LEDs and their programming
In the previous chapter, we learned about the definition of LEDs and worked with the built-in programmable 5 x 5 LED matrix. Let’s see what a discrete LED looks like. Have a look at the following figure:
Figure 6.5 – An LED (courtesy: https://freesvg.org/1534357308)
An LED has got two connections – an anode (the longer leg in Figure 6.5) and a cathode (the shorter leg). An LED will glow when we connect the anode of the LED to positive voltage and the cathode to the ground. We know that the Micro:bit has a 3 V pin and a ground pin on its edge connector. We can use these pins with an LED for demonstration purposes, as follows:
Figure 6.6 – An LED connected to a Micro:bit
As we can see, it is difficult to understand the connections using photographs as we cannot see the wiring properly. That is why, for the circuit diagrams in the remainder of this book, we will use fritzing: