My light switches have only the two wires to the switch - no neutral and no earth connection. Is it possible construct an IR remote switch to connect to these two wires?
Circa 1966. No earth and no neutral - just live and switched live.All uk switches are like this with no Neutrals, must be and old system without Earths!!!,,
the receiver if you find one will be powered through the lamp load to Neutral...
But is it ever zero? Couldn't the remote receiver present some series impedance which prevents that? Could a supercap provide the energy storage? Small transformer powered by the load current?The circuit will also need power to switch off the relay when it is switched on and the voltage across the switch is zero.
I believe commercial IR remotes manage it; presumably by drawing some minimal current through the load to store enough energy to power the IR receiver and operate a latching relay?
Is battery power a possibility for the IR receiver? When the switch is open, you could steal a little power to recharge the battery.The circuit will also need power to switch off the relay when it is switched on and the voltage across the switch is zero.
A suitable resistor in parallel with the LED would hopefully shunt enough current to prevent the LED glowing visibly when supposedly OFF.The problem might be with the leakage while the light is off. The light is LED.
I assume the mains supply and load are out-of-view to the right somewhere, and that the load is an off-the-shelf mains-rated LED lamp?Any comments on whether the circuit in #7 would work or reasons why it wouldn't?
Correct. The light is max 100W. Mains voltage is 240V so current is <0.5A (ignoring PF - no idea what that is for an LED lamp)I assume the mains supply and load are out-of-view to the right somewhere, and that the load is an off-the-shelf mains-rated LED lamp?
How much current does the LED draw?
Planning on a 3W 3.3V zener. Expecting max 1.6WWill D4 survive the full load current?
I plan on a sequence of short pulses (perhaps 200us period) to keep the triac on and minimise average current. A sensitive triac will trigger with 3mA gate current so that sounds good. It will also minimise the leakage current when the triac is off.Can C1 pass enough current to keep the voltage across C3 fairly constant while allowing enough gate current through R2?
But the circuit needs power when the light is off to be able to respond to the remote control. During the summer the light may be off for many days.Hi,
We talked about something like this a long time ago i think right here in this forum.
A possibility is that you can use a current transformer to provide some power when the 'lamp' is turned on. The current to the lamp is turned into a voltage that way and that powers the circuit.
Check out AC current transformers for more information.
Hi,But the circuit needs power when the light is off to be able to respond to the remote control. During the summer the light may be off for many days.
The easiest solution to the potential leakage problem would be to use incandescent bulbs but that is verboten now and in any case they are difficult to get.
I'm guessing that's what you're taking to be the typical IR receiver supply cuurrent? I googled a bit but didn't find any Rx with lower supply/standby current. Perhaps someone here knows of one?4mA leakage
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