Smoothing down the copper traces with a guitar pick. Take this Christmas tree for example, which uses a 555 timer and a CB4017 decade counter in order to drive some blinking LEDs. The ICs are ...

Sometimes the best inspiration is limitation. The 555 timer does “one thing” — compares a voltage to a couple thresholds and outputs a signal accordingly. It’s two comparators, a voltage ...

Probably not. Today almost everything is micro-based and SMT. If you need a multivibrator oscillator, you no longer go for the 555 timer IC. Instead, you program a cheap 8-bit PIC processor to do ...

Paul Rako, Creative Director, Rako Studios Back in 2011, Jeff Hamilton contacted Bob Pease, asking for Bob’s experience with the classic 555 timer IC. Jeff wrote Pease, “As part of celebrating ...

Ever wanted a 555 timer with complementary non-overlapping outputs. The XTR651 from X-Rel Semiconductor is just such a thing. Very similar to the good old 555, it includes a built-in 200pF timing ...

Circuits employing the popular 555 timer circuits are often reliable under many conditions. When you use them in electrically noisy environments, however, the timer can produce a false trigger, no ...

He used a 555 timer that outputs a clock to the LEDs on the biz card, and placing a nine-volt battery on the terminals sets off the mini light show. See for yourself in the video below.

Used in a variety of timer, pulse generation, and oscillator applications, the 555 was designed in 1971 by Hans Camenzind. A favorite for many engineers, the 555 is still in widespread use due to its ...