555 astable monostable

[hustla7]

Hi, I'm Nitish and I love elctronics
I'm scheduled to take a half-course Electronics GCSE in a week's time and I'm struggling to grasp the concepts of a 555 timer circuit. I understand the difference between a monostable and astable, but I'm required to be able to tell the difference from a circuit diagram (with no time graph etc) can anybody tell me the way to tell between the two types of circuit JUST from a circuit diagram? I believe it's something to do with the pins which are connected to each other (e.g. in an astable pins 2 and 6 connect directly to each other) more info required
please please help 

 

[ante1]

I recommend this: http://www.uoguelph.ca/~antoon/gadgets/555/555.html

 

[hustla7]

cheers mate, i found a reallllly helpful explanation on www.technologystudent.com
and your site helped a lot too
thanx for this

 

[gan87]

u shud look over
1)connecting pin 4  to positive supply wen not in use........
2) grounding pin 5 wit a 0.01microfarad capacitor...(wen u r not using it)

 

[audioguru2]

2) grounding pin 5 wit a 0.01microfarad capacitor...(wen u r not using it)

The capacitor does not "ground" pin 5, it filters it.