Using a traditional phase angle control wall-plate dimmer (the usual type) is just a terrible way to dim LED lamps. The rough chopping of a 50/60Hz sinewave with sharp voltage transitions is very hard to convert to a proper smooth and flicker free dimming of an LED lamp over a decent range. LED lamps also provide a very low load with sudden drop-off of current which can make ordinary dimmers very unstable.
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Sir i just love your videos….when i was a kid i used to open things nd see hw it works… and it was fun…nw when i see your videos i just remember my good Old days….
With that being said…i wanted to knw if we could replace the current sense register of the led driver with a variable resistor or with some microcontroller and some hw vari the the current begin sensed by the Isens pin of th chip…is it possible to dimm the led
led dimmers are now mostly based on pwm motor controllers with a few extra output smoothing components
It's actually VERY SIMPLE. (1) use 12V or 24V DC LED devices or strips with all the LEDs in parallel.. (2) Use a traditional 120VAC –> 12VDC or 24VDC magnetic transformer; no switching power supplies. (3) Connect the transformer to your wall dimmer. It'll just work! The worst case is that you may need to slide turn that dimmer 50~60% of the way up before the LEDs will light up. But between the ignition point and maximum brightness it'll work normally and there won't be ANY flicker. If your dimmer is "Smart" like a LeGrande Adorne or something, it'll find the ignition point and self-calibrate that to the lowest setting. Yes, the transformers are BIGGER than a switching power supply and less efficient. So what? you probably have that brick tucked away in the attic space so who cares?
I too would like to see an update. I've replaced quite a few of the old bulbs with "smart" bulbs and I've noticed recently that there seems to be about a 2 year life span before thy start flickering, without any dimmer. So I'd guess the dimmer functionality you describe is built into the bulb? I had one replacement smart bulb that was on an occupancy sensor and it did as you described being very dim, so I had to keep that one as a fluorescent. I've had 3 different rooms so far (no dimmers) that smart bulbs have started flickering within a 2-4 year or so time frame. Seems there is a big difference in life span for smart bulbs vs regular LED bulbs, and certainly not what the manufacturer claims are
I am using 3 brightness level LED globes, controlled by switching them on/off multiple times to get a dimmer light output. So at the first on state, they are at full brightness & each following power off/on cycle reduces the brightness level (twice in total), then they are back at full brightness at the third cycle! The globes did cost a little bit extra, but it is worth it!
Idea: It seems many non dimmable LED lamps can be dimmed by a capacitor in series. Do you recommend this? Would it even be possible to use an adjustable capacitor to dim those LED lamps?
Thanks for the great video!
I have a G4 20 watt bulb. Could it be setup with a battery?
Why tungsten lamp didn't flicker in camera when dimmed while the pwm frequency is only 120hz
Shouldn't we change the way we distribute energy throughout the places which we live in? I mean…leaving the mains for household appliances but develop new standards, for lighting, now that led replaced old tungsten filament lamps?
Something like a breaker that feeds a control unit that gives out 24V= o 12V= for all the "lighs line"? This way LED lamps would have much simpler circuits since there is no need for transformers, rectifiers and so on, leaving just some resistors, maybe better lamp life (since you are not feeding it with 230V and spikes are unlikely to happen because of the smooth and stable current supplied by the control unit), complete dimmability and so on.
What do you think?
Would it be possible to use a rotary switch to select different value capacitor’s similar to your Dubai lamp videos?
The long term solution might be to switch to 12 volt dc wiring for domestic lighting. I recently installed half a dozen Bonlux T22 E14 ac/dc 12V-24V, 2W SES clear filament LED bulbs (from Amazon) advertised for "RV Camper Marine, Truck, Boat, Solar Power" in wall-lights a wooden gazebo. I didn't want to get involved with mains wiring regulations so everything is fed from a 12 volt dc PSU housed in the nearby garage. The lamps are really good but are far too bright and despite the fact that they're advertised as non-dimmable, I decided to have a go at dimming them. I tried them first on a variable voltage dc lab power supply and they dimmed nicely, cutting off completely at about 6 volts. Feeding them with a PWM signal didn't work (as expected, because of the internal smoothing capacitor), but I designed a variable PWM circuit using a 555 timer and fed that into a P-channel MOSFET with smoothing afterwards (as used in a buck regulator). It works perfectly. The waveforms all look good on an oscilloscope and nothing gets hot. It needs a bleed resistor across the output to cope with low loads and the pot needs to be logarithmic so that the dimming is not all bunched up at one end of the scale.
Before triacs were available the PA dimmer used a SCR across the + / – of a bridge rectifier ! ( I have one and it still works ! ) .. the colour changing LED lamps use PWM and a remote controller … a small step to " beef up " the lamp driver to supply big LED room lights , using similar hand held controller ( then remove your room's triac PA unit , fitting a normal on / off switch ? ? ) this must be the way for the future ?
I've heard of DALI (digital) and 1-10V (analogue) dimming systems, which use an extra 2 wires to send signals to the LED driver. Although this doesn't work for consumer globes, many professional fixtures have this feature.
Hi Clive, could you do an update on this subject.
I’ve recently changed my kitchen down lighters from halogen to dimmable led and they seem to work fine on the existing dimmer that was in the house when we moved in 20 years ago.
No buzzing or flickering from the lights or the wall plate.
It used to buzz a bit with the halogens when on full tilt 9 lamps @ 50w each.
I was actually surprised they worked having heard about issues with dimmable led.
Can these non-dimmable LEDs be dimmed using a variac? What about using a trailing-edge dimmer on a string of LEDs with 1 incandescent bulb for ballast? I say trailing edge to avoid the in-rush problem caused by leading edge
Do the fan regulators with capacitors and selecting between them in steps work for LEDs? If no, why?
Dimmable LEDs come in two types which need compatible dimmer switches.
I'm a bit late to the party but since Halogens seem to have disappeared those dimmers I bought for a £1 in flockdown were discounted for a reason. Meh. I saw Great Scott made a little dimmer the other day. Not exactly easy. Do you still stand by using funky, remote-controlled bling LED's in 2022?