ELECTRONICS FOR YOU FEBRUARY 2001

C I R C U I T I D E A S
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hi s ci r cui t usi ng a dual -ti mer
NE556 can produce 1Hz pul ses
spaced 5 seconds apar t, ei ther
manual l y or automati cal l y. I C NE556
compri ses two i ndependent NE555 ti m-
er s i n a si ngl e package. I t i s used to
pr oduce two separ ate pul ses of di ffer -
en t pu l s e wi dth s , wh er e on e pu l s e
i ni ti ates the acti vati on of the second
pul se.
The fi rst hal f of the NE556 i s wi red
for 5-second pul se output. When sl i de
swi tch S2 i s i n posi ti on a, the fi rst ti mer
i s set for manual operati on, i .e. by press-
i n g s wi tch S1 momen tar i l y
you can generate a si ngl e pul se of 5-
second dur ati on. When swi tch S2 i s
kept i n b posi ti on, i .e. pi ns 6 and 2 are
shorted, ti mer 1 i n NE556 tri ggers by
i tsel f.
The output of the fi rst ti mer i s con-
nected to tri gger pi n 8 of second ti mer,
whi ch, i n turn, i s connected to a poten-
ti al di vi der compri si ng resi stors R4 and
R5. Resi stor R1, preset VR1, resi stor R2,
preset VR2, and capaci tors C2 and C5
are the components determi ni ng ti me pe-
ri od. Presets VR1 and VR2 permi t tri m-
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mi ng of the 5-second and 1-second pul se
wi dth of respecti ve secti ons.
When swi tch S2 i s i n posi ti on a and
swi tch S1 i s pressed momentari l y, the out-
put at pi n 5 goes hi gh for about 5 sec-
onds. The trai l i ng (fal l i ng) edge of thi s 5-
second pul se i s used to tri gger the second
ti mer vi a 0.1F capaci tor C6. Thi s acti on
resul ts i n momentari l y pul l i ng down of
pi n 8 towards the ground potenti al , i .e.
l ow. (Otherwi se pi n 8 i s at 1/2 Vcc and
tri ggers at/bel ow 1/3 Vcc l evel .) When the
second ti mer i s tri ggered at the trai l i ng
edge of 5-second pul se, i t generates a 1-
second wi de pul se.
When swi tch S2 i s on posi ti on b,
swi tch S1 i s di sconnected, whi l e pi n 6 i s
connected to pi n 2. When capaci tor C i s
charged, i t i s di scharged through pi n 2
unti l i t reaches 1/3Vcc potenti al , at whi ch
i t i s retri ggered si nce tri gger pi n 6 i s
al so connected her e. Thus ti mer 1 i s
retri ggered after every 5-second peri od
(correspondi ng to 0.2Hz frequency). The
second ti mer i s tri ggered as before to
produce a 1-second pul se i n synchro-
ni sm wi th the trai l i ng edge of 5-sec-
ond pul se.
Thi s ci rcui t i s i mportant wherever
a pul se i s needed at regul ar i nterval s;
for i nstance, i n Versati l e Di gi tal Fre-
quency Counter Cum Cl ock construc-
ti on project publ i shed i n EFY Oct. 97,
one may use thi s ci rcui t i n pl ace of
CD4060-based ci rcui t. For the di gi tal
cl ock functi on, however, pi n 8 and 12
ar e to be shor ted after r emoval of
0.1F capaci tor and 10-ki l o-ohm resi s-
tors R4 and R5.
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Visit www.deekshith.in for more unique project ideas and circuits
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