Ballast circuit with multiple inverters and dimming controller

A dimming ballast circuit, comprising:

• an enclosure, further comprising:
• a plurality of inverters disposed within the enclosure and adapted to receive power from a single AC power source, each inverter for selectively powering a load;
• and
• a controller disposed within the enclosure and operationally coupled to a shutdown control signal of each inverter for selectively disabling any combination of inverters to effectively disconnect the load associated with each disabled inverter;
• and
• a control device external to the enclosure and operationally coupled to the controller;
• wherein the controller receives communications from the control device, each communication representing a selection of (i) 0%, (ii) “n−1” approximate percentages each associated with a ratio of “1” through “n−1” loads to “n” loads, where “n” is the total number of loads powered by the inverters of the ballast circuit and where the numerator for each ratio is an integer between “1” and “n−1” inclusive, or (iii) 100% light from the combined loads powered by the inverters of the ballast circuit.

A dimming ballast circuit, comprising:

• a first inverter adapted to receive power from a single AC power source for selectively powering a first load;
• a second inverter adapted to receive power from the single AC power source for selectively powering a second load;
• and
• a controller operationally coupled to a shutdown control signal of each inverter for selectively disabling any combination of inverters to effectively disconnect the load associated with each disabled inverter;
• wherein the controller is adapted to receive communications from an external control device, the communications including a selection of 0%, about 50%, and 100% light from the combined loads powered by the inverters of the ballast circuit, and wherein the controller disables any one of the inverters for the selection of about 50% light.