Knowledge Base: Motion sensor driveway lites

Bay Arean

Bay Arean

Well-known member
Anybody know of a store in Upper East Bay preferably that has better above mentioned product? Need to buy my THIRD light (they all wear out from weather or whatever) and am sick of Home Depot craaaap. I looked on Amazon and it's all the same craaaaaap just with different brand names (the reviews are terrible but that's par for our current Yelp mentality but I still regard them). I once had to take a day off to go to Laner in Richmond for a certain connector, but I don't even know if they are still around and I don't remember seeing light fixtures there. I know I can go LED now so that's good but its all slave-labor crap I have seen thus far.

Is there like some kind of contractor grade place that I don't know about and you do? I know with plumbing, there is an upper-tier kind of product but you have to go to special places to find it. I work in Diablo Valley so mebbe there's an upper-crust joint out here.

Thx.
 
Last edited:
afm199

afm199

Well-known member
Bay Arean said:
Anybody know of a store in Upper East Bay preferably that has better above mentioned product? Need to buy my THIRD light (they all wear out from weather or whatever) and am sick of Home Depot craaaap. I looked on Amazon and it's all the same craaaaaap just with different brand names (the reviews are terrible but that's par for our current Yelp mentality but I still regard them). I once had to take a day off to go to Laner in Richmond for a certain connector, but I don't even know if they are still around and I don't remember seeing light fixtures there. I know I can go LED now so that's good but its all slave-labor crap I have seen thus far.

Is there like some kind of contractor grade place that I don't know about and you do? I know with plumbing, there is an upper-tier kind of product but you have to go to special places to find it. I work in Diablo Valley so mebbe there's an upper-crust joint out here.

Thx.
Click to expand...

Try an electrical supply house and stipulate high end stuff. Home Depot is medium grade. Unfortunately the quality of stuff like mot dets is not that high anymore. We used to see some good ones, now it's a race to the bottom.
 
Bay Arean

Bay Arean

Well-known member
Brokenlink said:
I bought a cheap one from amazon. So far it works great.
Click to expand...

Well, I;m on my second halogen one and I've changed those damn bulbs so many times, I'm ready to move on to LED but like I said, I looked at the reviews on the various offerings on Amazon and like afm said, it's a race to the bottom. Sort of like new refrigerators. In my lifetime, refirgerators relative price seems to have doubled or tripled but their durability has been more than halved. So you'll buy them more frequently of course. How we lost the ability to demand better escapes me...
 
Last edited:
afm199

afm199

Well-known member
Bay Arean said:
So it looks like you hook this separate from the actual light? Looks higher quality anyhoo. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Yup, Buy a bell box ( weather tight box) with 1/2 threaded hubs, screw it in, buy a Par 38 holder ( or whatever LED cluster you want) and screw it in, then wire. Or if you have an existing box, get a weatherproof cover with 2 -1/2" hubs, they make them.

Glad to see there are still some quality mot dets made, I didn't think they made that one any more.
 
afm199

afm199

Well-known member
Bay Arean said:
Well, I;m on my second halogen one and I've changed those damn bulbs so many times, I'm ready to move on to LED but like I said, I looked at the reviews on the various offerings on Amazon and like afm said, it's a race to the bottom. Sort of like new refrigerators.
Click to expand...

Halogens won't last, the off on is what kills them. See if you can find a 130 volt halogen, it will last longer, or go to LED>. These days I actually use fluorescent but the LED is the key.
 
Bay Arean

Bay Arean

Well-known member
afm199 said:
Halogens won't last, the off on is what kills them. See if you can find a 130 volt halogen, it will last longer, or go to LED>. These days I actually use fluorescent but the LED is the key.
Click to expand...

Thx. Yeah, I am happy to move on from halogen, believe me. Trying not to touch those stupid things while standing on the ladder, almost always at night (they only seem to die in the winter, I swear).

The latest antic of my existing fixture is that I have to reset it every few days. In other words, it will stop working completely. I turn off switch to it, wait a few minutes then switch it back on. It a two lamp setup and only one is currently working....It's just craaaaaaaap. I think moisture is getting in even tho its under eaves or some damn thing. I hate leaving it dark because of my neighbor the tweaker. He just went through my car the other night though I didn't leave anything of value. The usual rifled-through glovebox thing.

The machining is so crude and they use these gaskets that are imperfect at best, I think it's what accounts for moisture leakage. And setting the range for the motion detectors is not easy either, the whole testing bit.
 
Last edited:
afm199

afm199

Well-known member
Bay Arean said:
Thx. Yeah, I am happy to move on from halogen, believe me. Trying not to touch those stupid things while standing on the ladder, almost always at night (they only seem to die in the winter, I swear).

The latest antic of my existing fixture is that I have to reset it every few days. In other words, it will stop working completely. I turn off switch to it, wait a few minutes then switch it back on. It a two lamp setup and only one is currently working....It's just craaaaaaaap. I think moisture is getting in even tho its under eaves or some damn thing. I hate leaving it dark because of my neighbor the tweaker. He just went through my car the other night though I didn't leave anything of value. The usual rifled-through glovebox thing.

The machining is so crude and they use these gaskets that are imperfect at best, I think it's what accounts for moisture leakage. And setting the range for the motion detectors is not easy either, the whole testing bit.
Click to expand...

I told that asshole to wait until you were asleep.:laughing
 
Bay Arean

Bay Arean

Well-known member
afm199 said:
I told that asshole to wait until you were asleep.:laughing
Click to expand...

If only you could actually meet him. Two giant pitbulls, takes em out at night so they leave presents on my lawn. If I see him, he's my friend. Swiped packages off my porch too. The neighbor menace. Carries a gun in his sweatpants where it sometimes drops out. I keep waiting for him to just die but he won't.

I fucking hate tweakers more than drunks, hippies, whatever. Lordy.
 
ctwo

ctwo

Merely Rhetorical
I don't like flood lights at all. When I go outside at night, I can usually see half way down the road and into the neighbor's yards, until some stupid light comes on and blinds me. I have them all around the perimeter, but they are all turned off, and not just because they are all broke and blink on/off all night, or stay on when it's raining.

The night vision security cameras seem to work fine, and I can review the footage later if needed. I'm going to install a laser perimeter and do something fancy with it.
 
Bay Arean

Bay Arean

Well-known member
ctwo said:
I don't like flood lights at all. When I go outside at night, I can usually see half way down the road and into the neighbor's yards, until some stupid light comes on and blinds me. I have them all around the perimeter, but they are all turned off, and not just because they are all broke and blink on/off all night, or stay on when it's raining.

The night vision security cameras seem to work fine, and I can review the footage later if needed. I'm going to install a laser perimeter and do something fancy with it.
Click to expand...

That's more high-tech than me. We already have a street flood light coming from a pole in my lawn so I ain't adding much, but I get it.

I know about the whole dark world movement thing and I consider it. There seems to be some tipping point though.

The current fixture has a lower-light all night, then trips up to higher when the motion detector senses the movement. It's a decent idea, but to make it cheap enough for consumer market, it's just not that well-made.

I could have night-vision, but since I can't legally shoot my tweaker neighbor or his ilk, it's kind of all for nought. The idea is to at least discourage them from being seen doing stuff in regular illumination.
 
Last edited:
mean dad

mean dad

Well-known member
Install one or two motion-activated sprinklers for your tweaker neighbor and his dogs. Put 'em on a timer so they're only on at night.


Serious.
 
ctwo

ctwo

Merely Rhetorical
There is a guy on yootoob that set up a motion activated water spray to repel cats. Cats pissing on his car covers and wheels and preying on the local native birds.
 
mean dad

mean dad

Well-known member
A neighbor down the street has one that goes off just from walking by on the sidewalk, no cat poop on his yard and his grass is very green. :laughing
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top