Playing with LEDs

Playing with LEDs

LEDs

• An LED (Light Emitting Diode) is a device that emits light when an electric current passes through.

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• There are several types of LEDs, with different sizes and colors. There are even some that can light up with any color (RGB).

• There are also RGB LED strips that are widely used for home automation and lighting in public places.

Connecting the LED

• Connecting the LED to the board is done in a similar way to the potentiometer, but in this case we will use the digital pins instead of the analog ones.

• The colors of the cables and pins must be respected, otherwise the LED will not light up.

• To test how it turns on and off, we will use the block set digital pin _ to _, while changing the state of the logic switch.

![set digital pin block](cm05-06-bloc-digital.png

Challenge 1: try to create a program that makes the blinking effect (blink) with the LED

Solution to challenge 1

Challenge 2: Make the blinking effect faster or slower depending on the value read from the potentiometer

Solution to challenge 2

Brightness control

• MicroBlocks allows analog values ​​to be used on digital pins, so we can manipulate the level of light emitted by the LED.

• For this we will use the block set pin _ to _ that we will find in the Pins category.

• As the range of values ​​is the same for the inputs as for the analog outputs, we can insert the analog reading block directly inside the previous one.

Challenge 3: Make the LED turn on gradually, like a beacon or a visual alarm.

Hint: Use a variable to control the brightness.

Solution to challenge 3