Angle adapter widget for outdoor light fixture?

[trader_4]

I'm replacing two motion activated outdoor lights. The old ones were Heath- Zenith halogen with the dual bright feature. That's where they come on at dusk for 4 or 6 hours at maybe 30% intensity to provide accent lighting. At night if there is motion anytime, they come on full.

So, I'm replacing them with LED. First problem is that almost all the LED ones just put out 5000 temp harsh light, even if they put out less than full, it's still harsh and ugly. Next is that these have to go under a soffit and while some of these lights claim to be mountable either on a wall or under a soffit, they really don't point right when mounted under a soffit. They wind up pointing to the ground close to where they are mounted, at best, instead of lighting an area 25 ft out. Next problem is the ones that are allegedly usable under a soffit are meant to be installed on a 90 deg soffit and my soffit follows the roof pitch, which is 22 deg on one roof. The other is less, maybe 15 deg. After searching, the best light I found are these, that Lowes stocks:

They allow you to adjust the color of the low accent lighting, which sounds really nice. And the heads are adjustable for use under a soffit as much as any are adjustable.

So, I'm looking for an adapter that can go as an interposer between the fixture and electrical box so the fixture mounts horizontal, 90 deg instead of 90 - 22 deg, etc. One box is 4" round, other is std rectangular type. I could replace the rectangular one if needed. The interposer needs to have an angle of at least 22 deg. If it's more, like 33 deg I think it would work better, helping make it so the light heads can be positioned facing out, away from the house more.

I haven't really started to look for the interposer widget, but thought I'd ask here is anyone knows of ones that would work. White or paintable white, angle of 22 min, more maybe 33 to even 45 might be better. If there was something you could cut to whatever angle you want that might be good too. Anyone know of a good candidate?

Thanks.

[Dean Hoffman]

My dad had a carpenter's tool to copy angles. No idea what it's called. There are all sorts of adjustable brackets that lets one set the angle. One type is for flag poles. Another is for trail cameras. What about using mirrors or some other reflector to divert the light? Convex trucker's mirror? Are there any barn or yard lights that would fit the bill?

[Ed Pawlowski]

Would something like this work?

This does not seem to have enough angle unless you used two

[Clare Snyder]

Whst about a block of wood on the table saw to "adjust" the angle of the soffit where the loght is mounted. Mabee a bit of trim to make it less blockyand obvious?

[trader_4]

Thanks Ed. That first square thing might work with the round plate adapter shown below it. But one round thing would look better and 45 may be too much. I have to go pick up one of these LED lights and see how it positions.

[trader_4]

No table saw here and was hoping to avoid a lot of custom work.

[rbowman]

Probably a sliding bevel.

They're pretty simple. You can use a protractor to set a given angle but a lot of times you don't really care how many degrees it is as long as all the angles are the same.

[gfretwell]

My thought but I would use Trex or Azek, not wood.

My first question is what is the light for? If it is for people you are NOT trying to scare away, I would find other options beside spot/flood lights. You can just buy the motion heads and choose more pleasant lights. I only have 2 flood fixtures here and over 20 motion activated lights. You can have your whole house and yard be lit when you get there and be dark when you leave. Then you find you want soft light everywhere instead of the Stalag 13 Klieg Lights in a few spots and flipping switches everywhere else..

[gfretwell]

If you do decide to go with a wedge I can send you one. I have a piece of knock off Azek under my table saw that would prop up a 4" box.What's the pitch of your roof? (Probably 5:12 up there) .

[trader_4]

Did you look at the link? They provide accent lighting at a low level at dusk and if anyone walks by they come on full. And the color temperature of the accent lighting is adjustable. So they are a combination of accent lighting, security lighting, and convenience lighting.

[trader_4]

Thanks for the offer, I'll see what I can find that's ready made first. One roof is ~22 deg, the other maybe 15. But more pitch than the roof is probably better. I have to go buy one of the lights and then I'll know better. Previously had Heath-Zenith halogen ones that were the same function. They had rectangular heads and were barely positionable to get them pointed in an acceptable direction, but they worked without an interposer. From what I've seen in my searching, all the possible replacements are not going to work without one.

[gfretwell]

They are still spot/flood lights. You can buy the Dual Bright sensors and get the same effect with other lighting plans.

[trader_4]

I wouldn't expect a motion sensor with dual bright to work with LEDs. In fact, since I had Heath-Zenith halogen before, I was ready to order their LED light version. That is until I read the reviews. Many people were saying the same thing, the low level accent lighting isn't low level, it's like 90% of full brightness and almost indistinguishable. So if they couldn't get that right on a packaged unit, I'd expect similar would happen if you tried to use a separate dual bright motion sensor with some LED lighting you pick out. Which is why the ones I selected that offer a color temp adjustment seemed like they were well suited to the application. Also, unless LEDs are specifically designed to offer a color change like that, just reducing a dimmable LED, you wind up with the same horrible, harsh color temp as full brightness. It's dimmed but ugly.

[gfretwell]

I don't really use the dual bright thing in most places. The full power lighting is still pretty soft with lots of lights instead of a couple bright ones. There are 16 15w sign bulbs in my screen cage but they are on a dimmer. That is plenty of light to walk around in and in the places where I need task light, it is separately switched. The whole house pretty much works that way. The walking around light in the bathrooms, kitchen and hall is rope light, hidden so it is indirectly lighting the ceiling and under the toe kicks.

[Tekkie©]

On Wed, 30 Dec 2020 10:12:39 -0800 (PST), trader_4 posted for all of us to digest...

Look at these:

They are for fans but will work for your purposes and IIRC are made of plastic so you can trim them for the slope.

[trader_4]

That's kind of what I was hoping to find. Only problem is it says it's 8" square, so it's huge for what I need. I don't have time right now, but I will look there to see if they have something similar and smaller. Thanks for the tip.

[Tekkie©]

On Fri, 1 Jan 2021 11:57:11 -0800 (PST), trader_4 posted for all of us to digest...

NP, you could also look up Orbit, but I think they make just metallic devices. Good luck, let us know how you make out.

[trader_4]

Two things I found that are interesting:

The above I might be able to use just the angle half, but then IDK how I would fasten that plus the fixture to the box. I don't think it has any mounting, it's just for a fan as an adapter and the fan uses it's mounting to hold it all together.

This looks more promising, looks like it just uses longer screws where the fixture attaches to the box. Looks good, except for the price :(

I still haven't acquired the fixture yet to check it out. I'm also thinking if a PVC pipe size happens to work, maybe I cut cut an angled piece of that as an interposer. I said I don't have a table saw, which is true, but I do have a chop saw. One thing for sure, that would be the lowest cost solution, if the diameter just happens to work. I could seal it up with silicone. If the size doesn't match up, I could go to a size that's the next size over. But then I'd need a flat piece of something that I could cut into a circle to cover the end the fixture will attach to. Not sure what that material would be. Exterior plywood? I guess I could get a piece of sheet aluminum or metal, but that would be harder to cut.

I'm really surprised that there are not ready made adapters for this. You'd think that I'm not the only person that wants to mount something at some angle to a round box. I did see some 45 adapters for rectangular boxes.

[Dean Hoffman]

Would it work to use a round to square adapter then do whatever? Anything here work?

[trader_4]

So I finally got around to working on this. I bought one of the fixtures. First thing I realized is that the base of it is almost square, not round like I had thought. That's very good, because if I need to make an interposer to adjust the angle, I can make it out of wood fairly easy.

But of course it's not that easy.... The good news is that for the first location where the roof/soffit slope is very low, it will fit and can be nicely angled for coveratge. It's better than I hoped for. The bad news is the freaking thing doesn't work correctly. Here is the situation. This light has an accent mode, where it can be set to come on a low brightness at dusk for 3 or 6 hours or from dusk till dawn. It has a security light mode that can be set to come on when motion is detected for 1, 5 or 20 minutes. The two modes are supposed to work together, which makes sense.

It has a test mode so that you can adjust the motion sensor. When the switch is set to test, the security light works. I can walk around the area, it triggers momentarily, when I stop moving it goes off. The accent mode works, when that setting switch is turned on, it comes on at low output at dusk. But with the motion sensor enabled, no response to motion at night. When I move the switch from test to either

1 min, 5 min or 20 mins, the light does not respond to motion, it just stays on in low level accent mode. I thought maybe the motion setting switch that moves between test, 1, 5, 20 is bad, but that can't be, because when I turn the accent lighting mode off, then it does sense motion at night and go to full brightness in the 1 min position. Turn the accent lighting back on, then no response to motion.

This is very bizarre, seems something would have to be wrong with the IC that they have in there that controls it for this to happen. I'm going to call the company up today, see what they have to say, but I can't figure out a logical explanation.