Public art piece_ Peekskill festival (looking 4 cheap w

[Fedemuelas]

Hi there,<p>My name is Federico Muelas, I'm a new media artist living and working in New York. I'm doing this public art project for Peekskill festival in September in which I have to control 57 bulbs, I'm using basic stamp to multiplex and control the 57 lights with 57 relays but I'm looking for a way to slow down the lighting on of the bulbs. Does anyone know a reaaally cheap way to do it, May be some capacitor - resistor arrangement (The bulbs are 110v Ac at 100W).<p>Thanks a lot.<p>You can find more info about my work at www.federicomuelas.com

[haklesup]

synesthesia right? <p>Do you want to dimm all of the lights at once or dim each light individually acording to your program.<p>The first route is easy, you just need to put a variable resistor or dimmer on the common return line for all the bulbs. (this is really cheap). Note that most dimmer switches are rated for no more than 600W so you will need to group the bulbs acordingly. <p>You could also use something like the X10 addressable light switches (1 per bulb or in groups) to acomplish the dimming and switching in one module. You can then run the whole thing from a PC using one of the home control S/W packages. You could also write a program of your own. I believe all the necessary specs are public and X10 probably has something to get you going. (they dim rather slowly, so this may not meet your needs). There are also numerous hacker sites supporting these devices.<p>For more control I think you might be able to use the controller (basic stamp)to switch the lamps on and off rapidly so that they look as though they are dimming (variable duty cycle or strobe frequency). (this cost only your programming time)<p>Relays are too slow for this (but you can try especially if you are investigating if a program will meet your needs), you need to scrap those in favor of a solid state switch (often wired and works like a relay) since these can be switched much more rapidly. (this is not so cheap)<p>For my most complex suggestion, you could modify standard dimmer switch and replace the control pot with a digital pot which you can connect to a PC using a serial or USB port. This would take a PCB design and some low level programming but could be done for a reasonable price.<p>I like a carrier current (X10) arrangement best for your application since you can use it right out of the box with only programming to worry about. You will also have multiple choices in S/W and H/W.

[toejam]

Do you need a 6 kw light dimmer, or something more complicated?