1

I'm trying to control an LED panel like the one in this link. I notice it comes with an LED driver. But what I'm wanting to do is to be able to control the brightness of this light through the GPIO pins on a Raspberry Pi.

I've seen that I could do this through a PWM light dimmer. But I'm not too sure how this sort of dimmer would connect to a LED driver seen with the LED panel.

Could someone point me in the right direction? Maybe I need a different PWM light dimmer?

Thanks very much!

Elliot
  • 13
  • 2

1 Answers1

1

That power supply included with that LED panel doesn't support dimming and any attempt to PWM its output may result in it malfunctioning. There are a large number of companies manufacturing and supplying constant current power supplies especially for LED panels. You just need to find one of the right current for your panel and with the correct output voltage range. (The light panel will have a nominal operating voltage despite being constant current operated.)

I have described PWM operation of a Mean Well power supply in my answer to 0-10V Digital Rheostat for LED Dimmer?. You may find this helpful.

The dimmer module you have linked to seems to be a phase control light dimmer. This also is not suitable to put in front of an SMPS. In addition, and as is common on Amazon and Banggood there is no datasheet so you can't be confident of specifications. "No datasheet? No sale!"

Transistor
  • 168,990
  • 12
  • 186
  • 385
  • Read the datasheet https://cdn.beamled.com/pdfs/BLPAN30120_Data_Sheet.pdf "Dimmable: Non-Dimmable" – CrossRoads Jan 12 '19 at 18:26
  • Thanks. I hadn't found that. It confirms that the power-supply is non-dimmable. The panel will just be the LEDs and will be dimable (with the right PSU). – Transistor Jan 12 '19 at 18:32
  • You need to make some measurements and see what the power supply is putting out. Is the panel one or more strings of LEDs, each individually connected, or all in parallel, or ... And at what voltage? How much current is being controlled? Right now, there is not enough information to say. – CrossRoads Jan 12 '19 at 18:44
  • Thanks for this. But to clarify could you control the dimming of any LED panel provided you use the correct driver? So for example this [driver](https://www.meanwell-web.com/content/files/pdfs/productPdfs/MW/HLG-40H/HLG-40H-spec.pdf) could control an LED panel. Provided you match the voltage requirements? – Elliot Jan 15 '19 at 09:36