====== LightDimmer ====== //Dimmer for lights in apartment controlled via USB and/or IR.// ===== Changelog ===== **Status: ** //Done, in use. Depricated, replaced by [[hardware:lightdimmer30]]// ^ Date ^ Comment ^ |2006-03-05|Added a "in action" movie. (see Downloads) | |2006-01-22|Added more photos. | |2005-08-01| Project created. | ===== About ===== The light dimmer can handle up to eight loads and control the voltage from 0V to 230V induvidually foreach load by giving it a integer value between 0 to 199. A load can be a regular lightbulp, halogen lamp or any other resistive load with a power consumtion of max 500W. The loads are controlled from either a PC using a controller application or by using a regular remote control. ===== Hardware ===== The hardware is module based with three modules, the high voltage module, the controller module and the dimmer module.\\ {{:hardware:ld_hv.jpg?320|Hardware module}} Hardware module. The high voltage module transform the 230VAC to 12VAC using a 12V 2.6VA tranformer and is rectified and regulated to 5VDC. Also, it has a zero crossing unit that creates a pulse (galvanic seaparated) every time the 230V sine wave crosses the zero volt level.\\ {{:hardware:ld_dm.jpg?320|Dimmer module}} Dimmer module. Each dimmer module has two channels and are galvanic seperated (using optocoupler) from the controller unit. Each channel has two IRF830 MOSFET:s which are pulse modulated from the controller unit. On each zero crossing the MOSFET:s are turned on, and by waiting a variable amount of time, that is cutting out a part of the sine wave,before turning them off, a variable voltage output is achived. (The module on the photo differs from the final layout which can be seen in the assambled photo below)\\ {{:hardware:ld_uc.jpg?320|Controller module.}} Controller module. The controller module has a IR-interface for controlling the lights by remote control. Currently, only Philips RC-5 are supported, but other protocol are easly added. The controller, a PIC18F2550 (in picture a PIC18F252), can work stand-alonge just using a remote control, but it's supposed to be connected to a computer using USB. The controller take care of timing for each channel, reciving of IR commands and commands from the computer based controller application.\\ {{:hardware:ld_big.jpg?320|Test setup}} Entire system connected to the computer using rs232 and with five lamps connected.\\ {{:hardware:ld_box.jpg?320|Boxed}} Boxed system.\\ {{:hardware:ld_boxtop.jpg?320|Boxed}} Boxed system again.\\ ===== Software ===== {{:hardware:ld_capp.jpg?320|Develop software}} Develop/debugging pc application written in C# Express 2005 (V2.0).\\ ===== Schematics ===== {{:hardware:svnimages:mosfet-edn-uc-multi-module-hv.sch.png?320|High voltage - Schematic}} High voltage module, schematic.\\ {{:hardware:svnimages:mosfet-edn-uc-multi-module-hv.brd.png?320x240|High voltage - PCB}} High voltage module, PCB.\\ {{:hardware:svnimages:mosfet-edn-uc-multi-module-uc.sch.png?320|Controller - Schematic}} Controller module, schematic.\\ {{:hardware:svnimages:mosfet-edn-uc-multi-module-uc.brd.png?320x240|Controller - PCB}} Controller module, PCB.\\ {{:hardware:svnimages:mosfet-edn-uc-multi-module-dm.sch.png?320|Dimmer - Schematic}} Dimmer module, schematic.\\ {{:hardware:svnimages:mosfet-edn-uc-multi-module-dm.brd.png?320x240|Dimmer - PCB}} Dimmer module, PCB.\\ ===== Firmware ===== The firmware is written in Microchip's C18 V 3.0 using MPLAB 7.21 and microchips USB-stack as a base. ===== Downloads ===== Latest source code and schematic/PCB-layout can be found in repository\\ // /software/trunk/PC/lightdimmer/ //, \\ // /software/trunk/Embedded/lightdimmer/ // and\\ // /hardware/trunk/schematics/lightdimmer/ // in [[documents:svn| SVN]]. A movie can be found {{:hardware:lightdimmer.mov|here}}. ===== License ===== All information found on this page are licensed. See the [[documents:license]] page for more information.