Patent ID: 8860326

Claim:
A light-emitting diode (“LED”) lighting system comprising: a dimmer having a preheat function and configured to generate a dimming signal; a first group of LEDs and a second group of LEDs, the first group of LEDs and the second group of LEDs configured to be independently driven by a first LED drive signal and a second LED drive signal, respectively; a dimming controller configured to receive the dimming signal from the dimmer, and generate a first pulse-width modulated (“PWM”) signal based on the dimming signal, the first PWM signal having a first duty cycle; a software controller in electrical communication with the dimming controller, the software controller configured to receive the first PWM signal from the dimming controller, compensate the first PWM signal for the preheat function of the dimmer to generate a second PWM signal, the second PWM signal having a second duty cycle, the second duty cycle being different than the first duty cycle; and an LED driver module configured to receive the second PWM signal, generate the first LED drive signal based on the second PWM signal, the first LED drive signal associated with a drive level of the first group of LEDs, generate the second LED drive signal based on the second PWM signal, the second LED drive signal associated with a drive level of the second group of LEDs, and transmit the first LED drive signal to the first group of LEDs and the second LED drive signal to the second group of LEDs.