Rumble wrote:

OK, well it seems that the controller board has a relay for the courtesy
light output, which is good, because our "new" relay would most likely
not provide enough load for a triac to work properly.

It seems that the relay is soldered in to the board, so hacking the
board would not be a good idea (in creepage and clearance) if you
are not very sure about what you're doing. I suspect that an additional
relay (poss. on a timer to increase on-time) is the order of the day.

I would suggest one of the DIN mounting contactors would probably be
easiest - saves needing any bespoke wiring. A small enclosure could then
be powered from an alternate source, and just take the control box
output to drive the contactor.

You would need to use the controllers lamp output to switch a relay,
and then that would in turn switch a higher load if required. If you
selected lights with integral dusk sensors then they would only light
when it is actually dark.


John, I think you would find that "lights with integral dusk sensors"
would most likely need a permanent live feed to allow the electronics to
settle down as these items have a hysteresis period of (probably in the
order of) 30 mins. I don't think you can fire them up from cold and
expect an instant "it's dark so switch lamp on/it's day so don't switch
lamp on" response. As Owain has already indicated, it would likely be
best to use a permanently powered dusk/dawn sensor and use a relay
contact in the switched live output from the dusk/dawn sensor to only
switch the courtesy light on when it is both dark and the gate operates.

Yup, agreed. The dusk dawn sensor and the light would effectively be
powered from the alternate power source. Just the trigger would come
from the gate controller.


--
Cheers,

John.

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