Step 2 : The 595/Grinch Dimmer Schematic

Step 3 : Improvements

The one thing I don’t like about this circuit is that, it is ALWAYS LIVE! This concerns me so, to remedy this minor set back I am going to add SSR to the over all scheme of things to turn on the dimmer only when in use without using another channel.
Like so:

Step 3 :

Step 3 :


(Above pics are edited from “HowTo: How to build a triac switching unit (SSR) (Robert Stark)”)

Also we can decrease the number of channels it takes to dim this circuit down to two by adding a binary up/down counter and a clock pulse (555). But, the whole point of this project is to make it as SIMPLE as possible to dim the lights hence, the “BRUTE FORCE” (forcing an analog device to act digitally) name and the intentional lack of complexity.

Step 4 : Pictures