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Project Notes

#563 Dual Variable Mode Oscillator

Testing a 555 timer astable oscillator circuit that can be switched between variable duty cycle and variable frequency.

Build

Notes

This is a very effective circuit that I found as an example in the Multisim circuit simulator samples. I’ve made a few modifications to the circuit, primarily to reduce the clock to a very low (visible) frequency.

The circuit can be manually switched between variable duty cycle and variable frequency, and it performs impressively:

  • variable duty cycle mode gives almost full range control (4-96% in this build) with no significant impact on a fixed frequency
  • in variable frequency mode, the duty cycle remains stable at around 50% for the entire frequency sweep

Construction

I selected VR1 = 50kΩ, and C1 = 10µF for the build in order to keep down to very low frequencies so that the output LED indicator can be followed by eye.

Breadboard

Schematic

Performance

With VR1 = 50kΩ, and C1 = 10µF, frequency can be adjusted between 1.2Hz and 32 Hz, or duty between 4% and 96% at a fixed frequency of ~2 Hz. Here are the output scope traces for the minimum and maximum VR1 setting for variable duty (upper) and variable frequency (lower)

scope

Some ranges I’ve measured with various VR1 component values:

VR1 f(min) f(max) duty(min) duty(max) f(fixed duty)
10kΩ 5Hz 35Hz 14% 86% ~6Hz
20kΩ 3Hz 34Hz 8% 92% ~5Hz
50kΩ 1.2Hz 32Hz 4% 96% ~2Hz
100kΩ 2Hz 34Hz 2% 98% ~1Hz

NB: I should have switched C1 for a higher frequency range in order to capture more accurate measurements. Perhaps later?

Multisim

I only had a brief look at Multisim Live, but it seems quite capable, and is very intuitive.

Here are the results and a glimpse of the user interface for the simulation of the circuit similar to the one shown here:

multisim

Credits and References

About LEAP#563 555 TimerOscillators
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