

Then to light up the RED color, connect the RED color terminal to the positive terminal of the power source. To light up a common cathode RGB LED, you have to connect its common terminal to the negative terminal of the power source. You can also light up two or all three colors simultaneously, then you will get different color combinations. Then to light up the RED color, connect the RED color terminal to the negative terminal of the power source. To light up a common anode RGB LED, you have to connect its common terminal to the positive terminal of the power source.

Luminous Intensity: RED color – 800mcd, GREEN color – 4000mcd, BLUE color – 900mcd.Reverse current(at 5V): RED color – 10uA, GREEN color – 10uA, BLUE color – 10uA.Forward current: RED color – 20mA, GREEN color – 20mA, BLUE color – 20mA.Forward voltage: RED color – 1.8 to 2.2 V, GREEN color – 3.0 to 3.4 V, BLUE color – 3.0 to 3.4 V.We call it a common cathode RGB LED because in this type of LED, the anode terminal of all three LEDs is shorted internally and connected to one terminal and that terminal is known as a common anode terminal. On the other hand, a common cathode RGB LED also consists of four terminals but in this type of RGB LED one terminal is for the common cathode, one is for the RED LED anode terminal, one is for the GREEN LED anode terminal and the last one is for the BLUE LED anode terminal. We call it a common anode RGB LED because in this type of RGB LED, the anode terminal of all three LEDs is shorted internally and connected to one terminal and that terminal is known as a common anode terminal. A common anode RGB LED consists of four terminals out of which one is for the common anode, one is for the RED LED cathode terminal, one is for the GREEN LED cathode terminal, and the last one is for the BLUE LED cathode terminal. One is a common anode RGB LED and the other is a common cathode RGB LED. The RGB LED that we gonna discuss in this article is non-programmable and it is of two types. One for the RED color, one for the GREEN color, and one for the BLUE color. In other words, it’s a single LED that contains three LEDs inside it. Power supply’s positive end is connected to the anode.The RGB LED is a type of LED that can produce three main colors that are RED, GREEN, and BLUE. Therefore, instead of seven anodes, there is only one common anode. In these displays, all the anodes are connected to one point, and it becomes a common anode. How are the anodes connected to the power supply? Common anode means that the anode (positive) side of all of the LEDs are electrically connected at one pin, and each LED cathode has its own pin. What’s the difference between 7 segment and common anode?Ī 7-segment is a packaged set of 8 LEDs (7 number-segments & 1 decimal point).

With either common anode or common cathode you’ll have one terminal connected directly to a supply for all LEDs and the other side having the dropper resistor and a control transistor per pin (or IC outputs that are transistors on the inside) either sinking or sourcing a current. Why are most RGB LED strips common anode instead of common cathode? So turning on any particular segment will involve running a current from this common anode (positive) pin to the particular cathode (negative) pin for the desired segment. What’s the difference between common anode and common cathode?Ĭommon anode means that the anode (positive) side of all of the LEDs are electrically connected at one pin, and each LED cathode has its own pin. In LEDs, the LED anode-cathode differentiation is done via the length of each pin at the end of each diode – the longer pin is usually the anode and the shorter pin – the cathode. Most diodes usually have a line drawn near the diode cathode pin which corresponds with the vertical line in the diode circuit symbol. How can you tell the difference between the anode and cathode pin of an LED?
