Leviton motion sensing light switch

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burger2227
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Leviton motion sensing light switch

Post by burger2227 »

Purchased a Leviton motion detecting light switch in an Ebay auction for $15:
Image
According to the description it should be a 3-way switch for switching in multiple locations

Apparently the switch uses ground as the common for the internal PIR detector circuit:
Image
That allows it to work in switch boxes that do not have a common wire. It may not work if the switch is located after
the load! The resistance of a light bulb may not allow enough current for the switch to operate properly.

Note: Some versions of this switch require a common wire connection or it will not work!

My experience is that any switch box that has a hot wire from the breaker also has a neutral common wire with it.
Otherwise the black and white wires merely carry the circuit to the switch and back. This may cause problems if the
switch is on the neutral side of the load.

To test that, check the voltage on the existing switch when it is turned on. If there is a reading on both screw terminals to
ground, then the switch box is wired on the AC voltage side of the load and the motion switch should work properly.
Note that it always should read voltage on one side of the switch when turned off as the circuit is open!

The three way wiring effectively converts the existing manual 3 way switch into an on off switch that works through the
red/yellow wire of the sensor switch to turn on the light. The motion switch requires AC at all times to operate the light.
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burger2227
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Re: Leviton motion sensing light switch

Post by burger2227 »

I finally received a previously used motion detector switch with a wall plate:
Image
There are 2 wheels on the side of the switch to adjust the Time on and Light sensitivity. They are accessed from the front
with the cover plate off.

The switch also has a slide mode switch for always Off, Auto and always On.

Black wire is for incoming AC voltage. That would be the wire that is always hot so turn off the breaker.
Green is for ground which is necessary for the motion sensing circuit to work.
Red connects to the incandescent or florescent light.
Yellow is used only in 3 way switching for the carrier wire. Cap it off if not used as there may be voltage on it.

The wires will require wire nuts to install in most permanent fixtures as the old switch used screws or plug in connections.
Most permanent wiring uses solid wires while the switch wires are flexible stranded wires.
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burger2227
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Re: Leviton motion sensing light switch

Post by burger2227 »

The switch did not work so I got a refund and ordered a new single switch from Amazon for $16.

It cannot be used in a 3 way 2 switch circuit as it has no yellow carrier wire.

The green LED indicates motion is detected. If you stand real still it will go off:
Image
I put it in the bathroom so I'll have to switch it on when I am in the shower as the room is dark all day.

Finally! When power goes out and comes back on the light will come on for the interval set. Some people have said that it
does not turn back off until you do it manually, but I found that to be false so far. It did set off my smoke detector though...

The biggest problem I had was that the switch box takes up a lot of space and wire nuts and wires just makes installation tighter.
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Re: Leviton motion sensing light switch

Post by burger2227 »

Update on Leviton motion sensing switch.

Adjustment for Time on went from 10 seconds to forever with just a slight turn of the wheel. That means that the variable
resistor is not working properly.

Adjustment for Light does nothing that I can tell! The room is normally dark all day. Also sensitivity did not seem to get any better.

The design of the motion sensor lens makes movement above and below the sensor irrelevant. It does not see any movements
of feet or legs.

I tore apart the other switch that did not work and here is what I found. Two circuit boards are layered behind the PIR
motion sensor which is connected by a ribbon cable.
Image
The first thing I noticed is the large capacitor under the slide switch which is connected to the AC line black wire.
The 864K capacitor is 860 nanofarads or .680 micro farads or 680,000 pico farads which is the labeled 4 zeros.
The capacitor and a rectifier are used to create DC power for the sensor circuit with common being the green ground wire.
If you don't have a ground this circuit will not work at all!

The light switching is done by a Q4008L4 Triac that is riveted to the aluminum side plate as is the green ground wire:
Image

The motion sensing done by 2 PIR sensors aimed left and right on a plastic bezel:
Image
The sensor board was held in place by plastic pins that were melted to keep it secure.

There is also a mask inside of the lens which would appear to make sensor alignment critical
Image
There is also a photocell to detect room brightness to determine if the switch should turn on.

The sensor probably would have worked a lot better if the lens was spherical to take in 360 degrees of motion instead of just left and right.
It also may have only needed one PIR sensor with a Fresnel lens instead of using two!

I would not recommend this switch because I could not adjust the Time properly and it is not sensitive enough
to stay on when the room is occupied. You have to keep moving or the light will turn off!
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Re: Leviton motion sensing light switch

Post by burger2227 »

After I complained on Amazon about the switch turning off all of the time while occupied, Leviton offered me another switch to try FREE of charge and asked me to send the old one back to them with a shipping label.
The new switch works much better! Amazon has them for $30 and Ebay has them for less.

The Leviton ODS10 switch is pictured below with instructions:
Image
There are 3 dials in the center under a pull off plate to make adjustments. Each has 4 positions marked.
The Time adjustment on the left is for 30 seconds at the \ slash and 10, 20 or 30 minutes.
The Range adjustment is in the center if needed. It adjusts PIR sensitivity.
The Light adjustment should be set CCW to the slash if it does not come on and then adjusted upward until the lights come on. The Light adjustment sets the lights On for the current brightness of the room. It may change seasonally due to sunlight.

Above the dials are two adjustment arms that can block the PIR's field of view to prevent activation from either or both sides.

Image
Blue wire goes to the load or lights. It could be black or white as a neutral connection may not exist in a switch box.
Green wire goes to ground wire. The switch circuit will not work without the ground connection!
Black wire goes to the hot wire which is also normally black.
DO NOT WIRE THIS SWITCH WHILE THE WIRES ARE HOT! Doing so may damage the unit if it doesn't get you!

Load Ratings:
800 Watts for incandescent
1200VA for 120 volt fluorescent
2700VA for 277 volt fluorescent

A red light indicates that a warm body has been detected. I was able to stand still and it still saw me:
Image
There is a button below the indicator light slot that allows a user to manually turn the lights on or off.

The Fresnel lens catches motion as soon as I enter the room. The old one allowed me to walk halfway in before it came on.

This one worked like it should! I just wish I could set the Time off setting a little lower.
It works so well that I don't have to worry about making a motion every 10 seconds anymore. It seems to find me just fine!

On further testing I found that I can turn off the light manually and it will never turn on until I turn it on, but I cannot keep
the light on by manually turning it on. I can probably adjust the Light control to keep it on, but that requires removing the
cover plate, which is not an easy thing to do. There should be a way to keep the lights on while I take a shower without
having to adjust it every time. Well at least I also have a blue LED shower light to help me see...

Many thanks to David Keller and Eric Cohen from Leviton for sending me a better motion detector switch!
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burger2227
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Re: Leviton motion sensing light switch

Post by burger2227 »

After a year and a half of use, the switch started acting up by staying on after the room was vacated.

I had to manually turn off the lights with the bottom button and sometimes it refused to turn off even then!

Eventually I determined that an object was reflecting light back to the unit keeping it on.
Image
The magnifier laying on the sink counter would keep lights on when placed at certain locations!
The photo was taken from the switch location to see any reflections better.

I finally used the sensor blinder to block the right side of the switch from sensing things on the counter.
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burger2227
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Re: Leviton motion sensing light switch

Post by burger2227 »

Here are some interesting DIY projects from Leviton including stuff for kids:

http://tech.co/diy-tech-projects-2015-0 ... ign=buffer
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iamdenteddisk
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Re: Leviton motion sensing light switch

Post by iamdenteddisk »

I love the deduction made in a very sherlock holmes style, finding the reflection of the magnifier being the culprit.. that part my fav..

as to the switch not working without ground, the nutral wire, is ground but it isn't isolated. so it can work if the blue to the bulb then back to nutral of thew switch.

it not being isolated means you couldnt use it in a 3-way config though I do agree because the nutral would take power (hot) through the bulb from the first switch.
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burger2227
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Re: Leviton motion sensing light switch

Post by burger2227 »

They can be wired for 2 locations, but due to the motion sensors each unit would turn the lights on. Neither would turn the lights off until both do.

The reason they use ground is because many light switch boxes only have a hot wire and a carrier wire to the light.
Most electrical code require a ground wire in every box so it just uses that.
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iamdenteddisk
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Re: Leviton motion sensing light switch

Post by iamdenteddisk »

agreed, I am impressed you know your EET,and electrical, a lot of electrical code experience sensed there to, where you ever a Navy man? journeyman electrician or engineer? I have known 20year vets in the trade not quiet as sharp as you in the field.. I have really pushed my own mental limits in eet, tech, engineering and recognize mutual experience "wisdom".. salute.

i appreciate you sharing these projects and discussions with me to. kinda hard to find someone with mutual interest for convo (self expression experience), priceless IMO..

spend most time bottled up and misunderstood because nobody is on the same level. the self expression, is a good thing..
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burger2227
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Re: Leviton motion sensing light switch

Post by burger2227 »

Yeah, I worked in a steel mill for 33 years and helped rewire my house in Pittsburgh. House wiring is pretty easy, you just need somebody legal to inspect it later on. 3 or 4 wires beats the heck out of some of the electronic stuff I have created. I once re-made a pinball machine into solid state using hundreds of chips to eliminate the relay motor circuits.
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Re: Leviton motion sensing light switch

Post by burger2227 »

Recently I had a HUGE water break above my apartment bathroom and water ran down the walls for close to an hour before somebody finally found a water shutoff valve! Oddly most of the apartments have NONE!

So my above $40 Leviton automatic light switch quit working even after many minutes under a hair dryer.

So I got a cheaper 300 W version called an IPS02 for about $15 with similar features to the better one:
Image
The face plate comes off by pressing down 2 tabs on top and pulling it out from the top to reveal 2 adjustments.

The dial on the left is 1 for delays from 30 seconds, 2 for 5, 3 for 15 and 4 for 30 minutes.
The right dial adjusts for room brightness from dark to full sun. Otherwise it may not work correctly

This sensor has a green LED indicator for motion and the relay seems a bit louder, but it is new:
Image
Once the wall cover plate is on, the face plate cannot be removed at all to reset the time on.

RED is the load wire that goes TO the lights! The black screw is the 120 volt screw:
Image
The ground or green connector wire can be inserted underneath the shiny metal plate and tightened.

On a positive note, the bottom face plate switch works well to turn it on and off manually in a pinch.
The more expensive off switch was temperamental and sometimes refused to do anything. Worse when wet.
This unit had screw terminals, not wires, with float plates to allow one wire on each side of the screw.

If the 120 volt power comes FROM the lights in older wiring, it may not work at all as voltage is required to run it!
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