PHYSICS INVESTIGATORY PROJECT

MAKING OF SIMPLE ELECTRONIC

DICE USING LED’S AND INTEGRATED
CIRCUITS

By:
Acknowledgement

I would like to express my special thanks

and gratitude to my beloved teacher and
the principal who gave me the golden
opportunity to do this wonderful project
on the topic - Making of Simple Electronic
Dice Using LED’S and Integrated Circuits.
This also helped me to dig out and
understand many new things.Hence am
really thankful to them.
Secondly I would also like to thank my
parents and friends who facilitated me in
various aspects for finalizing this project
within the limited time frame.

INDEX

1. INTRODUCTION
2. CIRCUIT DIAGRAM
3. COMPONENTS AND THEIR DETAILS
4. WORKING PRINCIPLE
5. PHOTO GALLARY
6. BIBILIOGRAPHY
7. REMARKS
INTRODUCTION

Playing with dice is an age old game. We all love to play

with it too. Playing with dice needs us to pick up a dice
and make sure that it is unbiased. Making a block as a
dice and cutting it clearly to make sure that it is
unbiased is all an old story. The dice becomes biased if
the shape is not cut well.

Also, the dice can become biased due to deformations.

If it is a wooden die, it can deform due to dampness in
the atmosphere or due to mechanical stress. To solve
all these problems which we have with a conventional
dice, we have made a dice circuit which solves all the
problems of a conventional dice.

Now, we are going to show you an electronic LED dice

which is nearly unbiased. There is no chance to cheat
as the circuit operates at such a high speed that the
circuit is almost imperceptible to the human eye. There
is also little maintenance and there is hardly any
impact on aging of the circuit. The frequency may vary
a bit with change in power supply voltage, aging of the
active and passive components but still the
randomness will be preserved without any trouble.

CIRCUIT DIAGRAM
COMPONENTS

1. CD4017 IC
2. 555 Timer IC
3. Two Resistors – 1k
4. Capacitor – 10uf
5. Variable Resistor – 10k
6. Push Button
7. Six LED’s
8. Battery – 9 volt
CD4017 IC

Most of us are more comfortable with 1, 2, 3, 4…

rather than 001, 010, 011, 100. We mean to say that
we will need a decimal coded output in many cases
rather than a raw binary output. We have many
counter ICs available but most of them produce binary
data as an output. We will again need to process that
output by using decoders or any other circuitry to
make it usable for our application in most of the cases.

Let us now introduce you a new IC named IC 4017. It is

a CMOS decade counter cum decoder circuit which can
work out of the box for most of our low range counting
applications. It can count from zero to ten and its
outputs are decoded. This saves a lot of board space
and time required to build our circuits when our
application demands using a counter followed by a
decoder IC. This IC also simplifies the design and makes
debugging easy.
It has 16 pins and the functionality of each pin is
explained as follows:

Pin-1: It is the output 5. It goes high when the counter

reads 5 counts.
Pin-2: It is the output 1. It goes high when the counter
reads 0 counts.
Pin-3: It is the output 0. It goes high when the counter
reads 0 counts.
Pin-4: It is the output 2. It goes high when the counter
reads 2 counts.
Pin-5: It is the output 6. It goes high when the counter
reads 6 counts.
Pin-6: It is the output 7. It goes high when the counter
reads 7 counts.
Pin-7: It is the output 3. It goes high when the counter
reads 3 counts.
Pin-8: It is the Ground pin which should be connected
to a LOW voltage (0V).
Pin-9: It is the output 8. It goes high when the counter
reads 8 counts.
Pin-10: It is the output 4. It goes high when the counter
reads 4 counts.
Pin-11: It is the output 9. It goes high when the counter
reads 9 counts.
Pin-12: This is divided by 10 output which is used to
cascade the IC with another counter so as to enable
counting greater than the range supported by a single
IC 4017. By cascading with another 4017 IC, we can
count up to 20 numbers. We can increase and increase
the range of counting by cascading it with more and
more IC 4017s. Each additional cascaded IC will
increase the counting range by 10. However, it is not
advisable to cascade more than 3 ICs as it may reduce
the reliability of the count due to the occurrence
glitches. If you need a counting range more than
twenty or thirty, I advise you to go with conventional
procedure of using a binary counter followed by a
corresponding decoder.
Pin-13: This pin is the disable pin. In normal mode of
operation, this is connected to ground or logic LOW
voltage. If this pin is connected to logic HIGH voltage,
then the circuit will stop receiving pulses and so it will
not advance the count irrespective of number of pulses
received from the clock.
Pin-14: This pin is the clock input. This is the pin from
where we need to give the input clock pulses to the IC
in order to advance the count. The count advances on
the rising edge of the clock.
Pin-15: This is the reset pin which should be kept LOW
for normal operation. If you need to reset the IC, then
you can connect this pin to HIGH voltage.
Pin-16: This is the power supply (Vcc) pin. This should
be given a HIGH voltage of 3V to 15V for the IC to
function.
This IC is very useful and is also user friendly.To use the
IC, just connect it according to the specifications
described above in the pin configuration and give the
pulses you need to count to the pin-14 of the IC. Then
you can collect the outputs at the output pins.When
the count is zero, pin-3 is high. When the count is
1,pin-2 is high and so on as described above.

555 Timer IC

The 555 timer IC is an integral part of electronics

projects. Be it a simple project involving a single 8-bit
micro-controller and some peripherals or a complex
one involving system on chips (SoCs), 555 timer
working is involved. These provide time delays, as an
oscillator and as a flip-flop element among other
applications.

Introduced in 1971 by the American company

Signetics, the 555 is still in widespread use due to its
low price, ease of use and stability. It is made by many
companies in the original bipolar and low-power CMOS
types. According to an estimate, a billion units were
manufactured back in the year 2003 alone.

Depending on the manufacturer, the standard 555

timer package includes 25 transistors, 2 diodes and 15
resistors on a silicon chip installed in an 8-pin mini
dual-in-line package (DIP-8). Variants consist of
combining multiple chips on one board. However, 555
is still the most popular. Let us look at the pin diagram
to have an idea about the timer IC before we talk
about 555 timer working.
Pin Name Purpose

1 GND Ground reference voltage, low level (0 V)

The OUT pin goes high and a timing interval starts

when this input falls below 1/2 of CTRL voltage
(which is typically 1/3 Vcc, CTRL being 2/3 Vcc by
2 TRIG default if CTRL is left open). In other words, OUT
is high as long as the trigger low. Output of the
timer totally depends upon the amplitude of the
external trigger voltage applied to this pin.

This output is driven to approximately 1.7 V

3 OUT
below + Vcc, or to GND.

4 RESET A timing interval may be reset by driving this input

to GND, but the timing does not begin again until
RESET rises above approximately 0.7 volts.
 Overrides TRIG which overrides threshold.

Provides “control” access to the internal voltage

5 CTRL divider (by default, 2/3 Vcc).

The timing (OUT high) interval ends when the

6 THR voltage at threshold is greater than that at CTRL
(2/3 Vcc if CTRL is open).

Open collector output which may discharge a

7 DIS capacitor between intervals. In phase with output.

Positive supply voltage, which is usually between 3

8 Vcc and 15 V depending on the variation.

Some important features of the 555 timer:

555 timer is used in almost every electronic circuit
today. For a 555 timer working as a flip flop or as a
multi-vibrator, it has a particular set of configurations.
Some of the major features of the 555 timer would be,

 It operates from a wide range of power ranging

from +5 Volts to +18 Volts supply voltage.
 Sinking or sourcing 200 mA of load current.
  The external components should be selected
properly so that the timing intervals can be
made into several minutes along with the
frequencies exceeding several hundred
kilohertz.
 The output of a 555 timer can drive a transistor-
transistor logic (TTL) due to its high current
output.
 The duty cycle of the timer is adjustable.

Variable Resistor – 10k

What is a Variable Resistor?
A variable resistor is a device that is used to change the
resistance according to our needs in an electronic
circuit. It can be used as a three-terminal as well as a
two terminal device. Mostly they are used as a three
terminal device. Variable resistors are mostly used for
device calibration.

Working of Variable Resistor

As shown in the diagram below, a variable resistor
consists of a track which provides the resistance path.
Two terminals of the device are connected to both the
ends of the track. The third terminal is connected to a
wiper that decides the movement of the track. The
motion of the wiper through the track helps in
increasing and decreasing the resistance.

Variable Resistors Working

The track is usually made of a mixture of ceramic and
metal or can be made of carbon as well. As a resistive
material is needed, carbon film type variable resistors
are mostly used. They find applications in radio
receiver circuits, audio amplifier circuits and TV
receivers. For applications of small resistances, the
resistance track may just be a coil of wire. The track
can be in both the rotary as well as straight versions. In
a rotary track, some of them may include a switch. The
switch will have an operating shaft which can be easily
moved in the axial direction with one of its ends
moving from the body of variable resistor switch.
The rotary track resistor with has two applications. One
is to change the resistance. The switch mechanism is
used for the electric contact and non-contact by on/off
operation of the switch. There are switch mechanism
variable resistors with an annular cross-section which
are used for the control of equipments. Even more,
components are added to this type of a variable
resistor so as to make them compatible with
complicated electronic circuits. A high-voltage variable
resistor such as a focus pack is an example. This device
is capable of producing a variable focus voltage as well
as a screen voltage. It is also connected to a variable
resistance circuit and also a fixed resistance circuit
[bleeder resistor] to bring a change in the applied
voltage. For this, both the fixed and variable resistor
are connected in series.
A track made in a straight path is called a slider. As the
position of a slider cannot be seen or confirmed
according to the adjustment of resistance, a stopping
mechanism is usually included to prevent the hazards
caused due to over-rotation.

WORKING PRINCIPLE
In this digital dice circuit we have used 6 LEDs, each
LED represent a number (1-6) of Dice. LEDs start
flashing as we press the Push button and stops when
we release it. After release, illuminated LED tells the
numbers, you got on Dice. Like if fifth no. LED remains
ON after releasing the button, means you got 5 on
Dice. We have connected 6 LEDs to the output Q0 to
Q5, and the seventh output Q6 is connected back to
the RESET PIN 15. So that after LED 6 it starts from the
First LED at Q0.
To apply the clock pulse at PIN 14 of 4017 IC, we have
used 555 timer IC in Astable mode. The oscillated
output generated at PIN 3 of 555 has been applied to
the PIN 14 of 4017, so that output can be advanced
with each clock pulse. We can control the speed of
flashing LEDs by using the potentiometer (RV1),
rotating the potentiometer knob will change oscillation
frequency of 555 timer, hence the rate of clock pulse.
The frequency of the 555 can be calculated using this
formula: F=1.44/((R1+2*RV1)*C1)

In this digital dice circuit we have kept the oscillation

frequency so high that no one can cheat. LED
flashing speed is directly proportional to oscillation
frequency of 555, as High the frequency, as high the
speed of flashing. You can increase frequency
according to you, by rotating the potentiometer.
PHOTO GALLARY