Hi outro,

If you lay out your board properly on your donnut perfboard, it should look something as below...

View attachment 122301

Allen

Hello abs,
thanks for your reply.

I am running out of capacitors, well, I only have the ceramic/plastic capacitors which came with the Arduino Starter Kit (0.01uF?) but I have quite many electrolytic capacitors which are of much higher value. What is the 'real' function of the capacitors in this circuit? Can I replace them?

I am quite new to electronics, and I see a lot of capacitors used in different circuits, but rarely any explanation.
I have read obviously about how they work and are used for - they save energy and release it, but I don't seem to get my head around the use in the circuits.

(short: what caps doing in this circuit? can I replace with bigger?)

 

left one works, whats the difference?

 

I must have the worst circuit skills

I am now again at short circuit and my 555 is heating up, ideas?

 

Okay, now I'm at a point where it works ONLY if I touch the potentiometers rotating part (where u tune it) ? Confusing!