Chapter 6LED Brightness Dimmer
Learning how to dim an LED is as important as learning how to turn one on.
You might be wondering: “Are LEDs dimmable? Can I just use a potentiometer?” Sure you can, but with one caveat to that solution: when you lower the amount of electricity going to the LED using a resistor or potentiometer (variable resistor), all the excess energy gets converted to heat. Let’s say you have a 9 volt battery in the setup, and you want to dim a 2.1 volt LED. That means the potentiometer must dissipate nearly 7 volts of energy. Unless that potentiometer is huge, there’s a good chance it’s going to get really, really hot.
Deliberately ...
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