Arduino LED backlight - should PWM be used with transistor or capacitor?

Question

I have implemented a PWM controlled LED backlight for the LCD in my Arduino Uno design. One LCD backlight pin is connected to +5V, the second to the ground via 220 Ohm resistor and MOSFET controlled from a PWM capable D9 pin.

Everything seems to work fine, I do not see any oscillation, but after some reading about PWM I am not sure if I perhaps should connect a 100 uF capacitor to smooth the voltage?

Is the MOSFET even necessary? It seems backlight is drawing about 5 mA - can I perhaps drive it directly from the D9 pin, using the resistor? (It seems another user in Do I need to use a resistor if I am using a potentiometer to control an LED's brightness? is controlling brightness without any of those.)

Answer 1

You don't need the MOSFET, you don't need the capacitor, you do need the resistor.

The pins on your Arduino can deliver up to 20mA comfortably, so in this case there is no need for the MOSFET. However, if you were to replace your backlight with a high power LED, your current setup will work just fine.

Without a capacitor, your PWM is a nice square wave. The cap will, depending on its capacity and the resistor in your circuit, turn that into a more rounded waveform, or very ripply DC. Whichever is the case, it will not benefit the (dimming of) your LED. With some bad luck it will even introduce flickering instead of preventing it!

The reason why you should still use the resistor is to prevent the LED from drawing too much current. Without it, it's simply a game between the LED and the Arduino pin to see who will burn first. Whoever wins, you'll end up with a destroyed backlight or fried Arduino. Adding a component costing a few cents can prevent that.