Potentiometer won't work

Question

I'm trying to get the potentiometer seen at the top left of the photo to work, essentially as a dimmer. I've managed to upload the Arduino sketch, but it isn't working. Any help would be greatly appreciated! NB: I have little-to-no electronics experience so my understanding of jargon is limited.

Thanks!

/*
 SENSOR_LIGHTS: Potentiometer >> LED (Single Channel Script)

 This example dims light levels using an LED on pin 11
 and a potentiometer on A0. 

 Created by Ryan Achten | SOMA | somavisions.com

 This example code is in the public domain.
 */

int potentLevel;
int ledLevel;

//*************************CHECK*****************************

int led = 11;           // the pin that the LED is attached to
int inputPin = A0;      // the pin that the potentiometer is attached to

//*************************CALIBRATE*************************

const int numReadings = 1;  //change this to alter the number of values to be averaged
int potentMin = 280; 
int potentMax = 700;        //maximum output from potentiometer
int loopDelay = 100;       //delay time between loops. Too low may cause overclocking  
//                            while too high may cause delayed sensor response

//***********************************************************

int potentAve = 0;
int readings[numReadings];
int index = 0;
int total = 0;





// the setup routine runs once when you press reset:
void setup()  { 

  //*************************POTENT >> LED SETUP CODE*************************

  Serial.begin(9600);

  pinMode(led, OUTPUT);


  //***************************SMOOTH SETUP CODE*****************************
  // initialise all the readings to 0: 
  for (int thisReading = 0; thisReading < numReadings; thisReading++)
    readings[thisReading] = 0;  

} 


//****************************SMOOTH LOOP CODE****************************

void loop()  { 

  total= total - readings[index];         
  readings[index] = analogRead(inputPin); 
  total= total + readings[index];       
  index = index + 1;  

  if (index >= numReadings)              
    index = 0;                           

  potentAve = total / numReadings;         
  Serial.print("Average Potentiometer Readings: ");
  Serial.println(potentAve);   



  //*************************POTENT >> LED LOOP CODE*************************

  ledLevel = map(potentAve, potentMin, potentMax, 0, 255);
  Serial.print("LED Level: ");
  Serial.println(ledLevel, DEC);
  analogWrite(led, ledLevel);

  Serial.println();
  delay(loopDelay);


}

Answer 1

Assuming the brown board in your drawing is stripboard, I have to as the question:

What is this?

If those five wires in that column are all ground, that link is basically short circuiting your MOSFET via the green wire next to it, thus rendering your whole circuit pointless. The LEDs will just be on full brightness permanently since the current just flows from the input power, through the LED strip, through the red/white wire, through that little white link wire, then through the green/white and/or the brown/white wires to ground.