[markmoran]

Now that I’ve built your newer (2313) version and your older analog one (555+4017), I’d love to better understand why the transistors are helpful.  The output from the 4017 pin is passed through a 47k resistor to the base of a 3904, which is also connected to a 47uF capacitor, together forming a low-pass filter, right?  Assuming a 9V power supply, the resistor drops the current from the 4017 to about .2 milliamps, which the 3904 then boosts it back up by 100X to about 20milliamps for the LED, right?  But doesn’t a low-pass filter work without the transistor too?  That is, could the 47k resistor and 47uF capacitor be replaced with a 470 ohm resistor and 470nF capacitor and get the same effect?  Or am I missing something?

For what it’s worth, I tried this on a breadboard plus oscilloscope, and it seemed to partially work.  The LEDs faded off but snapped on, and the fading out may have been shorter and thus not as nice.  But I also may have not had the right component values or had it hooked up quite right.  (I find working with breadboards very frustrating because I don’t want to cut the leads off the diodes, resistors, or capacitors, but then its hard to keep them from touching and shorting out without realizing that I’m inadvertently bypassing a diode or other component.)

Anyway, none of this is important, I was just curious why you made the original low-pass filters with transistors rather than just resistors and capacitors.  Thanks as always.

-Mark

[markmoran]

Wow!  Thanks so much for the quick and detailed reply.  I’ve never seen an x-ray of an electronic component and find them strangely pretty, especially the TLC555.  I had no idea the actual “goods” inside a discrete transistor were such a tiny portion, although I take some comfort realizing that size matters here just as elsewhere, and that there’s even a logical reason that a 3904 costs less than a 2222 which costs less than a 968.

Looking forward to putting together the discrete 741 when it arrives and then doing the 741 experiments in Charles Platt’s Make More Electronics with it and my oscilloscope.

[Author]

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