DIY Dimmable Clapper For All Your Lazy Lighting Needs

For the lazy man who can’t be bothered to buy a proper wattage lamp here’s the Clever Clapper, a Clapper that finally has the ability to dim the lights.

Like the clapper we saw last month, [Pete]’s version uses an ATtiny2313 and an electret mic. What sets [Pete]’s version apart from the vintage 80s model is the ability to dim the lights. Like any clapper, two hand claps within a second toggles the relay. Clapping three times within one second puts the lamp into fading mode. In this mode, the lights dim up and down with PWM until a fourth clap is detected.

[Pete] saw that the program memory in his ATtiny2313 wasn’t 100% full, so he added a few more capabilities. If you shine a laser onto his circuit, a relay trips and turns on a decorative moon lamp. There’s also a ‘lecture mode’ that feeds the microphone directly into the microcontroller to vary the PWM signal. The result is a light that brightens with more intense sound. Check that feature out after the break after the demo video of [Pete]’s Clever Clapper.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=kaP7LGRPf_I&w=470]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7XXPJOxyOs&w=470]

10 thoughts on “DIY Dimmable Clapper For All Your Lazy Lighting Needs

  1. I like the old school way of including art work in a video, we saw in the first video. I like the lecture mode as an alternative way to building a light organ. Used explore to save Pete’s blog as a mht file. I wish Firefox has a similar way to say to save a web page as a single file.

    1. It does use a relay. Follow pin 8 (T0/PD4) from the micro-controller; you’ll see it’s attached to a series resistor, and then a 2N3904, to switch the coil current of the relay.

  2. I kinda rolled my eyes after seeing so many dollar signs on the EAGLE schematic. It’s mostly an aesthetic thing, I know (but don’t even get me started on AdaFruit schematics…).

    Another item of concern: TIP120, which are Darlington-configured bipolar NPNs. Aren’t those a bit antiquated? I’d think using some good logic-level MOSFETs (or maybe even a MOSFET driver if you really wanna drive ’em hard) would be much better in terms of power dissipation and current handling capabilities.

    Other than that, not too shabby. I dig the simplicity of the LPF used. :)

    Note: I tried an XHTML tag in my message, so if it didn’t work, please don’t crucify me.

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