Hi, first post.

I have built some cycle lights, they work well using the new Cree R2 emitters. I run these from an external battery through a constant current driver (Buckpuck) the driver has a "control" pin 0-10v and I have wired this into a potentiometer.

It all works great and the light will dim from 100% to zero.

My question is, can I use a IC-Timer instead of the potentiometer?. I mainly want this as I have read that the pot resisting the flow from the battery is power wasteful and far less efficient than an equvalent IC would be.

I have watched the utube vids on 555 timers and it seems ppl are using them in conjuction with a pot to strobe the output, how does this overcome the pot's inneficiencies, I'm confused.

Thanks
Dave

 

If your pot is supplying a control voltage to a current driver, then you already have an IC (the buckpuck) efficiently running the LED's.

You might be able to rig a couple of 555's to do a PWM control so you don't have constant current through the LED's.