Programmable Dimmer Switch?

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big john

Senior Member
Location
Portland, ME
Does anyone make a dimmer switch with a programmable timer feature?

The application is a couple incandescents that need to automatically change to different light levels at different times of the night.

I'd really like a single-gang device, but I'm open to suggestions. So far the internet has failed me.
 
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mgookin

Senior Member
Location
Fort Myers, FL
What are you trying to do?
Indoors or outdoors?
What's the voltage & load?
On 24/7 and then dim?
Or do you need an on/ off cycle plus a dim cycle?
Same schedule every day or different for weekends, holidays, etc.?

As you can see there are numerous metrics in the lighting control industry.
I'm sure there's a product out there to do what you want.
But unless we know more, all we can do is guess...
 

ActionDave

Chief Moderator
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Location
Durango, CO, 10 h 20 min from the winged horses.
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Licensed Electrician
Pretty sure he wants a dimmer that can take the place of a switch that is programmable. Pretty simple application. I did a search at Lutron and found nothing. I'm surprised.

I remember Larry Fine set up a diode to half rectify the light in his kids bathroom and put it on a double throw switch. Tie the same set up to a time clock and you would have the desired set up but not the simplicity of installation. Cheaper than buying a lighting system though.
 

GoldDigger

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Location
Placerville, CA, USA
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Retired PV System Designer
To me the key phrase is different (maybe more than just full dim and off) at different times through the night.
That calls for at least an X-10 type setup with the standalone Programmable time controller with multiple events.
From there you go straight to a small PLC and lights with 0-10V dimming or a full lighting controller.
If the " dimming " could be done with different sets of lights on and off, there are trainable two or three wire timers that fit a switch box and you could use one for each group of lights. Not at all elegant and some rough transitions since you could not count on synchronization.
 

Sierrasparky

Senior Member
Location
USA
Occupation
Electrician ,contractor
Stand alone switch not likely.
However there are wifi switches (Belkin) with applications and other home automation types. Never tried one though
 

GoldDigger

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Location
Placerville, CA, USA
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Stand alone switch not likely.
However there are wifi switches (Belkin) with applications and other home automation types. Never tried one though
+1
With at least some of those systems the program resides on the company cloud servers rather than depending on the device you used to set up the events.
I unconditionally warn against GE Link. It is unstable, glitchy and unreliable and has no tech support worth mentioning.
 

Jraef

Moderator, OTD
Staff member
Location
San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA
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Electrical Engineer
I know one existed in the past, but like a lot of things if they were not popular enough, the mfrs may have dropped them. You programmed it to follow ambient light conditions then turn off automatically at a certain time. I put one in for a friend of a friend years ago. His elderly mother was darkness blind, so that kept the light level in the room high as the sun went down so she wouldn't get caught in too low of light and trip on something. If I can get hold of him I'll ask if he can at least remove the plate to see if the brand name is on the top, he will be too afraid to remove it from the box to turn it over. Him mom passed last year, but his kids now moved into her house so it's likely still there.
 

big john

Senior Member
Location
Portland, ME
This is for simple indoor incandescent light control, a dimmer in the 600W range would work fine.

But the customer wants to be able to select at least three different light levels to activate automatically and repeat each day.

I would've thought this was a pretty simple affair given the rising popularity of home automation but so far, I've struck out.

I can't series wire a dimmer and controller because that wouldn't allow for automatic dimming.

I'll check out those Caseta. Thanks.
 

Jraef

Moderator, OTD
Staff member
Location
San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA
Occupation
Electrical Engineer
I know one existed in the past, but like a lot of things if they were not popular enough, the mfrs may have dropped them. You programmed it to follow ambient light conditions then turn off automatically at a certain time. I put one in for a friend of a friend years ago. His elderly mother was darkness blind, so that kept the light level in the room high as the sun went down so she wouldn't get caught in too low of light and trip on something. If I can get hold of him I'll ask if he can at least remove the plate to see if the brand name is on the top, he will be too afraid to remove it from the box to turn it over. Him mom passed last year, but his kids now moved into her house so it's likely still there.

OK, got it. It was a Carlon PD300 programmable Timer / Dimmer.

However...
One thing I didn't know about it is that whenever the power failed, it lost it's memory and had to be re-programmed. Not good. They have been using it as a basic switch now, it was a PITA...

You can still find them on FleaBay, but apparently Carlon dumped the entire product line.
 

GeorgeB

ElectroHydraulics engineer (retired)
Location
Greenville SC
Occupation
Retired
I don't know the needs of the user, nor the budget, but a dimmer with analog (0-10V) control and an inexpensive PLC would give you this capability and more. At about $160 for the unit and a power supply, the Automation Direct Click will give 2 0-5V outputs and has a clock/calendar. Rockwell and Siemens have similar items at slightly higher prices.
 

winnie

Senior Member
Location
Springfield, MA, USA
Occupation
Electric motor research
Given that many timers are SCR based, controlled by a microcontroller, and that most dimmers use a phase controlled SCR, it seems to me almost trivial to manufacture a stand alone dimmer/timer.

But it appears that no manufacturer is actually building them.

-Jon
 

DPMin

Member
Location
Pennsylvania
Does anyone make a dimmer switch with a programmable timer feature?

The application is a couple incandescents that need to automatically change to different light levels at different times of the night.

I'd really like a single-gang device, but I'm open to suggestions. So far the internet has failed me.

Lutron's RadioRa 2 dimmers have this exact functionality - though it might be overkill to go that route for just a single switch.
 
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