Where are you getting the number you are dividing the .12A with? I keep getting more confused. The original schematic I looked at used two transistors and had 8 bolts running to the chip and it was controlling a 28 volt power supply. Is my problem I'm not feeding enough volts through the chip?

 

I get the .0003A figure from the datasheet. On page 4, it says Voh (Vout hi) is a minimum of 1.5 volts with a load of .3 ma

and, yes, demanding that the chip only has 1.5 volts to work with means it won't be guaranteed to work at all. Giving it 2 volts will allow it to supply .0003 amps.

You're starving the poor thing!

 

How do you give the chip more voltage? I really don't care how much it gets, I just don't want a huge battery pack. The low voltage was a distant second to the wider temperature range it had. I found the Texas Instrument chip that starts at 3.5 volts and goes to 15. Is the voltage solely dependant upon the battery? What do I need to do to make it work just like the original schematic with only 2 transistors? I would rather just go ahead and feed it more power that amplify what little it gets. I just need to run 5 six LED panels, each with their own timing circuit and power supply and have them controlled by one switch in as small as a package as I can get.

 

The battery produces the voltage, therefore, the voltage is solely dependent on the battery. The method to give the chip more voltage is to connect pin 8 of the chip to the voltage by using a wire. It is allowed to use a switch that turns the voltage on.

Do you want 5 separate timing circuits, each with its own battery, each one drives 6 LEDs, and each one has a switch?

What is the start-up time delay for each module?

Do you require that only the CMOS version of the 555 chip be used?

Would you be satisfied if I can make this work without any transistors?

Would you be satisfied if I can make this work without any relays?

What temperature range do you need?

I can make these LEDs do what you want with no transistors and no relays if you just quit demanding that I use the CMOS version. So, what is your goal? To use the CMOS version of a 555 timer or to get LEDs to work?

 

hi JL,
Another point you should consider if you use a 1.5V battery supply, is that the battery output will not maintain 1.5V during its lifetime.

If the battery voltage falls by as little a 0.1V, you will have a problem.

You should never create a 'marginal', design.

E.