EEVblog: The 555 Timer is 55 years old [video]

3form

5:55 video released on May 5th, as per description :) For something feeling like a fairly specific IC, I remember seeing many projects that use it throughout the years in wacky ways - and seeing it makes me happy to know that the sentiment for this little piece is shared.

nom

also today's date is 5.5. and the video is 5m55s

davidwritesbugs

Oh god I feel old. I remember being an excited schoolboy thinking how magic this was when it debuted.

tuvix

Built an atari punk console using these with my late father. Still have it hanging on my wall in a shadow box.

robofanatic

and this is the fifth comment

ilvez

killer oneshot, laughed hard..

kazinator

Time to slow it down to lower frequencies and give it more frequent checkups.

longwave

Big Clive is currently livestreaming to celebrate the 555's birthday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzNjFJdaw_I

SoleilAbsolu

I still have the Forrest Mims III Radio Shack "555 Engineer's Mini-Notebook" somewhere in my basement. And rumor has it that Sammy Hagar can't drive 555 because his car just isn't fast enough!

encom

Can't watch it right now, but upvoted for Dave Jones. He's taught me so much. Absolute treasure, and the host of one of the last great active forums. Thank you for not blackholing all that info on the disaster that is Discord, like so many other communities.

amelius

What component values do you need to time exactly 55 years? Maybe it could work if you used 5 timers?

aj7

The late Harold DuBose use to use the 555 as a power inverter as it could sink 200ma at the laser companies he worked for. Convenient and cheap.

pryelluw

Back when radio shack still existed I would buy a 555 timer during every visit. I live collecting them and still have a bunch somewhere stored. I continue to do it with the 328p arduino boards as well whenever I visit my local microcenter.

raverbashing

Makes me wonder if we could have a 555 circuit with a trigger time of 55 yrs

darrinm

As a kid I didn’t understand what the 555 timer chip on the Apple II disk controller was doing but I learned the hard way that when you misalign the pins on the drive connector cable and the 555 chip releases its blue smoke you can’t use the drive anymore :(

Etoro2024

I used to get exited about this. Hahaha I think I miss those days.

sho_hn

I have a Displate of a decapped 555 hanging near my EE workbench: https://displate.com/displate/2002057

stackghost

When I was a camp counselor in my 20s I designed a one-octave "piano" out of one of these, a battery, paperclips for keys, and a shitload of resistors. We had the kids build them on proto board. They sounded harsh but you could play Mary Had a Little Lamb on them!

OldSchool

As an electronics-enthusiast kid in the 70's, just before home computers showed up at all, I wished the 555 was for Time Travel

mnw21cam

I used one of these to win an inter-school science competition when I was ~13. It was a minute timer. The competition board doubted I had built it all myself, so they plonked it down in front of me and demanded I draw the circuit diagram in front of them.