- The starting block measures an accumulator and divides by 13 to get a 3-bit value (0-7) (Any input could be used of course, as long as you divide it down to 3 bits or rework the rest of the system for more bits.)
- It also contains a clock in the bottom left which is chained along the substations. The cycle time can be adjusted to arbitrary sample rates.
- The top portion of the clock checks for when the T<2 and outputs S=1 for a couple ticks every time the clock expires. This is tuned so that the shifted value stabilizes after making its way through the shifter and AND operations.
- The output of the clock is multiplied by 3 and fed into the bit shifter as the shift amount.
- The bit shifter thus will move everything left 3 bits each time the clock expires, and leave it alone otherwise.
- The AND operation drops the lowest 3 bits so that the accumulator result can be added in without overflowing.
- The row of ANDs at the top mask off the relevant 3 bits for each timeslice, and the lights display the value.
- The rightmost lights get their value divided by 16777216 to bring it back down to 0-7.
- That rightmost 0-7 can then be fed in to another segment of the display for infinite chaining.
Note: Depending on the timing of rocket fuel and uranium production activations, and biter attacks, my nightly accumulator minimum does vary as can be seen in the graph.
The charge rate also visibly slows from 2 lights to 3, as the rising charge level wakes up some of the day-only production facilities.
Display Base String
Display Extension String