PWM for Smooth LED Brightness Transitions

by Skylar Jones in Circuits > Arduino

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PWM for Smooth LED Brightness Transitions

PWM Signal.gif

Unlock the power of PWM! Learn how to create smooth LED brightness transitions in our project, simulating waveform signals effortlessly.

Supplies

For this simulation, you will need the following components:

  1. An LED (Light Emitting Diode)
  2. A resistor (typically 220Ω to limit current to the LED)
  3. A PWM-capable microcontroller (like an Arduino UNO)
  4. PCBX online simulator

Introduction to PWM

Pulse Width Modulation is a technique used to encode the width of pulses in a signal to represent an average value of a variable. In our case, we will vary the PWM signal's duty cycle to control an LED's brightness. The duty cycle is the percentage of time that the signal is high (on) compared to the total period of the signal.

Setup in PCBX

Access PCBX: Open PCBX in your web browser. You may need to create an account if you don’t have one.

Create a New Project: Join the EDA&Simulation Community, click on "Create New Project" and give your project a descriptive name, such as “PWM LED Brightness Control.”

Or just use the example project to recreate a new one.

The PWM Signal project code and details are here.

int pwmPin = 11;

void setup() {
pinMode(pwmPin, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
for (int i = 0; i <= 255; i++) {
analogWrite(pwmPin, i); // PWM signal
delay(5);
}
for (int i = 255; i >= 0; i--) {
analogWrite(pwmPin, i); // PWM signal
delay(5);
}
}

Testing and Results

While running your simulation, observe the intensity of the LED. Note how it smoothly transitions from off to full brightness and back. If it doesn’t behave as expected, double-check your connections and the code for any errors.

Conclusion

You have successfully simulated a PWM LED brightness control project using the PCBX online simulator. This project demonstrates how PWM can be used to control the brightness of an LED effectively. You can experiment further by modifying the delays in the code or changing the resistance to see how it affects the brightness level.

Feel free to explore other PCBX simulations and enhance your electronics understanding! If you have any questions or need help, don’t hesitate to ask.