This is a demo of the popular 555 timer. you can try out the project on this page by a javascript simulation. Press the Red button below to turn on the circuit press it again to turn off. The 555 can source (LED2) or Sink (LED1) upto 200mA.  If you are starting with electronics, this is the first step. So do it now ! Do-It-Yourself.

Screenshot of Astable 555 Timer Flasher

It can even drive a small motor or lamp with diodes added to protect from inductive kickback.Vary Ra, Rb and Ct with the controls given and see the change of frequency, period and duty cycle.

Live Gadget you can Operate

These are the formulae used by 555 and same is used in javascript without any change.

T1 = 0.693 (Ra + Rb) * Ct charge time of Ct
T2 = 0.693 (Rb * Ct) discharge time of Ct
T = T1 + T 2 total period in seconds
F = 1 / T = 1.44 / ((Ra + (2 * Rb)) * Ct) Frequency in Hertz
D = T 2 / T duty cycle, multiply by 100 to get %.

Ct in farads and Ra-Rb in ohms.

Press the Red button below to turn on the circuit press it again to turn off. The 555 can source (LED2) or Sink (LED1) upto 200mA. It can even drive a small motor or lamp with diodes added to protect from inductive kickback.

Astable Multivibrator with 555

This is a tutorial with calculator to help learn the application of 555 which is a very rare chip innovation. It is simple, versatile, flexible and programmable (by tweaking of pots)

The max power dissipation of 555 is 700mW so overload of more than 200mA will damage the device, connecting the battery in the reverse or wrong polarity will also damage device, ensure also Ra and Rb do not go less than 2.2K (use 4.7K minimum) as it may damage the discharge transistor at pin 7. The supply voltage can go upto 18V. For CMOS 555 like 7555 see the datasheet they are different.

Vary Ra, Rb and Ct with the controls given and see the change of frequency, period and duty cycle.