How to connect a motion sensor and a LED-strip at home
В этом посте я расскажу как подключить сенсор движения и LED-ленту, чтобы у вас дома автоматически включалась подсветка. Например, когда ночью заходишь в ванную. Или просто когда кто-то есть в квартире. Если кому непонятно, переведу на русский. В целом всё очень просто, но у меня возникли вопросы с нейтралью (N) - я думал если неправильно подключу сгорит сенсор. Но он не горит. Потому пишу эту запись, наверняка кто-то погуглит.
In this article I will describe, how to connect a motion sensor and a LED-strip, so you can have an automatic ambient light at home whenever you are in the room. I did it for my bathroom.
Warning: electricity will instantly kill you, if you will contact with it accidentally by touching any metal parts. Proceed if you are sure you have experience.
LED-strip with a Motion Detection Sensor
1. What is needed?
Led strip (-). 12V adapter (-). Motion sensor (-). Unused PC power cable (0-). Electricity sampling screwdriver () (отвёртка-пробник). Electrical Electrical Current Tester ().
2. Connection Schema
The image on the left I drew, shows where to connect what. The only thing to know is that electricity «comes» from wall socket from L (line) connector to L↑ (Line-in) of the Motion Sensor, and then «goes out» from N (Neutral) to N of the wall socket. (Kind of. If that would be exactly true, there would be a short circuit.)
And if motion sensor captured a movement, then electricity «goes out» through L↓ (Line-out), powers your bulb (or LED) and then goes out thru N of the wall socket.
3. Connecting LED and 12V adapter to chain
Take PC power cable and cut off the part that is usually connected to PC. Then cut what's left in two equal sized cords. Remove about 5-10cm of isolation on each naked sides.
1. For part of cord that has plug, find those two (out of three) cords, that are related to two metal jacks of the plug. Connect those cords to sensor to L↑ and N. To find cords that match power cable plug jacks, use electrical current tester.
2. Second part of the cord that is naked on both sides: connect one side to sensor to N and L↓. Connect other side to the jacks of the 12V adapter. Isolate all the cord cores and naked metal jacks, to prevent accidental short circuiting them by touch or water.
If your motion detector has good case, in the end you may have a sensor that has two cables - one with plug, to connect to wall socket, and another, that connected to adapter (which powers LED/bulb).
4. Connecting
When you are sure you isolated all the naked cores, plug your power cord to wall socket. Trigger motion sensor. If it did not work, that means you connected L with sensors' N, and L↑ with socket's N. To fix: take out plug, rotate it 180° and plug in again. (Initially I though the sensor would burn due to that, but that's not the case actually.) Now it should work if you trigger the sensor. If not, then that means you did not correctly find cord matching plug jacks in 3.1. Unplug, and disassemble your power cable, then retest with electrical current tester.
5. Result
In most sensors you can setup the light threshold so it only triggers when it is really dark - for example you may want to use low light led strip to turn on at night when you go sleepy to bathroom. Or you may remove threshold so even if you turn on the light - it still turns on nice LED colours. As a bonus, you can setup when to turn off the led strip - so when you go out of bathroom, it turns off in a few minutes.
6. Finances
Minimum materials price: if you already have electricity testers. (You can buy everything on tinydeal.com or dealextreme.com or even ebay.com)
Power consumption: about 0.025kWt/hour for 3 meters led strip, 60LEDs/meter.
7. Hints
Long cord from motion sensor is useful - you can mount in a hidden place further away from wall socket.
You can cut a part of the led strip, for example if you need only 1 meter.
Buy a sensor with timer when to turn off, and lighting threshold - so you can have a 1 minute or 30 minutes off time; and have an option to turn on only when it is dark.
Please be careful. Don't try it if you doubt you will be safe. I was playing with electricity from childhood.
In this article I will describe, how to connect a motion sensor and a LED-strip, so you can have an automatic ambient light at home whenever you are in the room. I did it for my bathroom.
Warning: electricity will instantly kill you, if you will contact with it accidentally by touching any metal parts. Proceed if you are sure you have experience.
LED-strip with a Motion Detection Sensor
1. What is needed?
Led strip (-). 12V adapter (-). Motion sensor (-). Unused PC power cable (0-). Electricity sampling screwdriver () (отвёртка-пробник). Electrical Electrical Current Tester ().
2. Connection Schema
The image on the left I drew, shows where to connect what. The only thing to know is that electricity «comes» from wall socket from L (line) connector to L↑ (Line-in) of the Motion Sensor, and then «goes out» from N (Neutral) to N of the wall socket. (Kind of. If that would be exactly true, there would be a short circuit.)
And if motion sensor captured a movement, then electricity «goes out» through L↓ (Line-out), powers your bulb (or LED) and then goes out thru N of the wall socket.
3. Connecting LED and 12V adapter to chain
Take PC power cable and cut off the part that is usually connected to PC. Then cut what's left in two equal sized cords. Remove about 5-10cm of isolation on each naked sides.
1. For part of cord that has plug, find those two (out of three) cords, that are related to two metal jacks of the plug. Connect those cords to sensor to L↑ and N. To find cords that match power cable plug jacks, use electrical current tester.
2. Second part of the cord that is naked on both sides: connect one side to sensor to N and L↓. Connect other side to the jacks of the 12V adapter. Isolate all the cord cores and naked metal jacks, to prevent accidental short circuiting them by touch or water.
If your motion detector has good case, in the end you may have a sensor that has two cables - one with plug, to connect to wall socket, and another, that connected to adapter (which powers LED/bulb).
4. Connecting
When you are sure you isolated all the naked cores, plug your power cord to wall socket. Trigger motion sensor. If it did not work, that means you connected L with sensors' N, and L↑ with socket's N. To fix: take out plug, rotate it 180° and plug in again. (Initially I though the sensor would burn due to that, but that's not the case actually.) Now it should work if you trigger the sensor. If not, then that means you did not correctly find cord matching plug jacks in 3.1. Unplug, and disassemble your power cable, then retest with electrical current tester.
5. Result
In most sensors you can setup the light threshold so it only triggers when it is really dark - for example you may want to use low light led strip to turn on at night when you go sleepy to bathroom. Or you may remove threshold so even if you turn on the light - it still turns on nice LED colours. As a bonus, you can setup when to turn off the led strip - so when you go out of bathroom, it turns off in a few minutes.
6. Finances
Minimum materials price: if you already have electricity testers. (You can buy everything on tinydeal.com or dealextreme.com or even ebay.com)
Power consumption: about 0.025kWt/hour for 3 meters led strip, 60LEDs/meter.
7. Hints
Long cord from motion sensor is useful - you can mount in a hidden place further away from wall socket.
You can cut a part of the led strip, for example if you need only 1 meter.
Buy a sensor with timer when to turn off, and lighting threshold - so you can have a 1 minute or 30 minutes off time; and have an option to turn on only when it is dark.
Please be careful. Don't try it if you doubt you will be safe. I was playing with electricity from childhood.