Arduino : play with a potentiometer

I got myself a rotary potentiometer at dx.com and decided to come up with a basic article.

First, lets have a quick look at the below schematic to understand how a potentiometer works.

Now, lets plug it to our arduino and while we are it, lets use its retrieved value (thru analogread) to dim a led (thru analogwrite).

Now lets have a look at the arduino sketch

byte potPin=0; //Analog 0 connected to the potentiometer
byte LEDPin=6; //Connected to LED on Pin 6
float potValue=0; //Value returned from the potentiometer
float v=0; //voltage (0-5v)

void setup(){
  Serial.begin(9600);
  pinMode(LEDPin, OUTPUT); //Set Pin 6 as an Output
}
 
void loop(){
  
  potValue = analogRead(potPin)/4; //Read the potentiometer, convert it to 0 - 255
  Serial.println(potValue,0);
  v=potValue*5/255; //to calculate the voltage send out on pin6
  Serial.println(v, 2);
  analogWrite(LEDPin, potValue); //Write the converted potentiometer value to LED pin
  delay(100);
}

here we go : rotate your potentiometer and see your led dim in and out