PWM sync AC Light Dimmer Flicker need help.

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Re: PWM sync AC Light Dimmer Flicker need help.

By forlotto
- Sun May 08, 2016 4:43 pm #47141 Interesting notes from you folks I will surely take these into consideration.

In which case I like the Krida option on their new dimmer with ZCD what they do is use 3 GPIO's as a dipswitch bank basically allowing a 3bit shift.

So just a example.

1 ON 2 ON 3 ON = 100% Full On
1 ON 2 ON 3 OFF = 50% Dim

firmware on board adjusts according to dip settings and their is a table of what the settings represent.
This would stop pwm signaling issues with sync this may be the best avenue.

I have some boards coming from trackerj to see if I can eliminate flicker I will post results of my testing with these if they don't work I may either see if he will work with me to do modification for 3bit possibly 4 bit GPIO 0n/Off to use as a dipswitch to allow for even more elaborate dimming or possibly go with krida electronics and try their board to see how things fair maybe pwm sync issues will always cause flicker but this dev named trackerj seems to believe they will work.

Thanks folks for tall the info any more info on this keep it coming.

I am determined to find a way to eliminate flicker in the espbasic dimmer via some hardware or software based solution I'll keep at it and keep throwing time and money at it until I do as I can.
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Re: PWM sync AC Light Dimmer Flicker need help.

By Barnabybear
- Sun May 08, 2016 7:18 pm #47151 Hi, I looked back at you post and If I'm corrct your using this board.
It appears to accept an analog voltage as a dimming value aswell as PWM. Given that
Code: Select allanalogWrite()

is unafected by any of the ESP distractions, it might be worth moving the jumper on the board and testing the analog input.
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Re: PWM sync AC Light Dimmer Flicker need help.

By forlotto
- Sun May 08, 2016 7:37 pm #47152
Code: Select allDuty Cycle
   Amount of Dimming
   Arduino Code
0 - 5%       100% Dim (Fully OFF)    analogWrite(0) to analogWrite(15)
5%-40%:   
   100% - 0% Dim
   analogWrite(15) to analogWrite(90)
Greater than 40%:     0% Dim (Fully ON)     analogWrite(90) to analogWrite(255)



Above is what you refer to I assume interesting have to check the possibility of this ...

Thanks keen observation was too focused on one way got a bit of tunnel vision on this one I suppose. But for the knowledge of it it still would be nice to know how exactly keep PWM from flicker or if it is even possible.

Anyways thanks for this I will attempt to check out ao ...
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Re: PWM sync AC Light Dimmer Flicker need help.

By forlotto
- Sun May 08, 2016 8:42 pm #47155 errr A0 is an ADC not a DAC I don't believe there is a DAC on the chip the closest thing you have on a nodemcu esp8266 is PWM output... I suppose an I2C or SPI DAC may be possible to integrate but the project box is rather small for safety I would like the least amount of hardware possible problem is I already ordered the project boxes to fit only these boards the power supply and the nodemcu with enough spacing to prevent possible feedback that might cause issues ....

So to keep a solid flicker free voltage I may have to go with ADC I suppose for this board I have been unable to get ahold of the developer of the board he seems to have stopped selling these boards currently ...

I think if the new board I get does not work I will have to opt for an alternative method other than pwm it was a good idea I think but short sighted possibly not considering dips in voltage that would possibly cause flicker.

I will continue to investigate though good looking out though Barnabybear. Thank You for bringing this to my attention at the very least as I said I had slight tunnel vision with pwm and with the lack of dac onboard I may tinker around and see if I can find a solution still in the tunnel at least until I get my new boards and am able to do some testing to see if they are flicker free as advertised.

Or possibly I am missing something here maybe analouge write is possible without the use of more hardware? Need to look further into documentation and ask the devs I suppose but from what I can tell it is not thus far.
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