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Parallel Port Light Control

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clifweb

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Scenario:
I have 6 lights that are 75W each if not mistaking. They are wired so they will be dimmed separably and a master dimmer to dim them all together. In Malta we use 230v and 50Hz.

I need to make this circuit switch each one on and off and be able to dim them using a PC. Can some one tell how to do this project.

I know how to program IC and know C# as a GUI programming language.
 
clifweb said:
Scenario:
I have 6 lights that are 75W each if not mistaking. They are wired so they will be dimmed separably and a master dimmer to dim them all together. In Malta we use 230v and 50Hz.

I need to make this circuit switch each one on and off and be able to dim them using a PC. Can some one tell how to do this project.

I know how to program IC and know C# as a GUI programming language.
Had you searched the web you could have found several designs.
There is more then one way to do this. I will talk about triacs and then give you links to a few designs.

Lets start with your design. Since you are going to use a PC for the GUI it would be easier to use a serial connection between it and the PC. A serial port only requires 2 pins on the MPU.

The MPU needs to know how to dim each lamp. The brightness of each lamp is determined by PC GUI app. The GUI will show a master and seperate slider for each. The sliders position are used to compute the actual brightness that is sent to the MPU.

To design the dimmer itself you need to understand how AC lights are dimmed. You most often start with a triac. The triac will switch the AC voltage so please use an optoisolater between the MPU and the triac.

The AC is switched across the two main terminals. A triac turns itself off each time the line voltage crosses zero (2*power_line_freq, assume 60). To keep a lamp lit you have to turn it on 120 time a second. If you turn the triac on just after each **broken link removed** it will be fully lit. The longer you delay the dimmer the lamp becomes.

See the following designs.
PHOENIXstudios 230V 128 Kanal PC_DIMMER

**broken link removed**

Google for
DIY light dimmer triac -switches -"home improvement"

Try it without the triac for other methods

HTH
3v0
 
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