Simple Adjustable Staircase Waveform Generator
Staircase signals find many applications in the field of electronics, such as in television systems, telemetry, and analogue and digital communications. Here is a circuit illustrating the basic principles of staircase waveform generator. Advantages of this circuit are: simple, low-cost, no complex programming, easy-to-assemble on a breadboard and adjustable staircase waveform outputs of variable step sizes and durations. Circuit and working The circuit diagram of a simple adjustable staircase waveform generator is shown in Fig. 1. IC1 (74HC14) is a hex inverter Schmitt trigger that generates oscillatory pulse (square wave) and gives an output clock at pin 14 of IC2 (74HC93), which is a 4-bit binary ripple counter. Pins 8, 9 and 12 of IC2 are connected to select pins of IC3 (74HC4051), which is an 8-channel analogue multiplexer/demultiplexer with three digital selected pins 9, 10 and 11. Input pins of IC3 are connected to eight potentiometers of 10-kilo-ohm each. Variable step sizes are...