Dimming an Inventronics 40w driver

[ajmckay]

Hey Milad,

 

So while my tank is down (remodeling) I've decided to get my LED fix by making some sweet under-cabinet lighting for my Kitchen. I've researched various pre-fabricated modular LED systems and they all cost quite a bit (probably $300 or so to do my whole kitchen) or they're not nearly as bright as I need them to be.

 

So my new thought is to use what knowledge I have from aquarium LEDs and use that to create some nice under-cabinet lighting.

 

I think that I'll use the inventronics 40W driver and 15 XT-E warm white leds (which would be about 6"-8" apart and 18" off the counter top). I think 3250k should be a good color temp.

 

The question I have is whether you can use a switch-dimmer (like this one: http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-25ecodZ5yc...kuId=202994894) to dim the LEDs rather than using a normal potentiometer (which would be much more difficult to create a "built-in" look for).

 

If you like (and as long as they turn out nice) I'll submit the project to your site as putting this together myself will be considerably cheaper and per my calculations significantly brighter than most existing LED systems.

[uglybuckling]

The majority of household dimmer switches are not rheostats but triacs. They clip the AC wave and will NOT be able to offer variable resistance to a DC signal the way that a potentiometer does.

 

However, I would think that buying a blank wall plate, drilling an appropriately-sized hole in it, and putting a standard pot with a nice aluminum knob on it would look fairly snazzy.

 

Alternately you may be able to find a source for a real 10k ohm potentiometer that mounts to a wall-mount plate. A quick google search reveals that they exist, although so far I can't find one for sale to the public.

[Milad LEDGroupBuy.com]

ugly is right

 

the old style ac dimmers reduce the ac power on average to the light. LEDs are a tad different and you need a pot. I have yet to see one that is wall mountable though. If i was doing it, i would do what ugly said and just get a face plate and drill a hole for the pot.

[ajmckay]

Thanks ugly & milad for the quick responses. I was figuring it wouldn't work, but I thought I would at least try

 

Anyways, I'll probably place my order in the morning!

 

Also, before I finalize, I'm planning on between 15 and 17 XT-E warm whites, while 17 LEDs would be ideal, I think that 15 could work fine @700mA. Would you suggest the 40w inventronics or the 50w 1100mA turned down? I'm planning on heat sinking these with individual heatsinks natural convection so I can't really say if I will be able to power them up above 700mA.

 

As always your thoughts are appreciated!

[Milad LEDGroupBuy.com]

Thanks ugly & milad for the quick responses. I was figuring it wouldn't work, but I thought I would at least try

 

Anyways, I'll probably place my order in the morning!

 

Also, before I finalize, I'm planning on between 15 and 17 XT-E warm whites, while 17 LEDs would be ideal, I think that 15 could work fine @700mA. Would you suggest the 40w inventronics or the 50w 1100mA turned down? I'm planning on heat sinking these with individual heatsinks natural convection so I can't really say if I will be able to power them up above 700mA.

 

As always your thoughts are appreciated!

 

17 of the XT-E warm white will fit on the 40w 700mA driver. I would almost guarantee you will rarely run them at full blast because it will be alot of light.

[ajmckay]

Sweet, that's what I wanted to hear...

 

Thanks a lot!

 

Order placed!

[ajmckay]

Okay so I finished the under-cabinet project!

 

I wrote a guide at www.instructables.com and it's been featured on their site!

 

http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-High-P...ighting-Great-/

 

Feel free to post it under the project list at ledgroupbuy.com.

[Milad LEDGroupBuy.com]

Okay so I finished the under-cabinet project!

 

I wrote a guide at www.instructables.com and it's been featured on their site!

 

http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-High-P...ighting-Great-/

 

Feel free to post it under the project list at ledgroupbuy.com.

 

congratz! looks very clean

[gabe_j]

this is awesome your kitchen looks great!

[ajmckay]

Thanks gabe, It's been a huge improvement to my tiny house.

 

It was easy and fun to do! Well, the LED lights at least... Not so much the kitchen, that's been really hard and sometimes fun but mostly not fun.

[uglybuckling]

So it took me like 45 minutes to find this thread again.

 

I found one!

 

http://www.excesssolutions.com/cgi-bin/item/ES2881

 

Linear taper 10KOhm SLIDE pot.

 

If anybody else has a similar question and wants the source. Only took me like...what? 3 weeks to stumble across one? =)

[ajmckay]

Hahaha, thanks ugly for the link!

 

I actually ended up mounting the dimmer through the face plate at the switch box. Turns out it's a code violation to mix low and line voltage in the same box though, so I'm not sure if I'll keep it like that or not. I may end up mounting the dimmer underneath a cabinet or something. This would be a phenominal part for that application though, as it looks pretty small.