Imagine trudging across a darkened lawn when all of a sudden, a light clicks on and you're surrounded by a pool of white light. Motion detectors are useful for home security and energy efficiency. Sensors that react to movement can trigger lights -- or an alarm in the case of an intruder -- or to keep a room dark, when no one is there. You can indulge your inner-James Bond by modifying motion detectors for purposes, both practical and frivolous. In this hack, you can manipulate the motion detector by rigging it up to an event control timer, useful for Halloween props or more practical purposes.
Instructions
1. Place tape over the middle of the sensing beam and spraypaint the rest of the beam black to narrow its range. The sensing beam is what detects motion in its immediate vicinity. Usually, it's covered by a piece of semi-transparent white plastic.
2. Unscrew the back of the motion detector using a screwdriver. You'll want to gain access to its circuitry in order to "hack" it. Set aside the backing, as well as any screws you remove, in case you need to reverse your work or replace the cover.
3. Cut the red wire with a wire clipper and scrape off the solder residue with the screwdriver, or some other hard, pointed metal object. You'll need to expose the wire itself in order to connect it with other wires.
4. Reroute the black and white wires by soldering them to the component side of the circuit board. The component side is the printed side of the circuit board that contains most of the circuitry.
5. Solder the black and white wires to the large circuit; the one that switches on and off the light itself.
6. Remove and reattach the green wire to the neutral wire of the grounding plug. The grounding plug is a three-pronged, three-wire plug: the left prong is the hot prong, the right is neutral and the one below is the ground.
7. Reroute the remaining wires to act as the event control timer. Solder the wires to the on/off switch.
Tags: black white, black white wires, circuit board, component side, control timer, event control