In the May 1979 edition of Elektor we published a “Simple Sound Effects” unit. The author was rightly proud of the design which used a CD4040 counter, a CD4049 Hex inverter and a few odds and ends. Anyone who considered building the circuit all those years ago will be happy to know that a newer version is now available. Thanks to the marvels of modern technology we can now make the same sort of racket but with fewer components. That’s progress!
 
Don't miss any project, take out a free membership to Elektor.POST now!

Engineers these days are less likely to spend their time working out how to integrate hardware circuitry into their design and more likely to be solving the problem in software with a microcontroller. Even for relatively simple tasks, their low cost and flexibility means that microcontrollers should never be ruled out.