Controlling LED Brightness With a Potentiometer

In this tutorial we will learn how to control the LED brightness with a potentiometer and Arduino.

Watch a demonstration video.

Step 1: What You Will Need

• Arduino UNO (or any other Arduino)
• LED
• Potentiometer
• Jumper wires
• Visuino program: Download Visuino

Step 2: The Circuit

• Connect potentiometer pin [DTB] to arduino analog pin [A0]
• Connect potentiometer pin [VCC] to arduino pin [5V]
• Connect potentiometer pin [GND] to arduino pin [GND]
• Connect LED positive pin to Arduino digital pin [10]
• Connect LED positive pin to Arduino pin [GND]

Step 3: Start Visuino, and Select the Arduino UNO Board Type

To start programming the Arduino, you will need to have the Arduino IDE installed from here: https://www.arduino.cc/.

Please be aware that there are some critical bugs in Arduino IDE 1.6.6. Make sure that you install 1.6.7 or higher, otherwise this Instructable will not work! If you have not done follow the steps in this Instructable to setup the Arduino IDE to program Arduino UNO! The Visuino: https://www.visuino.eu also needs to be installed. Start Visuino as shown in the first picture Click on the “Tools” button on the Arduino component (Picture 1) in Visuino When the dialog appears, select “Arduino UNO” as shown on Picture 2

Step 4: In Visuino Connect Components

Connect Arduino AnalogIn pin[Out] to Arduino Digital [10] pin – Analog (PWM)

Step 5: Generate, Compile, and Upload the Arduino Code

In Visuino, Press F9 or click on the button shown on Picture 1 to generate the Arduino code, and open the Arduino IDE

In the Arduino IDE, click on the Upload button, to compile and upload the code (Picture 2)

Step 6: Play

Read Full tutorial here.