The 555 Timer

We have seen that Multivibrators and CMOS Oscillators can be easily constructed from discrete
components to produce relaxation oscillators for generating basic square wave output waveforms. But
there are also dedicated IC's especially designed to accurately produce the required output waveform with
the addition of just a few additional timing components. One such device that has been around since the
early days of IC's and has itself become something of an industry "standard" is the 555 Timer
Oscillator which is more commonly called the "555 Timer".

The 555 Timer is a very cheap, popular and useful precision timing device that can act as either a simple
timer to generate single pulses or long time delays, or as a relaxation oscillator producing stabilized
waveforms of varying duty cycles from 50 to 100%. The 555 timer chip is extremely robust and stable 8-
pin device that can be operated either as a very
accurate Monostable, Bistable or AstableMultivibrator to produce a variety of applications such as
one-shot or delay timers, pulse generation, LED and lamp flashers, alarms and tone generation, logic
clocks, frequency division, power supplies and converters etc, in fact any circuit that requires some form of
time control as the list is endless.

The single 555 Timer chip in its basic form is a Bipolar 8-pin mini Dual-in-line Package (DIP) device
consisting of some 25 transistors, 2 diodes and about 16 resistors arranged to form two comparators, a
flip-flop and a high current output stage as shown below. As well as the 555 Timer there is also available
the NE556 Timer Oscillator which combines TWO individual 555's within a single 14-pin DIP package and
low power CMOS versions of the single 555 timer such as the 7555 and LMC555 which use MOSFET
transistors instead.

A simplified "block diagram" representing the internal circuitry of the 555 timer is given below with a brief
explanation of each of its connecting pins to help provide a clearer understanding of how it works.

555 Timer Oscillator Block Diagram

• Pin 1. − Ground, The ground pin connects the 555 timer to the negative (0v) supply rail.

• Pin 2. − Trigger, The negative input to comparator No 1. A negative pulse on this pin "sets" the
internal Flip-flop when the voltage drops below 1/3Vcc causing the output to switch from a
"LOW" to a "HIGH" state.

• Pin 3. − Output, The output pin can drive any TTL circuit and is capable of sourcing or sinking up
to 200mA of current at an output voltage equal to approximately Vcc - 1.5V so small
speakers, LEDs or motors can be connected directly to the output.

• Pin 4. − Reset, This pin is used to "reset" the internal Flip-flop controlling the state of the output,
pin 3. This is an active-low input and is generally connected to a logic "1" level when not
used to prevent any unwanted resetting of the output.

• Pin 5. − Control Voltage, This pin controls the timing of the by overriding the 2/3Vcc level of the
voltage divider network. By applying a voltage to this pin the width of the output signal can
be varied independently of the RC timing network. When not used it is connected to
ground via a 10nF capacitor to eliminate any noise.

• Pin 6. − Threshold, The negative input to comparator No 2. This pin is used to reset the Flip-flop
when the voltage applied to it exceeds 2/3Vcc causing the output to switch from "HIGH" to
"LOW" state. This pin connects directly to the RC timing circuit.
 • Pin 7. − Discharge, The discharge pin is connected directly to the Collector of an internal NPN
transistor which is used to "discharge" the timing capacitor to ground when the output at
pin 3 switches "LOW".

• Pin 8. − Supply +Vcc, This is the power supply pin and for general purpose TTL 555 timers is
between 4.5V and 15V.

The 555 Timers name comes from the fact that there are three 5kΩ resistors connected together
internally producing a voltage divider network between the supply voltage at pin 8 and ground at pin 1. The
voltage across this resistive network holds the positive input of comparator two at 2/3Vcc and the positive
input to comparator one at 1/3Vcc. The two comparators produce an output voltage dependant upon the
voltage difference at their inputs which is determined by the charging and discharging action of the
externally connected RC network. The outputs from both comparators are connected to the two inputs of
the flip-flop which inturn produces either a "HIGH" or "LOW" level output at Q based on the states of its
inputs. The output from the flip-flop is used to control a high current output switching stage to drive the
connected load producing either a "HIGH" or "LOW" voltage level at the output pin.

The most common use of the 555 timer oscillator is as a simple astable oscillator by connecting two
resistors and a capacitor across its terminals to generate a fixed pulse train with a time period determined
by the time constant of the RC network. But the 555 timer oscillator chip can also be connected in a variety
of different ways to produce Monostable or Bistable multivibrators as well as the more common Astable
Multivibrator.

Monostable 555 Timer

The operation and output of the 555 Monostable is exactly the same as that for the transistorised one we
look at previously in the Monostable Multivibrators tutorial. The difference this time is that the two
transistors have been replaced by the 555 timer device. Consider the 555 Monostable circuit below.

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 it and "Sets" the state of the flip-flop,
changing the output from a "LOW" state to a "HIGH" state. This action inturn 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 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 R1C1 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.

Where, t is in seconds, R is in Ω's and C in Farads.

Example No1
A Monostable 555 Timer is required to produce a time delay within a circuit. If a 10uF timing capacitor is
used calculate the value of the resistor required to produce an output time delay of 500ms.

500ms is the same as saying 0.5s so by rearranging the formula above, we get the calculated value for the
resistor, R as:

The calculated value for the timing resistor required to produce the required time constant of 500ms is
45.5KΩ's which does not exist as a standard value resistor, so we would need to select the nearest
preferred value resistor of 47kΩ's which is available in all the standard ranges of tolerance from the E12
(10%) to the E96 (1%), giving us a new recalculated time delay of 517ms. If this time difference of 17ms
(500 - 517ms) is unacceptable a lower preferred value timing resistor can be selected and connected in
series with a trimming resistor to adjust the pulse width to the desired value.

We now know that the time delay or output pulse width of a monostable 555 timer is determined by the
time constant of the connected RC network. If long time delays are required in the 10's of seconds, it is
not always advisable to use high value timing capacitors as they can be physically large, expensive and
have large value tolerances, e.g. ±20%. One alternative solution is too use a small value timing capacitor
and a much larger value resistor up to about 20MΩ's to produce the require time delay. Also by using one
smaller value timing capacitor and different resistor values connected to it through a multi-position rotary
switch, we can produce a Monostable 555 timer oscillator circuit that can produce different pulse widths at
each switch rotation such as the switchable Monostable 555 timer circuit shown below.

Switchable 555 Timer

We can manually calculate the values of R and C for the individual components required as we did in the
example above. However, the choice of components needed to obtain the desired time delay requires us
to calculate with either kilohms, megaohms, microfarads or picafarads and it is very easy to end up with a
time delay of frequency that is out by a factor of ten or even a hundred. We can make our life a little easier
by using nomographs to show the monostable multivibrators expected frequency output for different
combinations or values of both the R and C. For example,

Monostable Nomograph
By selecting suitable values of C and R in the ranges of 0.001uF to 100uF and 1kΩ to 10MΩ's
respectively, we can read the expected output frequency directly from the nomograph graph thereby
eliminating any error in the calculations. In practice the value of the timing resistor should not be less than
1kΩ or greater than 20MΩ

Bistable 555 Timer

As well as the one shot 555 Monostable configuration above, we can also produce a Bistable (two stable
states) device with the operation and output of the 555 Bistable being similar to the transistorised one we
look at previously in the Bistable Multivibrators tutorial. 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.

Bistable 555 Timer (flip-flop)

The switching of the output waveform is achieved by controlling the Trigger and Reset inputs 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.

555 Timer Output

We could not finish this 555 Timer tutorial without discussing something about the switching and drive
capabilities of the 555 timer or indeed the 556 Timer IC. The output (pin 3) of the standard 555 timer or
the 556 timer, has the ability to either "Sink" or "Source" a load current of up to a maximum of 200mA,
which is sufficient to directly drive output transducers such as relays, filament lamps, LED's motors, or
speakers etc with the aid of series resistors or diode protection. The ability to both "Sink" (absorb) and
"Source" (supply) means that the output device can be connected between the output terminal of the 555
timer and the supply to sink the load current or between the output terminal and ground to source the load
current. For example.

Sinking and Sourcing the 555 Timer

 In the first circuit above, the LED is
connected between the positive supply rail
(+Vcc) and the output pin 3. This means
that the current will "Sink" (absorb) or flow
into the 555 timer output terminal and the
LED will be switched "ON" when the
output is "LOW". The second circuit above
shows that the LED is connected between
the output pin 3 and ground (0v). This
means that the current will "Source"
(supply) or flow out of the 555 timers
output terminal and the LED will be
switched "ON" when the output is "HIGH".
The ability of the 555 timer to both sink
and source its output load current means
that both LED's can be connected to the
output terminal at the same time but only
one will be switched "ON" depending
whether the output is "HIGH" or "LOW".
The circuit to the left shows an example of
this and the two LED's will be alternatively
switched "ON" and "OFF". Resistor, R is
used to limit the LED current to below
20mA.

We said earlier that the maximum output current to either sink or source the load current via pin 3 is about
200mA and this value is more than enough to drive or switch other logic IC's, LED's or small lamps etc.
But what if we wanted to switch or control higher power devices such as motors, electromagnets, relays or
loudspeakers. Then we would need to use a Transistor to amplify the 555 timers output in order to
provide a sufficiently high enough current to drive the load.

555 Timer Transistor Driver

The transistor in the two examples above, can be replaced with a Power MOSFET device or Darlington
transistor if the load current is high. When using an inductive load such as a motor, relay or electromagnet,
it is advisable to connect a "free-wheeling diode" directly across the load terminals to absorb any back emf
voltages generated by the inductive device when it changes state.

Goto Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

External Links about the 555 Timer

The 555 Monostable - Excellent Tutorial about the 555 Timer as a Monostable.
Electronics in Meccano
555 and 556 Timer Circuits - Very Good Tutorial about the 555 Timer.
Electronics Club
Oscillators and Timers - Very Good Tutorial about the 555 Timer Oscillator.
University of Vienna
The 555 Timer IC - Wikipedia's Basic Description of the 555 Timer IC.
Wikipedia

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