I want to hack an LED I bought in a cheap variety store. It has several surface mounted LEDs on a circular yellow disc. It runs on 3 X AAA batteries, wired in series.
My aim is to variably dim this LED using something other than a variable resistor.
I connected it to my power supply at 4.5 volts DC and it draws about 250mA of current.
I divided the voltage using a 25k potentiometer by connecting it in series between the positive side of battery and the positive lead to the LED. This works well but I am concerned at the inefficiency of this method. I want to replace the pot with something else that won't waste power from the battery.
I looked on the internet and found references to PWM as a means of more efficiently controlling
the voltage to the LED.
reference mentioned Arduino as the solution. I don't want to use a microcontroller. I want to use a hard wired circuit using active electronics components like ICs and transistors. That way I can get a better understanding of how it works.
Can you help me design a PWM circuit for this?
What else can I tell you about my project to start you off?
My aim is to variably dim this LED using something other than a variable resistor.
I connected it to my power supply at 4.5 volts DC and it draws about 250mA of current.
I divided the voltage using a 25k potentiometer by connecting it in series between the positive side of battery and the positive lead to the LED. This works well but I am concerned at the inefficiency of this method. I want to replace the pot with something else that won't waste power from the battery.
I looked on the internet and found references to PWM as a means of more efficiently controlling
the voltage to the LED.
reference mentioned Arduino as the solution. I don't want to use a microcontroller. I want to use a hard wired circuit using active electronics components like ICs and transistors. That way I can get a better understanding of how it works.
Can you help me design a PWM circuit for this?
What else can I tell you about my project to start you off?