Mono shots and clocks

Mono shot is a digital device used in industrial controls. It is also known as monostable multivibrator. Just like a flip-flop, it has two outputs and a trigger input. A mono shot gets triggered by either a negative edge or a positive edge at the trigger terminal. On triggering, one output goes high and the other goes low. After a preset period of time (called as firing time), both the outputs reverses its state. Thus a mono shot can be used as a pulse stretcher. Common use of mono shots is in resetting a counter or a flip-flop in circuits where the conditions are such that a long term level change cannot be used to reset the counter or the flip-flop. Clock which is also known as astable multivibrator is a free running multivibrator. It generates a continuous train of pulses which is utilized to synchronise various digital devices in an industrial circuit. Here a resistor, a capacitor and an inductor are internally connected to the circuit whose values decide the frequency of the waveform.