I’m not sure where to ask this question, sorry if this is the wrong place.
Does the LED lamp (http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/produc … ts_id=8714 ) work with standard TRIAC based dimmers (phase based)? I have a lot of dimmers in my house and CFLs really don’t work very well. The price is a bit too high but I presume it will come down over time. Since incandescents are eventually going away, I need to get compatible replacements.
I can’t tell for sure, but if I where to guess I would say no, they don’t work well with dimmers. Probably for the same reason CFL don’t work, because they have electronics between them and the power lines.
they have electronics between them and the power lines.
Not to quibble but I can imagine some electronics that would make it work. I’m pretty sure you are right that they aren’t dimmer friendly as I have since read a warning about using a similar product with dimmers.
I have been thinking about how to make an LED drive circuit that is a) phase control dimmer friendly and b) honors the dimming phase - i.e. dims the LEDs (probably PWM). The brute force approach is to rectify the AC, use a DC-DC converter that has a very wide input range and then drive the LED via PWM. I’m kind of stuck on the “very wide input range” part. The more sophisticated approach is to use the phase control to limit the current thought the LED. Probably cheaper, too. Unfortunately, I’m out of my element on that.