I have a motion detector light outside of my garage that was previously installed by my electrician.
Here is the way it worked. I had a wall switch connected inside the garage. When the wall switch was
in the down position (off), the motion detector would go on at night, when movement occurred outside
and then it would turn off after a few minutes.

However, if the wall switch was up (in the on position), then the light on the motion detector would
stay on all night and go off in the morning.

Recently, the light on the motion detector would stay on all night and stay on all also during the
day and never go off.

So I bought a new motion detector and replaced the existing one.

However, when I bought the new motion detector, the same problem occurs. The light stays on during
the day, so that means there was probably nothing wrong with the physical motion detector, and I
thought possiblye there is a problem with the wall switch or some wiring.

When I swapped out the new motion detector I notice that there were 3 wires on the motion detector
(white, red and black). I notice that the wires coming out of the garage outside where the motion
detector was placed has wires (white, black and red).

I was told from home depot, that the black on the motion detector is my ground. So I grounded that
wire. I then connected the 2 whites together and connected the motion detector white and red to the
wall white and red and also connected the black wall wire to the red wires.

So where do you think the problem is occurring and how do I fix this?

If it's the wall switch, what do I do. Do you I just by a new one?

Thanks much,


Lawrence M. Seldin, CMC, CPC

Contributing writer for FUTURES Magazine
Author of RECRUITSOURCE PEOPLESOFT EXAM and RECRUITSOURCE SAP/R3 EXAM
Author of POWER TIPS FOR THE APPLE NEWTON and INTRODUCTION TO CSP

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