Thank you , I have new ic's. what would a 5.1V zener do if i put it series with the battery? I took a look At the How stuff works and they tied the set/clear to high. I tried it and it worked !. I have all 4 bits counting.this is what I would like to do. can the 7404 drive one or two LED's. Also could you please explain what you meant by current limiting resistors. are they needed to protect the LED or The output of my IC, and how is the size calculated. Thanks for all your help