blueman writes:

Eric in North TX writes:

On Jul 21, 6:09*pm, blueman wrote:
Kevin writes:
Eric in North TX wrote:
On Jul 19, 11:35?pm, blueman wrote:
We have an old exterior spot wired to a 3-way switch with the
following resulting functions:
? ? ? Off
? ? ? Photocell only
? ? ? Photocell & motion

The old spot has bit the dust but all the new ones I have seen are
either photocell only or photocell & motion combined. I haven't seen
any version with both photocell & motion circuitry that split out the
wiring so that I can recreate the original functionality to allow
either photocell only or photocell & motion combined.

Does anybody know of any brands still made that will allow for such
breakout?

Thanks

It all just pig tails together inside, so you could put in a switch it
if you wanted, but why would you want to turn the photocell off

I don't think he does. He just wants the option of having the photocell only
ON..... so that the light stays on from dusk till dawn, regardless of
motion.

Exactly - some of the models in the store allow such behavior
(bypassing the motion sensor) if you do something funky like turning
the switch rapidly on-off-on. I assume they do this since most light
switches are simple SPST (single pole) and they use this to signal the
behavior. However, since I have a 3-way position and 3 wires running
out to the light already, I would like to be able to bypass the motion
sensor using the 3-way switch itself.

Well, if you have even a basic knowledge of circuits, open it up and
you will see the motion sensor pigtails in like a switch. All you
would have to do is wire it so your switch closes that circuit when
on, and when your switch was off, it would behave normally

I have no problem with electrical & electronic circuits - I just
wasn't sure whether the new all-in-one piece sensors actually had
separate components and wiring underneath the plastic or whether it
was all one inaccessible sealed module. Maybe I'll just buy one and
take it apart to see...

I just took apart one of the new types that I had up in another
location. It is not as easy as accessing a "sensor pigtails".

Both the motion and light sensors (along with the timing) are all
parts of a low voltage circuit that together are logically combined
via a single chip to signal a single transistor switch of the high
voltage supply to the bulbs.

So, unfortunately the new lights are not just separate motion and
light sensitive (high voltage) switches wired in series meaning that
there is really no way to "pigtail" into this to get separate photo
only and photo + motion switch legs.

Perhaps I could "make" my own by buying separate exterior-rated motion
and light sensors that have a mounting stem that I could fit into
separate punch-out inserts on the electrical light box.