Tutorial: Binary Counters

Now that you know a bit of binary it's time to start applying that knowledge! In this video I show you how to build a binary counter.

To understand this tutorial you'll need to understand binary as well as AND gates and T-flipflops. If you're not sure you know all of that or just want to watch some more of my videos check out these tutorials:

[cameronbetts]

9 years later and i stumble upon this and found the perfect thing I needed for my project rn like bro- thank you

[Kaelygon]

I first made a 32-bit binary timer in survival without looking up other than different t-flip flops. It ended up being bulky and very buggy and could only add 1 to the whole digit every 0.5s or manually add 1 to 4-bit hexlets as I divided the bits into 2x2s.
I am also playing old version, there's no redstone blocks so this guide is extremely useful whenever I redesign my timer!

[Properinglish]

Yup! This is very useful when doing redstone computer engineering, but I'm sure there are uses in survival as well - you could use it to keep track of anything that can be counted by a redstone signal! I'm going to find some use for it in my Let's Play. :D

[Properinglish]

Thanks! Are you interested in converting the binary to decimal? If that's the case it can be done using something called a decoder and I will definitely have a tutorial on decoders soon!

[Properinglish]

The main use for a counter is to count up or down by 1, whereas an adder will add any two binary numbers together - so they're useful for different purposes. If you do the timing right you can actually make a binary counter "add" and one of my earliest redstone builds was just that!

[Properinglish]

It's one that I threw together a while ago, you can see the full skin in some of my other videos. :D The blue on the arms was inspired by the "magic lines" from the Fable series - I thought it was a pretty cool look!

[Properinglish]

Very cool! The first "advanced" redstone circuit I ever built was a binary counter - then I went ahead and figured out how to make it add and subtract (this was before I had heard of adders!) and later even multiply and divide. :P It was a neat concept and I think at some point I'll have to share it with you guys.

[TheMightyMiner]

Thanks for these tuturials! Great designs and very well explained. Keep it going!

[Properinglish]

Thanks! If I understand your questions correctly you want to convert the binary output into decimal - if that's the case all you need is something called a decoder and I will definitely have a vide about decoders coming out soon!

[MrBrandon]

What an amazing video, it honestly helped clarify college digital systems a bit for me!

[Properinglish]

Sorry my response to your question took so long - I was having issues replying to comments and forgot to look back! The reset would allow you to clear out the current number when you want to branch to another number. I also find the reset useful when I use a binary counter in my algorithm builds because you can set it to zero after running the machine.

[PhillipTerry]

What do you do when you hit 27. In order to get to 28, the 16th light, the 8th light, and the 4th light would have to turn on but you can't turn on the 8th light without power going through the 4th light which turns it off.

[frumpy]

Very awesome! I built a decoder to decode the signals obviously but I'm having a bit of trouble with the display. Anyways, I feel awesome making this :P. You explained it perfectly, and that really helped, because I understood perfectly. Great job :)

[MrRandom]

How would I transform this into a decimal system? Or how about any kind of radix system converter? I'm on xbox, so a compatible version would be awesome. Thanks, and awesome video.

[Properinglish]

The insta-carry aspect is pretty cool. :D I'm trying not to use as many pistons as I used to, but I think I'm going to keep using them for binary counters.

[kindpotato]

the way i did it was attach falling edge t flip flops in series. but this way is way better! its like instant carry for an adder.

[UncleClapton]

Block dropping was a unintended side effect of the fix for duping I believe. I don't think anyone knows for sure, but within my own group of redstone engineers we all believe it was unintended. As for your issue with block dropping.. make sure that your pulse generator is making a 1 tick pulse. If the generator is a piston design then change the repeater that goes to the piston to fire at the same time as the repeater going into the block.

[Properinglish]

Don't worry about it at all and I'd be happy to make a tutorial. :D I'll see if I can throw one together today or tomorrow!

[gangstaturtlz]

This also could be useful for translating serial signal to parallel. Is there any way to invert this? I want to make a multi color screen (using command blocks), although I can't find a way to get a binary signal to a single output that is fast, (ex: 1010 = 

[Properinglish]

Are you sure block dropping doesn't work? I wasn't having any issues with it when I was playing around with it yesterday, though I can definitely take a look and make sure the counter works the way it's supposed to. :D