What Can a 555 Timer Chip Do in Modding Gaming Controllers?

[pikagod]

I'm starting to get into building my own electroincs, and I have come across a 555 chip. What exactly does it do? I know you can use it to "pulse" a signal (like a rapidfire controller, but I have no idea HOW) and what ELSE can it do?

Part of the reason I ask is I am very interested in rapid fire controllers. Lost job and all that jazz, but gaming controllers and things such as that fall into my hands often. Modding and selling them sounds interesting but I'm just not grasping the idea behind a 555 chip.

But more importantly I think you can use these for some fairly fancy electronics other than "rapid fire" controllers for gaming people.

 

[Borg]

There are lots of articles on the uses of them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/555_timer_IC"
http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/555timer.htm"
http://www.instructables.com/id/47-projects-to-do-with-a-555/"
http://www.instructables.com/id/learn-about-the-555/"

 

[pikagod]

So the most basic thing...According to those articles I want to use it as an Astable output right? I think I read that right...

I am reading the instructables one atm, and it talks about going low and going high. for example:
"(Pins 3 and 7 are "in phase.") Goes HIGH (about 2v less than rail) and LOW (about 0.5v less than 0v) and will deliver up to 200mA. "
What does High/Low mean? Is high 2/3 of the input power, and low is 1/3?

 

[Borg]

So the most basic thing...According to those articles I want to use it as an Astable output right? I think I read that right...

I am reading the instructables one atm, and it talks about going low and going high. for example:
"(Pins 3 and 7 are "in phase.") Goes HIGH (about 2v less than rail) and LOW (about 0.5v less than 0v) and will deliver up to 200mA. "
What does High/Low mean? Is high 2/3 of the input power, and low is 1/3?

I'm not an expert at all of the uses of a 555 so perhaps someone else could explain the more common uses and configurations. I read several references for definitions of high and low that appear to differ. Could you provide a link to what you are reading?

 

[mdjensen22]

This is one of my favorite 555 timer sites:
http://www.doctronics.co.uk/555.htm#navigation
Astable 555 timer circuits oscillate (produce pulses).
Monostable 555 timer circuits (also called ONE-SHOT) only provide a single pulse for 'x' duration when triggered.

For your purposes, astable appears to be what you want.
Depending on what you want to modify, it might be worth noting that all gaming devices are not necessarily high/low for button presses - some produce analog signals that are fed into the processing unit of the controller.

 

[pikagod]

I'm specifically looking at xbox 360 controllers. I did a littler research before coming here and I believe it does use high/low because people have used this chip for this before but its hard to find info, they just want you to pay them to do it. I'm trying to come up with a mod that can fit any controller, the old matrix style or the new cg style wired or wireless; or easily be changed to do so.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Add...-using-a-555-/step2/Constructing-the-Circuit/
this has a schematic and this is the wiring I need to do (this is the switch I want, just for a computer mouse instead of a controller) but I don't know how to read the diagram...I tried googling it and got lots of examples but not much saying how to read it. But it was late last night (6am) so my google fu was weak. its stronger now xD going to look more in a bit.

 

[pikagod]

I'm specifically looking at xbox 360 controllers. I did a littler research before coming here and I believe it does use high/low because people have used this chip for this before but its hard to find info, they just want you to pay them to do it. I'm trying to come up with a mod that can fit any controller, the old matrix style or the new cg style wired or wireless; or easily be changed to do so.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Add...-using-a-555-/step2/Constructing-the-Circuit/
this has a schematic and this is the wiring I need to do (this is the switch I want, just for a computer mouse instead of a controller) but I don't know how to read the diagram...I tried googling it and got lots of examples but not much saying how to read it. But it was late last night (6am) so my google fu was weak. its stronger now xD going to look more in a bit.Edit: okay so I did some research and I can somewhat read the picture. I could easily enough copy it and make it work, but I still don't entirely understand WHY it works...which is what I'm trying to learn. I'm also trying to put in a potentiometer, but am unsure about how to wire it. I read that for volume control (and it seems to me the same idea would apply here) I would wire 1 to ground, 3 to input and 2 to ouput.

But I must put this where the 10k ohm resistor is in order to control the frequency and I am pretty sure I just run a wire from peg 1 to the same place I have the ground soldered but I am unsure which side of the resistor is input, and which is output. For the resistor it doesn't matter but for the potentiometer it does and I am stuck figuring out which way things are going...