The counters drive the 7 segment LEDs. There are 6 LEDs in all for the hours, minutes and seconds that the clock displays. Below you can see a short video of the the 7 segment decade counters driving a couple of LEDs.
The jumper cable mess on the top board is impossible to follow, plus you can barely see the chips underneath all those connections. (There is a slightly clearer picture of the board in the project log section below). It is a lot quicker to use jumpers rather than spending hours measuring, cutting and stripping hook-up wire. Plus, hook-up wire is expensive, ya know!
Some of you may recognize the circuit on the bottom board. If you have watched Ben Eater's YouTube channel it is the same clock signal generator that he uses for the computer he has built. The 555 timer is setup to pulse at around 5 Hz and there is a manual pulse button for slowly clocking the circuit. The whole thing is powered by a 5 Volt, 1 Amp power adapter.
With the LEDs and counter chips tested I can move on to bread-boarding the 1 Hz signal generator and testing that.
***** PROJECT RESUMED ****
I love the deadlines. I like the sound they make as they go wooshing by.