Maker Pro
Maker Pro

Help with 5v led dimmer Battery/mains

Scardina61

Dec 22, 2022
2
Joined
Dec 22, 2022
Messages
2
Hi. Ihave a project Ive promised somebody for a year now. Ive got the thing built but cant get the leds to work right. Ill explain what Im trying to do, whats happening and hopefully you guys can follow what Im saying enough to know why..
So the project is a backlit mirror to keep it simple. I am using about 1 meter of single color 5 volt leds. My strips have the resistors on board, according to the literature should be about 5 watts. What I want to do is use battery power through a 18650 charge/discharge shield that can run the lights and charge the battery via usb in the event the battery dies. I'm also using a small touch dimmer in the shields out to dim/on/off. I dont have any specs on the dimmer, sorry. I can tell you its a amazon special, made to push in to a hole to mount, has 4 wires, red/black (in) red wstrip/yellow out.
Everything works except when on battery power and approaching full brightness the lights will just suddenly drop out. This does not happen while on mains.
To confirm its not the charger shield, I moved to a 3xAA power supply. Same issue, works great straight through, add the dimmer back in and drop out at full bright. Batteries are charged and run the lights forever without the dimmer.
Also, I am going through a voltage regulator board when comming off the AA's to maintain 5 v (or pretty dam close)
Does anybody have any idea what Im doing wrong??
Need more info? just tell me I'll get it to you
 

kellys_eye

Jun 25, 2010
6,514
Joined
Jun 25, 2010
Messages
6,514
What's the spec of the dimmer? It may be cutting off due to too high a current draw.
 

Scardina61

Dec 22, 2022
2
Joined
Dec 22, 2022
Messages
2
Unfortunately, I cant find any technical data at all for the switch. I did notice last night that as the lights get brighter the amps creep up, somewhere around the 1.8-2 amp mark is where the lights drop out. At the same time the voltage from the dimmer increases also. I would think reverse would be true. In any event, there is no issue when on mains. I can only think that possibly the charge discharge board canty support the load while on battery, but the same happens when just on the AA battery pack as well. I know there has got to be a way to make this work, I'm just not seeing it.
 

kellys_eye

Jun 25, 2010
6,514
Joined
Jun 25, 2010
Messages
6,514
Monitor the battery voltage as you adjust the brightness and see if it falls off as the brightness increases. There may be a minimum voltage level it works at.
 
Top