Lighting Fundamentals: Dimmers

Most illumination will be left at a fixed brightness. But on that rare occasion when you might want to dim the lights, there are plenty of solutions available these days. Just search eBay for LED dimmer and thousands of these little guys will pop up, available for less than $2 each.

The units accept a wide range of supply voltages, from 1.8 to 12 volts, and can handle up to two amps of current, which is waaay more than any animation project requires. They're compact and simple to wire. I've used dozens of them, and they're better than most any commercial product made for the job.

If all of this sounds familiar, yes, it's almost the very same text for motor speed controls. The circuit are pretty much identical, and in fact I've been using LED dimmers as throttles for years.

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