LED Blink: flow of electricity/order in which resistor is placed?

Other Hardware General Electronics
1

Just getting started...
LED BLINK:

I just noticed in a circuit diagram in my book: Connecting the arduino to an led and resistor on a breadboard.

Output pin (13) to +lead of the LED, then the -lead of the LED to one end of the resistor, the other end of the resistor to ground on the arduino. It does work but...

My in-experience tells me to put the bottleneck(resistor) BEFORE the LED to keep it from burning out. This works too.

Which is right? Or in this application of the resistor; does it really matter?

2

Use which ever suites your fancy. The electrons don't care.

3

They are in series, it does not matter. The same amount of current will go through both.
Perhaps it is more an ethics thing. The LED to GND just makes it look better in the schematic.

It is sometimes handy to have a button to GND, that makes it easier to add a filter.
In a circuit with higher voltages, the resistor will limit the current, so it is safer to have the resistor to the high voltage.

4

Koepel:
It is sometimes handy to have a button to GND, that makes it easier to add a filter.

This is how I wired the turn signals on my Harley. "Button to ground". Putting this all into application makes more sense.

Thanks

5

Perhaps it is more an ethics thing. The LED to GND just makes it look better in the schematic.

Are you saying it's immoral to connect the resistor to ground? :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

Of course, you meant esthetics. :stuck_out_tongue:

6

DVDdoug:
Of course, you meant esthetics. :stuck_out_tongue:

Close enough :wink: English is not my native language, as you can guess.

7

Make sure you orient the colors on the resistor properly. :confused:

Sorry... could not help making a joke there...