X10 Floodlights motion sensor

[hotwire]

At my last place the output of the motion detector was routed through a relay controlled by a photo cell. During the daytime the coil to the relay was not energized by the photo cell and the lights would not come on, at night the lights would come on. If you didn’t want to go through all of that you could try and find a photo cell that screws into the lamp socket. Some of the cheaper units don’t have any delay on them. I think this would be ideal because you wouldn’t want to wait the thirty seconds or so for the photo cell to kick on at night.

Hope this helps,
Kenny

 

[nsisman]

Dan,

My PR511 senses motion during the day. Here is how it is set up.

on the blue dials......... range=max dusk=normal

house code L unit code 1

white dial...........time delay 0.1

red slider (this unit) ......dusk

sensor sliders 1,3,4 are out 2 is in
dusk sliders 5,6,7,8 are out

In Homeseer devices are

L1 appliance mod with status (this is the actual floods)
L2 motion sensor
L3 virtual device (status only)

I just use the L3 virtual (which is activated day and night by the motion sensor) to turn on the floods L1 (condition night of course) after dark when motion detected.

As soon as the motion detector is activated by walking by the sensor L3 gets switched on briefly and I use L3 to control my events.

I just tried a test event "announce visitor" triggered "when L3 changes to on" and it works fine for me.

Try it and let me know how you make out.

You could likely make L3 another motion sensor within doomotion and do all kinds of things with it.

Hope this helps.....

 

[JohnBullard]

For my driveway sensor, I took two of the units apart, trashed the light sockets.


This left me with just the sensor and controls, which I mounted to a rectangular waterproof electrical box, mounted on a conduit leg. Power is fed up the conduit frpm buried wire.

They are mounted on opposite sides of my driveway, visually screened by shrubbry.

The first one is about 10 feet from the street, and the 2nd one is about 10 feet further down the driveway.

They are set to different unit codes.

The Ocelot has to see the signal from the first one, and within 5 seconds receive the signal from the 2nd, before it triggers the "someone in driveway alert".

This reduced false alarms from wind, clouds, critters etc to near zero. Also it only detects motion entering the driveway, not leaving it.

Works great for me.

 

[electron]

so you are saying your floodlights don't turn on at all when configured like this (unless you turn them on manually that is)?

 

[ClearToLand]

...Works great for me.

Another PVT PLT??? (RE: animated icon w/airplane)

 

[nsisman]

Electron,

Right on ! PR511 is in the backyard.

I have an event "floods on nite"

trigger is "L3 on"

condition "time is night"

action turn on L1 (L1 is the appliance module with status which is actually the two bulbs)
then turn L1 off 4 minutes later.

I also have this event turn on C3 (and off 4 minutes later) which is front lites (we go out the back door to get to the garage for the car and it's nice to have the front lites pop on too)

I set up a test event today just to detect motion and make an announcement with virtual device L3 and it works like a charm (and the floods don't come on because it's daytime).

Try it !

 

[electron]

I am definitely going to try this, this is exactly what I am looking for, thanks again!

 

[ClearToLand]

so you are saying your floodlights don't turn on at all when configured like this (unless you turn them on manually that is)?

(I'm ASSUMING that you're referring to nsisman's post...)

I took a HARD LOOK at the logic when nsisman first posted it, and it forced me to RE-VISIT the PR511 MANUAL. Without any "experimentation", my first opinion is that L1 *WILL*/(SHOULD) turn ON for 6 seconds *EACH* time the Motion Detector senses motion, day or night. BUT, it will only (?blink? and) *STAY* ON when CONDITION=NIGHT is TRUE (HomeSeer?).

With only "Slider 2" engaged (Unit[L1]+2[=L3]), I don't see where L2 (Motion Sensor - Unit+1) gets assigned... :unsure:

 

[Rupp]

One of these might be easier:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...&category=66738

 

[ClearToLand]

One of these might be easier:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...&category=66738

This device doesn't even appear to be X-10! SACRILEGE!

 

[nsisman]

Clear toLand

I think you are right - I don't think L2 does anything at all.

I just removed device L2 totally as it didn't show up in the log and the event still works fine.

So I am presuming the momentary "on" from L1 is coming from the motion sensor in there (whatever it is called) but I do know that with that slider switch #2 "in" on the sensor side it is turning on L3 ( which would be logically L1 + 2 ?).

At any rate it works when you make L3 "on" the trigger for your events.

I suppose one could put sliders 1 to 4 "in" and then have 4 virtual devices do stuff !

I never understood why my car goes backwards in "R" but it does. I'll leave it at that !

Good luck.....................

 

[ClearToLand]

Clear toLand

I think you are right - I don't think L2 does anything at all...

I just removed device L2 totally as it didn't show up in the log
I suppose one could put sliders 1 to 4 "in" and then have 4 virtual devices do stuff !

I use +4 and +5, which gives me 2 consecutive addresses for my ActiveHome (v1.32) Macros (Motion Detect and Dusk Detect). +1 thru +3 and +6 thru +8 seem like overkill?!?

...I never understood why my car goes backwards in "R" but it does. I'll leave it at that !

Sorry - can't help you there...

 

[JohnBullard]

ClearToLand,

Yes, SEL

Sold my last plane in 1994. Still fly some woth buddies

 

[Rupp]

CTL,
It can be X10 enabled very easily using a powerflash module or connected to the Ocelot.

 

[ClearToLand]

ClearToLand,

Yes, SEL

Sold my last plane in 1994. Still fly some woth buddies

John
KD4JZV

I can't begin to tell you how many HOURS/DAYS/WEEKS/MONTHS I spent listening to tapes trying to get over 5 WPM!

[For the rest of you LURKERs, we've now added AMATEUR RADIO to FLYING!]