Hi, I am new to Home Assistant, and appreciate these forums! Looking forward to being a contributor as the project progresses.
My first application will be to control outdoor lighting.
I am planning on LED fixtures and a transformer similar to this one from ‘Volt’:
The goal is to control using a dimmer. I’d like to be able to slowly increase light level from zero and hold a particular light level.
For example: A motion sensor triggers, (motion sensor a separate issue I realize), then the lights gradually increase to a set level over 1 second.
Would the solution be to control the AC coming in to the transformer? Or control voltage after rectification?
I’m lost where to begin. Are there automated 120v relays that include a dimming circuit?
Patch together off-the-shelf products? Design and build something?
There are tons of dimmer relays that are WiFi, Zigbee or Z-Wave that will do what you want. Go with a name brand that allows you to set the ramp time in the configuration. For example, the Fibaro Dimmer 2, which is only 10A, has great control over how it operates:
There are many others out there for low voltage, high voltage, dimmable, on/off only, etc. I use these Fibaros pretty often when I only need up to 10A of power. For larger amperage applications I use other manufacturers with some more “oomph” than this little Fibaro has.
