Can I use a dimmer switch with an LED bulb?

By mvuilleu, in Reviews, Electronics and Measures, august 15,2025.

With the disappearance of incandescent and halogen bulbs due to their poor energy efficiency, we're being encouraged to replace the bulbs in our lamps with equivalent LED bulbs. But if you're used to dimming your lights with a dimmer switch, you've probably noticed that your existing dimmer often doesn't work well with these new bulbs. Why is this, and how can we fix it?

Measuring the spectrum of a light source

By mvuilleu, in Measures, july 25,2025.

When we release a new product, it always takes some time for users who need it to discover it, via the Internet. So, a month after the release of the Yocto-Spectral and Yocto-Spectral-C, we are starting to receive the first, very positive, feedback. But to our surprise, at this time, the product's most frequent use case was not the one we had anticipated...

The new Yocto-Watt-V2 (with USB C)

By mvuilleu, in Measures and New stuff, july 04,2025.

Today, we present a product that has been in gestation at Yoctopuce for over two years: the Yocto-Watt-V2-C. It took so long because we didn't just put a USB Type C connector on the Yocto-Watt. We've taken the opportunity to add some significant improvements to the product, making it an even more interesting measuring instrument than its predecessor.

New! Yocto-Spectral & Yocto-Spectral-C

By Tiago, in New stuff and Measures, june 13,2025.

Some years ago, we were tempted to develop a color sensor based on a simple RGB sensor chip, but the results didn't convince us. Today, we present the Yocto-Spectral and its USB Type-C version, the Yocto-Spectral-C, modules which can measure the light spectrum over 13 channels. Thanks to these measures, they can estimate RGB, HSL, XYZ, and OkLab values, and thus estimate the color seen by the sensor.

Monitoring a solar thermal system

By mvuilleu, in Measures, DIY and Internet of Things, june 06,2025.

If you've ever discussed photovoltaic solar panels with a proud owner, they will certainly have proudly shown you on their cell phone how much electricity they produce every day. With thermal solar panels, on the other hand, remote control is less widespread, as control systems are generally more primitive. So let's take a look at how you can add a simple monitoring system to your domestic water heating system, which could maybe save you a few hundred kWh a year...