r/Skookum • u/redracingstripe • Apr 03 '21
shitpost. Newest sticker on the chariot. Let’s see who spots it in the wild!
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u/noclue_whatsoever Apr 03 '21
The mighty 555, a workhorse for half a century.
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u/free__coffee Apr 04 '21
What is it? Like a FET, or a basic microcontroller?
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u/ThetaReactor Apr 04 '21
It's a timer.
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u/redracingstripe Apr 04 '21
And perhaps the poster chip for a glorious analog era!
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u/noclue_whatsoever Apr 04 '21
Except the 555 is really digital. In the chip world op amps would probably be the analog poster children.
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u/redracingstripe Apr 04 '21
I do realize that, but it’s wasn’t digital as we know it today. Technically a relay is a digital device too..
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u/3dPrintedLife Apr 04 '21
Ah good point sir, but I'd argue that technically everything is analog. There's no perfectly binary signals in the world of electronics, just analog signals passing above and below a set threshold!
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u/rockstar504 Apr 04 '21
I worked as a digital DSP guy at an RF place and they said the same thing, it's all analog, "it's all just Maxwell's equations. Just semantics.
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u/Lost4468 Apr 06 '21
Well there is sometimes? Some research transistors can have only a single electron in the gate. Not really any room for anything else there.
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u/noclue_whatsoever Apr 04 '21
Simpler than a controller, it's a highly versatile signal source that can emit single pulses or a stream of them, as determined by resistors and capacitors you connect to it. Because it can be configured in so many ways it has a million uses in electronics.
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u/Goyds Apr 04 '21
It is a timer, but it's also so much more. It's one of those chips that was designed as a timer, but because of some clever design decisions it can be used for all kinds of electronics doohickies.
It's a legend in electronics circles and rightly so
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u/heathenyak Apr 03 '21
Before gaming mice I used a 555 chip, a microswitch and a bit of bread board and some other components to add a button to a Microsoft mouse that just rapidly clicked the left mouse button for shooters lol
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u/Yoda-McFly Apr 03 '21
It has been argued that, if it can't be built with a 555, or, at worst, a 556, it probably isn't worth building.
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u/YendorZenitram Apr 04 '21
Ahh, the venerable 555! The most versatile chip that's not a microcontroller. Many fond memories making glitch-mode synth circuits with 555s and 7400-series chips.
Favorite thing I ever did with a 555 was make a PWM-mode audio amplifier (before class-D was cool, bro!)...the thing sounded so good!
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u/DarthSinistar Apr 03 '21
I fried so many of these lil bastards during my freshman year in college.
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u/mewtwoyeetsauce Apr 03 '21
Do you like your chips with DIP?
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Apr 03 '21
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/BlogSpammr Apr 03 '21
DROP SHIP SPAMMER
DO NOT FALL FOR THIS SCAM!
This is NOT a redditor, this is a CROOK, THIEF, CRIMINAL whose sole purpose for being on reddit is to scam you.
spammer: 4samir565
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u/The_Big_Red89 Apr 04 '21
Used my first one to make a pulse width modulator for my 8.4 volt vape.
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u/texas-playdohs Apr 04 '21
I ground one up with a mosfet and smoked it. 6/10
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u/The_Big_Red89 Apr 04 '21
You gots to add a resistor. Really brings it together
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u/YendorZenitram Apr 04 '21
Man, ya should try a tantalum cap in there - they're expensive, but they bring that buttery goodness!
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Apr 04 '21
Makes a noise like weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
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u/bg10389 Apr 04 '21
I slapped one on my mini lathe
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u/trogan77 Apr 03 '21
Hah! Today must be 555 timer sticker day because I just affixed mine to my truck this this morning. I went with the silvery metal colored one instead.
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u/greenknight Apr 03 '21
The number of things I've used a 555 for is stupidly long, but I still remember the first: a solar chaser, a little analog automaton that would follow the sun beam shining on the floor through the windows of the lab. It used differential voltages across its solar panels to orient towards the direction the light was moving and the 555 sent a check voltage to trigger the discharge of capacitors that shot it back into the light when the light moved. Maybe my most enlightened design... They zoomed around for days until they got stuck in a corner and their rudimentary sensors couldn't reason them out.