DIGITAL ELECTRONICS

Report File
Group 3 - 18 November 2019

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Aim:
Implementation of Toy Organ Circuit

Apparatus Required:
• 555 Timer IC – 1
• Speaker 8Ω, 0.5W – 1
• 6 Resistors – R1 to R6
• Potentiometer – RV1
• Capacitors – C1 and C2

Theory:
A simple electronic toy piano can be easily constructed using the popular 555 timer IC.555
Timer can be easily wired as Astable, Monostable or Bistable multivibrator. In astable
multivibrator mode, the circuit produces accurate free running waveforms, which can be
adjusted.

The circuit consists of six 1 kohm resistors connected in series. There are six buttons
connected in the circuit. When one button is pressed it produces a tone. Similarly, six
buttons produce six different tones. That means, it just works as a toy piano. When the
first button from right is pressed it produces high pitch tone. When the last button is
pressed it delivers a low tone. This is because of the resistance connected to the buttons.
The low threshold voltage obtained at the sixth pin slows the charging and discharging of
10 micro farad capacitor at the speaker. As the resistance value increases voltage at the
threshold pin decreases and low frequency passes through speaker.

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Toy Piano Circuit Diagram:

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How to Operate Toy Piano?
Initially Power the circuit. Now press the first button from right. It produces a tone with
high pitch. Now press the second button it’s pitch is slightly lower than the first button.
Now press the next button. Likewise, press all the buttons in order to listen the tones
produced by them. This is similar to tones produced by a piano. At a time only one button
can be pressed.

In the above given circuit a case is considered, a button first from left is pressed, the
resistance between pin7 and pin6 goes as (100+POT resistance). For example consider the
frequency generated here is 1KHz square wave and so we get a tone. Now if the second
from left is pressed, the resistance between pin7 and pin6 goes as (100+Pot resistance+10K
resistance), now here the frequency of square wave generated is different from that of first
one as the effective resistance have changed between pin7 and 6. With this frequency
change of square wave, we get a different tone to the first one. This is how every button is
set up in the circuit.

So every time a button is pressed a different amount of resistance gets connected to

generate a different frequency square wave and so we get a different tone for different
button. This concept is used to generate the whole combinations of tones form the piano.

To make the circuit more interesting, the number of tones in this piano circuit can be
increased by connecting more resistor buttons configuration. So we can get more than ten
tones depending on our choice.

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Applications of Toy Organ Circuit:
• It is used to produce different types of tones and sounds by changing the
resistor values.
• We can use it as a best birthday gift for the kids.
• We can also use this circuit as a Machine gun by changing the resistor and
capacitor values.

Applications

Result:
The toy organ circuit has been successfully implemented using 555 Timer IC. It produces
different tones for different value of resistors.

Precautions:
1. The IC is inserted in the breadboard firmly but gently to avoid any damage to the IC.
2. Battery of suitable voltage is connected across the circuit to avoid damage.
3. The power supply should be switched off while modifying the circuit.

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