Simplest 555 Timer Synth

i have just now got into the world of ic's, so this is one of my 1st circuts useing a 555. it doesnt have many tone controls, so its just basic hums and squaks. the improved version will have more controll ,as soon as i get the money. have fun :)

Part You Need

there are very few parts needed for the basic synth.

1: Medium sized breadboard.
the longer the board, the more tones you get. mine is a 63x10 pin
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2734154

2: An NE555P(or similar) timer ic.
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2062595

3: Stick of office staples

4: Wal*mart adjustable power supply

5: An 8 ohm speaker

Instaling the Chip and Power Conections

you should place the chip about 1 1/2 inches from one end of the breadboard with the notch or dotted end faceing the long end of the board. the picture below shows it all. Pin 1 connects to the ground poll of the board (blue poll). pin 8 connects to the positive or hot poll of the board. pin 3 is the output and should conect to the positive speaker poll. the other poll should be grounded to the negative poll of the board.

Building the Buttons/keys

possibly the easyest step of the build. my modle has 5 keys, 5 staples wide, with 3 pins of space in between. Also, it is very important to run 2 staple leads off of the trigger and threshhold pins. trigger is pin 2 and threshold is pin 6. i ran mine parrallel to the ic. one again, the picture is the true teacher. NOTE!!!!! pins 2 or 6 DO NOT conect to the keys, NOR to each other.

What It Should Look Like (roughly)

This is it.Make sure there are no shorts in the system and everything is hooked up. If all goes well, you should be able to run current through it and get sound.

How to Use the Siplest 555 Synth.

You should be getting sound now, if it has power. the keys are not each a different tone, butthe more keys you press, the higher pitched the tone gets. this is nothing fancy, but its a great project. the improved version is coming soon, so if anyonehas any ideas on improvements, post them and i will try to make them work.

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