What are the differences between Common Cathode, Common Anode, and Manual Control LED`s?
Diodes (of which LED’s are one type) conduct electricity in only one direction. In the other direction, it stops any electrical flow unless the voltage is so high that it breaks down the diode, damaging it.. So, to get an LED to light up, you need to apply a positive voltage to the anode, and ground to the cathode. Or if you apply ground to the anode, then you must apply a negative voltage to the cathode. With a modular LED array, you’re going to apply switches to one end, to individually control each LED in the array, while the other end will share the common return wire. If you’re working with a positive power supply, then you need a Common Cathode array since they will all share the same ground return. Conversely, if you using a negative voltage, then that will need to be fed individually to each cathode as needed, and the Common Anode will be the shared ground return. LED’s are not, by nature, manually nor automatically controlled. It’s the switching circuits designed to address th
