# Help Me Design A Motion Detector Light System



## California Jim (Dec 11, 2003)

After having my vehicles molested in my driveway for the second time in about a year, I have decided to install a pair of light fixtures on the front of my garage to light my driveway.

Here is what I want to do, and perhaps you can advise with the controller info I will need to make this happen.

1. Install a pair of nice looking light fixtures, one on each side of the garage door. No biggie.
2. Be able to control them so that I can have them manually ON with a timer, and then switch to MOTION DETECTOR OPERATED after we go to bed.

This way I can enjoy them in the earlier evening when we are coming & going, and also add a nice decorative enhancement. Then when we go to bed have them turn off and only come on when the dirtbags are on patrol. All of this must be completely automatic.

Is this possible??? Whatcha think.


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## BoaterDan (Jul 1, 2005)

It's possible because I have that exact setup. I'm pretty sure the self-contained lights with motion detector provide for wiring them that way. All I know is I have a light fixture with the motion sensor built in and I just have a 3-way rocker switch to control them as you describe. It was there when I bought the house, so I don't know anything more than that.

I was curious, so I had to check out Home Depot. It seems for just $30 you can get all this and more.

Clicky


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## Oregon_Camper (Sep 13, 2004)

I have one that has a dimming feature (have this at my front door...so video camera can show who is at the door).

When there is no movement, the light goes into a very dim setting, that still has enough light to see. When someone walks up, both lamps kick in and it is very bright. Stays on for 1min after no movement is detected...then it goes back to the dim mode.

I'd say this is great for you as it will light up the truck at all times (thieves hate light) and then will get very bright if they come close.

You could also set up a motion detector that sounds an alarm in the house if activity is detected about the vehicle.


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## California Jim (Dec 11, 2003)

Thanks for the ideas so far guys







I might add though, that my wife hates the look of those typical flood light fixtures and wants me to install two nice "carriage lights" (sp?). Not sure what they're called but you get the idea, nice looking fixtures.

Thanks!

Jim


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## Y-Guy (Jan 30, 2004)

Jim, a few years ago I bought a timer that replaced my front door light switch. I set it to turn on at 5:30 PM (I change as it gets lighter) and go off at 6:00 AM. I have actually had notes from the local police thanking us for having lights on when they did their patrols. Since its automatic I don't think about it. I have put in florescent lights - but after learning more I don't know why I bothered, I have 5 outside lights, three of them are outside the garage.

That said, lights coming on or off probably won't detour a crook if you car is that tempting they will find away. You need something to notify you what is going on. I like Jim's idea of warning you, but you'll get a lot of false alarms if people walk by and trigger it.

I never had a car alarm until I bought my F350 then I put in one of the Python 881 with a transponder remote. I could care less about the siren on the truck, but what I liked was it beeped at me if anyone fooled around with the truck, up to about 1/2 mile away. Gave me a huge sense of peace of mind.


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## PDX_Doug (Nov 16, 2004)

Jim,

Carriage lights or not, you are going to need a sensor somewhere. I would think you could mod the light BoaterDan is suggesting by removing the two floods, and extending the wiring that had gone to them, on to your decorative lights. The flood light mounting points on the base are a standard size, and you can get plugs to fill the resulting holes.

Just be careful of the wattage of the new lights, and the gauge of wire you are using, as your wire run will be significantly longer now.

Doug


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## fl_diesel (Feb 15, 2006)

California Jim said:


> Thanks for the ideas so far guys
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Jim,

Home Depot or Lowes has exactly what you are looking for. Mine are carriage lights that have a master/slave switch so one of the two can do the controlling. The lights stay on but dim until the motion causes them to move to full brightness.My opinion is that the lights only help the bad guys see what they are doing, they don't seemed deterred by light.

This past weekend 2 people on my street had their cars broken into, they left them unlocked. This has happened multiple times in the past 3 months. I was hit just before Christmas. I just bought this driveway motion sensor with a remote base station to alert me of activity:Reporter Wireless Driveway Monitor ebay $59 delivered. I want to know when the bad guys enter my driveway so to catch them in the act. I have heard this is the best driveway motion sensor out there with no false alarms. You can add up to 4 sensors, each with a distinct ring. I expect it to arrive next week and will let you know my thoughts.


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## California Jim (Dec 11, 2003)

Hmmmm......I like that driveway monitor alot as you guys are right about the lights not being an absolute deterrent. I could put out multiple sensors too. Very cool. I do like the idea of something waking me up when the dirtbags are on my property. So a combination of lights & sensors seems like an excellent solution. Keep em coming! I'm sure that this is a topic we can all benefit from.


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## CanadaCruizin (Jul 3, 2004)

Any idea if a cat/dog/easter bunny might trigger the driveway sensors?

In our previous house, we had a spotlight motion detector at the back door. It *never* occurred to me that the bad guys could just reach up and unscrew the bulbs; which is what they did. After that, I moved it up by 3 or 4 feet.


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## Guest (Feb 12, 2008)

Jim, I have the "Reporter" driveway alert installed with three sensors, and I really like it. It has a feature that I don't use, but you may be interested in. The monitor box has a built-in relay that will drive up to 10 amps. If you want to connect that to an outside light, inside light, or louder alarm; I'm sure that it would drive any or all of them. Most of those things draw 1 amp or less.

Just my two cents worth !!

Happy Camping,
Gary


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## California Jim (Dec 11, 2003)

Thanks Gary









After doing a bunch of reading, I've fallen for the Reporter! Order to follow soon. Looks like a nice unit for not alot of money. Here is one of my favorite product reviews for it over on amazon.com:

"Caught a thief with this!
Works perfectly. We had a thief that kept stealing items from our cars and garage. Bought this and one additional sensor. Put one outside near our gate and one in the garage pointing down over the door so it couldn't be seen by someone opening the door. Took the base station upstairs and had it on when we went to bed each night . . . we were awakened at 5 am by a single beep from the first sensor, got to the window in time to see the thief enter our garage and heard the double beep of the second sensor. He was a little surprised to walk out of the garage and be confronted by myself and my son with baseball bats . . . held him until the police arrived (took only 3 minutes!)

Signal went through 5 walls for one sensor and 3 for the other and had no problem. The beep is a little loud, but we just wrapped it in a towel to muffle it. Easy to use, works just like description, and cheap. Highly recommended. "


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## Oregon_Camper (Sep 13, 2004)

Oh...once you get the lights installed...and nice security camera will help find the bad guys IF anything happens.


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## skylane (Oct 28, 2007)

LOVE IT!!! Batter up!!!!
nothing like a little BP at 5:00 AM 
really gets the blood pumping (pun intended)



California Jim said:


> Thanks Gary
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## BoaterDan (Jul 1, 2005)

One sort of related note... I had a roommate once that had a car alarm that would beep a pager for about 30 seconds before blasting the siren. Gave us just enough time to grab a baseball bat and go running out.

The area where I lived at the time was notorious for car vandalism and theft in the apartment parking lots. Interestingly, the two times it went off this way we'd run out to find his car door ajar but nobody in sight. After the second time it never went off again.

Apparently they were testing the car to see if it had an alarm, and moved on once they knew it did.

So, for whatever that specific experience is worth, I can vouch for a car alarm being a real help, especially if somebody actually responds to it going off. It might take only a few instances of the lights going bright and an alarm for them to learn to leave you alone.


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## Joonbee (Jan 18, 2008)

Officer it was self defense, I swear. He came runing at me and I defended myself with one swing of the bat. HOMERUN
Homeowner 1 Scumbag 0

Seriously, it will all help. We had 27 cars broken into in one little neighborhood in town. They hit the cars that were open and the cars the home that had lights were missed. They were in hurry, not seeking a specific target. One home had the keys in the car, unlocked in the driveway. Motion lights installed (and working), you would be surprised how many had them, but didn't maintain them. Well they wound up rummaging through most of the cars and then stole a car down the street that had the spare keys in the spouse's car next to it. Next couple of weeks there were a lot of new motion lights. Like I said, they will all help to deter from the random smash and grab, but to prevent them you are going to have to have to suit up. Lights, cameras and action. Good topic and great ideas. Can't think of much that hasn't been covered.

Jim


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## LarryTheOutback (Jun 15, 2005)

Do some research on "X-10" systems. This is a flexible, modular, remote control system for home lights and appliances. Companies like Leviton, Honeywell, etc. make X-10 components.

Ed


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## Oregon_Camper (Sep 13, 2004)

LarryTheOutback said:


> Do some research on "X-10" systems. This is a flexible, modular, remote control system for home lights and appliances. Companies like Leviton, Honeywell, etc. make X-10 components.
> 
> Ed


X-10 is nice, but if you want to go that route (over home power lines) you should really look into UPB. Faster...better signal strength...and a snap to program.

http://www.hometech.com/control/upb.html


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## California Jim (Dec 11, 2003)

Lights, camera, action....indeed! Looks like we're heading in that direction.

Thanks Ed and Jim for the technology info. There's alot to digest there in those two brands so I'll be doing alot of reading.

Thanks!

Jim


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## LarryTheOutback (Jun 15, 2005)

Oregon_Camper said:


> X-10 is nice, but if you want to go that route (over home power lines) you should really look into UPB.


Thanks for the reminder on UPB; I'd forgotton about it since I have an extensive X-10 infrastructure.

UPB Primer

Ed


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## Oregon_Camper (Sep 13, 2004)

LarryTheOutback said:


> X-10 is nice, but if you want to go that route (over home power lines) you should really look into UPB.


Thanks for the reminder on UPB; I'd forgotton about it since I have an extensive X-10 infrastructure.

UPB Primer

Ed

[/quote]

Funny thing you used them as the UPB reference...that is the company I bought all my stuff from them. Great company to work with and the Tech support guys are the BEST!
















I combined the following lights (with original switch in random locations) into one location...with 8 buttons. I can turn each one on by itself or all of them at once...I programed a night mode, so the under/over cabinet lights come on to 15% at night. I also have an "All Off" button....VERY helpful.

1) Nook Lights
2) Island Lights (on pot rack)
3) Kitchen Can Lights (8)
4) Butler Pantry (used as a bar)
5) Counter Pendants (where kids eat)
6) Under & Over Cabinet Lights.

All of these are now controlled by this one switch. DW gave me an 10 out of 10 for this home project.


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## LarryTheOutback (Jun 15, 2005)

Oregon_Camper said:


> Funny thing you used them as the UPB reference...that is the company I bought all my stuff from them.


The reason you bought all your stuff from that company is that it is a proprietary system and to date (so far as I know) they haven't licensed the technology to anybody.

X-10 is either fully open or widely licensed, not sure which.

Ed


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## thehandyman (Feb 16, 2008)

If you're looking for an inexpensive driveway alarm, Harbor Freight had a completely battery operated model for aobut $20 making it extremely portable.


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## California Jim (Dec 11, 2003)

Hello again all. After some thought we have decided to install a set of nice off-the-shelf carriage lanterns from Lowes. They have that feature that was mentioned earlier by a couple of you. For a set period of time (3hours, 6hours, after dark etc..) they will stay lit at 50% briteness and go to full power when motion sets them off. Then after the set time expires they go totally off until motion trips them on again. They have a dusk to dawn sensor so it all works out well.

We also decided to go with the Reporter Wireless Driveway Monitor as well.

Between the lights coming on and the Reporter beeping in my bedroom, I hope that we can start chasing away the bad guys.

Thanks again to all who contributed and added the info I needed to get this done.

Outbackers Rock


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## LarryTheOutback (Jun 15, 2005)

.


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## Oregon_Camper (Sep 13, 2004)

LarryTheOutback said:


> .


LOL...that is funny.


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## fl_diesel (Feb 15, 2006)

to follow up on my earlier post, I installed the reporter driveway alert. Works just as advertised. DW was home today and she said some kids cut through the yard and it alerted her. It's a real bummer it has come to this but I should now know if there is anyone sneaking around at night.


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## Jason Weaver (Mar 4, 2008)

Hope I'm not too late to help. Thought you may be interested in a new motion light for RV's. It is a 12 volt motion light that takes the place of most standard porch lights.You can leave the light switch in your RV turned on the entire time. During the day, it will not be activated, but during the night, it will turn on with motion. It even differentiates between small animals and humans so you don't have it going off all hours of the night. And it has a battery detection system, so if your coach battery gets down to 11.5 volts, a red LED flashes telling you to charge the batteries (good for dry camping as well). You can check out the site at www.starlightsinc.com. Hope that helps. Good luck!


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