Is anyone here familiar with ICs?

[450Nick]

I have a 12v pulse squarewave (speedo) signal which needs dividing by 16 using a frequency divider circuit though sadly, I know very little about logic ICs. I've found this one: http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/frequency-multiplier... which looks like it may do the job, but I have really no idea what I'm doing. Is there anyone out there who might be able to build a very small breadboard circuit to divide the signal for me for a few beer tokens??

Edited by 450Nick on Wednesday 22 March 17:19

[dnb]

Assuming you want your output signal to be 16 times slower than the speedo input, I'd be more tempted to use something like an ATTINY45 microcontroller and divide the clock using one of the hardware timers - about 10 of lines of C to implement. You could probably get away with using something I made years ago to condition the speed input for my Corsa C steering column. I might have a prototype board somewhere - will check over the weekend.

[450Nick]

You are a hero Dave! Email will be sent shortly...

[mike_e]

You could use a Micro but it just adds lots of complications. You just need a binary counter chip, something like an CD4020B or HEF4020 would do, datasheet here: (sorry about the quality, its an old chip)

http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/cd4020b.pdf

It has 14 divided output stages and will work up to 18V. It has two power pins, 12V on Pin 16 and Ground on Pin 8.
It has a reset Pin (Pin 11) which must be connected to GND, if not the outputs don't work.
Your pulsed signal needs to go to the Clock Input pin (Pin 10).
It has a number of output pins Q1 to Q14, Q4 (divides by 4 binary steps 2/4/8/16) on Pin 5 should give you a divide by 16 pulsed output.

They cost about £0.45 from Farnell, sadly the postage will be £3.95. Your local Maplin may stock them.

[450Nick]

Thanks Mike, email sent with some questions