I am taking Andre’s “Crash Course Arduino and Microcontroller Development” on Udemy.
As a seasoned embedded developer taking this course, I get to commit more details to memory—looking up less—for my own designs. I also use my full lab to enhance the projects during the course. Note the floppy disk connectors used to hook my meters to the breadboard. I learned this trick in Andre’s other course: Crash Course Electronics and PCB Design.
The generic red LED parameters on the simulator show 19.5 mA current and a voltage drop of 2.07 VDC, while on my bench, a 5 mm red LED has slightly different measurement parameters: 23.0 mA current and a voltage drop of 2.2 volts.
There are many sources of error when comparing LED device performance simulation to bench results. But the biggest difference between simulation and bench will be based on component data sheets:
- LED: At 20 mA forward current IF, the forward voltage VF can range from 1.8 to 2.2 VDC – as shown in datasheet reference below. While to TinkerCAD LED component defines a Red LED but without ratings (size, VF at 20 mA, or ambient temperature).
- Arduino GPIO High/Low voltage: The simulated voltage and the actual Arduino voltage will be different based on power supply and data chip component tolerances.
- Current Limiting Resistor: The simulated resistor may be exactly 100 Ω. But the lab bench breakout box will have a resistance “near” 100 Ω only.
- Lab Bench Test Instruments: Fluke DMMs are good instruments, but detailed calibration to the NIST standard still needs to be done. So, values will be close but not perfect.
- Lab Environment: For reproducable accurate testing, the lab temperature, humidity, and barametric pressure should be recorded.
Reference
The TinyCAD project is public here: https://tinyurl.com/TinkerCADBlink01
Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs): https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/light-emitting-diodes-leds/all
Typical LED Datasheet: https://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Components/LED/COM-09590-YSL-R531R3D-D2.pdf
Udemy course by Andre LaMothe “Crash Course Arduino and Microcontroller Development”: https://www.udemy.com/course/crash-course-arduino-and-microcontroller-development