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The 555 was great. These days I usually just drop in a 6 pin microcontroller though. Less external parts, cheaper, less environmental instability, much more operational flexibility, and often I can have it perform several circuit functions. If I go to 8 pins, woah, look out! I do so much digitally now that I've "forgotten" 75 percent of my analog stuff... Once in a while I come upon a cool analog trick though. Sad part is, that usually the "super simple, bulletproof" analog solution with just 5 parts usually ends up being more expensive in qc, bom, and board space that throwing a million transistors at it. It's a strange world we live in. |
I guess the counter argument is that a 555 circuit can't be reprogrammed either, but it also doesn't have to be programmed even the first time.