I am entirely new to arduino, and also somewhat of a novice to electronics and programming in general. Yesterday I purchased an Arduino micro, and was able to get some basic programs running on it such as blinking the on-board LED in various pattens. However, when I tried to follow online instructions on how to hook the arduino up to a breadboard and get it to blink a separate LED, I could not find good explanations of how the pins are used. For example, the Blink tutorial tells me to connect my circuit to the GND and pin 13, and then run the same program i used to blink the onboard LED. This does not work. My overall goal for my project is to take this Micro, put it on battery power, and then use it to run an array of LEDs displaying different patterns.
For now, it would be great if anyone could give me extremely simple instructions on how to incorporate an external LED into the arduino, preferably instructions in caveman-level language.
S.O.S
I am entirely new to arduino, and also somewhat of a novice to electronics and programming in general. Yesterday I purchased an Arduino micro, and was able to get some basic programs running on it such as blinking the on-board LED in various pattens. However, when I tried to follow online instructions on how to hook the arduino up to a breadboard and get it to blink a separate LED, I could not find good explanations of how the pins are used. For example, the Blink tutorial tells me to connect my circuit to the GND and pin 13, and then run the same program i used to blink the onboard LED. This does not work. My overall goal for my project is to take this Micro, put it on battery power, and then use it to run an array of LEDs displaying different patterns.
For now, it would be great if anyone could give me extremely simple instructions on how to incorporate an external LED into the arduino, preferably instructions in caveman-level language.
S.O.S
picture is of micro on breadboard
You know how groups of pins in a breadboard are connected?
You must, since you took advantage of that to connect the ground and pin13 wires.
But now look at the holes your LED is in - both of it's pins are in the same row, so they're connected. With both pins connected to eachother, it's not going to do anything.
Could you show how you have wired up the LED? You typically need to use a 470ohm resistor between the output pin and the LED (or between ground and the LED). Also LEDs are directional - the long leg(anode) goes to the output pin and the short leg (cathode) to ground. If you have it the wrong way round it will simply not light up because it is a diode and diodes only allow one direction of current flow.
Is that caveman enough for you? 
See:
whoops it looks like I forgot how a breadboard works there for a minute. I'm gonna blame that on sleep deprivation. However, now I've got it in a configuration that at least kind of makes sense. The resistor is leading out of pin 10 to the Led, and the long end of the LED is hooked up to a GND. Can anyone explain what I'm supposed to be using the GND for here? all other instructions or tips very much appreciated
Battery - / Gnd of the Arduino / Gnd of the power supply
crossroads, you're saying that the GND is basically just the positive end of whatever simple circuit I'm using the arduino to switch on and off?
What resistor value are you using? It looks like about a 10ohm, which is far too much resistance for an LED on 5V.
You may still have the LED the wrong way though. Also what pin the LED is connected to? (I can't tell from the picture).
If you want to control an array of LEDs you might want to consider the 74HC595 shift register - basically it is a chip which allows you to use 3 pins on the arduino to control 8 outputs.
There is a tutorial on Adafruit here -> Overview | Arduino Lesson 4. Eight LEDs and a Shift Register | Adafruit Learning System .
No, Gnd is the negative end.
Battery-
Power supply -
Arduino Gnd
Any used must be connected together.
Solder_Soldier:
Could you show how you have wired up the LED?
He did. Unfortunately he does not know how a breadboard works! This is a cracker!
You need to have the two connections of the LED in different rows of the breadboard.
Ah yes! The LED pins are in one column when they need to be in seperate rows...
While you're learning how to use a breadboard how about posting a link to the led array so we can get a head start on that (assuming you meant an off the shelf led strip). If not , please define "led array" as it applies to YOUR project.