I'm using Arduino Uno with a 12V RGB Signal Amplifier and a 12V RGB LED strip. 12VDC is supplied to the amplifier.
However the LED strips does not light up whether the PWN pins are set to either 0 or 255.
analogWrite(ledPinR, 255);
analogWrite(ledPinG, 255);
analogWrite(ledPinB, 255);
When set to 255, the OUTPUT R,G,B pins have a voltage of 6.3 V to 8.6 V, while the INPUT R,G,B pins are about 4.7 V.
The OUTPUT pin voltages does not change whether the INPUT pins are at 0V or 5V.
The RGB strips light up when I connect the POWER - terminal to any of the OUTPUT R,G,B terminals.
What can be done to allow the Arduino to light up the LED strips?
Best Answer
From what I can see this little box is designed to take a 12V low-current signal and amplify it to a 12V high-current signal.
It is not suitable for directly connecting to an Arduino.
You will need three NPN transistors to connect between V+ and each of the R, G and B inputs, and then drive the bases of the transistors through a resistor from the Arduino.
But that's only a wild stab in the dark since there seems to be absolutely no documentation available anywhere.
After much hunting I managed to find this image:
so it seems it is designed to go midway through a chain of LEDs to power more of them, not be driven by a low voltage device like an Arduino.