DAYANANDA SAGAR COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

(An Autonomous Institute Affiliated to VTU, Belagavi)

Bengaluru – 560 078

A case study report

On
LIGHT SWITCHING CIRCUIT USING 555 TIMER
submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree
of
BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING
in
ELECTRONICS AND INSTRUMENTATION ENGINEERING
Submitted by

MITHIL DHARMADHIKARI 1DS17EI017

SIDDARTH VASHISHT 1DS17EI033
SIDHARTH MENON 1DS17EI039
NITHIN SKANDA 1DS16EI029

2017-2018
Department of
ELECTRONICS AND INSTRUMENTATION
Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering
(An Autonomous Institute Affiliated to VTU, Belagavi)
Bengaluru – 560 078
 ABSTRACT
The 555 timer IC is an integrated circuit (chip) used in a variety
of timer, pulse generation, relay, and oscillator applications. The
555 can be used to provide time delays, as an oscillator, and as
a flip-flop element.
Introduced in 1972 by Signetics, an American electronics
manufacturer specifically established to make integrated
circuits, the 555 is still in widespread use due to its low price, ease
of use, and stability. It is now made by many companies in the
original bipolar and in low-power CMOS technologies. As of 2003,
it was estimated that 1 billion units were manufactured every
year. The 555 is the most popular integrated circuit ever
manufactured.

For our project, we are using the 555 timer in a light switching
circuit, which alternates the LEDs between their ON and OFF
states.
 INTRODUCTION
A light switching circuit is a circuit where two or more LEDs
alternate between each other or light up in conjunction similar to
a pattern. The LEDs pulse one after another with a given time
delay. In our project, we achieve this using a 555 timer.
Light switching, or flashing lights are used very prominently and
have many real world uses. One of the most important would be
the flashing lights of an emergency vehicle, such as an
ambulance or a police car. It is instrumental in alerting nearby
vehicles of the situation and is a very important component.
 WORKING
The 555 timer is constructed to operate in the astable mode. In
astable mode, the 555 timer acts as an oscillator that generates a
square wave. The frequency of the wave can be adjusted by
changing the values of two resistors and a capacitor connected
to the chip.

In astable mode, the output cycles on and off continuously. In the

schematic above, notice that the threshold pin and the trigger pin
are connected to C1. This makes the voltage the same at the
trigger pin, threshold pin, and C1.
At the beginning of an on/off cycle, the voltage is low at C1, the
trigger pin, and the threshold pin. Whenever the trigger pin
voltage is low, the output is on, and the discharge pin is off. Since
the discharge pin is off, current can flow through resistors R1 and
R2, charging capacitor C1.
Once C1 charges to 2/3 Vcc, the output is switched off by the
threshold pin. When the output goes off, the discharge pin
switches on. This allows the charge accumulated on capacitor C1
to drain to ground.

In the circuit shown above, the 555 timer is connected to the

appropriate components in the astable state.
Essentially, when the capacitor starts charging, the green LED
starts glowing.
Similarly, when it starts discharging, the red LED starts glowing.
As astable state keeps continuously switching, so do the LEDs. So
they work as a light switching/ flashing lights setup.
 APPLICATIONS, ADVANTAGES
AND DISADVANTAGES

This circuit has a wide variety of applications. By adjusting the

values of capacitors and resistors, we can change the time
duration between the pulses.
If the duration is very low then it can be used as the flashing lights
found commonly in emergency response vehicles like police cars,
ambulances and fire engines. These bright flashing lights of red
and blue signal nearby vehicles and pedestrians of the situation at
hand. It is coupled with a siren so that it can be detected by the
ears and eyes.
If the individual LEDS are set to independent timers then it can act
as a traffic light, which goes between LEDS of red, amber and
green indicating stop, caution and go respectively.
Similarly it can be used to act as an automatic street light, to
conserve energy and intelligently distribute electricity across the
city grid.
The circuit can easily be changed by swapping out components
for others to produce different results for different requirements.
However, it can be improved upon with the addition of more
components or by linking it to a microcontroller for increased
functionality.
 CONCLUSION
Thus, we see that this circuit setup is very easy to build. Despite its
simplicity it still has a huge range of real world applications.
It mainly makes maximum use of the astable or bistable operation
of the 555 timer, a cheap but widely used integrated circuit.
Building this circuit, we learnt that the 555 timer has a huge variety
of day to day applications and can very easily be manipulated to
perform a wide spectrum of tasks.