Security/motion lights in series

[EddieWalker]

I've been very frustrated with motion sensor lights. Sometimes they work great, especially when new, but eventually they always seem to stop working. With the very low cost of LED lights, I've switched over to dawn to dusk LED lights. I haven't noticed a change in my electrical bill with five of them on around my house, barn and driveway.

 

[Alesandro]

I've been very frustrated with motion sensor lights. Sometimes they work great, especially when new, but eventually they always seem to stop working.

A lot of times the sensors get bugs in them. When installing or cleaning them, try and put tape to cover any hole that a bug might get into. The tape also helps keep dust off the sensors. This usually helps a lot of the common "false" issues with Motions/PIR's

 

[boggen]

a cctv camera / security camera, with correct motion control recording software (dvr hardware/software), like setup hooked to security system. more likely trigger things better long term. majority of the cctv camera dvr setups, you are able to "select" what part of the camera feeds actually trigger a recording / turn on lights (disable portion of screen were there might be a tree or some flowers), and you are able to adjust timing of everything for how long things are on.

CCTV cameras, more so outside units, tend to come with some sort of "fan" to cool them down, and then perhaps some sort of "sun shade" per say to keep the hot sun off them along with rain off them. and in that the CCTV camera more likely to work longer.

with motion sensors. battery ones, i never had any luck with. and better wired directly to a power source either through lights themselves or to security system / home automation setup.

not a large fan of motion sensors. due to they fail way to easily here in central IL, generally nasty cold winter ice/rain/snow/sleet will take the sensor out, or a nasty hot summer and pure heat will fry the motion sensor circuit boards. and then the more cheaper combo motion sensor and flood light units, flood lights heat up, causing circuit to heat up, and pre-mature death.

some of the more expensive combo motion sensor, light setups, you can wire in series, and they give extra spots to include wiring, to run them all in series / parallel setups. for either sensors and/or lights. but you are at the mercy of cheap circuit boards. i would say head to local large hardware store, menards, lowes, homedepot, and look at what they have to offer, and if need be open a box and check instructions / manuals / wiring options.

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home automation hardware/software be next thing to look at if not, "security system"

 

[airbiscuit]

Now I get that they are for outside. I actually put a 2 floodlight motion light on the inside shining up to give basic illumination until I find the light switch. On the outside, I have 3 motion detecting coach lights on either side of my garage doors, They are dusk to dawn, meaning they are on 50% power for 2-4-6 hours after dusk, and illuminate at full power when motion is detected. I have 75 watt equivalent dimmable LED bulbs in them (100w was too bright). They are nice looking when dim, and illuminate very well when bright. I did not wire them to come on all at once, but there was really no need as they are all on at 50% and trigger well when you are anywhere in the vicinity (just ask the deer!).

 

[Alesandro]

a cctv camera / security camera, with correct motion control recording software (dvr hardware/software), like setup hooked to security system. more likely trigger things better long term. majority of the cctv camera dvr setups, you are able to "select" what part of the camera feeds actually trigger a recording / turn on lights (disable portion of screen were there might be a tree or some flowers), and you are able to adjust timing of everything for how long things are on.

The problem with those systems are they use pixel count for movement, you will get false motion activations, or sometimes none. You could literally walk in front of one at night wearing black as long as there isn't much contrast. You could open the iris to let more light it for night but then your picture would be white washed in the day. With good CCTV equipment and enough tweaking time you could probably get it to work, but this probably won't happen from a CostCo system (Although I haven't looked at those systems in a long time, the chinese make some decent stuff). But then even if you find a CCTV system that can do it, you will need to find a flood light that can be triggered via a low volt contact, or get a 110V relay that can take a low volt trigger..

CCTV systems that work reliably either have an actual PIR on the camera or are used in conjunction with a separate PIR and interconnects with wires for the trigger.

Depending on how much money you want to spend I can make anything work for ya.

 

[kenr74]

kenr74;

Unless you open the electrical connection to those (not just the three wires pig tails) you won't be able to to have 1 motion sensor trigger all the lights. All the switching is handled internally in each unit. You could get 1 or 2 110v Motion detectors and wire them to control flood lights but depending on your budget I don't know if that route you is what you want to take.
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Thanks. That is what I figured and I'm not sure digging into the switch is worth it. I'll just go with the 5 separate lights for now. I had done the separate motion detector that triggered multiple lights in the past and it worked well so I'll keep that in mind.

I did look into the low powered lights that stay on all night but don't want to go that route. My shop faces my closest neighbor and I don't want to have lights on all night facing their direction. They are at least 100 yards away but are pretty sensitive to noise and lights.