I made a controller to dim my lamp through my smart home

3 years ago by plantsandtrees to c/smarthome

This is the prototype of my dimmer, which actually works quite well. It fades smoothly between different brightness settings. It gets MQTT messages from homebridge, so it can be controlled via Apples Homekit.

Rolldach 4 points 3 years ago

What voltage does the lamp have and is the lamp led? Looks like a fun project ;)

save

path: 0 796945, hotness: undefined, score: 4, children: 4

plantsandtrees 3 points 3 years ago

Yes it is a led light bulb working on 230 ac. This works like any other triac phase dimmer, but it was indeed a fun project to try for yourself! Basically I build a another shelly device, but for far less money ;)

save

path: 0 796945 804939, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 3

Rolldach 1 point 3 years ago

Cool, I had to look triac up as I didn’t know how it works. I thought dimming would just reduce the voltage. How did you implement it? Is it all done by the esp? (So I read that triac dimming is done by switching the currant on and off very quickly, is that correct? What frequency are you using?)

save

path: 0 796945 804939 806422, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 2

plantsandtrees 1 point 3 years ago

Yes exactly. The idea is basically the same as PWM, but in this case the frequency is given through the 50Hz of the power grid. You just control how much of each half wave you turn the light on. As our eyes are slow we just conceive it as an overall lower brightness.

save

path: 0 796945 804939 806422 807724, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 1

onion 1 point 3 years ago

Apparently some people can get headaches from the flickering

save

path: 0 796945 804939 806422 807724 4597441, hotness: undefined, score: 1, children: 0