Help with a 555 please.

[nathan9117]

Hi everyone and i just want someone to clear this up for me.
If I connect +6v to the vcc on a ic555 timer chip and the gnd pin to the ground of my power supply the 555 should be powered so if I then connect a push to make switch to the trigger of the 555 and also the +6v supply then an led from the output pin to the ground of the power source if I am correct every time I close the switch the led should turn on then when the switch is opened again the led should turn off.
Now you may ask why I am using a 555 in the middle of all this circuit and not just the switch and led well, I want to use the 555 timer to turn the led on when the switch is pressed and then when the 555 detects another press it will turn off.  Yes I could just use a on off stay switch but I want to in reality replace the switch with a reed or a ir detector so everytime a train passes over it the led will come on indicating the train is on that piece of track then when it goes to the next block of track it will activate the 1st ir detector again using a loop just before the next block this will then enable the train to enter one block indicating on the mimic that the train is in that block then when it exits the 555 will get a pulse of power telling it to turn back off. Cheers any confusion feel free to pm me for my email or facebook for faster way of communicating about the circuit. 

[smokebox]

You would probably need a couple of resistors included to stabilise the operation.

 

This site http://electronicsclub.info/555timer.htm gives lots of ideas for using 555s and one of those circuits is for a bi stable circuit, which is what I think you would need.

 

[nathan9117]

You would probably need a couple of resistors included to stabilise the operation.

 

This site http://electronicsclub.info/555timer.htm gives lots of ideas for using 555s and one of those circuits is for a bi stable circuit, which is what I think you would need.

Cheers for that i will check it out.

[nathan9117]

Cheers for that i will check it out.

The bi stable is perfect 2 inputs one to make the output high one to make it low thats exactly what i needed thanks very much . I am used to programming you see so i normal would just program a picaxe to detect currents and do the same as the 555 circuit but using 1 input but as i have no picaxe chips left due to using them for my server controllers and robotics projects and also have no money to buy more i figured i would try make in expensive railway detectors cheers.