Cheap eBay dimmer.

One thing I love about Clive's videos (though I sometimes roll my eyes REAL hard) are the "pull my knob off" jokes said entirely seriously and with no [*wink* *wink*] or even hesitation. The oven timer intro is by far the best.

Cool video. I suspect the conductive section covers the travel needed to activate the power switch. That way it won't start dimming before the power is on. It looks like that other capacitor is for wiper noise.

Nani Isobel

Thanks Clive.

Nuts 'n' Proud

I use mostly the decorative tungsten Edison lamps, but some LEDs as well. No issues with the LEDs

Michael Thompson

What sort of lamps do you use? Some of these modules come with tiny triacs. But otherwise they work fine as dimmers. In a sense, the radios that were the most susceptible to noise were the AM ones and they're probably obliterated by most LED lamps these days anyway.

Big Clive

Thanksgiving here in America. Big Clive videos and the education and inspiration that they bring are something I'm quite thankful for.

Michael Thompson

I've used these cheap dimmers in the lamps I build out of industrial scrap. I like them because they are small and easy to install in tight places. The "good" ones I have to disassemble and modify. Oh yeah dirt cheap helps too.

Michael Thompson

Noticed it immediately... Was deeply disappointed that Clive didn't comment on it.

Scott Miller

I need to double check but from quick probe it looks as If the IO don't have any diode protection just vcc to ground. built to a price, loving the IDE except from some broken English I like it better than Atmel Studio.

Zach Allin

I very much ike the comparisons of expensive vs cheap.

Jeremy Impson

The pot in the compliant dimmer is certainly weird. At one point in the video (17'10") you can see the reflections of the wiped arc. It is about 310 degrees and uses the full (normal) path. The wiper is in series with the extra resistive material coming off the most anticlockwise terminal thus giving the minimum clockwise resistance. Where the central pin of the pot goes is a mystery, Maybe a switch and resistor underneath the wiper plate would explain how it gets the minimum anticlockwise resistance and clicks off. More disassembly of pot? and maybe?? even a closeup look at the PCB tracks on back of the main circuit board with components sketched in?

L. Brait

Try the same bits of the video later. It might have still been processing on YouTube. When a video is freshly uploaded it initially appears a bit rough until the processing has been done at all the different resolutions. The first zoom was a bit of a jump.

Big Clive

am i the only one to notes the eBay dimmer has pink threads on the pot

God 420

Does anyone else have an issue with this video being super choppy/low fps or is it just me?

When this hit my email, I misread it as Cheap eBay Dinner and assumed it was an Ashens crossover :)

Chris Kelley

I noticed the bit in the datasheet about not using AC RC power supplies (capacitive droppers). Having managed to nuke one of my early (expensive) EPROM based PIC development processors with a capacitive dropper supply I can understand that. They are prone to being quite noisy with the risk of high current spikes that can be hard to filter out completely.

Big Clive

just got the 14pin Padauk PMS132 the top is blank but they have text on the bottom, and pin 1 is vcc and 14 is ground but it looks like some models like the PMS132-16A Is as described but PMS132-16B has the power and ground pins flipped and that's it. Some families have this in the datasheet "NOT designed for AC RC step-down powered, high power ripple or high EFT requirement application. Please do NOT apply PMS132 to those application products."

Zach Allin