I have a need to control a light fixture in my home. At a certain time I
need the light to come on and later on the light should go out. The problem
is that I need it to change states slowly. Load could be anything between
100 and 600 watts.

It would be nice to find something that fits in a 1 gang electrical box, but
I haven't been able to find anything.


I also have the need for something similar, controlling about a dozen LEDs,
for the lighting in a fish tank.


Does anyone have any idea how I can do these?

"Calab" wrote in message news:4dCbk.56339$Jx.13974@pd7urf1no...

I have a need to control a light fixture in my home. At a certain time I
need the light to come on and later on the light should go out. The problem
is that I need it to change states slowly. Load could be anything between
100 and 600 watts.

It would be nice to find something that fits in a 1 gang electrical box, but
I haven't been able to find anything.


I also have the need for something similar, controlling about a dozen LEDs,
for the lighting in a fish tank.


Does anyone have any idea how I can do these?




The very last circuit (Varying brightness AC lamp) on the page at
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homep...wden/page4.htm looks to be
straightforward and easy to build. No expensive or exotic parts; give it a
look.

If you'd rather have a kit, look at the slow dimmer kit at
http://youdoitelectronics.com/Kits/id1226.htm, kit #K8029 (SLOW ON-OFF DIMMER).
Oopsss.. that one will only handle 200 watts. You could probably replace the
triac in the kit with a higher current type... and you might have to put it on a
heatsink for the higher power loads. You can probably find that kit at a number
of other web vendors.. just Google for Velleman K8029. Looks like the PC board
might fit inside a box... but you need to measure to be sure.

The dimmers above are the slow dimmer portion only, they will not control the
times your lights turn & off. For that, I recommend that you look at an
appliance timer from your local home improvement or tool center. Something like
the timer at
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=95205.
That should get you going in short order.


--
Dave M
MasonDG44 at comcast dot net (Just substitute the appropriate characters in the
address)

Experience: What you get when you don't get what you want

I have a need to control a light fixture in my home. At a certain time I
need the light to come on and later on the light should go out. The problem
is that I need it to change states slowly. Load could be anything between
100 and 600 watts.

I believe that some of the professional-grade X10 light-dimmer control
circuits have this basic capability, and there are probably some
variations that can handle up to 600 watts.

--
Dave Platt AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page: http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
I do _not_ wish to receive unsolicited commercial email, and I will
boycott any company which has the gall to send me such ads!

On Fri, 4 Jul 2008 23:08:58 -0700, (Dave Platt)
wrote:

I have a need to control a light fixture in my home. At a certain time I
need the light to come on and later on the light should go out. The problem
is that I need it to change states slowly. Load could be anything between
100 and 600 watts.

I believe that some of the professional-grade X10 light-dimmer control
circuits have this basic capability, and there are probably some
variations that can handle up to 600 watts.

FWIW, the "regular" X10 controllers can dim from 100% to 0% but they
don't want to go the other way; a lamp that's off can only be set to a
dimmed brightness by first turning it on (=100%) and then dimming it.
Once it's on, of course, the dimming setting can be adjusted up and
down; just can't go directly from off to, say, 10%.

Note that the controllers I'm running are pretty old and the newer ones
(or other models) may not have this limitation.

--
Rich Webb Norfolk, VA

"BobW" wrote in message
news |
| "Calab" wrote in message
| news:4dCbk.56339$Jx.13974@pd7urf1no...
|
| I have a need to control a light fixture in my home. At a certain time I
| need the light to come on and later on the light should go out. The
| problem
| is that I need it to change states slowly. Load could be anything
between
| 100 and 600 watts.

| I used to be an X10 fan, but now it's Zwave, for me. It's very cool
| technology.
|
| The Home Settings line from Intermatic stuff will do exactly what you want
| it to (timing, soft on, soft off).
|
| http://www.homesettings.com/

Thanks!

The modules are a bit pricey, but I don't need many. I'm going to try the
Zwave stuffs.

You may be able to use a dawn simulator prodcut. Link is below.

http://www.fullspectrumsolutions.com/lt_dawn_simulators_62_ctg.htm?sc_cid=141&s_kwcid=d awn%20simulator|377412736&gclid=CLPWh__qsJUCFSAUag odM20VkA#ultralux






On Jul 4, 11:51*pm, "Calab" wrote:
I have a need to control a light fixture in my home. At a certain time I
need the light to come on and later on the light should go out. The problem
is that I need it to change states slowly. Load could be anything between
100 and 600 watts.

It would be nice to find something that fits in a 1 gang electrical box, but
I haven't been able to find anything.

I also have the need for something similar, controlling about a dozen LEDs,
for the lighting in a fish tank.

Does anyone have any idea how I can do these?