“Instead of an Arduino, he could have done that with a 555 timer.” “Instead of a 555 he could have done that with two transistors.” “Instead of a few transistors, he could have done that with butterflies.” These are quotes from various Hackaday comment threads throughout the years. It seems simplicity is the name of the game here, and if you need a timer chip, how about an 8-pin DIP? This, of course, means an I2C programmable oscillator in the form of an LPC810.
[kodera2t] built this circuit after reaching for a 555 timer a few too many times. It’s a one-chip solution with an ARM core that’s able to generate square waves with 1Hz resolution up to 65536Hz.
The source for this chip is a lot of C, but once it’s in the Flash of the LPC810, this chip becomes a programmable oscillator with an I2C interface. Yes, it’s a one-component solution, no, it’s not a twenty cent chip, but try programming a 555 over I2C.
The videos below show [kodera] playing around with this I2C oscillator, sweeping the frequency from zero to inaudible teenage angst.
