PWM Lamp Dimmer
A simple and efficient PWM lamp dimmer using timer IC NE555 is discussed in this article. Yesterdays linear regulator based dimmers can only attain a maximum efficiency of 50% and are far inferior when compared to the PWM based dimmers which can hit well over 90% efficiency. Since less amount of power is wasted as heat, the switching elements of PWM dimmers require a smaller heat sink and this saves a lot of size and weight. In simple words, the most outstanding features of the PWM based lamp dimmers are high efficiency and low physical size. The circuit diagram of a 12V PWM lamp dimmer is shown below.
Fig 1.
