NE555 Projects on 5/5

After 160 circuits built I decided I really needed to start adding more utilitarian builds to my roster. Thanks to tagboard effects I found a voltage inverter and voltage doubler that use the exact same layout, but orient the parts slightly differently to achieve different goals. I've avoided building some pedal circuits because they need a negative nine volts, and I've avoided building others as they require an internal charge pump to double the voltage. I figure, why not build these little circuits and have external options for powering pedal circuits? Especially when it saves me having to buy a charge pump specific IC every single time I needed to achieve either of these voltage requirements.

Both of these circuits require the use of the old tried and true 555 timer chip. These projects sat in my box of 2026 kits for a few months, until I realized it would be neat to build them on May 5th. This wasn't purely my own idea, I have to admit. BigClive inspired me with his video posted today. That, couple with the fact that I had so much fun yesterday using my old RadioShack soldering iron, I figured why not!? Again, both layouts are identical in terms of board size, trace cuts, jumpers and most of the parts. The varying voltage output is all down to how the diodes and electrolytic caps are oriented within the circuit.

There isn't much more to say, if you've checked the layouts at tagboard's website you pretty much see everything you need to. Super simple, super low component count, and (hopefully as I've not tested them out yet) super useful. Now I can build circuits that require negative voltage and eighteen volts without having to worry about powering them properly. I mean, I could build these for each pedal that requires them, and in some cases I may. The main idea though is to have a power box with these options, so I don't need to mess with all that in the future. There are a few other 555 timer related circuits I plan to build, but those will come later. These were just super easy builds I felt deserved to be "born" on May 5th.