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EEVblog#160 – 555 Timer Easter Egg?
Posted on April 1st, 2011 46 commentsDave found something strange in his circuit for the 555 timer contest.
44 responses to “EEVblog#160 – 555 Timer Easter Egg?”
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You’re evil. Here it is still March 31 and you caught me off guard!!
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Hi Dave, is the effect very reproducible? Specifically, if you were to try this again tomorrow would you expect to see the same result?
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FreeThinker April 1st, 2011 at 18:10
Nice Try,
Just came in from a 12hr nightshift but you will have to try much harder next year, very convincing though. -
Tomi Leinonen April 1st, 2011 at 18:51
That is amazing!! I just did show this to my friends and they were quite sceptic because today is 1st of April
I really need to try that when I get home.. Too strange but stilla amazing! -
desearcher April 1st, 2011 at 19:25
If this is a wind up for April Fool’s Day, good on ya, mate!
Should have finished off by hooking it up to a piezoelectric speaker to produce a secret message, though.
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Zac Bailey April 1st, 2011 at 21:09
I’d like a short behind the scenes of that. It was a good presentation.
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Oh darn, you got me. I found it rather strange to design an easter egg in such a simple chip, but damn… It was very convincing.
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Hmm should I build this up and scope it …….
Nah I know Aussies are all a bunch o larakins.What you should have done is engineered it to modulate at 88.8hz at 1.21 volts then dubbed the BTTF theme on the top.
Dave no one trusts ya on april fools
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Can someone explain me how he did it?
i suppose he recorded a wave form and played it back on the scope while faking the 555 thing.
is that alright?-
Edisonobilly April 2nd, 2011 at 03:24
not this time Dave, but a good one anyway. you sent the probes of the scope to something else, below the camera’s view, that generated the 55.5hz.
got ya
Dave has more than one of those scopes so the same leads from another one ran to the circuit. . . . . u get the picture
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And what happens if you are connect a speaker to that 555? Does it say “Luke, i’m your father”?
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Dave,
I almost didn’t watch it cause it’s April 1st and you fooled me so bad last year. But I just had to grin and bear it. It was fun.
Todd -
Nice one, Dave! I bought it, and am still uncertain after reading the comments. Pulling the cap with the scope in frame was a nice trick. Great discovery or great hoax either way!
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Adam Ward April 2nd, 2011 at 03:33
Damn it, not a SINGLE one of that batch of ten thousand 555′s that I bought last week had this issue. I’m sending them all back for a refund.
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You got me Dave! Not until I clicked the comments did I realize that this had to be a joke. I was thinking how amazing it was that nobody had discovered this in 40 years. Very clever and elaborate joke. Kudos!
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Tony Stark April 2nd, 2011 at 04:36
Last year the EEVBLOG, was going to be sold to a company, this year the 555 timer is modulationg… I can’t wait for April 1 2012
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Nice try Dave, Although you changed out the “Parallel” resistors on the bottom of the R2 resistor between shots. Also would have worked better if you used a 2.23k for R2 = SQR(5). Your Dave Cad drawing is off for values.
The 200 ohm pot for “tweaking” R1 leaves the lower frequency range at 57k, The max you would get is 166 ohms because of the parallel 1k on the pot. All in all a good show mate. -
I was expecting you plugging it into a speaker at the end and getting rick rolled. You kept a straight face through the entire video, good job!
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If anyone has any doubt that this is an April Fool’s joke, I just tried it and, of course, didn’t get the same results as Dave. The video made it pretty convincing though!
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Adam Shea April 2nd, 2011 at 13:54
I call ATTiny or a PIC10/12. It wouldn’t be too hard to code one up to work like that.
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Murphy April 2nd, 2011 at 15:58
Somehow producing just the right conditions to pick up RF noise? 55.5ish hz is really close to the 50hz mains frequency.
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Ramzi April 3rd, 2011 at 02:34
Maybe the Devil changed his number from 666 to 555 (lately he’s getting alot of anonymous calls), and you got his signal. LOL
Really Dave thanks for the Sharing.
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Well if you want to keep to the story then lets see that same modulation with 1) another brand of scope 2) with the wires visible.
Those Agilents seem to be so advanced I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some setting to add in this signal for “educational purposes”. -
Even if this would be a real effect, manufacturing imperfections would result in quite a large frequency deviation, not making it 55.5 (k)hz but somewhere between 50 and 60 khz, nullifying the reference to the name.
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gw3up69bxaq0 April 3rd, 2011 at 22:49
I think this time constant is caused by a feedback of an internal spread-capacitance.
maybe funny, but the real funny is when theres no spectrum holes of an analog device. -
Hi Dave
I am trying this as my first Oscilloscope Project. Can you make a better diagram of what you have (cap values and where you are actually taking the reading)
Sorry I am a n00b and i just finish getting a old 1987 Oscilloscope
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Riddler April 5th, 2011 at 05:22
Hi! I just discovered this fantastic web site. I love the multimeters comparisons and reviews. Keep the nice and VERY USEFUL job!
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Michael K. April 7th, 2011 at 08:17
Great try! Awesome presentation!
I think it could be a PIC 12F675.
PIN
1 – GND
2 – as GP5 to GND
3 – as GP4 output
4 – as GP3 as input (only
5 – detecting the presence of N/C capacitor.
6 – as GP1 to GND
7 – as AN0 to the POT
8 – +5VI have to try…
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EEVblog#160 – 555 Timer Easter Egg? | EEVblog – The Electronics Engineering Video Blog I was suggested this website by my cousin. I’m not sure whether this post is written by him as no one else know such detailed about my difficulty. You are incredible! Thanks! your article about EEVblog#160 – 555 Timer Easter Egg? | EEVblog – The Electronics Engineering Video BlogBest Regards Yoder
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I just see this today on our space mailinglist
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4394166/Hans-Camenzind-dies
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Sean April 1st, 2011 at 17:15