We picked up this unit to remotely control spotlights. The lights are mounted on a building but due to the distance to the target we are trying to light up, the controller must be mounted on a tree near to the target. The system receiver is part of the light system. When activated it supplies 120V to two built in spotlights. We have a camera mounted on another tree powered separately in the woods aimed at the target. We also needed the switched 120V which turns on the lights to activate a relay having auxilliary dry contacts to start a video event recorder as well, so we came off the red wire which feeds the lights and ran a 5ft. length of romex to the relay box. Although this works it cuts the range of the system from 100ft. to just over 3ft. Is the short length of AC line that feeds the two bulbs part of the antenna's resonant circuit? Could I actually have detuned the system by adding the additional 5ft.? I can't confirm with a signal generator if this problem is now just a gain problem or if I have actually shifted the resonant frequency of the antenna circuit because there is a digital address code superimposed on the transmitted carrier that I cannot duplicate to open up the system receiver. I suppose I could move the relay closer to the receiver but could it be the reactance of the relay thats causing the problem, the added wire length or both? I appreciate any thoughts on this. Thanks, Lenny Stein, Barlen Electronics.
- posted
17 years ago