Pull down resistor not pulling current down to 0 V? – Arduino + LED’s

arduinoledpulldown

I was recently connecting an LED strand to my Arduino nano using the following wiring diagram:
image schematic here

I was using 10k ohm pulldown resistors in order for the LED's to be off when the Arduino is outputting a low signal but the power is plugged in.
However the LED's are still on (very dim but noticeable).
I was wondering if adding a bigger pull-up resistor would fix my issue?

Also if this helps I'm using the following hardware:
Arduino Nano rev 3
10K ohm resistor
12V 6A 72W power supply
300 LED strand.

Thanks in advance!

Best Answer

The pull down resistor is in the wrong position, it should be on the output of the PWM pins.

You only need them to keep the LEDs off when the Arduino is off or if the Arduino pins are set to the INPUT state. This is the default startup of the Arduino which is probably why you are seeing the LEDs coming on faintly. Either move the resistors to the PWM outputs or change the code to set the pins to OUTPUT.

By the way, what FET are you using?