On Fri, 22 Feb 2002, Dave Dilatush wrote:

> If you want soft-start for those yard lights, one easy way to obtain it
> would be to put an RC low pass filter between the MOSFET gates and the
> PIC pin doing the control; something with a time constant of a few
> hundred milliseconds or so.

Not a bad idea, I may do that.

> Of course, soft-start controlled by a ramped PWM would have a higher
> "geek factor" than just a simple RC, wouldn't it...

Well, yeah, but the PWM would really need to be synced to the AC waveform,
which would be a PITA.  My original idea was to just turn on one MOSFET at
first, then the second one a second or so later.  I like your idea better,
though.

And for Vasile: "Geek factor" is related to the amount of cool technology
you can use for any particular application.  A light switch has no geek
factor compared to a relay, and a relay controlled by a PIC is even
better.  Relays have little or no geek factor compared to MOSFETs,
especially when the FETs are used in a new and unusual way.  The fact that
you could just use a ligth switch is irrelevant.  Same reason we carry a
Palm 505 with a mini Linux kernel instead of a notepad...  8-)

Dale

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