A new design/invention of mine (will be posted soon, honest), a multi-button controlled light switch/dimmer, went into service a few days ago. It’s installed to control the main light in our guest bedroom - room which, at last,is re-decorated. As there are two beds and the room is large I’ve placed a pushbutton switch next to the two beds and at the doorway. A simple press toggles the light on/off; a longer press cycles a dimmer function up and down. When you release the button the dimmer remembers the light level.
Anyway, I installed the thing a few days ago. A couple of nights later we were both awakened by a storm outside. Then we noticed something VERY strange, pretty scary to start with : a strange varying light that was lighting-up the trees all around the house… A while for the cotton-wool to disperse from my brain, and I realised what was going-on. I even laughed. You see, there was a storm going on, and the electric supply here is a bit erratic. My dimmer wasn’t properly filtering mains noise or spikes, and had got to thinking that the buttons were down instead of up - and was gaily cycling through it’s dimmer functions! The shutters on the windows of that bedroom weren’t shut, so the light was lighting-up the garden.
Next day I added some extra noise suppression and modified the assembler code (oh yes, of course it’s microprocessor controlled) - and all has been well since.
Had me worried for a minute, though…
