dimming LED's

[Troy_Connor]

I am new to LOR and was worndering What problems have been experienced while dimming LED's. I alraeady had a lot od LED's I purchased from WalMart and some left over from my static display. Will this shrten the life of the LED's if they are not designed to dim. They appear to dim pretty good, but it seems like they dim up up better then down.

[BrownOut]

It sounds like you may need a snubber for the channels you are having trouble dimming smoothly. Search for "snubber" and you should find mutiple threads on this.

[Dennis Cherry]

Troy_Connor wrote:

I am new to LOR and was worndering What problems have been experienced while dimming LED's. I alraeady had a lot od LED's I purchased from WalMart and some left over from my static display. Will this shrten the life of the LED's if they are not designed to dim. They appear to dim pretty good, but it seems like they dim up up better then down.

LED's dim differently than incandescent lights.

Incandescent lights are more linear than LED's. The LED will turn ON & OFF faster as it is a solid state device where the incandescent is a fiiament that has to heat up and cool off to make light.

An LED will turn on sooner than a incandescent and come to the perceived maximum intensity around 75% of its normal working current.

So to make a LED perform like a incandescent use maximum 75% intensity and half intensity around 15% intensity. You have to check you brand of LED's to confirm the above.

You will not see much intensity change with you eye above 75%. This goes for Half or Full wave LED circuits.

[Troy_Connor]

I want to know if LED's are not designed for dimming is it going to cause them to fail? I do not want to install all these lights if they are not going to hold up like they should. Please give feedback if you have experienced any problems.

[-klb-]

The place you are in danger of them failing is if you try to dim them, and they don't dim at all. Or if they actually get brighter. Either of those indicate that they way they are wired will cause failures if you continue dimming them. Most strings of LED lights just need some linear load to behave better, but dim kind of OK to start with. As long as that is what yours are doing, you are probably OK..

But the official answer would come from your light manufacturer, not these crazy voices on the interwebs...:shock:

[JBullard]

Depends on how they are made.

If the LED string is made with a voltage doubling circuit that also contains a capacitor, then they will fail. (sometimes with smoke and flames)

Most full wave LEDs (the ones sold by CDI for example) dim very well.

Some half wave LEDs may need a "snubber" to smooth their diming curves.

If the LEDs are marked as "non-dimming" then there is a reason they should not be dimmed.

[magish01]

Dennis, PM sent.

[Surfing4Dough]

Troy_Connor wrote:

I am new to LOR and was worndering What problems have been experienced while dimming LED's. I alraeady had a lot od LED's I purchased from WalMart and some left over from my static display. Will this shrten the life of the LED's if they are not designed to dim. They appear to dim pretty good, but it seems like they dim up up better then down.

Walmart LEDs dim fine. As with most LEDs, if you connect more than a 2-3 strings alone on a channel, they will dim a little funny at the lower end. That is where a snubber comes into play. It adds an extra load on the channel. Connecting an incandescent bulb or string will do the same.

Here is a good link for easy snubbers: