Universal AC MAINS Dimmer - MPDMv4.1

Name: Universal AC MAINS Dimmer - MPDMv4.1
SKU: 6985
Price: 18.78 USD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.71 (12 reviews)

(12 Reviews)

MAINS Power Dimmer/Switch - Version 4.1

Designed by NextEVO in Romania

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2016-12-11T09:50:01.814Z-ESPEasy-Part2.jpg

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MPDMv7.5 AC Dimmer DevBoard has been released! For special shipping options, custom orders or any other questions/ please feel free to contact me anytime at: nextevone@gmail.com

MAINS Power Dimmer/Switch - Version 4.1

UPDATE !! UPDATE !! April 2017 UPDATE !! UPDATE !! Full Raspberry PI + Domoticz Tutorial, detailed Youtube video included How to setup and drive directly your MPDMv4 AC dimmer board using the PWM …

What is it?

A MAINS Power Dimmer/Switch with integrated Phase detection and ZCD (Zero Crossing Detection) processing. It is Triac driven and intended to be used for lighting control. Tested and working ok with standard lightbulbs (incandescent lamps or the new Halogen ECO). For LED or fluorescent lights you need to check first that they are dimmable units.

Designed and tested for EU MAINS 240V/50Hz but working also OK on US 110/60hz.

Why did you make it?

The idea behind was to create a Universal MAINS Power Dimmer that is easy to be used with lighweight IOT applications processors/MCU/SOC as ESP8266 for example or even RASPBERRY PI Boards. It is A Vcc=3.3V friendly device!

What makes it special?

You Don't need to do ANY kind of ZCD processing on your application processor/SOC, Arduino/ESP8266/whaterever MCU you might use out there these days!! All the proper Zero Crossing Detection and processing functions are done driver side, onboard!

It's a Voltage/PWM controlled device, that means you just need 1 PIN to provide a PWM signal or a 0-3V voltage from a DAC for a smooth, accurate and precise control. Even a Potentiometer is enough! no timing issues, no programming, no nothing!

Protected by FUSE and MOV as requested by the latest MAINS Safety Rules. To be used with proper EMI filter. Use a proper Heatsink for Triac, accordingly with your planned load power. For a standard house lightbulb can work without.

All components are brand new, coming from traceable sources and are properly tested before shipping.

For more details about MPDMv4 Universal AC Dimmer please read articles below:

Youtube Video list:

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Review Breakdown

Average Ratings

Product: (5.00)

Documentation: (4.50)

Shipping: (4.58)

Communication: (4.75)

Gero | Nov. 2, 2021

Works great!

Works perfectly and easy to implement on the RPi! Only a true on/off is lacking, but that’s available with the newer version of the dimmer.

Mihai | Sept. 27, 2018

Awesome product, awesome team

I have bought some (8pcs) of MPDM4 and I can't tell how awesome they are, how smooth the dimming is and how easy is to integrate them in any IoT automation.
More than that, the NextEvo team is amazingly fast in providing any help/documentation/support needed for their customers. Well done, way to go.
Congratulation and thank you for everything.

Jannes | Nov. 10, 2017

Small, powerfull and easy

After playing around with just on and off switches with GPIO or serial on a Raspberry PI, it was time to work with dimming hardware. And surprisingly there is not so much to find. Till I found this dimmer and love it!

It is small in dimensions. So I could just integrate next to my GPIO switches.
It can just control 220V devices (I use a bulb light for heating). So by playing around with some code I could adjust the temperature by dimming the light.
It comes with a fuse, which to is an extra assurance that I can not overload it. Nice!

And it integrates that easy with a Pi and Python, that I support this device with my TerrariumPI software for running a terrarium fully automated https://github.com/theyosh/TerrariumPI

There are some downsides. First my problems is that the shipping costs are higher then the device itself. I just ordered a bunch, but the shipping costs are a bit high comparing with the cheap price for this device.
And I get the feeling that the dimmer effect from 60% and higher are not really noticeable. At least I can't see it at my light bulb. From 60% till 100% looks the same.

But overall, I would advise it to other people if they are looking for a dimmer module for a Raspberry PI

Response from NextEVO | Nov. 12, 2017

Thank you Jannes for your review!

Regarding shipping:

Unfortunatelly from end of Aug 2017 is no more accepted by the Authorities for security reasons to send electronic parts & devices with the "small packets" option. This is out of my control and cannot say that I was very happy when happened without any previous notice.

The only available options remained are "Priority shipping" or EMS Express mail.

Cost per package, Priority Shipping with tracking, for EU for example : 15USD flat upto 1kg.
The good part of this story is that you can order more than 1 board and have better shipping price, without any shipping cost increase.
The new shipping prices on our Tindie store are updated accordingly.

Regarding the dimming effect, because the human eye is not a liniar sesor device it will be hard to notice the full dimming interval. If you look below at the related article and oscilloscope visualitation you will see that it's happening also in that interval you refer above.

For any other questions please feel free to contact me anytime.

Happy breadboarding,
TJ.

Mirko | June 22, 2017

By far the best universal dimmer!

I was looking hard for a solution to digitally (=PWM) dim my high-voltage lamps, tried out a few solutions, paid far more for so called ready-to-use products but wasn't satisfied at all.
The two MPDM boards I got convinced me of the thought-out design - PCB is well layouted, mains are very well separated from the low-voltage part.
I connected them to Sonoff devices - having an ESP8266 inside - and drive them via its PWM channels.
Result looks like this: https://imgur.com/a/xhkar
Working like a charm!

The only thing to consider is, to not reach the maximum PWM / voltage input level, otherwise lights start flickering and some other undefined things might happen.
For the ESP that's a value around ~910 (of 1024) - between that and 0 everything is working perfectly fine.

EDIT: I almost forgot to mention the awesome support from the developer/seller. That was very helpful, communication was very friendly and faster than expected (meaning, he had to wait for my replies instead of me waiting for him :))

Response from NextEVO | June 22, 2017

Thank you all for your reviews!

I am very happy to see people using them with great success for their own experiments and projects!

Just a short tech note: As long as the MPDMv4 voltage control (VCNT) is kept inside the defined dimming interval (0-2.85/2.9V) is will work very smooth. Actually this is the only thing to take care about because as you can see on osciloscope waveforms presented in the related Youtube tutorials as soon as VCNT voltage is Out of the dimming interval the ZCD module will loose MAINS sync and things will start looking bad. This is something that is not related only with MPDMv4 AC dimmer, any AC dimmer if loosing MAINS sync will start working erroneously.

Happy breadboarding,
TJ.

Jan-Willem | June 1, 2017

Very nice dimmer

I really love this dimmer. It does what it tells you to do. Shipment was fast and communication with the vendor quickly. keep up the good work.

Kalpesh | Feb. 24, 2017

Finally I received MPDMv4.1 dimmer and use it

I with incandescent bulb no flickering just working awesome!!!
It's A-Grade quality product
True European quality!!!!

Bob | Jan. 17, 2017

Very good

Works well on ESP8266. It is easy to get going using ESPEasy and the video tutorial of MPDM. Build quality looks good. Seller responds quickly and elaborately to email.

Radu | Nov. 25, 2016

Great seller, item as described & fast delivery. Thank you.

Thanks for making this very useful product. I am using it now for more than 2 weeks and it's doing pretty good. This board is well thought out & seems to work well

Response from NextEVO | Dec. 5, 2016

Thank you all for your reviews!

Happy breadboarding,
TJ.

Eugene | July 24, 2016

Excellent Seller!!!

NextEvo offers a full line of products for any application you can imagine. The parts are sourced from known sources there is no worry about this seller placing used components on the board. This guy is great an engineer supporting a staff of employees in Romania who speaks good English very easy to deal with. I have developed a liking for his company and their mission I hope to make future purchases and support his company to keep it up and running. It is not that often you meet a business man like him sharing grassroots value and bringing value to the DIY community in general. All of his items are tested before shipping he has had a 0% return if you seen his test you would understand how this is possible each board is tested with quality equipment to ensure the products functional.

I have talked with the company owner for some time thus this is why it has taken me so long to do a review. I finally got to say I am impressed by every measure of his work quality is something that is a top priority bringing quality products at an affordable rate.

I will be doing a video review shortly as well as a guide on how to go from dimmer board to dimming your lights along with code etc.... A complete open source dimming project. http://www.esp8266.com/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=10958&p=51393#p51393 The dimmer is slightly different from the one sold here but you can purchase that from the link on the project page if you wish to support the effort put into the project a little more in price but consider it a donation for each purchase made there is a few dollar donation as a way of saying thanks for showing me how to easily make a light dimmer and get it up and running.

Brijesh | July 14, 2016

Excellent support and knowledge sharing.....

A very reliable, well built and easy to use unit, with excellent service and prompt response to my questions.
I am more into programming and have no expertise with Electrical but after reading his remarkable blog http://www.esp8266-projects.com, i started making ESP or Arduino related projects, safely managing AC loads.

I would request you to design something for the AC ceiling fan regulator, which can be controlled by the existing switch board fan regulator as well as with Arduino or ESP8266.

Thanks a lot for a wonderful product.

Regards
Brijesh

Christopher | June 12, 2016

Great board for simple control of power dimmer

Arrived well packed and ready to use. I appreciate the mating connector and crimp pins being included! A hookup diagram tossed in would be nice but a quick Internet lookup always will fix that easily.

What does jumper JP1 do BTW?

Works smoothly with potentiometer and will try a DAC and ESP8266 next for some IOT fun. Voltage over 3V on the VCNT will turn the power back on so adjust your VCNT for strictly 0-3V (possibly a side effect of being on 120V 60HZ USA power). I really like the board cutouts for power isolation, snubber circuits for noise reduction, room for a heat sink on the triac, and a real fuse - A+ design.

Response from NextEVO | June 14, 2016

Thank you Christopher for your review. I am very happy to see that people find MPDMv4 boards interesting and want to use them in their projects.

This board is the result of a long-term multi-stage design that evolved in the current MPDM board at version 4. As you have pointed very well in your post, a lot of attention was also accorded to the safety: proper high quality ceramic FUSE, MOV, proper isolation between MAINS stage and low voltage one, High powerTriac with isolated tab, etc.

P1 is used for initial testing and calibration, not to be used in standard operation mode.

The Dimming working interval is established between 0-2.8/2.9V and might vary a bit depending on the load and/or AC MAINS line type (120VAC/60Hz or 240VAC/50Hz). As soon as your VCNT value is outside the interval it will become visible on the Osciloscope (and also on the lighbulb if this is the load). Here is explained a bit more : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZvemdrVvrE

For more details about, please take a look at the related articles and videos on www.esp8266-projects.com and the related Youtube channel : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGAEbpaLKU9AV-MYxQGUeAQ. They are there a lot of materials, from ESP8266, Arduino, Blynk examples to more deeper presentations of the MPDMv4.

For any other related questions please feel free to contact me anytime.

Happy breadboarding,
TJ.

Kristian | June 7, 2016

Seems like really well build

I've not yet had a chance to try it out. But the product seems quite well build, comes assembled and was quick to arrive. I look forward to use it in a project

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