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LED Light Strip and GAD27

JDA_BTR

Well Known Member
I have the Vans 2-color (Red/White) LED strip. It has three wires; Red/White/Black. I assume that the Red powers the red, white the white, and black is the common ground to both.

To control each separately on a dimmer with the GAD27 it would be necessary to have a separate ground for each, since the GAD27 acts as the PWM ground point, and isn't the power source for the circuit. But there is just one ground wire; so the two go up and down together when the ground is the PWM sink.

Is it possible to connect a separate ground for the red and the white lights, or am I stuck as I suspect and can't really use this with two dimmers? One option would be to have a red strip and a white strip; wasting what I have. Another option is to put a controller in and drive the controller with the PWM output (also wasteful).

I've read that many G3X users control this red/white strip with their pots but it seems like it won't work when they share a common ground.
 
What if a pot is connected in series with either the red or white wire, which ever one that you want to be more dimmer than the other? The PWM current through the black wire will dim both red and white lights. The pot will dim its color light even more.
 
You are correct that the GAD 27 controls the common ground using PWM. I wired the white LED strip through a ?cabin lights? switch (white LED strip and baggage light) and the red LED through a ?panel lights? switch (red LED strip and panel switch lights). The LED strips are controlled by a single dimmer but I don?t use white and red at the same time so it?s not an issue (?cabin? for loading, ?panel? for flying). The panel switch lights use a 2nd dimmer that also controls buttons on the Garmin devices, and a 3rd dimmer controls screens.
 
I didn't use the Van's Red/White LED strip but I did buy one off ebay and installed it on the glare shield of my Lancair. What I used was a 5K pot with an on/off switch. I connected the red to one side, the white to the other, power to the switch, from the switch to the center of the pot. When I turn the pot on the red lights up bright, as I turn it the red dims to nothing as the white comes on, keep turning as the white goes to bright.
 
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