It's such a simple IC that it's hard to see what it can do. But if you stick some resistors and capacitors around it in just the right ways, it can do so much.

It's such a simple IC that it's hard to see what it can do. But if you stick some resistors and capacitors around it in just the right ways, it can do so much. Google "555 examples" for thousands of example schematics. Wikipedia has a few examples: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/555_timer_IC#Modes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/555_timer_IC#Modes