Lumotech dimmable LED driver

[Lennart]

Hi All,

Most people interested in home automation are probably interested in modern lighting techniques such as LED lighting as well (at least I am .

I'm planning to install some LED lights ("wandinbouwspotjes") to light my stairway. (The LED lights are Brumberg P3730's. See page 12 of http://www.brumberg.com/pdf/tecno/TECNO_LED.pdf.)

One thing I would like to be able to do is dimm these LEDs through my home automation system.

Up till now I had little luck in finding dimming devices for LED lights as dimming LEDs is not as straightforward as dimming incandescent light bulbs, as I understand.

However, I recently saw the following product announcement:

http://www.lumotech.com/sys/index.php?id=166&L=1

and was wondering:

- Would this device dimm my led lights without damaging them (in the long run)?

- Would this device work with the regular Xanura dimming modules (DAIX, DAX1, DAX2)?

Any LED and/or dimming experts around who would be able to answer these questions?

Thanks a lot in advance!

Lennart

[Lennart]

Well, to open up an old topic: I finally got one of the Lumotech mains dimmable LED drivers in the mail, as the product launch has been postponed several times.

Fortunately, I can report that the device works well. I hooked up the 8 1 Watt Brumberg power LED fixtures in series to the LED driver (350mA channel) and connected the LED driver to a Xanurua DAIX10 module. As I expected my worst case scenario to happen - 8 Power LEDs saying "poof" in an expensive way - I was pleasantly surprised to see that the DAIX10 module and LED driver actually work together as they should.

Dimming works as expected, with two small things to note:

1) The soft on/soft off functionality of the Xanura module turns into a stepped on/off functionality as LEDs respond much more quickly than incandescent light bulbs and you thus see the actual dimming steps of the DAIX10 module.

2) At one of the dimming levels the LEDs start to flicker. It happens only at a single level: turning them up or down a single step solves this. It also seems to diminish when the LEDs have "warmed up" a little.

But beside that, it's pretty neat to have a way to dim LED fixtures "normally" (without DMX control).

The price is OK too: approximately EUR 28,-

I don't know how this LED driver influences LED lifetime (yet). I'll keep you posted if anything unusual happens.

Product details are available at: http://www.lumotech.com/sys/index.php?id=230

Lennart

[Snelvuur]

You got any pictures?

[Niknik]

Didn't know these modules. Thanks for posting your findings!

[Lennart]

Hi Snelvuur,

I made some pictures to satisfy your curiousity. Enjoy!

The final result:



The test setup with the control hardware involved: Xanura DAIX10 and Lumotech L05021:



A close-up of one of the fixtures:



Side by side comparison of low and high dimming levels. It's hard to judge the difference in luminance from the picture, but to give you an idea: have a look at the reflections on the wall on the right of the stairs and on the stairs itself; these LEDs are bright if not dimmed!



Best wishes,

Lennart

[Niknik]

That looks great!
Unfortunately, my staircases are cement, a lot harder for routing wires now.

But that's something I'd love to have too... if only they came up with wireless electricity!

[Bwired]

Thanks Lennart for all the information, this is really interesting and the led lights look great.
again something for my wish list
BTW: my outside lights above the garage door are led lights (ledbars) as well.
www.led1.de

[Lennart]

Hi Pieter,

The ledbars look interesting! Do you have a picture of your application. And what about brightness and - especially - color temperature? Did you get the white or the warm white ones? Can the bars be interconnected? I'm still looking for "plint" verlichting in our kitchen and this looks promising.

Furthermore, browsing through the led1 webshop, I saw the following RGB power leds:

http://www.led1.de/shop/product_info.ph ... eds-c-8_73

I was now thinking: as these leds have separate power inputs for red, green and blue at 350mA, one should be able to connect one or more of these in series, connect each of the three color channels to its own Lumotech dimmable led driver and each Lumotech led driver to a DAIX10 and voila, one has just made a non-DMX but X10 and wall switch controlled RGB led moodlighting system... It won't be cheap (n leds + 3 drivers + (especially) 3 DAIX10) and maybe not as precise as DMX (less dim levels) but control is probably easier. (A cheaper option might be to have separate leds for red, green and blue.)

Building a custom wall washer this way, wouldn't be too difficult, I guess. Remember that the leds are 3W each, so you wouldn't need a whole lot of these.

Lennart

[Bwired]

Hi Lennart,
I have the warm white ones because the white ones turn blueish.
A picture outside in the dark is difficult to take. The lied bars are lighting up the complete wall and garage door and even a part of the ground. They can be dimmed from 5 to 12 volt.

Lot of interesting ideas you have on the leds will look in to that, your knowledge is far greater however!

[Niknik]

All those applications would be "easy" to implement, if we get to develop our own "x10" modules.

[Lennart]

Thanks for all your encouraging comments!

Some interesting industry News and background literature on led technology can be found in LEDs Magazine. The PDF version of this bimonthly magazine can be downloaded free of charge after registering. See http://www.ledsmagazine.com/magazine

Lennart

[Lennart]

Hi Pieter,

You mentioned that it is possible to dim the led1 led bars that you have from 5 to 12 volt. What dimmer/power supply are you using for this? Is it connected to your home automation system?

The reason I'm asking is that I recently installed a number of these bars in our front patio and I would like to be able to dim these.

Thanks!

Lennart

[Bwired]

Hi Lennart,
Guess I forgot this one
I'm dimming these ledbars with the power supply. I have a normal powersupply (adapter) 3 to 12 volt which I can regulate. Switching with the voltage is dimming the Led bar, so not automatic

[Lennart]

Hi Pieter,

No problem; thanks for following up to this topic anyway . Too bad the dimming is not automated. Anyway, I've been using the LED bars for half a year or so now and I'm very satisfied with both color temperature and brightness. Dimming seems to be unnecessary after all.

Lennart

[Niknik]

Well, dimming is almost never "necessary", but always makes for a nice detail.