8/17/2019 pwm - NE555 Based Speed Controller circuit - Contradicting Pins in 2 Tutorials - Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange

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NE555 Based Speed Controller circuit - Contradicting Pins in 2

Tutorials
Asked 1 year, 9 months ago Active 1 year, 9 months ago Viewed 3k times

I am a newbie of Electronics and learning it as a hobby. Over a course of time I realized that
Electronic Blogs are not the best place to learn Electronics, unless you have a strong basics and
8 can correct silly mistakes in circuit diagrams posted online. Often I find it difficult to get a circuit
working because they have minor typos or errors.

Now, I am stuck with such a situation. I am referring two separate Electronics Blogs which are
appearing in Google Search who have posted couple of contradicting circuit diagrams of a
NE555 based DC Motor Speed controller. I don't know if either or both of them are correct. The
circuits use pin 3 and pin 7 of the IC respectively to drive the MOSFET/Transistor.

Circuit Diagram 1:

http://pcbheaven.com/circuitpages/PWM_Fan_controller_using_a_555/

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and

Circuit Diagram 2:

http://www.gadgetronicx.com/dc-motor-speed-control-circuit-ic555/

My questions are:

1. Are both of them correct? If yes, it's really couple of exciting circuits to understand how both
of them work when the pin 3 and pin 7 are used just the opposite way in these two circuit
diagrams. Does the use of MOSFET vs Transistor makes the difference?
2. If one of them is correct - which one is that?
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This
our Terms question
of Service. might not be new to Stackexchange because these contradicting diagrams are
equally published all over the internet. Unfortunately I couldn't find it on SE. Please link the
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question, if you already have it.

According to my understanding circuit diagram 2 should be working. Because it is similar to

astable-multivibrator config of NE555 and pin 3 seems to be generating square wave (i.e. PWM)
signals to drive the MOSFET/Transistor. Please let me know if I am wrong and why.

Many many thanks in Advance!!

pwm motor-controller ne555

asked Oct 28 '17 at 14:17

sribasu
438 10 27

This is a very interesting question. In the 555 diagram we can see that the 7 (discharge) pin is connected
to the collector of one transistor which base is connected to the same rail that feeds the inverter (buffer) of
the regular output pin 3. This way maybe someone could use output from pin 7 (but why?). I would place
my bet in a mistaken changing of pins 3 and 7 in the first schematic. – mguima Oct 28 '17 at 14:31

Yes, my understanding is same too! But I am surprised to see that both these diagrams are almost equally
posted across the blogs, none of them are really a cornerstone - so I really doubt if any one of them is
incorrect! As a beginner I would not expect the bloggers to make such a big mistake repeatedly! :) –
sribasu Oct 28 '17 at 14:37

2 Answers

They are both acceptable solutions.

Notice in a 555 timer, the discharge pin is simply an open collector version of the output signal.
8

In circuit diagram 1 the 555 timer is configured as a square wave generator. The
charge/discharge path for the timing capacitor is from the 555s output which will be near top rail
or bottom rail. Since, with the pot at 50%, the resistance to the cap is the same in both states, it
charges and discharges at the same rate. Hence the "square wave" configuration designation.
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The discharge pin is therefore surplus in this configuration, though it still switches as normal.
Instead, it is used to pull down the MOSFET gate during the discharge cycle.

In circuit 2, the more traditional wiring, the charge rate is defined by R2 + whatever the pot
setting is, while the discharge is purely through the pot. With this design, mid-range on the pot is
not 50% mark to space. Further, during the discharge cycle, this circuit wastes considerable
current ( 12mA ) through R2 for no purpose.

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Asofsuch,
our Terms circuit
Service . 1 is arguably the better one.

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Notice though in these two particular examples, the design of the MOSFET gate driver gobbles
up 12mA instead, so these two circuits are pretty close efficiency wise. A better gate driver
circuit would fix that.

Personally, I would have done it this way. I might even add a nice LED in parallel with the motor
so I could tell how hard the controller is driving.

I'd need to check if

both end points of the pot worked as expected.

edited Oct 28 '17 at 22:39 answered Oct 28 '17 at 15:04

Trevor_G
42.2k 4 59 138

Great! Easily understood. But still one question regarding calling the 1st one "less efficient". While pin 7 is
pulling down (discharge cycle) doesn't it waste energy through 1K resistor connected to it? Or am I getting
it wrong? – sribasu Oct 28 '17 at 18:14

@sribasu I did not say it was more efficient, though it could have been. I said the second one wastes
12mA it does not need to. In these two particular examples, at 50% they are about the same efficiency
since the mosfet one gobbles 12mA on the gate drive side instead. – Trevor_G Oct 28 '17 at 18:18

1 @sribasu but that is a fault of the gate driver circuit, not really the 555 circuit, if you know what I mean. –
Trevor_G Oct 28 '17 at 18:20

Agreed. This is fault of the Gate driver in general, nothing to do with the PWM generation. – sribasu Oct
28 '17 at 18:46

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resistor is connected to pin 7 to provide the pullup function, effectively eliminating that difference.
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5 answered Oct 28 '17 at 15:04

Dave Tweed ♦
133k 11 166 286

I learned this - pins 3 and 7 are very nearly equivalent! Thanks! – sribasu Oct 28 '17 at 18:10

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