Digitally-controlled pot?

Further to my last post about having a dimmer circuit (using the Bowden circuit mentioned previously), next stage is to try to replace to 50K pot with something more remotely controllable.

The idea is that although I can manually turn up/down the dimmer, by having it controllable from a variety of sources I can replace manual control with either computer-based or timer-based (or a combination of all three) - so I'm looking at something I can ideally feed in a "increase" or "decrease" signal and it'll increment/decrement the pot driving the Bowden circuit.

Is this feasible?

Lastly, I wouldn't mind trying to do the same circuit idea but for mains lamps - like the Halogen dimmer circuits - to drive a set of Haloge spotlights used for lounge uplighters. I once attended a conference in which a rocker switch near the door was used to toggle on/off the lights, but holding down the switch would increase/decrease light intensity, allowing a light level dark enough to permit a projector to be used for presentations but still with enough light that attendees could scribble notes. The same switch was located over near the speaker's stand, as well as near another control panel - it was clear that the circuitry lay not behind the switch itself (as with some conventional rotary dimmers) but elsewhere with several switches all paralleled up to provide the same control from different locations.

Again.. should I hunt around for a circuit to do this, or is there some off-the-shelf idea that I could utilise?

Reply to
Dungeon Dave
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Reply to
Brendan Gillatt

Is there some reason that you want to design and build this yourself? Or would you be satisfied with an X10, or DMX lighting controls?

-- Paul Hovnanian mailto: snipped-for-privacy@Hovnanian.com

------------------------------------------------------------------ Human beings were created by water to transport it uphill.

Reply to
Paul Hovnanian P.E.

Or

No reason whatsoever - I was looking for an off-the-shelf system, thinking someone would spam me with "have you tried Arglebargle controllers from lighting-gizmos.info" or "try this diagram from

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" but over in the other thread it seems a PCW dimmer ought to do the trick, so was looking at building one.

I think my requirements are more complex than a simple plug-in-and-go- LED-driver box idea, but less than full-blown theatre-class dimmer packs.

I did a veroboard layout for the Bowden circuit in readiness; I know it's not that difficult to construct but before I take the plunge, I don't want to find I could have just blown £20 or so on something that does everything I need it to (with cannibalisation tweaking).

Reply to
Dungeon Dave

No reason whatsoever - I was looking for an off-the-shelf system, thinking someone would spam me with "have you tried Arglebargle controllers from lighting-gizmos.info" or "try this diagram from

formatting link
" but over in the other thread it seems a PCW dimmer ought to do the trick, so was looking at building one.

I think my requirements are more complex than a simple plug-in-and-go-LED-driver box idea, but less than full-blown theatre-class dimmer packs.

I did a veroboard layout for the Bowden circuit in readiness; I know it's not that difficult to construct but before I take the plunge, I don't want to find I could have just blown £20 or so on something that does everything I need it to (with cannibalisation tweaking).

Reply to
Dungeon Dave

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