Help: Outside light sensor

[phcjpp]

Hi,

Can someone try and help me understand how the outdoor light sensor works. I'm not sure if mine is functioning or not ?

What sort of sensitivity it has seconds / minutes / hours before it reacts to change.

I certainly can't get it to fire by covering it over.

am I right in thinking it sends ON below a lux level and OFF above it ?

Thanks
Chris

[Newman]

What is the catalogue number of your sensor?

[phcjpp]

5031PEWPGY: Outdoor Light Level Sensor, IP67 56 Series

Thanks

Chris

[Newman]

Chris

Make sure that the group address you want to turn on/off in response to a light level change is selected in the On/Off group of the UI and not the Level or Enable groups.


For a quick bench check set your target Lux level to 288 lux or so and set the margin to 44 (the default values). The On/Off group address should be off. Now cover the sensor with a dark cloth or something to make sure the Light level changes from a level above to below the target. About 5 seconds later the group address should turn on. Now take the cloth away. About 15 seconds later the load should turn off. This is the expected behaviour.

Sometimes it can take the unit quite a few seconds to respond to changes in light level. This is because the unit is often used to control load brightness in response to changing ambient light levels and if the response was too fast the lighs would change brightness with every passing cloud. To combat this there is some damping in the response times.
am I right in thinking it sends ON below a lux level and OFF above it ?
Yes, for the group address that is programmed into the On/Off group address.

[phcjpp]

Hi,

I understand what happened now. It seems to be the difference between doing a local-network scan and refreshing an existing database.

In the window that pops up after a local scan - the light is 'alive' wheras in the refreshed database view it is 'not active'.

Not really sure I understand the difference! But hey at least I can work it now.

Chris