I knew there was going to be a 74HC4046 in there before clicking the link. It is a venerable old workhorse.
When I was studying EE, 40 years ago, one of our professors always wore a lab coat with a pocket full of 4046s. He used to roam the labs and offer one to students struggling with designs.
It is such a versatile chip, with a VCO and three different phase comparators. If you have to do anything related to modulation and/or demodulation of signals below a few 10s of MHz, it may just solve your problem.
I built a frequency multiplier with one, a few weeks ago. Among all of the chips available, the 4046 had the largest quantity of easily implemented design info. Just for the sheer audacity of it, I went looking for the oldest design that I could find, to reference in my documentation.
I liked that too but my first thought was "I'd replace that 4046 with a digital oscillator for better stability" and lo and behold the author did just that as an option at the end.
Of course the price for that stability is those lovely classic AM tuning whistle sounds you get with a pot connected to a 4046...
When I was studying EE, 40 years ago, one of our professors always wore a lab coat with a pocket full of 4046s. He used to roam the labs and offer one to students struggling with designs.
It is such a versatile chip, with a VCO and three different phase comparators. If you have to do anything related to modulation and/or demodulation of signals below a few 10s of MHz, it may just solve your problem.