Hi again John,
This labelled photo was uploaded earlier on in this thread, I'm uploading it again as I believe it is quite detailed and self-explanatory, especially when compared to the last known schematic (whichever page of this thread that appears on
). Have a look, compare it to what is on your breadboard and ask away if you have further doubts. As you can see, I have only put one switch on this one, so two of the diode cathodes (the striped/silver band end of the diode) are floating - these (and the other seven you will have) must be connected to your rocker switches.
The speaker I used was a 32 Ohm one. Let's say the 555 outputs around 7.5V minimum and let's pretend the current draw is constant (not oscillatory/on and off as it is): 7.5V/132 Ohms = 56mA - well within what the 555 can provide.
Let's look at an 8 Ohm speaker version... 7.5V/108 Ohms = 69mA - still well within what an SE or SA or or NE or LM555 should have no problems providing.
I would doubt a 100mA max. 555 would cope well with so much current without a corresponding voltage drop at the output, frankly, but the prefix parts above named are all 200mA devices so that shouldn't be the problem, and in your case we could say that the average over time of the current drawn is only half those above calculations.
Personally, I wonder if it isn't either a wiring mistake or something about the rocker switch or maybe even the speaker, but it's probably just a wiring gremlin. I tried with two different rocker switches and it worked the same.
Look forward to hearing from you.
**broken link removed**