555 Timer not triggering other 555 timers

[Smertrios]

I have this board setup with 4 555 timers. They can run individually when a jumper is run from the RC network to pin 2 (the trigger pin) but when I connect a jumper from the RC network to the #2 pin on a different 555 timer they blink erratically then eventually just stop *if* they were blinking at all it could take several tried to get them to start. What is susposeto happen is that the lights would blink in consecutive order taking about 1 second to blink each light for 1/4 second. Right now as I type this I am thinking its because they all start at the same time and there needs to be a "first" one... The picture shows the wiring as I have it now and what I origionally thought would blink the lights consecutively.

Just figured out the problem (I think). The 555 timers are triggered by a "low state" on the RC network and this is causing more triggering than I expected. What is happening is that as soon as 1 cycle is completed the pin that origionally triggered it is still low so its triggered again rather than having to go high again first which causes what I was calling erratic blinking rather than sequential blinks. Still not sure why that would cause them to stop blinking...

[NC Cams]

If you want a sequencer, you can do it with a single 555 timer stage, a single 4017 CMOS counter.

Take the output from a single 555 and feed it to the 4017 counter. This will give you the sequential firing of the output stages in whatever timing sequence you program the 555 to output running in astable configuration.

It can count thru once or repeatably depending on how you program the ENABLE and RESET pins on the 4017. Thus, you can let the thing reset itself or let it stop itself and use some other means to SET/restart the sequencer.

You can fire the LED"s right after another or do a pause between firing the LED just by simply skipping an output gate on the 4017 counter sequence.

[smarbaga]

just to add:
the output of the 4017 can drive transistor bases od solid state relays.
i used this circuit, amongst other thing, to drive sequensing store front lights.
the thing ran for 2 years non stop, untill they took it down.

[NC Cams]

For a display, you could run the 555/4017 control circuit with a 9v battery.

The 4017 could then drive some IRLZ44's directly (as opposed to current hungry non-FET transistors) and switch some major current from an external current source.