Dimmer

This example shows how to send data from a personal computer to an Arduino board to control the brightness of an LED. The data is sent in individual bytes, each of which ranges in value from 0 to 255. The sketch reads these bytes and uses them to set the brightness of the LED.

You can send bytes to the board from any software that can access the computer serial port. Examples for Processing and Max/MSP version 5 are shown below.

Step 1: What You Need?

1 x Arduino Board ( Arduino UNO R3 used in this tutorial.)
1 x LED (Red)
1 x 220 Ohm Resistor 
1 x USB Type B cable 
1 x Mini Breadboard 
Male-to-Male Jumper Wires

Software Required

• Processing or
• Max/MSP version 5
• Arduino IDE

You can buy Arduino Compatible UNO Ultimate Starter Kit / Learning Kit at here.

Don't have components? Don't worry. Just click the component's name. 

Step 2: Build Your Circuit.

Connect the 220 ohm current limiting resistor to digital pin 9, with an LED in series. The long, positive leg (the anode) of the LED should be connected to the output from the resistor, with the shorter, negative leg (the cathode) connected to ground.

Step 3: Upload The Code.

1. Select the Arduino board type: Select Tools >> Board >> Select your correct Arduino board used.

2. Find the port number by accessing device manager on Windows. See the section Port (COM&LPT) and look for an open port named "Arduino Uno (COMxx)". If you are using a different board, you will find a name accordingly. What matters is the xx in COMxx part. In my case, it's COM3. So my port number is 3.

Select the right port: Tools >> Port >> Select the port number.

3. You can find this code in the example of Arduino IDE.
Select File >> Examples >> 04.Communication >> Dimmer

Click press the "upload" button (see the button with right arrow mark).

Processing Code

The Processing sketch in the code sample above will send bytes out the computer serial port to the board to dim the LED.

Max code

The Max/MSP patch in the code sample above looks like the image below. Copy it and paste it into a new patch window.

Download:

• Processing or
• Max/MSP version 5
• Arduino IDE

Sources:https://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Dimmer

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Author & Editor

My Robot Education Sdn. Bhd. (Robotedu.my) was founded in 2015 as the first robotics education centre in Malaysia to provide Arduino-based robotics courses for youths. Our vision is to be able to provide robotics education to every youth in Malaysia.