Digital rheostat....

Hello to all the PLC geru's out there, I have a question !

I am trying to do some control for a light dimmer system and I cannot find what I am looking for to do it. I have found many IC's that will do it but nothing that would not need a custom PCB board made. Does anyone know of any "Boxed" Digital Dimmer controls ? Any help would be great. Control signal voltage for the dimmer is not a concearn (I can setup the PLC I am using to any voltage configuration I need) also 10-40 watts

P.S. Love the site, very informative.



Dave

Dont know if they will work for you but try a search on stage lighting controls. I recall a post on here that was similar and that is what was suggested.

Drewcrew6

First of all I'm assuming this is an AC application. If not this suggestion won't work so well.
As I remember residential light dimmers are SCR based. The light intensity is controlled by varying the conduction angle of the AC input.
A company called Carlo Gavazzi makes an industrial version of this. You can find these in the Newark catalog or try www.carlogavazzi.com.
If you have more time than money you might be able to take apart a residential dimmer switch and find the control line for the phase angle firing circuit.

Keith

Maybe the X10 system would work for you.

http://www.smarthome.com/23891.html