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• I don't know if Radio Shack still sells them, but the "engineer's mini-notebook" on the 555 by the venerable Forrest Mims is a great reference on all kinds of things to do with the 555.

  Posted by: drtwist on October 16, 2006 at 7:24 AM

• The radio shacks around here insist that they don't produce books any more. So hold on to your old copies, they're hard to replace.

  Unless someone has a secret PDF stash? Anyone?

  Posted by: AP on October 16, 2006 at 8:52 AM

• Ahhhh, the 555 timer. Hard to beat that chip.
  

  Posted by: RussNelson on October 16, 2006 at 11:45 AM

• They don't produce the books anymore.

  I have the original from when it was 1 large book. Later they divided the circuits into about 5 books each for the price of the original 1. Now they don't make them at all.

  It's sad, Radio Shack used to be a great place for makers, now it's just a place to get overpriced cell phones and satellite dishes if you're too stupid to find a better store.

  Posted by: Oracle1729 on October 16, 2006 at 2:32 PM

• I use a 555 for my fog machine. It drives a relay coil that switches the machine on for 15 seconds, off for 1 minute on or something like that. Gotta do it to match the duty cycle of the machine.

  Posted by: Russtang on October 16, 2006 at 3:29 PM

• They do still make them, you just have to go right to the source.
  http://www.forrestmims.com/engineers_mini_notebook.html

  Posted by: ~ascpi on October 24, 2006 at 10:32 PM

• Question:
  Wikipedia's entry about 555 timers has the 7 and 8 ports reversed!

  It says 6 is Threshold and 7 is Discharge.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/555_timer_IC

  Is that their mistake?

  Posted by: Battletards on September 25, 2007 at 11:17 AM

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