I have a motor that is controlled by an H-bridge driver. The driver is on the motherboard and the motor is on another PCB. I want to add an LED to this "other PCB", not the motherboard, to show when the motor is on. How would I go about this since the polarity of the wires can be switched depending on direction of motor?
Do I just add two LEDs in reverse of each other and one or the other will light up depending on direction? Or is it possible to add a single LED?
You could connect a single led via a diode bridge.
Another possibility is a 2-pin bi-colour led. These are two leds back-to-back in the same package. This would have the advantage of indicating the motor direction.
Don't forget the current limiting resistor!
Thanks! Learn something new every day!
So looking at this datasheet of a bidirectional led, can I just place two LEDs like this also side by side? Since single LEDs are easier to find and cheaper than bidirectional LEDs it seems.
Thanks!
Yes, that should work. But I thought from your original post that you were looking for a solution with a single led, hence my suggestions.