hey everybody, i did the crazy thing of making a bunch or relay devices and even opened up a switch to stick a 30 amp relay in the wall to control my main room lights!! it's quite crazy but i did it and its pretty cool! check out the vid, it explains alot!! It was meant for a scholarship contest but the video was too big by 891 megabytes lol so i doubt they'll accept the video as legitimate and thats what tied everything together, but hopefully you guys can get a kick out of it and maybe it will help somebody!!! and questions about anything, ask away! i'd love to help anybody.
Cool beans! I've wanted to do something like this for a while, but I see one major drawback:
My overhead light is controlled through a wall switch, meaning the relay would have to be embedded in the wall behind the switch (piggybacked as you called it in the video). The problem this leaves is that I must have wires coming out of the switch somehow in order to control the relay from external sensors!
How did you manage to do that without an ugly solution (no faceplate, etc.)?
Neat, but what happens if someone else comes into the room and triggers the motion sensor? do all the lights turn off while your still in the room?
Perhaps you could use 2 motion sensors to determine if a person is entering or exiting the room, and to maintain a number of persons in room count. When the count is =>1 then lights on, if count <=0 then lights off, that way it won't matter if 10 people enter the room, the lights will stay on until the room is empty of people = )
If you modify your house wiring without a license electrical professional and or the work performed is not "up to code" with improper electrical connections you could have a major problem on your hands. Your house could burn down or worst yet your insurance company will not pay! Switching electrical circuits could easily be done with a "power line controller" modules like Insteon.
BTW ... All electrical devices have to be UL certified or other certification. To get an electrical device UL (Underwriters Labatories) cost some big bucks $$$$ -- otherwise it is a good ideal but not practical without proper certifications. :o :o :o
hey everybody, thanks for your input, i REALLY apreciate it!! So;
tchnclfl: Well i actually did just what you said lol i just had 2 little wires running out of my wall socket haha!! but here is a way to counter that although it would be messier and harder to accomplish:
install a whole arduino in the light switch ( would have to make everything very small ) and have a wireless receiver running with it. The power i would take right off of the light switch, so no need for dying batteries and such... some possible problems? Yes. But it does seem plausable, considering your able to make everything small enough, and you find a way to keep a constant source of power to the arduino some how ( the power doesn't stop when you turn the light off... )... i'd have to look more into it before i could tell you a definite better way of doing this, but thats one idea off the top of my head... also in a better situation, installed wiring would be present already.
John_ryan: although i did think of that using two sensor ideas to be able to tell if a person is entering or leaving, and (as stated in the video ) use multiple sensors to find where a person is located in the room to light the room up accordingly, i NEVER thought about what would happen if a second person was to walk into the room... i suppose you would need some sensor in the room to figure out if a person is there... so thank you for bringing that up!
and ArduinoAndy: Thank you very much for that informative info, i truly never knew any of that but i was very careful when installing it as not to make it anywhere near permanent. i just connected the relay using 2 wires i put in into the switch itself so that i could just snap 2 wires and the relay would pop out, in 30 seconds or less i could revert my main lights back. i also was very carefull not to cause any shorts, i rapped up the relay many many times with eletrical tape so no netal contacts that could interconnect or short could touch and cause a fire or so. i also don't use this system for long periods of time at all... some because of the fire hazard you posed and some because i just don't trust it fully yet, but short tests of no more then an hour or 2 seem fine to me... and i never leave my house or room with the arduino plugged into the usb so no relay control is taking place without me present, to keep it safe!
( and since its quick release, i could pull it out quick if a fire happened )
Just to beat this dead horse one final time. :
If you haven't considered X10 for controlling your room lights, at least you should know about it. It's UL approved, cheep, and coupled to the Arduino, it gives you lots of options. I made this diagram to illustrate the costs (eBay) and options you have with it.
I would be uncomfortable putting a relay in my house wiring, even if I didn't own my home!
hey thanks for showing me that! seems like a very good alternative for bootleg Esque system, however i'd say the only downfall this has could be its lack of customizability! your limited with the manufactured parts they make, but my system is home made completely, so it offer alot of customizing if needed! but other then that, i think your right
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