I am currently a University student undertaking a project on dimmer circuits and I am using a triac for this operation. What are the advantages of using a micro controller to fire the gate compared to using an analogue control circuit.i.e. using a diac variable resistor and capacitor. The microcontroller circuit has an increased cost, are there applications that would justify using a microcontroller to control the gate. What type of microcontoller circuits would adequately control the gate firing angle