[PLUG-TALK] Electrical hacking: Touch-lamps

Galen Seitz galens at seitzassoc.com
Wed May 19 04:00:16 UTC 2004


Jeme A Brelin <jeme at brelin.net> wrote:

> 
> OK, you know those lamps that turn on when you touch their metal parts?
> 
> I want something like that... but not exactly like that.
> 
> I went to the store to see what I could find.  I found a couple of
> interesting products:
> 
> Touch lamps.
> Touch lamp bulb socket adapters.
> Touch lamp outlet adapters.
> 
> The lamps do what the lamps do.
> 
> The bulb socket adapter has a socket that screws into an existing lamp
> bulb socket and a conducting tab that screws against the metal casing of
> the bulb socket to make contact for the touch-sensitivity.
> 
> So far, so good.
> 
> The outlet adapter, however, goes between the power cord and the wall and
> has NO conductor to attach to a metal part of the lamp.  But it still
> freakin' works.  How the hell's that?!?
> 
Not sure.  I would guess that it is detecting the tiny leakage current when
you touch the lamp.

> Mods:
> 
> I don't like what it does, exactly.  First, it is designed to dim power to
> three levels.  Is there a reason they ALL do this?  Can I modify the thing
> so that it just turns on and off with touch?
I haven't looked inside one of these, so I don't know how hard it would be
to modify.  Are you wanting to power something other than an incandescent or
halogen lamp?

> 
> And what if I have a lamp with no metal parts, but would like to have a
> metal strip on the wall that is touched?  Is that possible?
> 
> Let me know if you've got any ideas.
> 
A quick google search brought up this:
http://www.eztone.com/lighting-touch-control.htm

The Christmas tree touch control appears to meet your requirements.  I don't
know that you need to pay $20 for something like this.  I'd look around
for similar products with lower prices.

galen




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