Triggering Question

[Army Lights]

Guys, I'm so lost. Please help. At this point, I'm thinking I may not get this working at all. Here's what I've got so far:

 

I've connected the RadioShack PIR (http://www.radioshack.com/radioshack-passive-infrared-sensor/2760347.html) to the 3 pins covered in the LOR PIR instructions. I did this by hooking female-female jumper wires to the 3 pins on the PIR and the 3 pins on the LOR, then connecting those jumper wires with thermostat wire. In theory, it seems like that should work. Right?

 

I then set up a test sequence in my hardware utility in standalone mode. I changed the input to "Input (norm closed switch)." For a bit, the sequence would run, independent of whether there was anything triggering the PIR. Then, all of a sudden, the Hardware utility would no longer detect the controller. After disconnecting the 3 wires from the heads, it detected it. Re-attaching made it lose the connection again, and so on, so forth. 

 

I feel like I'm dealing with SO many variable issues at this point, I'm hoping someone would be willing to walk me step by step. I'll buy you a beer if you're willing! I REALLY need to have this up and running for my son's birthday party on Saturday.

 

Off hand it sounds like you don't have something hooked up right.  Input triggers should not have any effect on the ability of the hardware utility to detect the controller.  Before you even try a sequence, use the hardware utility in the input test mode to determine if the controller is seeing switching of the PIR.

Thanks! I didn't even know input testing was a feature! So, I'm there:

I started with my wires not being connected at all. The boxes for inputs 2 and 3 are check marked and highlighted green. I then placed all 3 my wires, and the little white box on the right turns from "INPUTS from UNIT 01" to "controller is not responding" highlighted in red. When I remove a wire, it switches back to the original message.

Thoughts?

[k6ccc]

You have something wired wrong.  Sounds like the PIR is shorting something other than an input.  What kind of controller are you hooking to and what pins are you hooking to?

[Army Lights]

I'm using the pins shown in this diagram (http://www.lightorama.com/Documents/UseMotionDetector.pdf) on my LOR1602MP3. In terms of what I'm hooking to what:

 

GND on the PIR ----> Ground on the diagram

VCC on the PIR ----> +9VDC on the diagram

OUT on the PIR ----> Input pin on the diagram

 

There's a good chance I'm a complete moron and am doing something completely wrong, but as I said at the top, I am a complete novice in the realm of triggering. I really appreciate you spending some time on it. 

 

Is it normal that the Inputs 2 and 3 are triggered without me connecting anything, or is something messed up there as well? 

 

Chris

[k6ccc]

Check for a PM from me...

[Army Lights]

So, I'm posting this for anyone who eventually has the same problem. Jim and I did some troubleshooting over the phone for quite a while, and I think we've found the solution. First, please don't be dumb like me and trust the LOR diagram that I posted earlier blindly. It was not the same pin configuration as my LOR1602. Simply look at the silk screen on your own board. So, once we found out that my Input1 Cable was actually plugged into another Ground, we were able to isolate the problem to the PIR itself. Long story short, I think it's a crap PIR and I'm going to go with a single beam photoelectric detector.

 

Thanks again, JIM! I'll be out to your show in Glendora SOON!

 

Chris

[TonyD]

I think jstorms did some nice videos on hooking up triggers that might be helpful.

https://sites.google.com/site/listentoourlights//home/how-to