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Light control using infrared.

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Hi All,

After fixing up my many other projects (of which most of them were designed here), I am finally finished them all and onto my next project.

I thought I'd try something with the lighting in my room. I am thinking of using either an infrared remote, or my existing car alarm remote. I know the RF frequency of the car remote, and using it would save me having yet another remote. The infrared is the easier option though. (Any opinions here??)

So I am thinking a simple 1 button infrared remote, which when pressed for say less than a second will click a relay over, then when you press it again (for less than a second( clicks it back.

If this isn't too hard, then I'll make it hard :roll:

If the button is held down, the lights should fade out.. not 100% how this would work, and its not a huge priority, I just think it would look sweet :D

If anyone has a circuit for latching a relay by using only one push button it would be very handy, I came up with something but it kept blowing up with a 400V voltage flowing through it. (using crocodile clips).

Thanks in advance,

Tim.
 
take a D flip flop and tie the inverted output to the D input, and use the clock line as your input.

thus, if it's off... one pulse, it turns on. another pulse, it turns off. simple as that.

as for actually switching a relay with it, obviously you'll need to use a transistor or something to switch the relay coil, not directly driving it from a logic chip.

as for fading out, you obviously couldn't do PWM through a mechanical relay. you'd have do so something along the lines of a light dimmer, using a solid state relay, or something like that. the solution I have brainstormed involves a capacitor, op-amp, some combinational logic, a 555, and various other bits. not a simple solution by any means.

if you want to do the fading i would suggest just doing the whole project with a PIC or other microcontroller. that could handle your IR modulation, switching, and PWM output for fading all in one chip. your total number of components could be very low (IR phototransistor, resistor, PIC chip, transistor, and solid-state relay, for example)
 
Some remotes send a stream of data with the press of the button. Once the data is sent it shuts down no matter how long you hold the button..
 
Well after reading a bit about this sort of thing, I found that a lot of people complain that they lose the remote, thus the clapper was found. I found this circuit, but I want to konw how to incorporate some form of ?dimmage? into it. Maybe first clap turns them on 100%, second set goes 50%, then third clap is %0.

I'm not sure how these " D flip flop "'s work.. what are they?

Thanks for your help,

Tim.

edit: it helps if i include the link :oops:
**broken link removed**
 
You could use a 4017 and each 'clap' would input a clock pulse to give you a different level of output for your various degrees of dimming :D
 
Yeah i thought about the fading out part and I'll leave it out. Just the certain stages of dimming would be nice, my mate just suggested possibly 2 claps turn it on or off, but say 3 in a row goes to 75%, 4 to 50%, 5 to 25%..

He then started to say its probably going to be a good learning project, i.e it will take a lot of time :p

Not sure if this is a brilliant idea, but it would still be a nice addition to my new room :D

Thanks for all your help so far,

Tim.
 
letsrelaythat said:
Yeah i thought about the fading out part and I'll leave it out. Just the certain stages of dimming would be nice, my mate just suggested possibly 2 claps turn it on or off, but say 3 in a row goes to 75%, 4 to 50%, 5 to 25%..

He then started to say its probably going to be a good learning project, i.e it will take a lot of time :p

Not sure if this is a brilliant idea, but it would still be a nice addition to my new room :D

Thanks for all your help so far,

Tim.

There used to be an 8 pin IC specifically designed for this exact application, I think Telefunken manufactured it?. A brief touch on a touch plate turned the light ON or OFF, if you held your finger on the plate the light faded up and down in a cyclic fashion. When you removed your finger it remembered where it was set the next time you turned it on. The chip also had a connection for a remote control sensor.

My little brother built one years ago (1970's?), he installed it in our shared bedroom - initially it was too sensitive, and he had to turn it down a little - a door opened near the light switch, and opening and closing the door triggered the touch sensor :lol:
 
LIGHT PROJECT

HAI FRIENDS ,

I 'M SHRI.V.KRISHNA FROM INDIA

ANYBODY HELP ME TO BUILT A LIGHT PROJECT.

I'M NOT A VERY GOOD ELECTRONIC STUDENT.

BUT I WANT TO BUILT THIS LIGHT PROJECT CUMPULSORYLY.

ACTUALLY ABOUT MY PROJECT I KNOW ONLY ONE IDEA ,

IE ,THE LIGHT WILL BURN WHENEVERE WE GIVE THE CLAPS SOUND AND

IT WILL CHANGE IT'S COLOR AFTER OUR EVERY CLAP.

SO PLEASE GIVE ME A FULL DETAILS [BOOK,IDEAS,DIAGRAM,PARTS ETC]

I LL BE THANKFUL TO YOU ALL FOR YOUR HELP.

REGARDS

SHRI.
 
OK I'm slowly getting the hang of how this works, I just stumbled across an electronics program called TINA PRO.. and its a brilliant program, although it won't let me run the circuit becuase its too big..

If anyone can help with that please PM me.

Also, I'm thinking about PC controlled lights, I can program using VB some voice recognition software.. maybe that would work.

Anyways I have to find a way of making it turn off when there is loud music being played, otherwise the lghts will go on and off. :p

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.
 
well if you want a PC controlled lights then tell me i have one schematic here but it is estonian and i'm not shure if you understand it ;)
 
letsrelaythat said:
and its a brilliant program, although it won't let me run the circuit becuase its too big
you can't run circuits with more than about 5 components in the trial version. It sucks, but its probalby not worth buying the full version just for the sim function.
 
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