555 / 556 Timer

Work in Progress: Delete when validated

Overview: The 555 Timer Oscillator which is more commonly called the “555 Timer” is a dedicated IC’s especially designed to accurately produce the required output waveform with the addition of just a few extra timing components.  It can create square waves, as well as other wave forms.

The 555 timer which gets its name from the three 5kΩ resistors it uses to generate the two comparators reference voltage, 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%.