I thought I'd have a go at some lights - it all seems pretty straight forward so long I apply some common sense and take my time....

then I started shopping around for components and it becomes baffling. All the different types of chips, capacitors resistors ( I found an electronics supplier that does free postage and no minimum order so good for odd bits to play with) and a search for 555 timer throws up dozens.

So then I go looking up what all the codes and letters mean to try to make some sense and I have had some success. Finally.

Having watched the videos earlier more than once, noted that a 555Timer isn't really suitable for battery power I found a "low power" variant which states in the technical spec - very low power consumption, so could this run off batteries?