post light photocell

It doesn't sound like you can point the photocell in a different direction. How about making a shield ? A couple inches from the core of a toilet paper roll or towel roll would be enough to experement with to see if stray light is triggereing it.

Bill

I don't know about a replacement for that small of a unit. You can usually buy photocells that will fit into a 1/2" trade size (7/8" diameter) at a local electrical supply company. You could drill the hole bigger with a unibit. Have you tried to find a replacement at a lighting store? If you pulled the unit out there might be a manufacturer's name on it.

Here's one I use:

if it didnt alwas flicker just replace it. mine goes bad very 4 or 5 years, its so cheap and easy to replace i havent bothered upgrading flicker is one of 3 failure modes. always off the most common, always on rare and flicker.

high current at bulb burn out is generally what fries the controller, you know when a bulb goes brilliant white for a second.

I buy lng life bulbs to minimize such events Tried CF, low energy use nice but more control failures.

these controllers must cost under a buck to make, they are really cheap

This was a replacement, and its just a very poor design, there doesnt seem to be any hysteresis in it and so it just wavers from on to off (flicker) until it finally gets dark enough. Its got a shield already. Thanks Eric

That sounds like what i am looking for, if i cant find one locally I'll order it Thanks Eric

What direction does it face? For northern hemisphere the photocell should face north. If facing south, east or west it will not work properly.

Mark

nah mine faces south works fine I li=3Dve in pittsburgh, facing the other way it would look at my living room window, lit up most of the time

Hey Eric, I used to work in the Electrical/Lighting department of a large hardware store chain here in Canada. I haven't heard of that problem with post light photocells. I wonder if the CDS cell has gone bad or something. Have you tried replacing just the photocell unit? I sold them at my store..

"Eric" wrote in

I've got it fixed now, the original one quit, then i bought a replacement which was just a very cheap cell. it had no delay on or delay off at all so when the light was just right it flickered something awfull. I just bought a decent cell to replace that one and its working fine now. Guess you get what you pay for... Eric

Sweet! Thanks for the follow up.

tom @

What direction is the photocell facing?

Mine faces west and I live in northern hemisphere. I understand they should face north to properly work.

You might experiment adding a short tube to the photocell to control how the light levels eventually cause it to work properly.

Mark