Electronic – Resistor on anode or cathode?

led

Some Arduino starter-kit projects show the resistor placed before the anode of a LED, coming from output, and others show it after the cathode, going to the ground. Is there any difference? Why?

Best Answer

There's no difference.

One of the basic principles of electric current is that the same current flows through all elements that are arranged in series.

schematic

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab

The purpose of the resistor is to limit the current, it doesn't matter in which part of the circuit it is located.

In the case of throwies, the internal resistance of the coin-cell battery is used as a current limiting resistor.

schematic

simulate this circuit