Controller for AC lights

angus40 said:
The beauty is , the circuit is designed for 220 mains power .
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Those transformers take AC to DC here in AU/NZ, we don't have mains voltage strings/lights like CA/US.

Putting a switchmode power supply on a dimmer doesn't do much.
Commonly use voltages of LED string lights is 31v, 24v and 4.5v. Depends on how they are wired in the strings.
 
angus40 said:
You have transformers in your lights ? We don't have such in Canada . Sorry for my ignorance !
Maybe the admin could delete this reply .
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No harm done, perhaps edit your message to say this is for mains powered lighting only (Some people do use mains powered floodlights/theatre lights)

Most of the christmas lighting sold in NZ/AUS is Extra low voltage run from transformers, 12, 24, 36v DC/AC etc for safety reasons, it's better to have this voltage outside in rain etc than 240/110V AC mains as the risk is a whole lot lower.
 
Notenoughlights said:
No harm done, perhaps edit your message to say this is for mains powered lighting only (Some people do use mains powered floodlights/theatre lights)

Most of the christmas lighting sold in NZ/AUS is Extra low voltage run from transformers, 12, 24, 36v DC/AC etc for safety reasons, it's better to have this voltage outside in rain etc than 240/110V AC mains as the risk is a whole lot lower.
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I will edit the thread . Thank you for the education on how AC is addressed there ib AUS/NZ . Always learning .
 
Last year was my first year with a sequenced setup. I had a single string of pixels (connected in 5 Arches - around 300 individual pixels I think) and two AC strands wrapped around trees.

I controlled everything from a Raspberry Pi. The AC strands were controlled through Solid State Relays. I spliced some 1ft extension cords to have the hot line connect between the mains hot rail coming into my box with at going out on the extensions. The neutral and ground went to other rails. Then I just plugged my Christmas strands into the extensions. Worked like a charm. In theory I could have attached the SSRs to PWM pins and faded the strands in and out, but I didn’t do that.

I wrote some on my website, but if you want more info I’m happy to provide. (https://aaroneiche.com/2020/12/27/holiday-lights-display/)
 
aeiche said:
In theory I could have attached the SSRs to PWM pins and faded the strands in and out, but I didn’t do that.
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PWM into a standard SSR probably won't get you the dimming result you want. You need phase angle control and even that will only work with non zero cross SSRs.
 
I have a lot of these sets and am use an Arduino Mega + quite a few of the L298n PWM controllers, I'm sure the falcon would be much better however you need a pretty fast setup as the lights will flicker if you are not modulating the output faster than say 120hz (will be 60hz as the power each direction drives half the lights) so you need whatever is keeping the modulation frequency to be able to keep this up while gradually dropping the output voltage, if it's using modulation to control the voltage then you get worse flickering as each side of the string is on for less time and is more visible to the eye.

none of this is an issue for me as I just run them constant on.
 
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