Author Topic: What can I do with 400 555s?  (Read 5134 times)

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Offline jayeyeTopic starter

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What can I do with 400 555s?
« on: March 30, 2019, 02:58:30 am »
On a recent AliExpress order, instead of 20, I ordered 20 lots of 20! At USD 0.80 per lot, I should have checked twice, as it's too much for a single piece, but hey, if you are ordering one, you might as well order five thousand, right? :)

So the question is, I'm unlikely to live long enough to use them all in real projects. Any suggestions for something weird/interesting/fun to do with them?
 

Online NiHaoMike

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Re: What can I do with 400 555s?
« Reply #1 on: March 30, 2019, 03:41:52 am »
Look up "555 contest" for ideas.
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Offline Nusa

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Re: What can I do with 400 555s?
« Reply #2 on: March 30, 2019, 07:02:38 am »
Stocking stuffers for 19 of your friends. I'm assuming you still want the first 20 for yourself.
 
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Offline AndyC_772

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Re: What can I do with 400 555s?
« Reply #3 on: March 30, 2019, 07:09:09 am »
Compressed air and a dart board.
 
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Offline beanflying

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Re: What can I do with 400 555s?
« Reply #4 on: March 30, 2019, 07:15:31 am »
I vote for a functional wall art piece. I brought 50 a while back for less than I would have paid for two when I was a few years younger I suspect I won't need to buy any more ;)
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Offline Zero999

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Re: What can I do with 400 555s?
« Reply #5 on: March 30, 2019, 02:03:20 pm »
Sell them or give them to beginners or you local school/college, assuming they have an electronics course.

I'm no fan of the 555 timer. There are normally better solutions.
 

Offline Gyro

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Re: What can I do with 400 555s?
« Reply #6 on: March 30, 2019, 02:15:42 pm »
I ordered 20 lots of 20! At USD 0.80 per lot,

What do you do with 400 potentially fake 555s?  >:D  ;D

https://zeptobars.com/en/read/Ti-555-NE555-real-vs-face-china-chinese
« Last Edit: March 30, 2019, 02:45:07 pm by Gyro »
Best Regards, Chris
 
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Offline German_EE

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Re: What can I do with 400 555s?
« Reply #7 on: March 30, 2019, 05:19:13 pm »
Some ideas for you:

https://hackaday.com/?s=555
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Online Ian.M

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Re: What can I do with 400 555s?
« Reply #8 on: March 30, 2019, 06:45:51 pm »
Scatter them on your desk round your keyboard, pins up as caltrops to keep the cat from contributing to your typing!
 
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Offline iMo

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Readers discretion is advised..
 

Offline bitseeker

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Re: What can I do with 400 555s?
« Reply #10 on: March 30, 2019, 08:24:14 pm »
Scatter them on your desk round your keyboard, pins up as caltrops to keep the cat from contributing to your typing!

Ooh, caltrops! Glue them back-to-back in pairs.
TEA is the way. | TEA Time channel
 
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Online Ian.M

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Re: What can I do with 400 555s?
« Reply #11 on: March 30, 2019, 09:25:59 pm »
Scatter them on your desk round your keyboard, pins up as caltrops to keep the cat from contributing to your typing!

Ooh, caltrops! Glue them back-to-back in pairs.
ElectroBOOM should do a video . . .  >:D
 

Online RoGeorge

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Re: What can I do with 400 555s?
« Reply #12 on: March 30, 2019, 09:30:35 pm »
Order another 155 555s, so you'll then have exactly 555 555s!  ;D

Online Ian.M

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Re: What can I do with 400 555s?
« Reply #13 on: March 30, 2019, 09:35:01 pm »
Use a really big low ESR timing cap and no series resistance between the cap and the Discharge pin to turn them into time-delay one-shot detonators.  Some experimentation may be required to get them to explode properly rather than just 'cooking off'.
 

Offline LaserSteve

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Re: What can I do with 400 555s?
« Reply #14 on: March 31, 2019, 02:34:59 pm »
When your done with that let me know what to do with 2.5 pounds of Neon Lamps (NE2)…

Steve
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Offline drescherjm

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Re: What can I do with 400 555s?
« Reply #15 on: March 31, 2019, 02:50:50 pm »
Give some away to fellow EEVblog members!  :)
« Last Edit: March 31, 2019, 02:53:36 pm by drescherjm »
I have BS degrees in CS and EE both in 1996. Since this time I have worked for the same medical imaging research team primarily as a programmer. Now at 47 I am trying to get back into electronics projects.
 
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Online Ian.M

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Re: What can I do with 400 555s?
« Reply #16 on: March 31, 2019, 03:17:33 pm »
Organising that is the difficult thing.  Packing and posting one jiffy bag to a friend or acquaintance is fairly easy, repeating that 100 times, and attempting to get everybody who can afford it to reimburse you for shipping costs is a royal PITA.

However there is a hobby business opportunity here.  If someone is willing to act as a regional coordinator, receive donated parcels of parts from members for points credit, EBAY approx 50% to cover costs, their time and a moderate profit, and maintain a current stock list with pack weight, pack quantity and points per pack for each entry.

Members could use their points to order stuff from the  stock list on a first come first served basis - flat rate no. of points for any order up to a max weight, + points for each pack of items ordered, or buy by paypal if they don't have enough points. 
 

Offline jlmoon

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Re: What can I do with 400 555s?
« Reply #17 on: March 31, 2019, 03:59:59 pm »
They make great fan timers!  Cheap & dirty!
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Offline drescherjm

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I have BS degrees in CS and EE both in 1996. Since this time I have worked for the same medical imaging research team primarily as a programmer. Now at 47 I am trying to get back into electronics projects.
 

Offline texaspyro

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Re: What can I do with 400 555s?
« Reply #19 on: April 01, 2019, 03:00:44 am »
400 pieces, pfffft... whata poser.   :-DD   I once bought 20 reels of 2000 pieces for $1 a reel.  I sold 19 of the reels to a surplus dealer for $20 each.  Now, what to do with 2000 555's?
 
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Offline bitseeker

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Re: What can I do with 400 555s?
« Reply #20 on: April 01, 2019, 03:31:28 am »
Send them to jayeye so his 400 won't feel lonely. :-DD
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Offline richard.cs

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Re: What can I do with 400 555s?
« Reply #21 on: April 01, 2019, 10:20:17 am »
When your done with that let me know what to do with 2.5 pounds of Neon Lamps (NE2)…

http://www.bigclive.com/nixie.htm

Otherwise have a play with neon logic https://lucsmall.com/2016/10/08/neon-ring-counters/
 

Offline RJSV

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Re: What can I do with 400 555s?
« Reply #22 on: April 01, 2019, 04:12:05 pm »
Sounds tedious but you could build an array:  20 by 20 would be nice.  Make each 555 station accept pulses from its neighbor(s), and emit next pulse to another neighbor, producing a 'wave' propagating from station to station.  One option keeps separate directions, another just blast transmits to all close neighbors.   (Starts to look like a researcher for neurological function brain / vision)
 

Offline Richard Crowley

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Re: What can I do with 400 555s?
« Reply #23 on: April 01, 2019, 04:19:47 pm »
Sounds tedious but you could build an array:  20 by 20 would be nice.  Make each 555 station accept pulses from its neighbor(s), and emit next pulse to another neighbor, producing a 'wave' propagating from station to station.  One option keeps separate directions, another just blast transmits to all close neighbors.   (Starts to look like a researcher for neurological function brain / vision)
That is a rather famous research project which has been published in many places.  The original version used ordinary 555 chips.  It was called "firefly" and showed how gradually all the individual units would drift towards flashing in synch.  That is certainly what I would do with hundreds of 555 chips.

« Last Edit: April 01, 2019, 04:21:31 pm by Richard Crowley »
 
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Offline schmitt trigger

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Re: What can I do with 400 555s?
« Reply #24 on: April 01, 2019, 04:26:39 pm »
I ordered 20 lots of 20! At USD 0.80 per lot,

What do you do with 400 potentially fake 555s?  >:D  ;D

https://zeptobars.com/en/read/Ti-555-NE555-real-vs-face-china-chinese

From the webpage:
If only have they marked it "CN555" with proper data-sheet - it would have been totally legitimate and fair product.

Now to the original question: I do like RJHayward's and RCrowley's suggestion. That would be an awesome project. Wiring it would be very tedious, though.
 


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