Beginners • How many LEDs can a Pico Power

Hi All, .
I have approx 12 months experience with a Raspberry Pi Pico. I started off 12 months ago with the “Let it Glow Advent Calendar”. Since then I have added 2 Picos to my Model Railway to randomly change points to send trains around different routes and to randomly stop the train in the stations.
I now want to try something different. I have several buildings that I would like to add LED lights and use a Pico to randomly switch the lights on and off.

I propose to switch on and off approximately 20 LEDs each LED controlled by a separate GPIO pin. Can a Pico supply enough power, to light 20 LEDS which could all be on at the same time or would I need to connect each GPIO pin to something like an optical isolator so that the LEDs could be powered from a separate power source. Would the Pico be able to provide enough power to operate 20 optical isolators at the same time, as the optical isolators I have seen on e-bay contain integral LEDs?

Thanks in anticipation of your advice and I hope I have posted this on the most appropriate board.

Regards
Wirralian

Statistics: Posted by Wirralian — Thu Dec 19, 2024 3:10 pm

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