A question for smart people - Vibration sensor closes transistor for a period of time

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usererror

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I want to make a circuit that does not include a teensy, despite my drive to include a teensy in everything even when its not called for. The goal is that when a vibration sensor closes (when it is moved, it closes its contacts), it triggers a transistor for a period of time (I'd like it to remain closed for an hour or two, preferably two), then it opens again until triggered by the vibration sensor again.

The point of this is it is an auto-shutoff, in case someone forgets to turn off whatever the transistor is in line with while that device is not in use (not being handled).

I was hoping something simple like a 555 timer (I know nothing of them but I don't think that'd do it, just an example of what kind of simple I am looking for) could do the trick. A microcontroller would be fine, but I suspect the power usage would be higher than I'd like for most projects which will be in the 3-6mA range at 4.5v-3v. I have some wiggle room for how I power things, but I'd like the option of both without adding in a lot of components for a voltage regulator. Right now, everything I have in mind would run on either 3AAA or a CR2032.

Cheap and compact is my main goal.. This will all be dead-bugged or on a bit of project board. I'm not at the custom-pcb level yet.

Since this is my favorite forum for people who know way more than I do about these sorts of things I thought I might as well ask here.
 
rcarr, thanks for that fast response!

That sounds like it is really the best solution. Reading up on them, I think I get why some people are so strongly driven toward using PICs for everything. I don't have a programmer for them, and have never worked with them, so its a bit of a rabbit hole to accomplish something so simple right now. But, like I said, it looks like the best solution, so I'm going to start picking at learning a bit more about PICs and see if I can't slam together a programmer with what I have on hand already (ATmega328 based boards, a handful of various Teensy boards, an FTDI and a basic ST-link programmer).
 
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Since you mentioned a 555, it's pretty easy to add some resistors and capacitors to make a timer. Check out monostable mode.

http://www.555-timer-circuits.com/operating-modes.html

You can also find packages with multiple 555 timers if you want to do something slightly more complicated. No programmer needed.

555 ICs are generally inferior to microcontrollers. You can even get microcontrollers cheaper, but there's one thing they're still useful for: wider voltage range.
 
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