TriColor LED Problem

P

PoW

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 12, 2001
Messages
347
So I picked up a very nice tricolor led from http://www.superbrightleds.com/. I can't seem to get it wired properly and was hoping somebody could point out my stupidity. Here is a datasheet for the led: http://www.superbrightleds.com/TriColor%20LED.htm

I picked up one of the common cathode versions. Here is a diagram of how I think it should be connected:

trileddiag5yr.jpg


When it is connected in this way only the red led lights up when I expect all 3 colors to be on at once. I calculated out all the resistor values, I'm using 1/2Watt resistors but that doesnt make a difference. Help!
 
you have to switch off the colors you dont want lit im not shure on the exact wireing but its usually something like + - - will be red + - + will be green and A/C -A/C will be blue thought i could be wrong

scrap that i read the sheet for it... try just one at a time.. i doubt any of them suppot all 3 at once.. maybe 2 but not 3... usually it will try to use the path of least resistence meaning only the red will light.. switch out the leads and see what happens

thore
 
I'm pretty confident I dont need a driver for this thing. I do like thore's idea of mixing up the pattern. I'll play with that when I get home from work. I'm under the impression however that the three colors can be on independently so you can mix the colors to get 8 different color combinations.
 
The RGB LED's that I've seen were pretty much three separate LEDs in one casing, with a common ground.
 
Ya If you look at the data sheet basically thats what this thing is, 3 leds in one casing. The red one is the only one that lights individually, i'll mess around with it more tonight and post what I find.
 
Wow well that was silly, I think the company I bought these from sent me the wrong type initially (common anode) and thats why I was so confused. I connected this thing up a minute ago and it worked exactly as I expected. Very cool! I highly recommend it.
 
I'll set it up again and make a video in the next few days. Its extremely cool, 8 different color states and its very bright.
 
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