Months of failure lead up to this EL panel dimmer that pulses to the music

el-panel-dimmer

Way back in March [Ch00f] took on a for-hire project to make a suit that lights up to the music. He decided to build something based around a pulsating EL panel. He's put a lot of time and tried of a few different techniques, but he finally has a working EL panel dimmer. This is a saga we've kept our eye on. The fall seems to have been good to him, after a failure using TRIACS he managed to … [Read more...]

Raspberry Pi used to automate a dimmable light bulb

raspberry-pi-controlled-dimmer

[Stephen] took the safe route when getting his Raspberry Pi to dim an AC light bulb. He didn't roll his own outlet box with a mains-rated relay inside, going with a mechanical connection instead of electrical. By attaching a servo motor to the dimmer knob the RPi can adjust the light level without risk of electric shock. He is using the ServoBlaster package to drive the servo motor with the … [Read more...]

Building your own LED-based home lighting

home-lighting-with-LED-strip-and-fade-controller

We see LEDs used in all kinds of projects but rarely does someone build a home lighting system from scratch with them. [Paulo Oliveira] decided to give the idea a try, included a fading power supply for the LEDs which he built himself. Here you can see the installation at full brightness, but his controller also offers a single lower setting. We saw [Sprite_TM] use an RGB LED strip to light up … [Read more...]

A simpler sous-vide hack

sous-vide-with-simple-hardware

Here are the contronl modules for a sous-vide project over at Nerdkits. [Humberto] and crew continue doing a great job of focusing a project on one goal, then explaining the steps needed to get there. In this case they wanted to build their own sous-vide appliance that was cheap, and didn't really require the user to deal with mains voltage. We like it because most of the parts can be found at a … [Read more...]

Hidden bookshelf switch

Hidden-Bookshelf-Light-Switch

So you don't have any secret passageways in your house, but if you've got a bookshelf this secret switch can add some fun to your routine. [Brandon] saw a commercially available version which was out of stock when he went to order so he set out to build his own. He's using the switch to operate a lamp. The donor part for the hack is a lamp dimmer which you'll find at the big box store. This is … [Read more...]

Update: IR controlled lighting

Dual channel IR lighting control

[Muris] is back with another infrared controlled lighting hack. When we checked in with him last year he was showing off an IR controlled dimmer module. Now he's back with this device that is CFL friendly. Because standard CFL bulbs are not dimmer compatible he's adapted the project away from dimming and toward switching. The new design still uses an infrared remote but now it can turn two devices … [Read more...]

Modified RX7 dimmer control

SANY00191

We were a little surprised when we learned the Mazda RX7's high beams were controlled by ECU, compared to typical cars using just a toggle switch. Ubermodder [Trent Bruce] realized how much of a pain in the rear end this can be if the ECU ever burns out, meaning no brights. By using a D-Flip Flop setup in a toggle configuration, he is able to control his once lost high beams. He also points out … [Read more...]