General > General Technical Chat
Is the 555 still a viable IC?
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SiliconWizard:
Yeah, not sure what "viable" means here. But I've used the TLC556 (dual) just a couple years ago for a simple application that would otherwise have required either more discrete ICs, or a MCU with firmware.
Sometimes simplicity just wins.
Psi:
Yeah, It's useful, but not all that common for a production design any more due to cheaper and more flexible options, like a cheap mcu, but any MCU option requires coding and flashing so has it's own disadvantages even if it is more flexible

There's plenty of situations where you might want a 555 for a quick and dirty solution to a problem.
You could throw together a test jig for something in under an hour if the accuracy isn't all that critical.
xrunner:

--- Quote from: schmitt trigger on February 17, 2024, 06:14:18 pm ---
Yet, they still sell..... Who would be the potential customers?

As previously mentioned, this is only curiosity.

--- End quote ---

My guess is learners and classes are buying many of them. One hobbyist after another, one learner after another, year after year. Each person learns using one or two, burns a few by mistake, and moves on. Look at all the tutorials for 555 timers that are out there.

I wonder what the quantity of new or good 555 timers are just sitting in parts drawers never to be used again. Nothing wrong with them. If we could only get these to new learners they'd never have to make any more ever again.  :-DD
Psi:
There is also the LM555-MIL  for military stuff.
It's active apparently, but I've never seen it for sale at the usual places.


EPAIII:
Consider, if you built a circuit with a 555 timer 50 years ago, which is still in use and the chip went bad, you could just get another 555 and drop it in and the circuit would still work today. About a one hour repair, including the time spent ordering the new 555.

If you built a circuit with a micro processor 20 years ago and the chip went bad, that micro processor would probably not be currently available. You would probably need to build a completely new circuit with either an "improved" version of that processor or with a completely different one and then wonder where the original code was. Oh, that's right, your IS department replaced the desktop where the code resided 10 years ago and they don't keep back-ups for over 5 years. So you would wind up re-writing the code from scratch.

So in order to save a few pennies and use the latest and greatest technology, 20 years ago, you wind up spending several days building the new circuit and writing the code for it and testing, of course. Now, tell me which would have been a better choice.
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