Digital Decoder from Binary Code to 7-Segment LED Displays

Digital electronic devices, such as computers, use binary words to operate. Any acquired information must be converted to binary code to be processed, and the binary results must be converted to an adequate format so that the user can properly understand their meaning. Most of the time, such binary words carry numeric information, so a binary-to-numeric decoder is very useful to assess them. The 4-bit to decimal or hexadecimal decoders are well-known and easy to use, but when the binary word has more than 4 bits the decoding gets difficult, especially when decoding binary-to-decimal. This paper presents a digital decoder for 12-bit binary words to either 3-digit hexadecimal LED display or 4-digit decimal LED display, using an EEPROM and a multiplexed 7-segment LED display. According to an adequate setting, the LED display shows either hexadecimal or decimal values of the 12-bit word to be decoded.