DIMMING control FOR AN IKEA SOLAR desk LAMP

[Frank] decided to augment his desk lamp’s features by adding dimming controls (translated). since the light source is a triad of LEDs the best method of dimming their intensity is to use Pulse width Modulation. That’s the method that he went with, and luckily the SUNNAN lamp from Ikea which he’s using as the donor for the project has just enough room to squeeze in the parts necessary for this hack.

You need two main bits to use PWM with a lamp like this; a microcontroller (or possibly a timer chip like the 555) and a transistor to protect that chip from the current necessary to run the LEDs at full brightness. [Frank] went with an ATtiny13 and a 2N2222 transistor, both quite common and very economical (you can even pull the microcontroller from a light bulb if you know where to look). two buttons were added to the top of the lamp base which allow for up and down controls. There’s even an SOS function which is triggered by pressing both buttons at the same time. [Frank’s] happy to show off the completed project in the clip after the break.