[HN Gopher] 555 Timer Circuits
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555 Timer Circuits
Author : okl
Score : 34 points
Date : 2024-10-17 18:30 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.555-timer-circuits.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.555-timer-circuits.com)
| tahoupt wrote:
| Shout out to Forest M Mims III, the OG 555 circuit
| guru.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forrest_Mims
| stonethrowaway wrote:
| He's working on a new book that attempts to disprove evolution
| or at least show cases to the contrary, advocating for a grand
| design as a primary mechanism instead. Curious to read it, I'm
| hopeful he will release it.
| Mistletoe wrote:
| Also a global warming denier. I'd love to see him explain how
| this is wrong?
|
| https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/global-
| temperature/?int...
| buildsjets wrote:
| Built many a 555 timer circuit back in the day! But in modern
| times, I can get an ATMega328p already attached to a PC board for
| $2.50 and load code on it to do whatever I want, including blink
| a red LED.
| tdeck wrote:
| Not only are cheap microcontrollers often an easier choice for
| things the NE555 might be used for, they often draw far less
| power as well. I personally prefer to use an even smaller and
| cheaper micro like the ATTiny13A. It's also worth noting that
| your traditional 555 timers don't like to run below 5V, for
| that you'll need something like an LMC555. If you're building
| up a parts inventory, it often makes sense to have a bunch of
| very cheap micros rather than special purpose parts.
| Joel_Mckay wrote:
| Could always use a 555 as a charge pump for your micro power
| mcu too.
|
| Indeed, a small $0.23 mcu may have its own internal RC
| oscillator, or even a MEMS based resonator on a PLL. =3
| dragontamer wrote:
| The main advantage of 555 timer is that it is configured with
| a resistor/capacitor kit. No computer or programming
| required.
|
| Microcontrollers obviously have more than 1 bit of memory +
| 2x analog comparators + one 33% / 66% voltage divider (which
| is all a 555 timer truly is).
|
| What is surprising however is how flexible 1 bit of memory +
| 2x analog comparators + one 33% / 66% voltage divider
| tdeck wrote:
| Here's my tip for the 555 timer: Learn what's inside it! As you
| can see on the "Inside the 555" page, there are fewer than 10
| functional components inside and three of them are resistors.
|
| For some reason I always struggled to remember the different
| operating mode configurations, what they are called, and how to
| set them up. But one day I was trying to build a specific thing
| and decided to sit down and actually understand the 555. To my
| surprise, it's really simple in operation and requires relatively
| little electronics theory to understand and derive the different
| configurations yourself. Once I did that, I haven't forgotten it
| and I can come up with more creative uses for the 555.
| 082349872349872 wrote:
| You might be interested in http://www.designinganalogchips.com
| ...
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| I love the circuits on this site (1). Kind of quirky layout
| (pretty sure the parent page uses "frames") but has fifty 555
| circuits as well as 100+ transistor circuits, etc on the site.
| Def a labor of love. (Buy the CD, ha ha.)
|
| 1)
| https://www.talkingelectronics.com/projects/50%20-%20555%20C...
| doe_eyes wrote:
| In some respects, it's a testament to how much the world of
| electronics has changed over the past ~25 years. It used to be
| that 555 was this Swiss-army-knife IC that you had to learn
| about. Multiple people published entire books about it!
|
| Today, it's essentially obsolete. You're quite unlikely to find
| it in any competently-done commercial designs. Every analog trick
| you can do with it can be done more cheaply, more reliably, with
| better power efficiency, and with fewer external components using
| a modern MCU.
|
| It's not that analog is dead, but it's solving different problems
| now. Including how to keep ultra-high-speed digital signals
| usable within the footprint of a PCB - which wasn't that much of
| a consideration in the golden days of the 555.
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