Digital tips for CircuitMaker
Speed
The speed of the digital simulation is set under Options, Digital Options, Simulation speed. For counter circuits, a speed of 7 to 10 is appropriate.Building counters with JK Flip-flops
- I suggest using the 7473 1/2 (half of a dual jk flipflop). Be sure to tie the R input to +5 volts or a logic 1. If you use the 74LS112, both the S and R inputs need to be tied to +5 volts. See the Texas Instruments link on the main Electronics page for data sheets. One of the more convenient to use is the 7473 1/2, which is half of the 7473 chip. This is nice because it only has one JK flipflop rather than two. This makes our circuits look simpler.
- Use the Logic Display (under Hotkeys1) for a readout.
Here is a synchronous divide-by-four circuit using a 7473 1/2 flip flop. The logic switch is set to 0 to reset the flip flops to zero and set to 1 to let them run:
