How to Use a 555 Timer for PWM

Posted 14 Nov 2005 at 19:24 UTC by steve

Rick Bickle of Integrated Control Systems and the Dallas Personal Robotics Group has written a tutorial on using a 555 timer to generate Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) signals for motor speed control. If you're interested in a building a robot that doesn't include a microcontroller, this could be a helpful method of controlling the motor speed. "PWM is the most common method of motor speed control used in robotics. Usually the PWM signal is generated by a microcontroller running a PWM algorithm in software. Rick introduces a way to generate PWM signals with nothing more than the ubiquitous 555 timer and a few discrete components."

Use the 555 for RC servomotors too, posted 15 Nov 2005 at 04:46 UTC by Rog-a-matic » (Master)

The 555 timer IC can also be used to drive RC servomotors. Here's a good description with diagrams: http://wolfstone.halloweenhost.com/TechBase/svoint_RCServos.html.

And a brief article describing the difference between Stepper Motors, Servos, and RC Servos: http://www.robotics.com/motors.html

Roger

The 509 is The New 555, posted 15 Nov 2005 at 05:00 UTC by The Swirling Brain » (Master)

Cool 555 information and all. However, there's a new kid that's been on the block for a little while now. For those in the know, it's called the Pic 12c509 and it's much more versitile than a 555 in my opinion. It's like the new 555! I don't think I'd ever design with a 555 anymore, I'd use a 8 pin pic 12c509 or something similar instead. After moving on to cpus, why would you ever want to go back to a 555 and a handful of discrete stuff? Nostalgia? The five fifty five was cool in its day but does anyone really use it anymore?