Programmable single channel 12V 3A DC LED dimmer

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello Arduinites,

I am a visual artist designing a light sculpture, seeking a way to fine tune a 12 V light source.

Do you know of a design for a 12 Volt, 2-3 Amps, single channel programmable 12V DC LED dimmer,

with programmable, multiple presets for frequency and brightness range of a fade cycle?

For example, a (programmable) smooth and even (sinusoidal/triangle) fade cycle e.g. from 70% to 100%, 10% to 50%, or 0% to 100% brightness?

And fade cycle frequency is e.g. adjustable from 1 second to 30 seconds?

Is there a generic iOS app to create presets/control Arduino?

Thank you in advance very much for your time and effort!

Kindly,

Aryen Hart

2

Do you know of a design for a 12 Volt, 2-3 Amps, single channel programmable 12V DC LED dimmer

That depends on the type of LED light... A "12V" LED light bulb made for regular home lighting usually has an LED driver circuit built-in, and some are dimmable and some are not. With that kind of dimmable LED (designed to be controlled by regular home light dimmer) your best option is probably a [u]Home Automation Solution[/u]. There are timers, manual remoter controllers, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth home automation systems.

For what you want to do, you'd probably have to write an application for your phone (or computer).

A "raw" high-power LED can be controlled/dimmed by a [u]constant current power supply[/u]. The dimmable versions* are controlled by a 0-10V DC (or PWM) control voltage.

These can be controlled with an Arduino, a 10V power supply, and a transistor or MOSFET to drive the 10V control-voltage. Once the hardware is set-up, you can dim the high-power LED just as easily as you can dim a regular LED. Custom sine or triangle fades would be trivial modifications of the [u]Fade Example[/u]

Controlling with a phone or computer would require a bluetooth or Wi-Fi shield and would require more programming, and might require programming of the phone/computer, depending on what you want to do.

  • Technically, dimmable constant-current power supplies are actually controlled-variable current rather than constant current, since less current flows when the LED is dim. But, they are different from "normal" constant-voltage (or variable-voltage) power supplies.
3

Hello everyone,
I'm new in this forum
I built a ceiling led to my aquarium and I want to deal with Arduino.
in total I have 37 LEDs including 30 to be used to simulate daylight and the remaining seven to the moon.
I would like advice on which dimmer used to simulate the effect dawn sunset.
especially if you connect it directly to the board Arduino UNO (so no external power supply).
if you buy a dimmer with more wattage than what I need risk of burning LEDs?
the same thing is true for the amperage? (LEDs work 350 mah)
I was advised to buy one with a rating slightly higher to ensure that not too much effort while working.
sorry for these questions that seem silly to you, but I'm just ushering the world circuit.

4

the dimmer will drive a LED halo ring through its driver, about 1 amp over 12 Volt.