So when should you get what version.
Common cathode rgb led strip arduino.
The other option would be to have a common positive voltage of 0v and have the negative voltages be negative so 3 3 or 5 v for a micro controller and 12 v for the leds but this then requires you to make sure the negative voltages aren t connected directly which would prevent say running a led light strip and an arduino off the same power.
So we will connect the common pin to the gnd of arduino and the other three leads of the led s to the pwm pins of arduino.
Connect each of the led color terminal red green blue with the digital pins in arduino with the 221 ohm resistors in series with each one of them.
Edgelec 100pcs 5mm rgb tri color red green blue multicolor 4pin led diodes common cathode clear round lens 29mm long lead 300pcs resistors for dc 6 12v included light emitting diodes 4 7 out of 5 stars 435 8 99 8 99 0 09 count get it as soon as mon aug 17.
Common cathode devices tend to be more popular as the cathode is the negative side of the led and is usually connected to ground.
Common cathode rgb leds have 4 pins 1 shared cathode you generally connect this ground and 3 anode pins for red green and blue you generally connect each of these through a current limiting resistor to an arduino pin.
Setting up the circuit.
Using common anode ca rgb led with arduino.
If we were using a common cathode we would connect it to ground gnd instead.
You cannot distinguish between the common cathode and common anode type by just looking at the rgb led because both look same.
Plug the led in the breadboard.
The rgb led we are using is a common anode so it requires 5v to the common pin.
The configurations describe which leads of the three internal led elements are tied together as rgb leds have four leads.
A rgb common cathode led should have it s longest leg leg 2 connected to the ground pin on your arduino current source in both cases you ll connect the r g and b legs of the led to io pins on your arduino through some suitable resistor 200 330 ohm to not burn out the led.
Each of them are 330 ohms.
The basic rgb led is available in two configurations common anode and common cathode.
Common cathode and anode the rgb led has four pins one for red one for green one for blue and then one which goes to ground or 5v depending on if you are using a common cathode or anode led.
We are using 3 resistor to limit the current drawn for the red green blue pins.
From longest to shortest the pins are cathode green red blue.
Connect common anode of led to 5v pin of arduino in common cathode we connected it to gnd pin.