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Pin Configuration of the 555 Timer

Here is the identification for each pin:

When drawing a circuit diagram, always draw the 555 as a building block, as shown below with the pins in the following locations. This will help you instantly recognise the function of each pin: Pin 1 (Ground): Pin 2 (Trigger): Connects to the 0v power supply. Detects 1/3 of rail voltage to make output HIGH. Pin 2 has control over pin 6. If pin 2 is LOW, and pin 6 LOW, output goes and stays HIGH. If pin 6 HIGH, and pin 2 goes LOW, output goes LOW while pin 2 LOW. This pin has a very high impedance (about 10M) and will trigger with about 1uA. (Pins 3 and 7 are "in phase.") Goes HIGH (about 2v less than rail) and LOW (about 0.5v less than 0v) and will deliver up to 200mA. Internally connected HIGH via 100k. Must be taken below 0.8v to reset the chip. A voltage applied to this pin will vary the timing of the RC network (quite considerably). Detects 2/3 of rail voltage to make output LOW only if pin 2 is HIGH. This pin has a very high impedance (about 10M) and will trigger with about 0.2uA. Goes LOW when pin 6 detects 2/3 rail voltage but pin 2 must be HIGH. If pin 2 is HIGH, pin 6 can be HIGH or LOW and pin 7 remains LOW. Goes OPEN (HIGH) and stays HIGH when pin 2 detects 1/3 rail voltage (even as a LOW pulse) when pin 6 is LOW. (Pins 7 and 3 are "in phase.") Pin 7 is equal to pin 3 but pin 7 does not go high - it goes OPEN. But it goes LOW and will sink about 200mA. Connects to the positive power supply (Vs). This can be any voltage between 4.5V and 15V DC, but is commonly 5V DC when working with digital ICs. 2

Pin 3 (Output): Pin 4 (Reset): Pin 5 (Control): Pin 6 (Threshold): Pin 7 (Discharge):

Pin 8 (Supply):

Modes of 555 timer

The 555 has three main operating modes, Monostable, Astable, and Bistable. Each mode represents a different type of circuit that has a particular output. The Monostable 555 Timer

When a negative (0V) pulse is applied to the trigger input (pin 2) of the Monostable configured 555 Timer oscillator, the internal comparator, (comparator No1) detects this input and "sets" the state of the flip-flop, changing the output from a "LOW" state to a "HIGH" state. This action in turn turns "OFF" the discharge transistor connected to pin 7, thereby removing the short circuit across the external timing capacitor, C1. This allows the timing capacitor to start to charge up through resistor, R1 until the voltage across the capacitor reaches the threshold (pin 6) voltage of 2/3Vcc set up by the internal 3

voltage divider network. At this point the comparators output goes "HIGH" and "resets" the flip-flop back to its original state which inturn turns "ON" the transistor and discharges the capacitor to ground through pin 7. This action also causes the output to change its state back to the original stable "LOW" value awaiting another trigger pulse to start the timing process over again. Then as before, the Monostable Multivibrator has only ONE stable state. The Monostable 555 Timer circuit triggers on a negative-going pulse applied to pin 2 and this trigger pulse must be much shorter than the output pulse width allowing time for the timing capacitor to charge and then discharge fully. Once triggered, the 555 Monostable will remain in this "HIGH" unstable output state until the time period set up by the R1.C1 network has elapsed. The amount of time that the output voltage remains "HIGH" or at a logic "1" level, is given by the following time constant equation.

t=1.1 R1C1
Where, t is in seconds, R is in 's and C in Farads.

Bistable 555 Timer

The 555 Bistable is one of the simplest circuits we can build using the 555 timer oscillator chip. This bistable configuration does not use any RC timing network to produce an output waveform so no equations are required to calculate the time period of the circuit. Consider the Bistable 555 Timer circuit below. The switching of the output waveform is achieved by controlling the trigger and reset inputs of the 555 timer which are held "HIGH" by the two pull-up resistors, R1 and R2. By taking the trigger input (pin 2) "LOW", switch in set position, changes the output state into the "HIGH" state and by taking the reset input (pin 4) "LOW", switch in reset position, changes the output into the "LOW" state. This 555 timer circuit will remain in either state indefinitely and is therefore bistable. Then the Bistable 555 timer is stable in both states, "HIGH" and "LOW". The threshold input (pin 6) is connected to ground to ensure that it cannot reset the bistable circuit as it would in a normal timing application.

The 555 Oscillator

The 555 Oscillator is another type of relaxation oscillator for generating stabilized square wave output waveforms of either a fixed frequency of up to 500kHz or of varying duty cycles from 50 to 100%. In the previous 555 Timer tutorial we saw that the Monostable circuit produces a single output one-shot pulse when triggered on its pin 2 trigger input. In order to get the 555 Oscillator to operate as an astable multivibrator, it is necessary to continuously re-trigger the 555 IC after each and every timing cycle. This is basically achieved by connecting the trigger input (pin 2) and the threshold input (pin 6) together, thereby allowing the device to act as an astable oscillator. Then the 555 Oscillator has no stable states as it continuously switches from one state to the other. Also the single timing resistor of the previous monostable 5

multivibrator circuit has been split into two separate resistors, R1 and R2 with their junction connected to the discharge input (pin 7) as shown below.

In the 555 Oscillator above, pin 2 and pin 6 are connected together allowing the circuit to re-trigger itself on each and every cycle allowing it to operate as a free running oscillator. During each cycle capacitor, C charges up through both timing resistors, R1 and R2 but discharges itself only through resistor, R2 as the other side of R2 is connected to the discharge terminal, pin 7. Then the capacitor charges up to 2/3Vcc (the upper comparator limit) which is determined by the 0.693(R1+R2)C combination and discharges itself down to 6

1/3Vcc (the lower comparator limit) determined by the 0.693(R2.C) combination. This results in an output waveform whose voltage level is approximately equal to Vcc - 1.5V and whose output "ON" and "OFF" time periods are determined by the capacitor and resistors combinations. The individual times required to complete one charge and discharge cycle of the output is therefore given as: Astable 555 Oscillator Charge and Discharge Times t1 = 0.693 (R1 + R2) X C t2 =0.693 X R2 X C Where, R is in 's and C in Farads. When connected as an astable multivibrator, the output from the 555 Oscillator will continue indefinitely charging and discharging between 2/3Vcc and 1/3Vcc until the power supply is removed. As with the monostable multivibrator these charge and discharge times and therefore the frequency are independent of the supply voltage. The duration of one full cycle is therefore equal to the sum of the two individual times that the capacitor charges and discharges added together and is given as: 555 Oscillator Cycle Time T = t1 + t2 = 0.693 (R1 + 2 R2) X C The output frequency of oscillations can be found by inverting the equation above for the total cycle time giving a final equation for the output frequency of an Astable 555 Oscillator as: 555 Oscillator Frequency Equation

By altering the time constant of just one of the RC combinations, the Duty Cycle better known as the "Mark-to-Space" ratio of the output waveform can be accurately set and is given as the ratio of resistor R2 to resistor R1. The Duty Cycle for the 555 Oscillator, which is the ratio of the "ON" time divided by the "OFF" time is given by: 555 Oscillator Duty Cycle DUTY CYCLE = The duty cycle has no units as it is a ratio but can be expressed as a percentage (%). If both timing resistors, R1 and R2 are equal the output duty cycle will be given as 2:1 or 33%. 7