On 8/15/2008 11:40 AM cshenk spake thus:

"David Nebenzahl" wrote

Isn't it more likely that the motion sensor is just on the fritz? Right
now I'm dealing with about half a dozen different motion-detector lights
among different clients. About half of them don't work because the sensors
have gone bad.

Fortunately, the sensors (assuming this is one of the garden-variety type
that's available everywhere) are pretty cheap, easy to get and easy to
replace. They should *not* be affected by the turnings on and off of
nearby devices.

David, we have one we unplugged and were about to replace but maybe it's
just the sensor? It no longer turns off like it should. Rather than pay
for repair, we were going to replace but if the sensor is that easy, can you
describe how such might be replaced?

Again, assuming it's like the standard ones you get at Home Despot and
elsewhere, where the sensor hangs down under the fixture with the two
lampholders, it's super-simple: open up the fixture to expose the
wiring, disconnect the wires going to the sensor (they're a certain
color, I *think* red), then pull off the sensor. Stick the new sensor
in, reconnect, close it up, that's it.

I already have the new unit but I also have a spot I'd rather use it at.
I'd like to put one in the screened porch so when making a short traipse out
with the dog, it comes on til I cross to where the regular switches are.

Since the sensors are available separately from the lights, one thing
people often don't realize is that you don't have to buy the whole thing
in one unit. I have one customer who had me put in a nice outdoor light
fixture she'd bought, with a gooseneck and a nice shade, install it on
the wall, then install the sensor in a different location and wire them
together. This way, you can control any kind of lighting fixture
(assuming it's line voltage, not low voltage) from a sensor, and they
can be in two completely different locations. The sensors are pretty
cheap, too.


--
"In 1964 Barry Goldwater declared: 'Elect me president, and I
will bomb the cities of Vietnam, defoliate the jungles, herd the
population into concentration camps and turn the country into a
wasteland.' But Lyndon Johnson said: 'No! No! No! Don't you dare do
that. Let ME do it.'"

- Characterization (paraphrased) of the 1964 Goldwater/Johnson
presidential race by Professor Irwin Corey, "The World's Foremost
Authority".