Velleman K8064 DC dimmer kit (incondecent lights)

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) Hardware Interfacing
1

Dear all,

Has anyone worked out smooth connection between Velleman kit and Arduino? I am trying to control incandescent lights through Arduino. After reading previous posts, i decided to use Velleman K8064 kit. I'm having some problems that i'm hoping to get an answer to.

First, let me tell you what DOES work:

-Got the kit, soldered it and tested with DC power supply (used 10V max, and it worked fine with 40w bulb, a little flaky with 100w).

  • Since Arduino only outputs 5V, i adjusted Velleman dimmer's max and min brightness using 0-5V from DC supply (instead of 0-10V that is recommended). Still worked ok.

  • Made sure to put capacitor in parallel 47mf between the kit and Arduino output.

Now, what does NOT work

  • so i tried just running a simple pwm signal(0-255) to make sure i get the max and min brightness.... and i do not. I get some minor change in brightness, but it is inconsistent and hardly sufficient.

Does that mean i have to use op am to boost my signal to 10V or can i bypass this?

Thank you so much in advance - any input is appreciated.

2

I'd suspect that you're having this problem because the PWM is just a pulse-train of 5V pulses so there is no variation of voltage just timing. I'd try a manual potentiometer wired as a voltage divider first just to see that the dimmer is working correctly. If it is, I'd use a digital potentiometer connected to the Arduino. I think I saw a tutorial on the tute mainpage that showed how to use a digital pot with the Arduino.