Yet another LED Fixture

derekleffew

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So the tour I'm working right now has about 80 of these, Ayrton 150 moduLED, built into the set under clear Lexan as footlights. They're great. One of the neatest features, is there are no buttons. Below each of the standard labels: Menu, enter, up, down; are photocells on the front of the fixture, for setting mode and address.

I'm sure these are expensive units, but seem very well made and with very good output.
 
Well, obviously they didn't have me writing their cutsheet.:) If I did the conversion properly, these fixtures list at $2600 US. Yikes! But not that far off from CKs or Pixelines.

AVkid, a photocell, or "electric eye," acts as a button press when you hold your finger over the little circle where the button would be. Kind of a gimmick on these fixtures, but no moving parts or micro-switches to fail.
 
Kind of like my motion sensing fixture on the outside of the garage.
I see now.

Avkid they are only the same if your motion sensor is of the sort where you have to walk through a beam to set if off. It is more like the door way alarms you sometimes see in shops to let them know a customer has come in. There will normally be a little box one side of the doorway and something like a bike reflector on the other to bounce the light beam back to the dector. They work by detecting when the light beam is broken.

Motion sensor used for outside lights and burglar alarm are different and use things like Infrared detectors to detect body heat. There was a segment on Myth Busters where they tried to full the alram sensors with all sorts of methods such as cooling the person, putting them in relective foil etc.

Derek on these LED fixtures what do they use as a light source for the detector?
 
I would think these sensors would have both a small IR emitting and IR receiving LED. (Think TV remote > TV). When your finger covers the hole, the IR emitting LED is bouncing light back to the IR receiving LED. That's my guess.
 
You're just now noticing?
 
Go to sleep Charlie, your comments are bordering on ridiculous.

... :oops:

I have to get up in 4-5 hours anways.

However, I'm still curious to know if my guess was right. I've not actually seen one of these things, I think. I was going off of description alone. If anyone has a close up, that would be awesome. (I don't trust my own skills on the google because I'm not sure what exactly it is.)

And in all seriousness, I believe the "turns on the outside lights" motion sensors are usually of the ultrasonic flavor.
 
Charc says that outdoor motion sensor lights are ultrasonic and no one gets mad?

I've been in the hardware store enough to know that your average "on the garage" motion detecting floodlight is Infrared. I've cracked open a few dead ones, no speakers in there.

I'm going to guess the switches on these LED units are simpler than we think. They are likely photocells like those used in porch lights to "turn them on at dusk and off at dawn". All they are doing is detecting the change in light that is caused by placing your finger over them.

As for the motion detecting lights, I believe we have a few things happening. First, we have an IR emitter and an IR receiver, which notices a change in the distance of reflected IR light when an object moves into its path. Second, we have a photocell which prevents the light from turning on during the day.
 
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I'm sure these are expensive units, but seem very well made and with very good output.

Website said 1331 pounds and as of 01/09/08 that means they're about $2,600. Not cheap by any stretch.
 
Greenia, why on earth would they put the "dawn/dusk" sensor on an a lighting instrument? What happens if I cast a shadow on it? What happens if the house is in blackout?

"Garage sensors": IR, I guess, sure. I've never really looked into the matter.
 
Greenia, why on earth would they put the "dawn/dusk" sensor on an a lighting instrument? What happens if I cast a shadow on it? What happens if the house is in blackout?

IF it's a photocell, it's likely they designed some sort of circuitry using a specific photocell in order to make their switch. But hey, I might be wrong, this is just my educated guess. It could be IR, but derek said it was a photocell, so, that's what I was going off of.
 
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Greenia, why on earth would they put the "dawn/dusk" sensor on an a lighting instrument? What happens if I cast a shadow on it? What happens if the house is in blackout?
"Garage sensors": IR, I guess, sure. I've never really looked into the matter.

I'm scared!, very scared!!! Charcoal asked exactly the same questions I was thinking ,about the photocell switch. Is this mental osmosis and if so which way is it going?

Just joking Charcoal, those are good questions and I hope someone is going to tell us the answer. I think using a photocell switch is overkill maybe that's why they cost so much.

The old capacitive switch lasts for a long time and you don't normally change the settings on these fixtures every day.
 
...Just joking Charcoal, those are good questions and I hope someone is going to tell us the answer. I think using a photocell switch is overkill maybe that's why they cost so much...
Looking at one of 25 spares, not powered, I think it's an infrared heat sensor. The ones in use are on the deck under Lexan so I can't get at those, nor would they take kindly to me changing a DMX address on them. Hopefully the User's Manual will be available on the website soon. Sorry I started such a ruckus, I just thought it was an intriguing idea. I doubt the sensor adds any additional cost over a push button, and may in fact be less expensive to produce. I like the fact that one can address these units with flipping them over, then standing on your head upside down.
 
In my experience photocells are typically a simple on/off switch that detect light or dark. Cover it... dark... move your hand... light.
In a binary world of 1's and 0's it makes very logical sense how this works without any garage doors opening and closing.
 
Just throwing this out there, because I finally found out today how a computer's touch pad differentiates between fingers and other stuff, might have to do with the electrical resistance of skin. Just a thought :eek:
 

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