"Victory" wrote in message
...
I forgot to add - with the 12v, the LED went all the way to it
brightest and dimmest while turning the resistor. It was perfect, but
with the 5V, it peaked near the top of the resistors turn, and then
started to burn out. Not sure why with 5V it would burn out, but with
12V it did not.

And exactly what led you (no pun intended !) to this odd conclusion? I can't
think of any practical or theoretical reason why this should have been the
case. 12v and full range control, yes, no problem. 5v, and range of control
bunched up one end. Yes, no problem. Then it was "burning out" ? What was,
the pot or the LED ? If the pot, then I don't know why it should have been
giving trouble at the lower voltage rather than the higher, but it does
rather neatly underline the problems that can occur when you use a simple
pot to control DC, rather than adding a 'helper' transistor as I suggested
*might* be a good idea.

Arfa