RE: Cheap and small Break Beam circuit ?

[ian.bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

I would think it is a case of suck it and see. In theory there is no limit
to the wire length within reason but it depends on the driver circuit on
the board and the overall length of the wires. The boards are kits so you
(or someone) will have to make them. Once made guess the length of wire you
will need to extend to node zero and then try it without actually mounting
them in the wall etc. Obviously mount the LED's on the wire not the board
for testing.

Mine are so small the missus painted over them one day without even
noticing!! Wondered why they stopped working ;-)

I used bell wire which is really cheap and nasty but has been 100% reliable
and survived many attacks by my kids.

Ian




---------+------------------------------>
Marcus Warrington
<marcus.warrington@
mis-es.com>
Sent by:
ukha_d@yahoogroups.
com


12/07/2006 16:18
Please respond to
ukha_d

---------+------------------------------>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To:       ukha_d@xxxxxxx
cc:       (bcc: Ian Bird/CV/Novartis)
Subject:  RE: [ukha_d] Cheap and small Break Beam circuit ?
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------




Ian,

I thought I remembered you doing something similar :) I did look at
Maplin and saw the kit you mention, but didn't realise I could extend
the emitter/sensor off the controller board. I'll take another look. I
assume there will be a limit as to how long the length of wire between
the sensor and controller board can be ? Ideally it would be nice to
just have the small emitter/receiver in the door jams and then have the
control boards all in Node0.

Marcus


-----Original Message-----
From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx [mailto:ukha_d@xxxxxxx]
On
Behalf Of ian.bird@xxxxxxx
Sent: 12 July 2006 15:14
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [ukha_d] Cheap and small Break Beam circuit ?




Hi Marcus

You are treading the exact same road I did with my kitchen
lights. I ended
up using a Maplin beam break unit (MK120) which is 7.99 now I
think. I
mounted the LED transmitters and receivers into the door frame
and then
moved the main PCB's elsewhere and hid them. It comes with a
buzzer but a
transistor and resistor made that silent and created a switch.
I
have this
attached to an HV input and then X-10 turns on the light. This
is pretty
good tbh. There is HV code on my site
<http://www.mollyology.com/MyHouseKitchenLights.htm
<http://www.mollyology.com/MyHouseKitchenLights.htm>
>
as it has different max on values depending on the time of day
etc.

Enjoy

Ian

---------+------------------------------>
Marcus Warrington
<marcus.warrington@
mis-es.com>
Sent by:
ukha_d@yahoogroups.


12/07/2006 14:37
Please respond to
ukha_d

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>----------------------------------------------------------

To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx <mailto:ukha_d%40yahoogroups.com>

cc: (bcc: Ian Bird/CV/Novartis)
Subject: [ukha_d] Cheap and small Break Beam circuit ?
>----------------------------------------------------------

Having now got all the lights (except the kitchen/Utility) on
X10
circuits I've now started to think about how to implement
occupancy
detection. Originally I was going to use ceiling mounted 360
degree PIRs
but having trailed them I find that they're sensitivity isn't
up
to
detecting someone walk into a space in time to get the light
on
(not
helped by the X10 comms latency). The only way I can get
anywhere near
is to mount them directly over the entranceway since they
appear
to be
more sensitive directly underneath the sensor. So, next
thought
was to
mount them centrally in the room but then use a break beam
across the
entranceway (door jam) as a primary trigger. So does anyone
know
a small
simple break beam device or circuit that I could install
across
a
doorway. Needs to be small and sit relatively flush with the
surface
(the door jams are wood so I can rebate a little bit) and be
easily
connected to HomeVision.

Marcus