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[Biker]

I am using ActiveEye outside, but it seems useless until the sun goes down. I get false motion sensed on about every 1.5 to 2.5 minutes. This occurs on two units, and doesn't seem to matter if they are in sunlight or the shade. Should I only expect these to be reliable in the dark? This really must be draining the batteries quickly? Thanks for any hints to make them work better for me.

[fuzz54]

I remember reading somewhere in the X10 Wikipedia knowledge base that pointing the sensors slightly downward to avoid looking directly at the sun or surrounding landscape might help.   Giving the sensors as static and unchanging an environment in their view direction as possible is ideal.  That's why they work so well indoors since temperature changes slowly indoors and in general everything is the same temperature.  Example:  Try pointing them at the side of your house instead of at the road if possible.

[JimC]

Biker,

All of the X10 motion sensors are very sensitive. Birds, chipmonks and other forms of small wildlife will trigger them. I have also found that if there is a lot of plant life this will trigger the sensor on windy sunny days although this does not seem to be a problem once the sun goes down.  I have found it best to keep the viewing area of the sensor as small as possible by carefull positioning of the sensor. I remember somewhere on this forum reading a post that gave details on how to make modifications to the sensor to make it less sensitive.

[Biker]

I appreciate the hints. I think I figured out last night that it must be the cars on the street setting it off, at least for the one in the front yard. I recall an advertised range of 25 feet. For my application I have it 50 feet from the street, and have it aimed parallel to it, so that means I am getting readings from cars going by from the side of the unit, and again, at a pretty good distance. Wow! The post you found about somehow reducing the sensitivity sounds very interesting. I did some searches for ActiveEye but could not find it.

[JimC]

Biker,

Check out this link.

http://www.edcheung.com/automa/ms14a.htm

[TakeTheActive]

...Check out this link: MS14A EagleEye Motion Sensor Schematic

Dr. Cheung certainly does nice work!

I've enjoyed reading the articles on his web site for years. , along with Ido and Phil, of course!!!