[Aaron] covered both sides of his circuit board with electrical tape and hot glue to prevent any short circuits. The end result is an elegant binary clock that any geek would be proud of.

And rather than order electronics kits from Tindie or Adafruit, [Dr. Francitosh] selected this binary clock with his mother ... The inner circuit board was broken right through, and that presented ...

The 555 timer is a versatile integrated circuit (IC) that can control timing in electronic circuits. It's one of the most widely used ICs due to its reliability and flexibility.