I've implemented a water level indicator using a 555 timer. It works fine when I use 555N, but the output is always high when I replace it with 555P. I don't understand.
I have tried four 555Ps to rule out the possibility of a faulty IC, but it still doesn't work. Meanwhile 555N works (I've checked with two ICs).
I googled it and found that there is virtually no difference between them. So, why is this happening?
Circuit diagram:
This 555N works:
This 555P doesn't work:
In general, when a circuit works with a device from one maker and not from another it is telling you is that your design is incorrectly using some feature of the device on the verge of the design characteristics.
In this case how you are driving the reset pin.
That is a bad thing. You say it works with a 555N, but I am willing to bet if you tested enough 555N samples, only a proportion of them will work. So be glad you tried the other part.
Fix your design so the reset pin gets what it really needs, i.e. a digital level not an analog voltage that hovers somewhere between the logic thresholds as defined in the worst case 555N/555P data-sheet.
You likely need to add a simple comparator circuit, with hysteresis, to do that.
Your design is flakey.
You are using the conductance of water to trip the reset line and this is not a great idea given that the reset pin current (the leakage current from the reset pin) is in the realm of 0.1 mA to 1.5 mA depending on the voltage state of that pin. Read the DS.
So, if it is producing 0.1 mA (ignoring the water sensor effect), this passes through a 10 k resistor to ground and produces a voltage of 1 volt. If the current is twice as high it will produce 2 volts etc..
Given that \$V_{RESET}\$ (i.e. the voltage at which a reset occurs) is typically 0.7 volts, you are in trouble with this design and you need to lower the 10k resistor.
The water sensor can only add voltage to the reset pin so this doesn't help.
Maybe one device inherently produces a lower reset pin leakage current and this happens to work on the NE555N device you have tested. As far as I can tell, you have a bad design and it may work with one chip but it certainly can't be expected to work with different supplier's chips.
Try a redesign and don't think that it must be a good design if it works on chip A.
