Friday 3 February 2012

555 timer


Here we are giving you both block diagram and internal circuit of the 555 timer. Can anyone explain the operation of these?

4 comments:

Electronics Club for Engineers said...

Figure 1 shows the block diagram of the internal circuit of the 555 timer IC. This diagram shows how a very versatile IC like the 555 can also be very simple internally. The excellent design of the 555 timer has made it one of the most widely-used and long-lasting IC's ever.

Electronics Club for Engineers said...

The 555 circuit consists of just a handful of main components: two comparators, a flip-flop, a discharge path, an output stage, and a resistor network.

Electronics Club for Engineers said...

Figure 2 shows the main internal circuit components of the 555 timer IC.

Electronics Club for Engineers said...

Through the 555's internal resistors, the (-) input of comparator 1 is at 2/3 Vcc while the (+) of comparator 2 is at 1/3 Vcc (i.e., if pin 5 is not used).

This establishes the internal voltage thresholds to which the externally connected inputs of the comparators will be compared.

The behavior of the voltage levels of the external inputs of the comparators are determined by the external components connected to them, which are usually resistors and capacitors.

The comparators are able to set/reset a flip-flop, which in turn determines whether the discharge transistor Q1 is 'on' or 'off'.

A negative going pulse at pin 2 makes comparator 2's output go high, which causes the flip-flop to set, which outputs a '1' at pin 3.

The flip-flop is reset in two ways: by a negative-going pulse at pin 4 or by allowing the (+) input of comparator 1 to exceed 2/3 Vcc, usually by allowing a capacitor connected to pin 6 to charge up.

The discharge path connected between pin 7 and pin 6 and the the flip-flop state determine when and how the pin 6 capacitor discharges and, consequently, how the (+) input voltage of comparator 1 decays so that a new timing cycle may begin.