I have an application where I need to pull a signal low for about 1 second every 2 or 3 hours. I want to do it with an absolute minimum of components, since I am going to have to hand-wire and solder 10 or so of these things.
I took a look at the 5555 counter/timer, and it looks as if I could easily hook it up as an asynchronous oscillator and divide the frequency to get the long period I want; I could then use the output to trigger a one-shot (74121 or some such), which would then drive something like a 7406 to pull the line low. This seems simple enough, but it starts to require a lot of wiring when you have three chips plus timing components. I don't want to use a relay, mostly for cost reasons.
By the way, what I am trying to do is automate the timing of a specialized cleaning machine where you manually push a button when you want it to run; the button just pulls a logic input in the system to ground. I don't know exactly how it is wired internally, so just trying to use a TTL output to pull it down will probably screw up the internal levels or blow something out.
Anyone know of a one-shot chip with an open collector output? Anyone know how to wire a 555 to get the long period and short pulse output? Any suggestions or pointers would be greatly appreciated.