555 IC PWM Controller: Grounded and Ungrounded Load

While keeping the oscillator frequency relatively stable, this 555 based PWM controller features almost 0% to 100% pulse width regulation using the 100k variable resistor. To give a frequency range from about 170Hz to 200Hz , the frequency is dependent on the 100k pot and 100n.

You can see the charging and discharging of the 100n cap is done through output pin 3, and this provide a push-pull symmetric drive for easy pulse-width setting. You can see two versions, the left side for grounded load, and the right side for ungrounded load. The grounded one use pin 7 to drive the transistor, while the ungrounded one use the same push-pull output pin3, this difference is needed because wen need an inverted phase to provide consistent potentiometer scale on both version. [Source: talkingelectronics.com]