Hi,
Can anyone recommend a reliable PIR unit? I have had several over recent years and they always seem to fail forcing the light to stay on all the time.
The last one I purchased from B&Q which looks exactly like the one from screwfix
TIA, Mark
What load are you switching and how many times a day/night does it switch?
It's just a 60W incandensant bulb. It does switch several times a night, I guess due to the abandance of moggies in the area.
Mark
Odd that it is failing, I was sort of expecting you to say it's switching 5kW of flood lighting or something... A bog standard 60W ulb shouldn't be a problem unless it really is operating a lot.
You are aware that this unit has a "pulse on" feature? Apply power remove it, apply again in a few seconds and it latches on....
Apart from failing on is there any other signs of what the fault is? Can you adjust the settings to see if it will switch at all. Has the PIR part died or the relay? Does the unit ever see direct sunlight onto the lens area?
Indeed - I have two of the PIRs pictured, each switching a 60W bulkhead lamp. They have been going for years and work very well.
Short power glitches could cause this....
toolstation =A38. Not a very big sample to judge though, but has been A1 so far.
NT
I've had one of these for maybe as much as five years - totally reliable switching two 60w lights and a 300w flood. I would agree with the previous posters that the OP may be confusing failure with the 'lock-on' facility. It would be interesting to know quite what has failed - it could well be a faulty batch problem or fall off in quality of the product.
Rob
How can I clear the 'lock-on' feature?
TIA, Mark
I'm not sure if there could be any signs (unless the unit had melted!).
Adjusting the settings appears to make no difference.
Don't know. How can I tell this?
No.
Cheers, Mark
With any of these PIR systems, if the power is momentarily removed, either by a mains glitch or by switching the system off and then on within a second or so, the light will stay on. Reversing the process requires switching the system off for at least 10 seconds - I usually give it 20 or 30 and switching back on again; on some systems the light comes on at this point and runs to its time out - others it just stays off until triggered by the PIR.
Rob
I have a suspicion that these things fail because of moisture getting in. My reasoning is that when one goes I replace it and throw the old one in a (dry) corner awaiting a toit to see if I can fix it. When the next one goes, I dig out the previous one and find it's working perfectly. Latterly, I used to apply some silicone sealant to the cable entry. Nowadays, I use the combined detector and lamp model as they're so cheap. They have a lot more gubbins between the cable entry and the electronics, which tends to support my theory. I certainly don't have to change them as often as I did. I realise a combined unit may not be suitable for your application, though.
Chris
Thanks. It seems to be working at present. I guess it was latched on, but I'm sure I left it switched off for long periods of time when trying it before.
Cheers, Mark
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