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Microcontroller Programming » Increasing and decreasing power from a pin

May 12, 2011
by drummingbum
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So basically I am trying to figure out a way to make and LED slowly light up and then fade out. I saw a video online of a project like this for Arduino. I am trying to figure out how to do this with just the microcontroller and this kit. How would I tell a specific pin to do this?

I know that the loop would have to increment the value of the current to a certain point and then decrement it until off. How do I control current though?

Thanks for any help.

May 12, 2011
by Ralphxyz
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Hi drummingbum, I believe you want to use PWM (phase width modulation), there are tons of discussion about PWM here in the forums and a lot of the Nerdkit's Tutorials use it.

Ralph

May 13, 2011
by drummingbum
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Thanks that is exactly what I'm looking for. It's hard to know what to ask when you don't know what you don't know!

May 13, 2011
by Ralphxyz
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Yes, but you did ask and I know exactly the frustration of not knowing what I am not knowing but knowing that I am not knowing something when I want to know something about something but I just do not know what to ask.

Gee that sounds like a modern day love song or at least the pains of growing up.

Been there done that, had that feeling.

By definition this state is called ignorance and this thread shows ignorance can be overcome by action.

Ignorance is not a put down it is where most of us came from and wanted to leave behind so we

participated in the Nerdkit's initiative to remove mcu ignorance from the world!

Ralph

May 13, 2011
by bretm
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See how to control an LED, near the bottom it shows how to control the brightness.

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