I have been looking at ceiling LEDs for a while; I am owner-building a house ATM, and “wondered” how I can control the ceiling LEDs – most 9-12W, probably 30-ish of them; in 3-4 different zones. Smaller rooms (3 x 3 m2) may have two zones and 4-6 LED lights. Ideally say if a square room has 4, each should be able to be controlled individually (on|off, dim).
The “wondering” part is the approach, given these constraints:
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While I like DIY wherever possible; using Arduinos to do all sorts of tasks; integrated with openHAB, I am conscious that 230V needs to be wired by a licensed electrician (law in Australia; DIY = illegal). This implies to me (I could be wrong) that I should use standard LED bulb + driver + plug combinations; dimmable. Reasoning: because the LEDs have a plug, the whole set can be replaced in case of a fault (or desire to change any LED parameter, colour, wattage, angle, etc.) by a layman.
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If I were to control the LED bulbs directly (on|off, dim), I would need a driver to supply the right V and constant A these LEDs are running on. They are presumably different for each wattage LED?! If the bulb has to be replaced, and say, the Wattage no longer exists, the driver would either need to be changed too or reconfigured to suit the new LED.
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Would it then be best to wire each LED to a central location, which gives me the benefit of grouping the lights as I need them; planning and real world might change, hence, the need to be able to reconfigure easily.
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Assuming I install standard sets (LED, driver, plug) would it be best to build triac circuitry to control each LED fixture? (Ultimately controlled by some sort of micro-controller, e.g Arduino. If so, which is the best way to do this?
With the constraints stated above, is it the best approach to use a multi-channel triac set-up to dim each standard LED fixture?
I can see two general solutions to the problem:
- Use a LED + driver (+ plug or not); connect to a e.g. 16 port relay board (as a switch replacement) fed by one or more dimmers (dimmer may not drive all 16).
- I am not sure, whether this is how KNX, et al work, but a bunch of LEDs connected to a say KNX 4 port dimmer, (and many of those); maybe with the 16-port relay board in between.
Or how would this change with DMX??
[edit:] I just realised I have a previous post related to this…
Any hints, thoughts, questions and feedback would be much appreciated.