Remember when a staff member would ‘click’ a mechanical or analogue counter every time a patron walked into a venue? A more sophisticated version was the mechanical meter in your home’s electrical box or water meter, with the world of industry also heavily relying on counters to track mileage or track goods as they are manufactured. Actually, it was all just a logical evolution of the way ancient human civilisations used small stones or other physical tokens to do the work of counting and recording, taking us all the way to the current day – when electrical or digital counters do the heavy lifting as integrated components in our advanced and fast-paced industrial world.
What is a digital counter?
In essence, a digital counter replaces the mechanical components of a traditional counter with the help of electronics, computer programming and digital logic. It stores and displays the counting event, which could be something that is counted or timed – and all packaged in devices that are rapidly evolving for more complex functionality and analytics.
What are the types of digital counter?
Generally, the electronic counter’s output is used to count pulses as per a ‘flip-flop‘ circuit – two stable states that log and store binary data. The precise input and the assignment of pulses to the flip-flops, however, results in the 5 basic categories of digital counter:
1. Asynchronous/ripple counter
Each flip-flop output is connected to the input of a higher-order flip-flop. What this means is that the flip-flops are not all synchronised, but rather triggered individually.
2. Synchronous counter
In contrast, the flip-flops are triggered at the same time in a synchronous counter, but require more complex hardware than an asynchronous counter due to the ever more complicated electronic circuit as the rate of the states increases.
3. Decade counter
This counter type can handle 10 states – 0 to 9. After 9 is reached, the counter resets to 0.
4. Ring counter
In a ring counter, the output of one flip-flop is the input for the next flip-flop. For instance, in a 4-bit ring counter, the pattern is 0001, with the ‘ring’ in the name referring to the way the pattern continuously cycles.
5. Johnson counter
Similar to the ring counter, the Johnson counter takes the output from the final flip-flop and inverts it, feeding it back to serve as the input to the first flip-flop.
How to choose your digital counter?
If you or your organisation is new to the world of counters, deciding what hardware to select can seem overwhelming. As you begin to make your choice, be guided by the following:
What basic type do you need?: For almost all commercial and industrial applications today, a digital counter is superior to a mechanical or electromechanical device.
What functions do you need? You can now buy pre-set counters featuring multiple pre-programmed values, and also multifunction counters that are perfect for all-in-one counting, measuring and recording.
What mounting type? Digital counters are either standalone, or mounted on circuit boards, panels or in-cabinet din rails.
Which display? Mechanical displays are still suitable for many applications, but generally it’s a choice of either LCD or LED, and available in single or multiple lines.
Which power supply? Whether your application requires either AC, DC or battery power, there is a counter device available for your organisation.
Today’s next-generation range of electronic or digital counters is almost endless, so make sure you check in with the experts who can help you match the perfect device to your application, operating conditions, preferences and budget.
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