Lighting - Hardware

The main processor on the custom board is the Von Neumann Atmega8 8 bit micro from Atmel. The utilized features on the chip are the internal 8 MHz clock, 1 KB SRAM, 3 Timers, 2 channels of the 10 bit ADC, USART and several general I/O lines. The micro communicates with the zigbee AVR Raven board via RS232. The board has a closed loop current sensor as a highly accurate current sensor to measure power usage and for lighting control. It also has a temperature sensor accurate to 2 degrees Celsius from 0-100 degrees C.

The total power for the board consumes ~1/4 Watts with an input voltage of 10-36 Volts.

The "mains" section of the board is capable of lighting a 40-300W light bulb. The load can be turned on/off and dimmed through the use of a TRIAC. The board is protected by over-current and voltage transients varistor and a 4A fuse.