ripperd
Well-known member
I have been battling trying to get dusk-to-dawn lighting working well on my home/garage. Perhaps some of you know of products or solutions that work better.
The home is a typical split entry, 3 car garage on one side. Garage has 3 decorative lights that I want to be on dusk-to-dawn. These are not very bright, just enough to cut the darkness. In the entryway I also have your very typical entry way light. The garage lights are wired up so this light controls them.
I have tried 2 different "dusk to dawn" lights in the entryway and tried my own "dusk to dawn" labeled photosensor and darkness is picked up wayyyy too early in every scenario. They stay on until almost noon, and turn back on in the late afternoon. Part of this is probably the fact that the entrance faces east and is covered. So ambient light here is already much lower. But it can be middle of the day and a small rainshower comes by and my friggin lights turn on. It kills me and I'm sure the neighbors think I'm weird.
Getting to/from the entrylight box with an electrical wire so that I can do a remote sensor would be a major chore. There are no unfinished areas nearby to fish a wire through. What I was kinda thinking might work would be a drop in replacement for my lightswitch that has an electronic dusk-to-dawn calendar put in it. Something like where I put in my latitude and time zone, and bam, its exact, every time, every day, all year. Does such a thing exist? Or do I need to create it? Something programmed is not entirely out of the possibility, I do have a few things at home doing GPIO hooked up to beagleboards and such. But I'd rather use a off the shelf product if possible.
Thoughts?
The home is a typical split entry, 3 car garage on one side. Garage has 3 decorative lights that I want to be on dusk-to-dawn. These are not very bright, just enough to cut the darkness. In the entryway I also have your very typical entry way light. The garage lights are wired up so this light controls them.
I have tried 2 different "dusk to dawn" lights in the entryway and tried my own "dusk to dawn" labeled photosensor and darkness is picked up wayyyy too early in every scenario. They stay on until almost noon, and turn back on in the late afternoon. Part of this is probably the fact that the entrance faces east and is covered. So ambient light here is already much lower. But it can be middle of the day and a small rainshower comes by and my friggin lights turn on. It kills me and I'm sure the neighbors think I'm weird.
Getting to/from the entrylight box with an electrical wire so that I can do a remote sensor would be a major chore. There are no unfinished areas nearby to fish a wire through. What I was kinda thinking might work would be a drop in replacement for my lightswitch that has an electronic dusk-to-dawn calendar put in it. Something like where I put in my latitude and time zone, and bam, its exact, every time, every day, all year. Does such a thing exist? Or do I need to create it? Something programmed is not entirely out of the possibility, I do have a few things at home doing GPIO hooked up to beagleboards and such. But I'd rather use a off the shelf product if possible.
Thoughts?