Arduino Blinking Led
LEDs are small, powerful lights that are used in many different applications. To start, we will work on
blinking an LED, the Hello World of microcontrollers. It is as simple as turning a light on and off.
Establishing this important baseline will give you a solid foundation as we work towards experiments
that are more complex.
Components Required
You will need the following components:
1 × Breadboard
1 × Arduino Uno R3
1 × LED
1 × 330Ω Resistor
2 × Jumper
Procedure
Follow the circuit diagram and hook up the components on the breadboard as shown in the image
given below.
Note:
To find out the polarity of an LED, look at it closely. The shorter of the two legs,
towards the flat edge of the bulb indicates the negative terminal.
Sketch
Open the Arduino IDE software on your computer. Coding in the Arduino language will control your
circuit. Open the new sketch File by clicking New.
Important:We will do the same as above when working with sets in
schools, but you can use Tinkercad at home.
Arduino Code
/*
Blink
Turns on an LED on for one second, then off for one second,
repeatedly.
THIS IS A MULTI LINE COMMENT */
// the setup function runs once when you press reset or
power // the board
// THIS IS A SINGLE LINE COMMENT
void setup() { // initialize digital pin 2 as an output.
pinMode(2, OUTPUT);
}
// the loop function runs over and over again forever
void loop() {
digitalWrite(2, HIGH); // turn the LED on
// (HIGH is the voltage level)
delay(1000); // wait for a second
digitalWrite(2, LOW); // turn the LED off by making the
//signal level OFF.
delay(1000); // wait for a second
}
Code to Note
pinMode(2, OUTPUT) − Before you can use one of Arduino’s
pins, you need to tell Arduino Uno R3 whether it is an INPUT or
OUTPUT. We use a built-in “function” called pinMode() to do this.
digitalWrite(2, HIGH) − When you are using a pin as an
OUTPUT, you can command it to be HIGH (output 5 volts), or LOW
(output 0 volts).
Result
You should see your LED turn on and off. If the required output is
not seen, make sure you have assembled the circuit correctly, and
verified and uploaded the code to your board.
