MOSFETs and Transistors with Arduino

Today we will learn how to use Transistors and MOSFETs to enable our Arduino to switch high-current DC loads, including a 12-volt RGB LED Strip Light.
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Transistors are the basic building block of modern electronics. Just about everything uses transistors, including the Arduino itself.
Using a power transistor or MOSFET we can drive high-current devices using the logic-level outputs from our Arduino. Today we’ll learn to use both devices.
We will start with a simple transistor switch, you’ll see how easy it is to switch a high-current DC lamp using a popular power transistor.
Inductive loads like motors and relays present an additional challenge, as these devices generate a “back-EMF” that we need to deal with. We’ll use a diode to take care of the back-EMF and build a simple motor speed controller.
We will then turn our focus to MOSFETs. MOSFETs have a number of advantages over standard transistors. We will learn how to use popular MOSFET modules to control an RGB LED Strip in a simple but colorful experiment.
Here is what is in today's video:
00:00 - Introduction
02:49 - Transistors and MOSFETs
16:23 - Transistor Switching Demo
22:54 - Transistor Motor Control
29:52 - MOSFET RGB LED Strip Light Control
Please note that transistors and MOSFETs are great for controlling DC loads, but not AC. I’ll be showing you how to control AC loads in a future video.

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An excellent introductory tour - and for those of us doing mainly digital electronics you cover most of what we need to know about interfacing our puny logic circuits to the power hungry big-boys world of motors, relays, solenoids and lamps. One quick observation. As you noted, the LEDs on an RGB chain get quite hot. Thus, it's NOT a good idea to operate them on the reel like that for very long as they can get heat damaged and you start to get failures. Each individual LED doesn't generate much heat, but on a reel like that each position contains three LEDs (a red a green and a blue) and over a 5M length you may have a couple of hundred of them. When theyy are spread out its not really noticeable, but when they are reeled up tight together like that they generate quite a lot and if used for long they might overheat and fail.

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thanks! I was searching for this for weeks. I asked people on the internet how to do this but your video finally explains it well. Exactly what I need. I want to switch the christmas lights (4.5 V DC) using an arduino because I am lazy to stand up, go to the switch and use my own fingers to turn it on or off. Now I can control the lights via wifi. :))

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