Need design for motion sensor battery operated LED light.

Anyone have a design for a motion sensor? Sure, I could just buy the sensor for an outdoor motion sensor light, but I want a circuit to control a *battery operated* LED light. The purpose is to illuminate the inside of an outhouse (toilet) at a campground, and have it turn ON when someone enters. There is no electricity in the building. I just want something battery operated that wont be switched on by the campers and left turned on to drain the batteries when they leave the outhouse. It should illuminate when they enter, and turn off shortly after they leave.

I'm thinking in terms of those stick on LED lights sold for closets and stuff, except I want it motion sensored.

Or, is there already a device made that does this? (Something with a solar cell charger, and rechargable batteries would be even better, but the solar charger would need to be outside the building).

The other idea is to buy a ready made circuit board and install it in my own light..... Do they sell such a thing? I'd rather not have to build the board if possible, but I'm open to options!

Reply to
tangerine3
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Microswitch under the floorboards and/(or both) the seat-area, uses no energy, and shuts down immediately. Your motiondetector will be a continious drain on the battery.

Reply to
Sjouke Burry

How about a switch on the door, that lights things up for, say, 20 minutes?

Or just use a lithium battery and a good LED and leave it on. That can last years. James has a circuit that will turn it off when there's ambient light, roughly doubling the battery life.

Or google: battery powered motion sensing light

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John Larkin                  Highland Technology Inc
www.highlandtechnology.com   jlarkin at highlandtechnology dot com   

Precision electronic instrumentation
Picosecond-resolution Digital Delay and Pulse generators
Custom timing and laser controllers
Photonics and fiberoptic TTL data links
VME  analog, thermocouple, LVDT, synchro, tachometer
Multichannel arbitrary waveform generators
Reply to
John Larkin

This product exists

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I'm sure that's not the only way to get it.

Reply to
bloggs.fredbloggs.fred

Thank for both replies. The switch under the floor is an interesting idea, but I'd probably have to do some major changes to the floor, or have a double floor. All of that seems like too much work. The switch under the toilet seat is an excellent idea in a women's outhouse, but wont work for the men who use the urinal.

This leaves the door switch. I like that, but how do I make it shut off after _x_ minutes?

I did do some googling and found that there are both solar powered and motion sensing battery lights. I had tried that earlier using other search words and got nothing. I like this one the best so far.....

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Seems simple, will recharge with solar panel, and is not real costly. I'd think that the solar panel will offset any drain from the motion sensing circuitry.

How can a lithium battery really run a LED for years? I have used some of those small cheap teacup LED candles that flicker and look like a real candle. They are only one LED, and run on a CR2032 lithium battery. After leaving them on overnight for several days, the battery is dead.

Reply to
tangerine3

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Also Lowes and HomeDepot carry similar, in same price range, more or less, name brand stuff like Sylvania.

Reply to
bloggs.fredbloggs.fred

put a microswith where the door lock will activate it, or install one of those slow momentary button switches.

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Reply to
Jasen Betts

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Looks like a cool device. I'd worry somewhat about maintenance. CR2032 are expensive and short lived. You can fix that with bigger batteries and a solar charger. But that dramatically reduces the MTBS...mean time before stolen.

Reply to
mike

The Do's & Don'ts of an Engineering student.

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Subscribe for more footage.

Reply to
Anna Joshi

Use a battery with low internal resistance and a supercap. There are lots of bicycle dynamo-powed lights that use a supercap for a few minutes of illumination; maybe you could dump enough into the cap during the time the door is open.

Reply to
ben.darling

Add a microphone, after splashing noise is sensed, delay 2 seconds then turn the LED off...

Reply to
Dennis

That was my suggestion. keep it simple.

Most campers will have a flash light and won't need the led.

George H.

.highlandtechnology.com=A0 jlarkin at highlandtechnology dot com

Reply to
George Herold

I meant a serious battery, like a Tadiran good for, say, 7 amp-hours. A good LED will make useful light at 100 uA, which is 70,000 hours.

WARNING! The above post involves numbers!

--

John Larkin                  Highland Technology Inc
www.highlandtechnology.com   jlarkin at highlandtechnology dot com   

Precision electronic instrumentation
Picosecond-resolution Digital Delay and Pulse generators
Custom timing and laser controllers
Photonics and fiberoptic TTL data links
VME  analog, thermocouple, LVDT, synchro, tachometer
Multichannel arbitrary waveform generators
Reply to
John Larkin

You've never used an outhouse. It's a building over a deep hole.

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

My father's favorite teenage stunt was to move the outhouse away from the hole, set a bonfire about 10' behind the hole, then yell "fire" ;-)

I don't know what the light problem is. As I recall, from actual experience, if you're going to the outhouse after dark, you'd be carrying a kerosene lantern (today, it'd be a flashlight... you don't want to step on a snake :-) ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Reply to
Jim Thompson

My dad told about 'Outhouse Tipping' on halloween. One old man thought he could stop them by staying in his outhouse, but they slipped up and flipped it over before he knew what was happening. Instead of just falling over, the unbalanced weight casued it to rroll down a hill, and beat him up pretty bad. The kids always went around the next day and set them back up, and did any repairs, but he was like Sloman who thought he was the smartest man in town. He was quite humble after that ride. ;-)

You can buy a ready made unit for $7.99 to light the thing and save your battereis for the trip back. Mount it under some plexiglass to keep them from stealing it, and use an external D 4 cell holder (Or a six volt lantern battery) to get weeks or months of use between battery changes.

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Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

[snip]

Yep. The good ol' days.

My grandfather was losing chickens to thieves, so my father and my uncles (teenagers at the time) staked out the chicken coop (a two story affair)... and shot the perps with birdshot and rock-salt.

Next day go see who's getting the shot plucked out at the doc's house.

Never had another problem, and no concern from the authorities ;-)

We need to return to that kind of justice. ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    |
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             |
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  |
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     |
             
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.
Reply to
Jim Thompson

Hmmm.. Maybe a door mounted light, with either a microswitch to detect it opening, or just a little ball bearing thing to detect the motion to trigger a little 555 timer thing. Door opens, it stays lit for five minutes. It it goes out, you kick the door, and it lights up again... ;-)

Reply to
Charlie E.

off

during

Like one comic said, "The problem with the US these days is that the re aren't enough woodsheds."

BTW, onme local school system is debating the return of paddling for grade school trouble makers.

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

I have a flyer for one at $18 Here is another

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Greg

Reply to
gregz

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