555 ic's use? and other rshack chips...

[marrstians]

is their any use for the 555 chip? i always see the odd chips at radio shack that are easy to find but i don't know of a way to cross reference schematics to see where they can be used... are most of them unusable for pedal stuff or what?

[BillyJ]

The CMOS one can be used in an uglyface from Tim Escobedo
http://www.geocities.com/tpe123/folkurban/fuzz/snippets.html

also John Hollis' Crash Synch uses one too I think
http://www.hollis.co.uk/john/circuits.html

[ErikMiller]

Sigh. Radio Shack was never all that great for components, but in the past couple of years, they've gotten positively miserable in their selection.

The LM386N's they sell are good for mini-amps like the Little Gem.

They sell LM741's which are the basic opamp. They can be used in many pedals. I have an odd fondness for them, although most people stay away from them due to the better noise specs of later designs.

Same deal with the MC1458, which is a dual version.

The LM324 is a quad with better specs, and the TL082 is a dual JFET opamp.

These opamps may be used in most designs that call for them. They might not be the quietest choice, but they are easy to obtain.

[gez]

You can tap the junction of the resistor and cap which set the rate to get a non linear triangle which is good enough in plenty of effects, or use the square output for a 'stutter' pedal.