Recommendations for motion sensors for lights outside garage?

[JimS]

I have a 3 car garage with a parking pad outside it. It faces a woods with driveway from the side so no other traffic to worry about (except animals). Currently have a couple under eave mounted motion sensor floodlight fixtures but am not completely happy with them. They stick on sometimes and have other issues. Looking at replacing the sensors with a single sensor to trigger all the fixtures. Have seen the Optex LX402 suggested in other threads. Would need to provide dawn to dusk and on time control with automation system. Currently using misterhouse with X10 but looking to go with something better than X10 that won't break the bank. That's really a whole other discussion... I have good access so could even use a wired control signal solution.

Mainly looking for sensor and mounting location suggestions. I am thinking one mounted near the middle should cover the area pretty well. One on each side, aimed inward, would give me the option to trigger on either or both depending on how well they detect. Might work best to trigger on both as when you are going directly toward one you are going across the field of view of the other. (would be good to detect people as well as cars but would also be more prone to false detection...) I could mount it under the overhang so it would be fairly well protected from the weather at about 10' height.

 

[johnboy70_99]

I have used the LX402 outside for this purpose, I have been very happy with it. You can set the sensitivity and coverage angles and get it dialed in pretty well. Rock solid for many years.

Be sure to follow the instructions for proper mounting height - it is important for proper operation. It is weather tight so as long as you seal any entry holes into the house you can mount out in the open and have no worries about weather.

To trigger lights you would need some day/night and timing logic and some way to control them, as you have mentioned.

I use HomeSeer, replaced the sensor lights with just hard wired flood fixtures with no sensors and replaced the wall swich controlling the lights with a UPB switch which also gives me local control.

Depending on your situation you could try two sensors for individual control, but my guess is one sensor controlling the lights would be good for most situations. I think you would have issues with two sensors on the outside pointing in, and if you really wanted to go that route you would probably have better luck with two sensors in the middle pointing out (even that would be tricky). Maybe start with one sensor, but run 22/8 or two runs or 22/4 to the location so that you could add another later if needed. Sounds like budget is an issue, you would probably be happier in the long run with one set of more expensive control (UPB) vs two sets of less expensive control (X10).

Once you have this kind of separation between the sensor with the control, you can do all kinds of things

- in the winter (rule in HomeSeer for me, temperature has been below 28 degrees in the past 3 days, so all the bugs that would hover around my front door if the light is on are dead), front door lights come on at dusk and shut off at 11pm every night, and sensor just controls the floodlights
- in the summer, only the post lamp is on every night, front door lights and floodlights are triggered by the sensor and go off after a short period of time so you don't get a swarm of bugs around your front door
- in the daytime, if the alarm is armed and there is motion, you can get an email to your phone that motion is triggered. The LX402 when set up correctly is so reliable you get very few false triggers.