What is an RGB LED?

What is an RGB LED?

RGB LED is short form for red, blue and green LED or light emitting diodes. Theoretically it is possible to produce 16 million hues of light by combining these three primary colours. RGB LED is a combination of red, green and blue LEDs in one package and would have 4 pins, of which one is common pin. If common pin is anode, it is known as common anode RGB LED and a common cathode RGB LED if the common pin is cathode.

Combining all the three colours can produce white colour. The colour combinations of the RGB LED can be controlled using a microcontroller like Arduino. The RGB LED and Arduino can be mounted on a breadboard along with three poteniometers, one for each colour. You can see a blinking RGB LED in the video clip, though colours have not come up well in the video, due to inherent problems of the camera.