Built-in project · no microcontroller

LED I-V curve

A supply across a red LED and a 10 ohm sense resistor: sweep the supply and the LED’s real exponential current curve comes out, knee and all. There is no microcontroller in it: the simulator solves the 3 parts as a circuit, so it runs the moment you press Run, and nothing needs compiling.

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LED I-V curvelive0.000 s 0.00x
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The circuit itself, running here on the simulator. Press what can be pressed; click anything else to open it in the editor.

How it works

There is no microcontroller in this one, so nothing is compiled: the simulator solves the circuit itself. The file in the editor is the notes that come with it.

sketch.ino
// An LED's I-V curve.
//
// A bench supply set to 2.0 V straight across a red LED and a 10 ohm sense
// resistor. No current-limiting resistor worth the name: the point is to
// see how the LED itself decides its current.
//
// An LED is a diode, and the engine models it as one: a Shockley junction
// with 12 ohm of bulk resistance (docs/help/parts/led.md). So its current is
// not a fixed "2 V drop". Well below the knee it passes almost nothing, and
// there every 0.1 V more multiplies the current. Past the knee the junction
// is wide open and what limits the current is resistance: the LED's own
// 12 ohm plus the 10 ohm sense resistor, so the curve straightens into a
// line of about 45 mA a volt.
//
// Draw the curve:
//
//   1. Analysis... in the more menu.
//   2. DC sweep: step vcc1's voltage from 1.0 V to 2.2 V in 0.02 V steps.
//   3. Watch the net between the LED and the sense resistor.
//
// The plot is the voltage across 10 ohm, so every 0.1 V on it is 10 mA
// through the LED. Download CSV for the LED's own current at every point.
// The x axis is the supply, which is the LED's voltage plus the little the
// sense resistor drops (0.2 V at 20 mA).
//
// At the 2.0 V the supply starts at, about 20 mA flows, which is the most a
// small LED is meant to carry, and the meter reads about 0.2 V. Click vcc1
// and try 2.5 V by hand: well over 30 mA, from half a volt more. That is
// why an LED always gets a series resistor.

Parts list

5 parts, plus the jumper wires. Every one is in the editor's parts bin.

How it is wired

3 connections, pin by pin, read from the circuit itself. Each line is one set of pins joined together, by a jumper wire or a breadboard strip.

  • 2 V: LED, red pin A
  • Ground: Resistor, 10 Ω pin 2; Multimeter pin COM
  • LED, red pin C; Resistor, 10 Ω pin 1; Multimeter pin V

Change it and keep it

Open it in the editor, change the circuit or the code, and keep your version in a free account.