Blinker

A lamp that blinks at whatever rate you choose — with a master switch. A ready-made counters circuit you can open in the TorchAnvil simulator.

The simplest sequential circuit

Press Run in the toolbar and watch the lamp flash. That's it. That's the circuit.

Well — almost that simple. We added an AND gate and a Lever so you have a master switch. With the lever on, the clock drives the lamp. Flip the lever off, the AND blocks the signal, and the lamp goes dark no matter what the clock is doing.

How it works

• The Clock component produces a boolean that flips every few simulator ticks. Its period is configurable — click the clock to change it.
• The AND gate only passes the clock through if the lever is on. It's the master enable.
• The Lamp just shows whatever comes out the other side.

Why "sequential"?

Nothing here depends on state that the circuit itself holds — the clock generates the time-varying signal. But the result is a signal that changes over time, which is the essential ingredient for anything that isn't pure combinational logic. Counters, flip-flops, state machines — they all need a clock (or a button press) to tell them when to advance.

This blinker is your proof that "time" exists in the simulator.

Try this

• Drag the rate slider in the toolbar to speed up or slow down the simulation.
• Click the Clock component itself — a little input appears letting you set its period (in ticks). A period of 2 means one flip per tick; higher numbers give slower blinks.
• Toggle the Enable lever while it's running. Instant on/off.