I am trying to find a way to power an Arduino and RF transceiver behind a UK light switch which just has the live and switched live present. This will run on 5v and 500mA and it would be in series with the light.
I know this is possible as LightwaveRF light switches draw some power from the lighting circuit to power the electronics inside the switch. They seem to keep a low current running through the light, but not enough to light it up. The unit also dims the light but will only go up to about 90% of the normal brightness as the switch is using some of the power.
As far as I can tell it seems to involve a digital AC dimmer and an AC-DC convertor. I have been searching for a way to do this for a while when I came across this site. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I know this is possible as LightwaveRF light switches draw some power from the lighting circuit to power the electronics inside the switch. They seem to keep a low current running through the light, but not enough to light it up. The unit also dims the light but will only go up to about 90% of the normal brightness as the switch is using some of the power.
As far as I can tell it seems to involve a digital AC dimmer and an AC-DC convertor. I have been searching for a way to do this for a while when I came across this site. Any help would be greatly appreciated.