All About Dimmers

Today we check out leading edge and trailing edge dimmers, Bluetooth dimmers, Zigbee dimmers, WIFI dimmers and Z-wave Dimmers. How to they work, which one is the best. 22 Years of installing dimmer I'll let you know which dimmers I like and which one I don't like. And we try them out on the Oscilloscope. We have a few prototypes are well.
02:40 - Introduction to trailing and leading edge dimming
04:26 - Shelly Dimmers
10:38 - Aeotec Nano Dimmer
13:08 - Clipsal Iconic BLE/Zigbee Dimmer
16:22 - Brilliant Lighting Jupitor Dimmer
18:10 - Basic RobotDyn Kit Dimmer Triac
21:30 - FL5150 Circular Motion WIFI Dimmer Remote Mounting
27:14 - Prototype Dual Channel Trailing Edge
30:19 - Hasseb DALI Master
34:34 - Diginet Phase Adaptive MEDM Rotary Dimmer NOT CONNECTED
Tutorial on Triac Dimmer - RobotDyn - • NodeMcu AC Light Dimme...
Link to documents - easyeda.com/james_6977/17v-ac...

[@KmanAust]

Thanks Bro. Nice all round review. Stumbled onto the channel but love your work.

[@SparkyJames]

Thanks!!

[@Billcasiopost]

Nice one Jimmy, thanks on behalf of the internet for taking time to put this together 👍👍. I was hoping to see the DALI output on the scope as you said it's not a typical phase cut signal, hopefully you can slip that in a later video.

[@SparkyJames]

I will do that , I don’t have an isolation tx to scope the Dali bus , but I’m planning on making one to do that shortly.

[@taddyj6817]

I recently received some of the Shelly dimmer 2's. They have a lot more functionality in the settings than the original. I've only set it up with a neutral wire tho. Not yet tried without. But I'm happy with it. :)

[@tazeemn]

Excellent video Jimmy. At least have our dimmers sorted. How about fan controllers? I have 10 of them in my house I would like to automate some day.

[@SparkyJames]

That sounds like a good idea👍

[@terryn7658]

James, great video as always. I’ve been watching your videos over the last few months and it’s helped greatly with decisions on my new smart home that I’m building. I’ve decided to use Shelly dimmer 2s throughout my home, but the challenge will be getting an electrician to install. I understand there can be compatibility issues (ie flickering) between LED downlights and dimmers. Do you know of any led downlights (around 10W, tri colour) that work great with the Shelly dimmers? I’ve been looking at the NLS and Brilliant downlights. Thanks

[@surendersingal2192]

Jim Thank you for oscilloscope magic of dimmers. What may be the application of your advanced dimmers? Goid day. Jussojuan

[@AndrewDanne]

Wondering if you would do a review of the compatibility and interfacing to Home Assistant if you were using the Clipsal Iconic range. Interested as to what would be best use in Australia as I renovate homes and want to move to Smart configurations.

[@BrianStreetUnity]

Hey James I sent you an email about a control board. Not sure if it didn't get to you, or if you just weren't interested. But I didn't hear back either way. (Coincidentally it had to do with dimmers)

[@aaroncahill]

Great video, good to see stuff relatable to us Aussies. Quick question, how long was the shipping on the shellys to Australia?

[@SparkyJames]

It was a longish time from memory about 4 weeks, the last time.

[@aaroncahill]

@@SparkyJames I ordered 6 with the express postage and just received them yesterday, just over a week since I placed the order. I was very surprised.

[@freakysuwin]

hello jimmy. whats the value of that yellow capacitor behind the connector in your diy dimmer??? how do we select one?? what kind of parameters you need to know how to select one???

[@SparkyJames]

It will work without one, it just for filtering. But the suggested value is 100nf and its an x or Xy class 2 if you use one.

[@freakysuwin]

@@SparkyJames Thank you!!

[@KarlMiller]

Great work on this project. I have watched all your videos on KZbin. When you got to the two - dimmer module, you talked about a shared ground issue and then I haven't noticed if you resolved the issue, or how you solved it. My interest comes from a variation on your theme to add dimming control to several lamps I have that have three bulbs in them. I wanted to have one controller (as one esphome device) to control the individual bulbs independently.i imagine you somehow isolated the grounds using the transformer, but I wasn't able to understand what you did or if you were able to solve the problem. Do you have a solution yet? Thank you

[@JamesEggleston]

Hi Karl, I haven't been able to find a cost-effective method to have 1 x controller and 2 or more dimmers, other than to simply have 2 or more dimmers. This is because the grounds need to be isolated and you also need a power source in each isolated section. I did try using an i2c isolator and a 5v isolated dc dc power supply, but it required too many components to filter the 5v power source to stop interference, it became very complicated. I'm working on a smaller version with MOSFETs instead of IGBT, they are way smaller at 5x5mm SMD. With MOSFETs I can make use of the FL5150's overload cut-out settings to limit current through the dimmer. It won't need a DAC because I was going to use the new esp32-c3 which is cost and size-wise the same as an esp8266, but with Bluetooth, and a DAC, Bluetooth so you could if you wanted just control it via Bluetooth instead of wifi if you wanted with no extra components needed. If your lamps work with a leading-edge dimmer it would much easier to implement, or you could consider using 12 or 24v DC bulbs and a PWM dimmer for each lamp, but you've probably already thought of that.

[@KarlMiller]

@@JamesEggleston thank you for the insight. There are some good reasons to creating a circuit module to be externally controlled. When you are ready, I would be very interested to help you test. I can play the part of the ignorant integrator 😉 so you can decide if it is easy, safe and robust enough for average Joes to use. Have you done a teardown of the shelly version to see how they do it? I had a similar shared ground issue with pid controller I built from scratch a while back, but never figured it out.

[@AndrewDanne]

Doesn't DALI use KNX control protocols? In that case I am sure there is a KNX integration in Home Assistant. Dont know if you need a bridge.

[@trudyandgeorge]

How come we bother with leading/trailing edge instead of transforming to DC and using PWM to dim? I've searched for such a dimming solution but there's no products like this except for LED strips. Is it simply convenience so you don't have a switch operating on DC?

[@owenwhitehead8938]

Hi Jimmy. Do you know if these are certified for Aus?

[@SparkyJames]

Some are some are not, the Shelly Dimmer will be by the end of the year. The Aeotec is certified which means it is currently one of the few certified option available in Australia, the iconic is, but as it is you can’t use it yet with home automation systems, the hardware would allow it, and the switches are pretty nice well made, and you have the full range of decorative plate to go with it but I would be reluctant to use them purely because Clipsal likes to keep a closed system and doesn’t like sharing or allowing their product to work along with other product which is a shame.

[@owenwhitehead8938]

I started with the Aeotec which I bought here locally and have just got my first shellys in following a previous video you did (which are cheaper even from the other side of the world). I’m also using HA and just tinkering before I roll out across the whole house. Would be good to see them get the certification, wouldn’t like to have a fire from a faulty unit and void the home insurance. My plan is to use the icon range plates, but as you said Clipsal being a closed, if they do open up to the zigbee protocol, we might night see all the features and data from the Shellys.

[@Etacovda63]

Jimmy James who is certifying the Shelly? Building a new house and trying to figure out what to use...

[@JamesEggleston]

@@Etacovda63 Shelly or Alterco is getting the certifications for Shelly devices, I would use Shelly, actually I have literally used shelly(16 so far) and my own wifi switches as well in my place, the shellys are obviously better and easier and beat zwave in my opinion, the shelly's and my devices too, will work as normal with no wifi or home assistant running and if one goes down (which acctually hasn't happend yet) then it just the one.

[@owenwhitehead8938]

James Eggleston do you get any noise from your lights using the Shelly dimmer? I use SAL LED down lights and there is a noticeable buzz come from them now. Any thoughts on how to resolve this? www.sal.net.au/products/interior-led-lighting/led-downlights/ecogem-s9041-tc

[@afro208]

All abut dummers, choice cuz!