Electronic – arduino – Use IRF540 MOSFET to control LED strip

arduinomosfet

I was hoping to use this mosfet shield to control a "Standard 3528 12V LED strip". The shield looks like this:

enter image description here

However, it doesn't come with a datasheet (I guess that's my fault for being cheap) and now I'm confused about how to connect this to my Arduino Nano / Wemos D1. The black connector has +, - and s on the bottom but both blue connectors have no labeling whatsoever. So I'm not sure how to connect it to the 12V and Arduino. I've googled but haven't been able to find any documentation on this shield other than lots of sites offering it and with the same (or similar) pictures but never with any labeling. Maybe these things are so common that 'everybody knows' how to connect them?

The MOSFET is an IRF540. Also; I've read somewhere that I may need a transistor or "driver" to get the MOSFET to switch?

I have relays lying around and they work fine for my purposes but I was hoping to switch the LED strip without the noticeable click of a relay, so that's why I was looking into this MOSFET. (I also have some solid state relays laying around, but they're for AC).

Best Answer

I found a different supplier with a clearer view of suspiciously the exact same board. Looks like the input feeds into an optocoupler, allowing the load side supply to pull the gate high. There's a non-switched positive input on the control side that seems to be there only to allow an LED to indicate that the control input is on. Should work without that connected though.

The output side is then entirely isolated and has two power connections at the top terminal block, the positive is commoned to the load block, and the FET switches the low side. enter image description here enter image description here