Motion Detector Retrofit - Anyone Have Any Tricks?

[chrisexv6]

Thinking about the motion around the staircase... one thing to point out - if you're looking for the best coverage, you might want to see the staircase; if you're designing a system around pet-immune sensors, staircases will do you in! Even a 100lb pet immune sensor will trigger from a 15lb cat that makes it up too high vertically in the sensor's view.

No pets here (unless you count the kids ). I actually removed the small piece of plastic that comes as a mask since I should never need to make them pet immune. Plus now the motions dont actually point at the stairs anyway (before they did). There is also a window at the bottom of the stairs that would end up directly underneath the motion sensor, so one could break thru and walk right in. The glassbreaks would most likely catch them, but I dont like working on "most likely". Where the motion sensor is now its basically giving me blanket coverage over half of the great room, from the main entrance right to the stairs (and that window too).

It might not look the best (since its centered in the beam that goes across the great room) but it sure works!

 

[Del91574]

Thinking about the motion around the staircase... one thing to point out - if you're looking for the best coverage, you might want to see the staircase; if you're designing a system around pet-immune sensors, staircases will do you in! Even a 100lb pet immune sensor will trigger from a 15lb cat that makes it up too high vertically in the sensor's view.

Judicious masking and walk testing are key to accomplishing this....with "no mask" PI dualtecs. Done this many times. The key is remembering that the motion does not need to see the stairs themselves, just the approach to them.

 

[Ranman]

Some good feedback here, thank you. Bottom line is it's going to take patience on these couple of motions. The sad part for me is that I'm just a moderately astute DIY'er and not a Pro which means while I'm lilely above the average hack and whacker, I'll likely never get that same level of experience and expertise since I don't do it day in and day out. I've learned a lot from this site and others here and have some pretty good tools and a few tricks up my sleeve.

Wish I knew of a good LV installer in Metro Detroit, I would likely just hire and pay for the experience of someone to handle the couple of tough spots I have to get past.

 

[chrisexv6]

A tip: if possible get a small portable 12V power supply and wire up the power side of the motion detector and hang it temporarily in the location you think you want it. That will allow you to test if/how it works before you permanently mount it.

I happen to have a 12V power supply to power a charger for my radio controlled stuff, so I ran the motion detector to that and plugged it in in various locations until I found a good spot for the detector to do its job.

 

[midrar]

Some good feedback here, thank you. Bottom line is it's going to take patience on these couple of motions. The sad part for me is that I'm just a moderately astute DIY'er and not a Pro which means while I'm lilely above the average hack and whacker, I'll likely never get that same level of experience and expertise since I don't do it day in and day out. I've learned a lot from this site and others here and have some pretty good tools and a few tricks up my sleeve.

Wish I knew of a good LV installer in Metro Detroit, I would likely just hire and pay for the experience of someone to handle the couple of tough spots I have to get past.

I am an electrical contractor and a little trick we like to do is install an old work box at the same height as a receptacle but in the same area where you would like a sensor. It gives us a big enough hole to run the wiring nice and neat from the basement and straight up and when we're done, the hole is small enough to install and wire in a new receptacle where they never had one before. If your interested in a free estimate, pm me with what you are looking at getting done. I am a Metro Detroit Electrical Contractor and we have been in business for over 50 years.

 

[Del91574]

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