Motion sensor lights... suck

[Jeff K]

Why is it? I figured that by now they'd have it all down pat. I bought motion sensor lights for the front of the garage, THEY WORK LIKE $HIT!

Surely they make lights that will actually come on with motion???

[Smokinjoe-VRCCDS#0005]

Don't know the brand name on mine they've been installed for years now however I bought them at Lowe's and they work great. I do remember I got the one's that cost the most because they just looked to be better quality.

[gregc]

Mine were pretty sensitive to distance,  had to really aim the head down more then I expected. They were more likely to go on from a car going by in the street, then someone in the driveway. Till I played around and pointed the sensor way down.   Maybe this will help.

[Jeff K]

I got them at Lowes. They seem real picky about picking up motion. And yet they tend to come on at random without any activity.

They were $50 each.

[Robert]

You have to adjust the sensitivity but usually there pretty good I have never had problems with them. I have them in my garage too so that when I walk in the lights go on.

[PAVALKER]

Yes, you do have to adjust and tweak them for both range and sensitivity.  And... if by chance you are attempting to use a CFL blub on a motion sensor type light.... you need to make sure that it is CFL capable (some are not).

I got an inexpensive one at Aldi's with a Halogen bulb and once I got it installed and adjusted, it works like a champ (windy days it will pick up bushes swaying in the wind... but it also gets me as I come out the door and if a deer comes from from either side of the house)..... and I think I paid 9.99 for it.

[Titan]

Those motion detectors use passive infrared technology and they pick up movement across their path much better than directly into or away from the unit. They are used a lot in security systems and work really well inside a building. They need to be placed where an intruder would enter the protection zone from the side, crossing it's path. For best results, you have to locate them the same way outdoors. But there's practically no way in the world to make them work really well outdoors since you have many things that will interfere with them.

I have four of them around my house and they sucked out of the box!  Expensive models. But, having experience with installing them for years in security systems I'm familiar with how they work so I never expect too much out of the darn things.

Here's a link (one of many) to an article about how they function that may help you in getting them to work a little better. But don't expect them to work well outside. Ain't gonna happen.

http://www.alarmtech.org/how-security-systems-work/pir.html

[R J]

Mine when I first put them up, they would detect a squirrel or a rabbit running past them, or a bird flying by.

Had to play with the sensor angle and dangle to get them to where I wanted them to come on or not.

The driveway, when someone turns or pulls into it, even if just to turn around, it is on and it also tuns on a bulb in the kitchen.   Don't recommend that again as it was a bitch to get wire into the house that wouldn't deteriorate in a couple of years.  Son was going for an Electrical Engineering degree in College., so he played with that one.

The garage, you can walk up to it and just as you are about 2 feet from the door a spotlight hits you in the face..........   The one on the other side of the door comes on about 20 feet out........   So they are not expecting that 2nd one.

[Cliff]

I have mine mounted high above and on one side of the driveway (30 feet high) and the sensor is aimed down at the driveway so that the area sensed (fan shape) is aimed down at the driveway.  This is the best I have come up with and it works darn good.

[Jeff K]

I tweaked those things every which way. I gave up on the one by the back door, every time the AC comes on so does the light.
The one out front, I dicked around with it for hours and thought I had it semi functional, till it started raining, them it came on and stayed on till the rain stopped. Then it would just come on at random for no apparent reason. 

I wish I could get them up higher...

[Chrisj CMA]

Ghosts?    sorry couldnt help it

I bought some of those at Lowes, got the cheapest ones and they work great.  Funny hting though is when I was installing them there is two timer settings and a test setting.  After they were up I put them on test and walked by........they lit up perfectly first try........put them on the first setting....nothing....second setting.......nothing.......  I was pissed too.........then I re read the instructions........


it said:  If it worked on test but not on normal.......WAIT FOR IT TO GET DARK.

LOLOLOL  of course I installed them in the daytime.........I couldnt believe they actually had that written in the instructions, and I fell for it

[PAVALKER]

I tweaked those things every which way. I gave up on the one by the back door, every time the AC comes on so does the light.
The one out front, I dicked around with it for hours and thought I had it semi functional, till it started raining, them it came on and stayed on till the rain stopped. Then it would just come on at random for no apparent reason. 

I wish I could get them up higher...

If they are coming on with the AC power surge and rain... then I believe the sensitivity is way to high.... turn it all the way down and see how it works for you. 

[Robert]

Jeff I would also check the wiring I have never heard of them coming on with any other thing. I can only think wiring or not a good contact on a fuse. Just for your info I know you like tinkering around the motion sensors for alarms can be used as a switch for the lights. They only require 12v to work and have another set of wires that are a trigger. You would have to wire up the 12v and some circuit to activate a light or anything else for that matter. They have all kinds of acc for this kind of installation. Who knows you could get into designing alarm systems.

[~ Timbrwolf]

....got ours at Lowes also....work great....come home at night and pull up the drive way, and it lights up the driveway nicely....last winter..late on a Friday night Chili had gone to bed...was sitting there wathching Tv and cruising the net when all of a sudden the front yard lit up...I peered out the bay window and waited...second later a young kid went running down the driveway ..stopped in the street...and looked back at our vehicles...then another young boy came running down and stopped...I jumped up and ran to the front door and opened it yelled something about breaking someones legs....two more that were not spooked by the light ran down the drive way and they all ran down the street and around the corner...but not before pausing long enough to turn and look at me and whoop and hollar like indians...then they disappeared around the corner and into the night....

...but my favorite was last fall...was getting darker earlier and earlier...was around 8:30 at night...dark out...suddenly the lights out front went on...we have Halogen and they light up the entire front of the house...standing in our driveway were two people out walking 3 dogs on leashes....apparently one of the dogs wanted to come up and lift his leg on Chili,s truck...they looked very surprised that suddenly they were all lit up and walked away VERY quickly... looking back over their shoulder..  

[Spirited-6]

They do make them that work.  I bought a Cooper Lighting Unit at Lowe`s several years ago and they worked great on the eve in front of garage door. 240 degree detection zone would pick up my paper boy as he drove into circle drive , about 30`, and go off in 3 minutes. That is until I had a lighting strike about 4 months ago that took out all I had that had juice running to it. Home Depot has a sale on a Zenith unit with 2 long life blubs, 10,000 hrs., for $22.00. I bought spares.  I will admit that the Cooper unit would pickup leaves blowing across the drive.

[PharmBoy]

My whole neighborhood likes mine.  I live at the end of a culdesac and every car that comes past my house gets lit up after dark.  I adjusted it that way...JTL