CD 4060IC based Message Display Circuit

This simple message display can be used to display any message such as warnings, wishes, address notifications etc. as it will automatically turn ON at night or in dark. This circuit is based on CD4060 IC, LDR and few more components so that we can be easily made and can be gifted to friends. Here total of 12 bright LED glow inside the four segments (I through IV as shown in fig below) of the message plate to display different message. We can use bright white LED’s or different color LED’s to indicate different words. In this different segment glows for different duration of time.

IC CD4060 is 14 stage ripple carry binary counter, divider and an oscillator. Its built in oscillator is main feature of this IC, so it can be used in numerous applications like flasher, clock generator in timer circuits. The resistance of LDR is very high in darkness, which reduces to minimum when LDR is in light.

Here IC1 is working as frequency divider circuit. In this internal oscillator stage is made using resistor and capacitor which can be connected to pin 11, 10 and 9. r Capacitor is connected to pin 9 while pin 10 and 11 are connected to a resistor. Free pin of all three electronic components are connected together.

IC CD4060 is wired in such a manner that its outputs Q4, Q5, Q6 and Q7 are used for color display. When you switch on the power supply these output go high simultaneously but for different durations of time. For instance, Q4 output goes high for about 3 seconds, similarly Q5 goes high for about 5 seconds, Q6 and Q7 outputs go high for about 15 seconds and 20 seconds, respectively. To make the display look colorful, use different color LED at different output like you can use Yellow at Q4, Green at Q5, Red at Q6 and Blue at Q7.

To make a message box use rectangular box with its three sides wooden and front side a milky acrylic sheet having four sections. Every section must have two holes for making connection of LED’s one at the top and another at the bottom. Now write your message on acrylic sheet with colorful colors. And now connect the LED in the different section carefully.

If you want to reduce the time duration for which output goes high, replace 100K resistor with smaller value like 68K. If you want to increase the time, replace 120K resistor with higher value like 150K or you can do hit and trial to get the desire value. Brightness of LDR can be adjusted with the help of VR1.