dimmer

[prkaye]

I purchased the cockpit/map lights from Stein. I want to put these on a panel-mounted potentiometer/rheostat for dimming. The documentation with the lights says for 1-2 lights I should use a 400 ohm, 2 watt potentiometer/rheostat. Can anybody point me to a specific product that would work here? I have not been able to find a component with these exact specifications.

[Brantel]

I would not put a rheostat in a modern airplane. Terrible use of precious power....

Use a solid state dimmer. Van's sells em for cheap.

[647jc]

Try Digikey 500 Ohm, 2 watt Pot. If you are going to control other items beside the 2 map lights I would definitely consider a dimmer circuit rather than just a pot or rheostat.

[prkaye]

Ok thanks guys. Forgive my lack of electronics knowledge, but would this dimmer circuit be a suitable substitute for a 400-ohm rheostat? The product description doesn't say anythign about the voltage range...

http://www.vansaircraft.com/cgi-bin/...product=dimmer

[Brantel]

As long as your max load is within that dimmers capability, it will work fine.

Did you get the LED maplights? If so I can tell you that Van's cheap dimmer works great driving three of them on the same dimmer.