555 DC Motor Speed Control

This is a pretty cool circuit that allows you to control the speed a DC motor of considerable size! This circuit was made as part of the Jameco and Instructables Hacknight Hosted by H3 Laboratories in El Paso Texas

Jameco sent us a grab bag of awesome components that we put into use right away!

Bill of Materials:

1 - 555 Timer IC (from Jameco)
2 - Small Glass Rectifier Diodes
1 - High Current Rectifier Diode (Jameco)
1 - 1MΩ Potentiometer (From Jameco)
1 - (Green, Red, Brown) Resistor
1 - 1KΩ (Brown, Black, Red) Resistor
1 - Power MOSFET
2 - .01 µF Ceramic Capacitors
1 - DC Motor

We will be needing a lot of jumper cables. I tend to install them first and later put in the components but you can do it any way you want just follow the schematic. If you want, you can follow my way.

Install the 555 IC on the breadboard.

Install the other jumper that will be going to the potentiometer.

More jumpers connecting pins 4 and 8 and 2 and 6

Follow the picture

The circuit is finished follow the schematic for more clarification on the position of components.

Here we have a video demonstration of the circuit working: