hey guys...I live in South Africa so we use 220V-240V AC. Im looking for ways to to interface the arduino with such power sources for things like home lighting. Basic on and off is fine but my biggest problem and focus is accomplishing a dimming function. what are my options as far as thats concerned?
If I would you, I would start with regular incandescent light bulbs: you can dim those things easily with a bridge rectifier + mosfet, if you are OK with floating the whole dimmer.
if by floating you mean putting it in the ceiling then yes thats fine!! im not completely clued up with electrical components so which mosfet type should i look for?
i acknowledge the risk involved but i meant specifically the mosfet needed. applying it is no problem...in addition i found this just now online:
although the site disclaims that users said it was unsafe. is this true or just for legal purposes?
No. Use an optoisolator as used in the thread that I posted. If there is a problem with the circuit, you are less likely to have 240VAC feeding back into the user.