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MOTION CONTROLLED LAMP PROJECT 

Do you dislike trying to find a light switch in a dark room? Perhaps a motion sensor may be the answer. Never walk into a dark room and fumble for the light switch again. The Hawkeye motion sensor is a small battery operated device that uses an RF transceiver to activate X10 components like an appliance module or X10 wall switch. Since it is battery operated, it can be placed anywhere in the room. If you want it to turn on lights when you enter the room , you should try to mount it near the door and so that your entrance path crosses in front of it. It should also be placed high enough that pets do not trigger it. The same idea can be used at the front door to turn a light on inside or trigger an alarm when someone is approaches your house.

ITEMS YOU WILL NEED

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You will need an RF transceiver in your system because the Hawkeye only communicates through an RF link. The RF controller is described in detail in our RF controllers section. If you already have an RF transceiver anywhere in your system you can use it for this application as well unless you've used all of the unit codes already. You will also need a light that is on an X10 switch. If you don't already have this refer to our other projects or plug your lamp into the outlet on the transeiver.

SETTING UP THE SENSOR

You may not have to do more than add batteries and mount the

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Hawkeye Sensor if the factory (default) settings are satisfactory. The Hawkeye resets to these settings every time the batteries are removed so it is handy to use these settings if possible. The default settings are:

The default House and Unit Code transmitted when motion is detected is A 1-ON.

The default for motion detection is detect at all times (day and night).

The default time out after which (default) A 1-OFF is sent is 1 minute. Note that this is the delay from the time the last motion is sensed to when this unit turns off the light.

The default House and Unit Code transmitted when dusk/dawn is sensed is A 2-ON at dusk, A 2 -OFF at dawn. Pay special attention to this code. It is always one plus the base Unit Code and can not be turned off. Therefore you must reserve this code whether or not you use it.

You can program any of these settings by pressing two buttons that are underneath the battery cover. I won't go into the details as they are covered in the manual that comes with the Hawkeye. If you want to see the manual before you buy, you can download a PDF file by clicking HERE. The most important thing to remember is that you must tap the programming buttons as many times as the code you want to set so it is to your advantage to use low unit and house codes.

WHAT'S NEXT?

The Hawkeye Motion Sensor will turn your lights on for you but you may not care for the way it also turns them back off. It can be programmed to turn the light back off a set time after motion ceases. That time can be set in various intervals from 1 minute to 256 minutes. If you just want the light to come on when you enter and stay on while you are moving around in the room there is no problem. Just set the off delay to short time (perhaps 1, 2 or 4 minutes) and it will turn the light off a short time after you leave the room. However, if you want to come in and sit down and read, the Hawkeye is likely to turn the lights off mid-sentence. You can ,of course, set the off delay to a large value (256 minutes is probably longer than you can stay with that novel!) but then the light stays on for a long time after you leave the room. A good solution is use an RF controller on the same code as the Hawkeye to turn the light off as you leave the room. By setting the off delay to 256 minutes, you are assured that the light will stay on as long as you want and you can to use the RF controller to turn it off if you want it off earlier. Be sure that the RF controller is placed so that the Hawkeye does not turn the lights back on as you leave the room. See our RF controller page for information on the various controllers. An even more elegant method is to use a second Hawkeye to turn the light off as you leave the room. This requires a computer interface and will be described in our upcoming section on Active Home.

TROUBLESHOOTING

What! You set up your new system and it doesn't work? It does happen but not very often. Check our troubleshooting page before you toss it all in the garbage.

ORDERING THE COMPONENTS

To order from Smarthome (or just see their description of these devices) click on the Smarthome X10 affiliate link below:

X10

OTHER LINKS

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(C) Donald Scouten 2003