londonlad

I could just drive the leds without transistors (I've done it) but I thought that I should challenge myself to do it with transistors so that way I know that I'm able to do it and it'll make it easier troubleshooting larger projects that I'm controlling with transistors as I know (more) what I'm doing

Awesome! That did the trick ! Thanks for your help guys, made my day, been struggling with it for a couple days on and off! It was a combination of both tips. I had to decrease the resistor value and have a common GND link. Next step: Knight Rider display! Londonlad

What do I need to GND? Do I need to connect GND from the MC to GND from LED (ie common ground)? LED is connected to GND

I've just started playing around with my msp430 ez-2013 that my uncle gave me a while back (I've been too busy with school and whatnot until now ) and am trying to use the ez-2013 to control a transistor that will flash an externally powered LED. So far I've had no luck with it. I'm using a 2n222 transistor with a 10k ohm resistor from P1.0 on the ez-2013 to the base and a 10k ohm resistor on the emitter, with the anode of the LED attatched to the collector and the cathode attached to +6V. The resistor on the emitter is attached to ground. The led is powered seperately from the microcontroller (the MC is powered by USB) and the led/transistor is powered by 4 AA batteries. The transistor does work (the LED lights up when i connect the base to +6V) but does not turn on when attatched to the MC. I am just using the "Flashing the LED" program to eliminate the possibility of coding error. Is there something that I've done wrong, something I'm missing/have overlooked? Does the MC have to be powered by the same source as the LED or something in order for it to work? Would appreciate some help with my noob problem! Thanks in advance! Londonlad PS I attatched a photo of the setup, might provide some help in figuring out what I've done (wrong)