Re: 555 timer circuit

Australian electronic magazines have published several projects to
step motors manually.

Silicon Chip June 1997 even uses a 555.
Silicon Chip June 1998 uses a few cmos chips 4510, 4017 etc.

The controls are:
Speed pot, Direction, Stop/run, Mode- Continuous/preset, and a 2 bank
thumbwheel Preset switch of how many steps to move. There is a
selection of 1.8 and 7.5 degree type motor presets and I have added a
2 degree preset to my version.

Kits are available at maybe US $20. Does not include the case and
power transformer, which you would have to use a 110vac version
anyway.

The main problem is the slightly small output transistors BD680/681.
I have fed this front end into my main axis driver modules via a
"Computer/manual" switch.