Welcome to CircuitManiac.com. This is my first article in basic electronics. Stick to my article and you will get the answers for all your question related with LEDs. (LED Long Leg Polarity)
What is LED Long Leg Polarity?
Here is the image of a LED. Can you see, there are 2 pins in this LED. (2 led legs) Also, One pin of the LED is longer than the other one. That longest pin is used to indicate the positive terminal of the LED which is also used to connect with the positive side of the battery. Also, I think this will be the answer to your major problem. But you are new to work with the LEDs, read the complete article and It will give basic knowledge about LEDs. (LED Long Leg Polarity)
What is an LED?
Do you know? “LED” stands for “Light Emitting Diode”. That means LED is also a Diode. The diode is a basic circuit component which can allow flowing the current at only one direction. Also, First I will explain how to use a diode in a circuit and after we can go through the LED. Okay, You need to know there is two main components are needed to complete a basic circuit. (LED Long Leg Polarity)
- The first one is the power source, you need the energy to do any kind of work. also that concept valid in the electronic circuit too. So we supply the energy to the circuit with the form of electrical energy using the batteries, AC line, solar cell or something like that.
- The second one is the load, Also, This is some kind of component which can do some work using the electrical energy. Ex: LED, resistor, heating coil, etc…
What is the Circuit?
Here is the image of the simple circuit with a battery as a power supply and a resistor as a load. Also, normally we consider the current is flowing from the positive terminal to the negative terminal of the battery. Also, What happens when we connect the battery in upside down (opposite side) In this circuit? Let’s see about that…
Okay, now we can see here when the battery placed in the opposite direction and also the current flow is moving in the opposite direction. But when we create a circuit and we need to allow to flow the current flow in only one direction. In that case, the diode is coming to our help. That component (Diode) will keep our circuit current flow at only one direction. Let’s see the diagram for better understand. (LED Long Leg Polarity)
What is the Diode?
Here are the diagrams, In the first diagram, we have a diode and a battery with connected to the battery positive terminal with the diode positive terminal. In that kind of circuits are called the “diode forward biasing circuits”. In the second diagram, we have the same circuit but the battery connected with the opposite direction. Also, This kind of situation, the diode is not allowed to flow the current through the circuit. Also, this type of circuits is called the “diode reverse biasing circuits”.
Symbol of the Diode
Now you know about why we use diodes in our circuit?. But we have to know how to represent a diode in a circuit diagram and what kind of information we can get from that symbol. I will explain all the important information you need to know. Okay, here is an image of the real diodes. Watch it and remember this component. Also, This is one of the basic components in the electronics.
This is a different kind of diodes. I hope now you can identify them easily. Okay, our next step is to identify the diode symbol and how to find the polarity from the symbol.
Symbol (Diode/LED Long Leg Polarity)
Now we all know there is positive and negative terminals are in the diode. When we want to add a diode to the circuit with the forward bias (to allow the current to flow through the circuit), You need to connect the positive side of the diode to positive side of the battery or negative side of the diode to negative side of the battery. To do that, you need to identify the positive and negative terminals in the diode and also the battery. But in the battery, they also marked the positive and negative sides. In the diode, we have to identify the negative terminal with the silver line which is marked on the diode body. But how we can identify the polarity of the terminal using the symbol of the diode?
I create a diagram for you to remember the polarity of the diode and the diode symbol. just refer to this image and understand the method I gave to you. Then you get the polarity of the diode easily.
I hope you can understand the concept that I try to explain. Try to thinks like this. The arrowhead point to the direction that can flow the current through the diode. Another side current will block by the diode. Okay, this is enough about the diodes. Now we move to the LEDs. (LED Long Leg Polarity)
LEDs (LED Long Leg Polarity)
You already know LED is one type of diode. We can use the LED as a diode. It will allow flowing the current only one direction. As I mentioned earlier, LED has positive and negative terminals. I hope now you can identify these terminals. There is only one different behaviour to different LED from the diode. That is LED can convert the electrical energy to the Light energy. That’s why we call this kind of diode as “Light Emitting Diode”. LED emits the light when the current flowing through it.
Symbol of the LED
Here you can see all of the polarity information in one image. Save it, It’s important for you. In the symbol, we have the same kind of symbol like a diode and additionally, two arrows pointed out from the symbol. It indicates this diode (LED) can emit the light. Also, LED can emit light only when the current passing through it. As one kind of diode, there are two states in this LED (forward biasing and reverse biasing). So the LED only emit light when it was in forwarding bias. (LED Long Leg Polarity)
Okay, now I hope you have all the basic knowledge about LED. If you have any kind of doubt please comment here. I will reply as soon as possible. Also, don’t forget to give feedback about my article and share with your friends. (LED Long Leg Polarity)