In this episode, I show you a simple way of direct driving an LED with Arduino pins that won’t harm the Arduino and won’t harm the LED. It is very useful when checking to see if the LED is really working and what color it might be if clear.
This experiment requires the following parts:
Check the links to see my recommendations where to purchase these. You can also check the master table of my favorite things for these and other parts.
In this episode, we are going to write a simple sketch to test out the LED. If you are not familiar with the Arduino IDE, you will want to check out my first book in the Low-cost electronics projects for a Saturday Afternoon series, Arduinos without Tears. This is the perfect getting starting guide.
Everyone should have some LEDs and other simple accessories laying round to do some quick experiments or just to play. Here is my favorite LED accessory kit:
You can purchase this kit from AliExpress.com for about $3, shipping included. It’s got an assortment of LEDs and other components useful for future experiments.
Some of the details about this method of direct driving LEDs with the Arduino pin is also written up in Nuts and Volts Magazine, though will not be published until June 2020.
