"I am befuddled and bemused by this whole thread(yet again)and confoooooooosed
The only question which nobody has asked is why such a simple design is causing so much trouble.
The code for a four digit counter takes about half an hour to write and then you use the circuit posted by Mr Bannister,seems pretty simple to me."

This is because everybody who thinks they know anything that might be in any way vaguely related to the topic wants to throw in their tuppence worth. There's nothing wrong with that - we might all learn something.

What does irritate me though is posters who are obviously taking wild guesses based on little or no knowledge then posting without prefixing the post with 'I don't know what I'm talking about but here goes anyway...'