Commander X16

10 hours ago, StephenHorn said:

Not to ask silly questions, but is there a timing graph for the component you're using, and do you know whether your clock input is conforming to the latch's requirements?

Not silly at all as I am completely new to this and that hadn't occurred to me. Shall have a look thanks ?

3 hours ago, JimmyDansbo said:

In theory, it should work. I have just tested in Logisim as well, both the buil-in d-latch and one made from NAND gates seems to be able to divide the clock signal.







As StephenHorn says, ensure that your chip(s) can handle the signal they receive. (dig in to the datasheets).

I built with NOR and AND as in the Ben Eater videos. Will try this one as well ?

You could also have a look at how the 74ls74 is built. It may very well be a better design.

https://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/sn74ls74a.pdf

The 74ls74 seems to be edge triggered without using the strange NOT-NOT-NOT-AND circuit I have above.

Simple D-type divide by 2 circuits have problems if the clock edges are not sharp enough. Feeding the clock through an inverter might sharpen its edges.

3 hours ago, BruceMcF said:

Simple D-type divide by 2 circuits have problems if the clock edges are not sharp enough. Feeding the clock through an inverter might sharpen its edges.

thanks, will give all of these a try once manage to free up some time ?

 

The result of using a 74LS74 (D flip flop) and  a 74HCU04 (hex inverter) is going from this:



 

 

To this:



 

And it's probably going to get a bit better once I tied down all unused inputs as well, cheers everyone!

Holy smokes, no wonder your latch was having problems. That original signal isn't a square wave clock signal--- it's a bleedin' triangle wave! Was that really the output from a crystal oscillator?

Edit: I may be dumb or simply inexperienced, I thought crystal oscillators produced square-ish signals.

Here's the circuit ?

 





This is the tutorial I followed:





I've since found other ones that also uses inverters but I didn't have all the component values for those. I might try some other ones as well

 

Interestingly enough, if I put even a 6Mhz, or faster, crystal in instead, it doesn't work very well at all. I was lucky that I found a tutorial using components that matches the speeds I wanted to run I guess. There certainly is lots to learn here ?