VIN Technologies › Labs › Digital Systems Lab

Ring counter

Digital Systems Lab · free online experiment, runs in your browser with no install or sign-up.

Open this experiment in the circuit simulator

Objective

Circulate a single 1 around a 4-bit shift register (Q3 fed back to D).

Procedure

  1. Run and watch the 1 move one place per clock.

Theory

A ring counter with n flip-flops has n states: the one-hot pattern 1000 → 0100 → 0010 → 0001 → 1000 … Its outputs are ready-made timing phases.

Questions to answer

  1. How many flip-flops does a Johnson counter need for 8 states?

Components used

4-bit shift register, Clock source, 4 × Logic probe / LED

About the model

Ideal wires; component models as listed in the catalogue (no parasitics, no temperature drift). Built without a breadboard so the schematic stays readable.

Open this experiment in the circuit simulator

More Digital Systems Lab experiments