Thanks to Alec t. I tried the resistor attached from pin 2 to pin 8 and now the LED will light up for about a second when pins 2 and 5 are connected. The first picture is from the book and the second is from Circuit Wizard. I'll more than likely have more questions about other diagrams from the book, so I'll keep posting here.

 

It's actually no longer a touch activated switch, it's a bouncefree switch now. So the touch activated switch diagram doesn't work.

 

Yes and no!

You just need higher impedance pull up.
Touch switch works for me.

Also, as I posted previous, a small capacitance from V+ to 2 works in lieu of the pull up.

A foot or so of twisted pair to the touch wire.
Cut the unused V+ lead an 1/8" short and touch wire going to trigger pin.

 

I think I may just have to give up. For the longest time I couldn't get the touch-activated switch to work, then out of the blue, it works. What gives? It's the same physical setup. The only difference is the room I'm in.
The only difference between the bouncefree and touch-activated switches is the resistor from pin 2 to pin 8. What's the real difference? I mean, they do the same thing except the bouncefree switch produces the same result with the LED every time I push the switch. With the touch-activated switch it will leave the LED on for different periods of time when pin 2 is touched with or without pin 5 at the same time.

 

Thanks to Alec t. I tried the resistor attached from pin 2 to pin 8 and now the LED will light up for about a second when pins 2 and 5 are connected. The first picture is from the book and the second is from Circuit Wizard. I'll more than likely have more questions about other diagrams from the book, so I'll keep posting here.

I think I may just have to give up. For the longest time I couldn't get the touch-activated switch to work, then out of the blue, it works. What gives? It's the same physical setup. The only difference is the room I'm in.
The only difference between the bouncefree and touch-activated switches is the resistor from pin 2 to pin 8. What's the real difference? I mean, they do the same thing except the bouncefree switch produces the same result with the LED every time I push the switch. With the touch-activated switch it will leave the LED on for different periods of time when pin 2 is touched with or without pin 5 at the same time.

Notice in all of the schematics that pins 2 and 5 are not connected. (by touch, or switch)
Do you have a .01uf capacitor connected between pin 5 and ground?
Without this capacitor erratic operation can and will happen.

As previously mentioned, be careful with the pin numbers.
The finger or switch connects between pin 2 and ground.

Don't give up!. IMO there is no better way to learn than to keep experimenting.

 

Hello, is anybody home?

 

I'm not literally going to give up. I'm just glad I finally got the touch-activated switch to work. Now I'll be moving on to the basic monostable circuit.

 

Basic monostable circuit.
So, for my first question, where do pins 2 and 3 connect to in this circuit?

 

Basic monostable circuit.
So, for my first question, where do pins 2 and 3 connect to in this circuit?

2 is input. the input is a pulse. so 2 is connected to pulse generator.

3 is output.

 

Ok. How am I supposed to connect and test this circuit? I'm using the Circuit Wizard on my PC to connect this circuit. There's nothing called a pulse generator. Could I use an AC power supply? If I can then how would I attach it to the circuit? If I find the pulse generator, should pin 3 connect to it too?

 

Mims' books sometimes don't tell the whole story; they are better as starting points for experimentation than for finished circuits. Here is a working NE555 monostable multi-vibrator (also called a "one-shot") circuit that works.

Notice that a simple Normally Open (NO) switch is used as the trigger, and an LED with a current limiting resistor is used to indicate when the output (pin 3) is high. If you build it according to the schematic, it will work. After you get it working, you can try changes to see what effects they cause.

 

So is that diagram supposed to work like the monostable circuit without a pulse generator? Every time I push the switch, the LED will glow.

 

Yes. When you push the switch, the LED will light for about 75 seconds. You don't really have to have a switch; you can use a wire connected to one side and just touch the other side. You can adjust the time by changing the values of R1 and C1 according to the formula under the schematic.