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    Author: Kwaku Effa

    Your Op-amp needs this power supply circuit

    Hei there, welcome to another tutorial from Aaenics. Today we want to learn something special when it comes to working with Operational amplifiers. Its more…

    Kwaku Effa 25th September 2019
    0 Comments

    You can still be the Maker you wanted to be!

    I haven't been on the planet for more years than you may expect. But Ive met people, Ive known people, Ive heard stories. Stories of some as young as …
    Kwaku Effa 5th August 2019
    0 Comments

    Blink an LED with the 555 timer

    Overview of project Materials and components needed Step by Step Tutor Overview of project In this project we are going to build a circuit with…

    Kwaku Effa 25th June 2019
    1 Comment

    Starting up with Integrated circuits

    A little history Like all other things, Integrated circuits also have a history, they didn’t just appear and are all over the place all of…

    Kwaku Effa 4th June 2019
    1 Comment

    Hacking the joystick Module

    Just Imagine you create a robot or a machine or a crane which you want it to lift objects and put them at another place…

    Kwaku Effa 16th April 2019
    2 Comments

    The ADXL335 Accelerometer

    How true was what we knew about this accelerometer module, how sharp could this be. Could we trust it to help our robots balance themselves rightly,…
    Kwaku Effa 1st April 2019
    2 Comments

    Digital and Analog Command circuits

    In this post I am attempting to give an overview of two main and very important things you should know when it comes to electronics,…

    Kwaku Effa 25th March 2019
    0 Comments

    Using Resistors for Voltage division

    Resistors as we know, if not an exaggeration are the most popular electronics components in history. They play so many vital roles in all electronic…

    Kwaku Effa 17th March 2019
    1 Comment

    Do some magic with the LDR

    Overview Materials needed Set up Overview What you need to know; Ohms law. Voltage division. How to use the breadboard. How the LDR works. In…

    Kwaku Effa 8th March 2019
    0 Comments

    Potentiometer Controlled LED

    Overview Materials Set up Overview In the “toggle an LED” article you realize that your circuit had only two distinct events, a HIGH (1) thus…

    Kwaku Effa 7th March 2019
    0 Comments
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    Forum Description

    Overview Materials Set up Overview

    In the “toggle an LED” article you realize that your circuit had only two distinct events, a HIGH (1) thus “ON” and a LOW (0) thus “off”. Your LED could only be off or on at a moment. That LED was strictly operated under digital conditions of 1 and 0. But in some cases in real world, you’d love to control the brightness of your LED. You’d love to rather make your LED dim than completely switching it off and this is where Analog signals come into play. If you have a voltage source of say 9V, an analog circuit can someway divide the 9V into discrete or calibrated voltages to control the voltage drop across whatever load you have in your circuit. At a particular time you can make the voltage across the load be anywhere between “0volts” to “9volts”. So yes it’s possible to have 3.2 volts across your load and when you feel like increasing it you can increase it to 4.8V or reduce it 1.4V at any time.

    Details about how this is achieved is explained with the voltage division circuit in “how the potentiometer works”.

    In this project we are going to learn how to control the brightness of an LED with the use of a Potentiometer.

    So note this, whenever you hear about “controlling brightness, controlling speed, controlling loudness” etc. know that it’s not a digital signal at play but analog signals….

    This is a picture of a common potentiometer you will find in electronics kits and can easily get in stores. It is a 3 pin components that works as a variable resistor. The middle pin is the output pin that goes to the load to be controlled, in our case here, the anode of the LED.

     

    Note that the LED is a diode and allows current to pass through it in one direction.

    The other two pins on the left and right of the potentiometer are the input pins. It takes the highest voltage at one pin and takes the lowest voltage at the other pin. It is these two input signals that are being compared and outputted at the output (middle pin) when the nob of the potentiometer is rotated every time.

    Get ready to build now;

    Materials
    • A bread board

    • A few jumper wires

    • Your voltage source

    • An LED of choice

    • A potentiometer

    Set up

    With your bread board in place, connect your voltage source to any of the power rails.

    Now connect the positive of your voltage source to one end of the potentiometer and connect the negative to the other end of the potentiometer.

     The potentiometer is still a resistor and not a diode so the positive and negative can be swapped. The only difference between the two configurations is the behavior of the LED when the nob is rotated clockwise or anticlockwise.

    With the input signals connected to the potentiometer successfully, get your LED in place and connect the output pin (thus the middle pin) of the potentiometer to the anode of the LED.

    Now ground your LED by connecting its cathode to the negative of your power source. Your circuit should be working perfectly if you have no bugs in there.

    Rotate the nob of the potentiometer to see how the LED is affected.

    Build safe

    In other not to get your LED fried you have to cater for the maximum voltage that reaches your LED. The potentiometer, when rotated to brighten the LED can allow the full source voltage to go across the LED. And in the diagram above, the source voltage is 9volts and that’s too big for the LED.

    The solution to this is very simple. Before you ground the LED by connecting its cathode to the negative of your source voltage, connect a series resistor it. 220 ohms will work perfect.

    As we begin to Assemble, lets know we are in a Beta Mode. But lets not forget, egobe! Dismiss

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