On 23/02/2019 00:43, T i m wrote:
On Fri, 22 Feb 2019 13:05:28 +0000, John Rumm
wrote:

On 21/02/2019 22:35, T i m wrote:
Hi all,

Is there a LED compatible remote / local wall mounted dimmer switch
that anyone here has personally experienced and can recommend please?

This is for someone who is ill / bedridden to be able to dim / turn
off/on a std ceiling mounted (LED) lamp remotely, as well as someone
to easily do the same from the switch itself?

I have seen several for sale but not all state being LED compatible
and I have no idea if there any gotchas with such things ITRW?

I have some Varilight touch dimmers that also have an IR sensor. You can
train them to use any IR remote you fancy.

Although my ones predate LEDs being in common use, they seem to work OK
with LEDs, but with a narrower dimming range than with an incandescent.

They do however now have an equivalent switch with proper LED driver:

https://www.varilight.co.uk/dimmers/v-pro-ir.php


Thanks for that John, looks like it might tick all the right boxes.
;-)

JOOI, what are the touch dimmers like to use ITRW? I think I have used
them at other peoples houses but am not sure what they might be like
to live with?

IME fine... you touch and let go they come on, repeat and they go off.
Touch and hold and they slowly ramp up and down in a repeating cycle.
Takes about 4 secs to move from min to max (or vice versa). Just let go
when you have the required brightness.

eg, With a conventional on-off switch you get what you want pretty
quickly (unless a two-way cct when you might have to push the switch
the 'other way' to turn it on etc).

With a 'press on / off and rotate to dim', again, it's pretty obvious
what you need to do and pretty quick to get the brightness you want
because the pot relates directly to expectations (volume controls etc)
and is near instantaneous.

Oddly I ave one rotational push on/off LED dimmer, and it has a
significant start up delay and ramp up - so quite often you hit it and
then find yourself hitting it again because the delay fooled you into
thinking you may not have pushed it hard enough the first time. Net
result is you then turn it off!

This also means you can turn it down / dim
*before* turning it on, handy if you have someone asleep in the room
and only want enough light to be able to do something in there without
waking or tripping over something.

With my touch dimmer if its off and you touch and hold it comes on at
minimum brightness and then starts ramping up.

With most 'touch' controls (other than straight on/off), you often
have to step / cycle though the settings (thinking of Mums touch table
lamps etc) when they seem to go from off to dim med bright off
and that's fine, as long as there is some other light in the room.

On mine its a smooth continuous ramp.

I understand with the Varilight touch dimmers you can change the
direction of dimming by releasing and re-touching but you can only do
that once you realise that you are making the light brighter and not
dimmer (say)?

You can, but the ramp is reasonably quick anyway so depending on how
near an "end" you are you can just wait to bounce off it and go the
other way.


It's like I don't like touch controls in a moving car ... it's easier
to manage say the radio volume with an old fashioned knob (like in our
old Meriva, when the volume level can be set with the radio off and so
it comes back on at that level).

This is not like a touch screen in that its easy to find the control
without needing to look at it. It also remembers its most recent setting.

So a remote dimmable light switch with old fashioned push button and
knob (failing that I think it will be the touch option).

It makes it harder, since the knob would have to become a rotary encoder
to give you the analogue "feel" but still allow the external control.


--
Cheers,

John.

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