i have three main issue with this:
first of all i cant really dimm the lamp (usual 230vac tungsten lightbulb) from 0 (fullon) to 128 (full off), but rather from 75 to 110. I put a voltmeter on the lamp and the voltage changes from 60V to 180V. when i go higher than 110 (dim Value) the voltage drops to 0V and under 75 it jumps to 230V. i sent the value of the potentiometer and the dimming via the serial monitor, and everything's fine there i have nmber from 0 to 1023 and from 0 to 123. so i gues its either the code, or the zerocross module that have a problem?
i havent had the time yet to try another lightbulb, or just test the voltage without any load (I'm kinda tired of the work and i just think of this now... but i will definitely try this tomorrow morning).
second thing is once the voltage reaches 180 volts, it jumps to 230V and once it's there, theres no way to regulate anything anymore, no matter if i turn the pot all the waydown... i mean maybe sometime things go back by themselves after a while but most of the time i have to turn the main off and on again to get things back to normal. its like the triac won't turn off anymore ?!?
there again i din't try to change the Zerocross module, i have several other ones, and i will try this tomorrow anyway, but its brand new and it should work....
third and last issue is the potentiometer or "rotary angle sensor" as they label it. as i said it gives me values from 0 to 1023 no problem with this but when i read the value on the serial monitor i noticed that the first say 80-90° of rotation it stays on 1023 and only after that starts to decrease all the way to 0 (and no problem on that side). i changed it and the problem stayed. is it supposed to be that way? i had never noticed that before.
if you girlz and guys have any idea that could be helpfull that would be great...
for info the whole project is gonna run on a mega, and with a lot more code and inputs/outputs, but for the moment i'm just using this piece of code on an arduino uno with just one pot as input (+the zero cross signal of course)and the Triac as an output, itself wired to the main and the lamp. the pot is not on one of the switch of the big board yet, its just on the table. so it's as simple as it can be to test it (and hopefully get this dimn dammer to work).
i will tri to change the bulb and the module and test the voltage on without any load, and anything else i can think of during the night (...), and give feedback asap, eventhough i really doubt its one of these things.
i should try to run the rest of the code they give on instructables also to see if anything works, like the one with delay() and so on. there's a person in the comment that seems to have the same problem as i do, i will try to write them as well to see if they could solve the thing.
i spent a lot of hours scouting the net for "ac wave control" the last days and i couldn't solve this therefore i came here, maybe someone had the same problems?
ha and just one last thing cause i hear the warnings from here : i'm a certified electrician since 10 years, and i've been working with 230vac the last 14 years, i know what i'm doing with this and i take all the precautions needed. Actually its more the electronics i have to understand i guess ^^
thank you for any reply, sorry for the mistakes (I speak french), and i guess good night for some and good Morning for others…
(sorry i had to post in two parts..)
(and sorry i didnt finish the name of the post could some admin change it to "Craftbeer Factory decoration, trouble with 230 AC light dimming")