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How is binary transferred in electrical signals?

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KeystoneKeygen

New Member
Joined
Jul 19, 2011
I'm building a project and it's dawned on me overtime that this project is a lot more complicated that I thought. I need to start from the absolute basics and I thought this would be a great start.

I want to know...

* How I cant store memory [0 = 0], [1 = 1], [10 = 2], [11 = 3], [100 = 4], etc., onto a copper wire system.

* If that's too far out there I really just need to know how binary is sent in electrical signals?

I have read a recent post here and interpreted it to be, oh say, 4 separate wires next to each other with each wire carrying a 1 or 0 (electric signal or none) and then carried to the processor and stored into the processor's own memory where it waits for another sequence to come (or instruction w/e) and then sends those binary codes to the correct logic gates where it then comes out of the processor. :shrug:

Correct me if i'm wrong.

Thank you, guys!
 
Your interpretation is basically right. In the electrical realm, binary is actually just different voltages. Typically you define them as your highest and lowest voltages. Say your battery or power supply is 2.5V. You use 2.5V as a 1, and 0V as a 0. Logic gates are built from transistors which are basically switches. It takes the voltage inputs and then either connects the output to 2.5V or 0V.

What's your project?
 
I want to make a simple computer and led display as monitor (on = 1 off = 0 right?(so 4 LED's in a row I want the first one to come on, the next two stay off, and the last one to come on, if I enter the number nine)

Obviously 9 = 1001 (on,off,off,on) makes sense right?

* It will have 10 buttons numbered 1-9
* A processor, if needed
* 4 LED's in a horizontal row....
* Battery, insulated copper wire

This will all be hooked up to a piece of card board which will serve as the circuit-board/entire computer.

I want to have the buttons send the right binary signals through the wires to the processor to display the right sequence on the LED's. The LED's will light up and display the button number in binary which is why I'm concerned I won't actually need a processor which sucks.

I guess I'd also need ROM memory for the buttons to know what binary sequence corresponds to each of them.

I would also love to learn how I can make a simple-small switch transistor for the CPU so I can fit like 4 of them on this computer project. [also would be great for RAM so I can then progress to making calculators or something more advanced]

I'm still learning about this. It's fascinating.
 
I want to make a simple computer and led display as monitor (on = 1 off = 0 right?(so 4 LED's in a row I want the first one to come on, the next two stay off, and the last one to come on, if I enter the number nine)

Obviously 9 = 1001 (on,off,off,on) makes sense right?

* It will have 10 buttons numbered 1-9
* A processor, if needed
* 4 LED's in a horizontal row....
* Battery, insulated copper wire

This will all be hooked up to a piece of card board which will serve as the circuit-board/entire computer.

I want to have the buttons send the right binary signals through the wires to the processor to display the right sequence on the LED's. The LED's will light up and display the button number in binary which is why I'm concerned I won't actually need a processor which sucks.

I guess I'd also need ROM memory for the buttons to know what binary sequence corresponds to each of them.

I would also love to learn how I can make a simple-small switch transistor for the CPU so I can fit like 4 of them on this computer project. [also would be great for RAM so I can then progress to making calculators or something more advanced]

I'm still learning about this. It's fascinating.

Sounds like fun. There are definitely a lot of ways to do this, most of them are probably easier than using ROM or a CPU. If you do want to jump straight into a CPU, there are tons of people who have made simple CPUs using off-the-shelf parts. If you look for those it'll probably be a good starting point.
 
This can easily be done without a processor by using analog/digital parts, but can be done with a simple line of code with a processor as well.


If you were to do the project with a processor super easy mode:

You need to have a microcontroller with 14 bi-directional input/output ports, or 10 input and 4 output ports. A simple pix, MC can do this, or ardrino. Each input will be translated to a corrisponding number. So for example, if port 0 was listening for inputs, and that input became active (button pressed down), it would display 0001 on your LED pattern. To display the pattern, you can use a lookup table that is associated with the input, or just do a simple direct command for when a button is pressed down.


For the Digital/analog system, let me think about this for a bit. I have not done something like this for some time. :D
 
For the Digital/analog system, let me think about this for a bit. I have not done something like this for some time. :D

Simplest way would be to use a set of switches/resistors connected to supply and ground, and connect that to an off the shelf encoder. If you want the number to stay you could use a bunch of flip flops.
 
You could do that, the encoder would have to be very specific. You could build it by using IC logic chips as well. I did that in the past to hold memory and display on LED, problem is I've lost that project log so I don't remember how to do it :-/
 
You could do that, the encoder would have to be very specific. You could build it by using IC logic chips as well. I did that in the past to hold memory and display on LED, problem is I've lost that project log so I don't remember how to do it :-/

I'm pretty sure it exists as a standalone IC. You can definitely do it as logic chips too. It might get a little complicated in terms of wiring though.

Edit: So it turns out the combinational logic for it is really easy. Just a bunch of OR gates:
http://www.asic-world.com/digital/combo3.html (see the decimal to binary encoder).

If you want it do have memory (meaning the light stays on when you let go of a button) you can add flip flops to store the outputs.
 
If only I was at my University where I can actually go to a lab and simulate this right now :D
 
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