[DeTomaso] Hot Dimmer Switch

[SOBill at aol.com]

Your lamp rheostat is using a power switching circuit to control  the 
brightness.
When the switch is on, the lamp is full bright with full voltage  applied and 
no power is lost in the switch.
When the switch is off the lamp is out with no voltage applied and  no power 
is lost in the switch.
The rheostat controls the on/off duty cycle of the switch at 60  
switches/second.
The thermal time constant of the lamp averages the on/off duty  cycle to set 
the brightness without visible flicker.
 
 
The same scheme will work for dimming the instrument lights, but  you would 
need to find a suitable control/switching circuit for 12VDC and some  way to 
mount it.
 
 
SOBill  Taylor
sobill at aol.com



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