Use a Meadow digital output and the Meadow.Foundation Led driver when you only need an LED on or off. Use PWM and PwmLed when you want to vary apparent brightness or create a pulse. The current official PWM example targets Meadow F7 Feather V2; check your board’s pinout and the LED’s electrical requirements before wiring.
Choose digital output for on/off, PWM for brightness or pulses
| Approach | API | What it does | Pin and wiring considerations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital output | IDigitalOutputPort or Meadow.Foundation Led |
Turns the LED on or off; the Led driver also supports blinking. |
Use a digital output pin. The Hackster tutorial’s digital circuit places a 220-ohm resistor in series with the LED. |
| PWM | PWM-capable output or Meadow.Foundation PwmLed |
Varies perceived brightness by changing duty cycle; can also pulse. | Use a PWM-capable pin. Pins can share timer groups and frequency constraints; verify the LED and board electrical specifications before wiring. |
Meadow digital pins are documented as HIGH at 3.3 V and LOW at 0 V. See the official Digital IO guide for the output-port API and the IO guide for board and pin information.
Switch an LED with a digital output
Create an output port with Device.CreateDigitalOutputPort, then set its State to true for HIGH or false for LOW:
IDigitalOutputPort output = Device.CreateDigitalOutputPort(Device.Pins.D05, false);
output.State = true; // HIGH
output.State = false; // LOWThe example uses D05; select a pin available on your board. The API and 3.3 V/0 V logic levels are documented in the official Digital IO guide.
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Use the Meadow.Foundation Led driver
The exact-title Hackster tutorial wraps a digital output in Meadow.Foundation’s Led driver. It describes IsOn for checking or setting the LED’s on/off state, StartBlink() for blinking, and Stop() to stop that behavior.
Wire the tutorial’s digital circuit
For its digital-output circuit, the tutorial connects the LED’s short cathode leg to GND and its longer anode leg to D01 through a 220-ohm resistor. That value is the tutorial’s circuit instruction, not a universal resistor choice: confirm the selected LED’s forward voltage and current limits and the Meadow board’s electrical specifications.
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Control brightness or pulse with PWM
PWM rapidly switches an output between HIGH and LOW. Its duty cycle is the fraction of each cycle spent HIGH: raising the duty cycle raises the average output voltage and makes the LED appear brighter. Frequency is how often the cycle repeats. The official PWM guide says to use at least 60 Hz for LED brightness control because people can notice flicker below that frequency.
Use the current PwmLed example
The official Meadow.Foundation getting-started example creates a blue PwmLed on D13 and starts a pulse:
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pwmLed = new PwmLed(Device.Pins.D13, TypicalForwardVoltage.Blue);
pwmLed.StartPulse();The complete example uses the Meadow.Foundation.Leds namespace and an App<F7FeatherV2> app. The guide says to change the device type for V1.x boards. Use the pinout for your specific board rather than assuming D13—or any pin—is suitable for every Meadow model.
Check PWM pin and frequency limits
Nearly every digital pin on Meadow F7 supports PWM, according to the official PWM guide, but PWM-capable pins may share timer groups. Pins in one group can share a frequency while using different duty cycles. If you need different frequencies on multiple channels, check the pinout and timer-group details for your board before assigning pins.
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Verify the PWM circuit before connecting it
The Hackster tutorial’s PWM section instructs connecting D02 directly to the LED anode after removing the resistor. That is a source-specific wiring instruction, not a general rule for LEDs. The available tutorial information does not establish that direct drive is appropriate for every LED or Meadow board revision. Before connecting it that way, check the selected LED’s forward voltage and current rating against the electrical specifications for your board. Do not assume the digital circuit’s 220-ohm resistor value, or its removal, is suitable for a different LED or board.
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Quick checklist before running the example
- Choose a digital output and
Ledfor on/off or blinking, or a PWM-capable output andPwmLedfor brightness changes or pulses. - Match the app’s device type and pin selection to your Meadow board generation and board-specific pinout.
- For PWM brightness, use a frequency of at least 60 Hz; consider timer-group frequency sharing when using multiple channels.
- Check the LED and board electrical specifications before wiring. The tutorial’s digital wiring specifies a series resistor; its PWM direct-drive instruction needs component-specific verification.
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