time setting. With S1 and
lights up as and when appropriate. hours and minutes at the same rate S2 open, normal time is set with
Normal time display. With both simultaneously. switches S4 for hours and S5 for min-
S1 and S2 switches open, the display When activated by a drop in power utes. If the power fails and resumes, nor-

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CONSTRUCTION
mal time is shown. However, the dis- sleep counter
play blinks if the battery backup is not is reset to 1
available or if batteries have discharged. hour and 59
minutes.
Alarm operation Pressing
When the set alarm time synchronises minute-set
with the real time, the clock delivers switch S5
an alarm signal of 900 Hz gated at 2 makes the
Hz at pin 16. This signal drives a piezo sleep counter
buzzer. The alarm signal continues for to count
1 hour 59 minutes until stopped by down at 2Hz
alarm-off or suspended by snooze. The rate. The re-
alarm can be switched off by pressing quired sleep
switch S6. It can also be snoozed or time is thus
suspended for 8 or 9 minutes by press- set in min-
ing S3, while the alarm time is active. utes with this
On the other hand, if snooze switch switch and
S3 is pulled up in alarm-off state, the the counter
sleep timer goes down to 00:00 hour. counts down
The 900Hz alarm signal can be turned until 00:00
to DC signal by a simple low-pass fil- hour from
ter as shown in the schematic. This can the set time
drive a relay or switch a radio circuit. soon as the sleep timer is activated delay. Now even if hour-set switch S4
with switch S1 closed, it is reset to and minute-set switch S5 are pressed
Sleep timer 00:59 minutes and the down count simultaneously, the timer still counts
Sleep counter can be used to drive a starts. This fires a relay through T4. down at 2Hz rate, but if the snooze
relay or switch a radio or any other If sleep display switch S2 is closed switch is pressed the sleep timer goes
circuit for up to 1 hour 59 minutes. As and hour-set switch S4 is pressed, the down to 00:00 hour. z

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