Security light with sensor

[SallyFloyd]

I am trying to replace an external security light with a built in sensor. The light unit has 4 'ports' in it with wires from the light (and I guess sensor) going into them. One is red, one is blue, one is brown and one is green and yellow. The wire that goes into the light from the house has three wires as normal, Red, Black and yellow and green. I have wired the red to the red, black to the blue and the yellow and green to yellow and green. The brown has nothing going into it from the house mains. The light works fine from the switch e.g. it is on or off. The sensor seems to have no effect.. how should I wire it to that the sensor turns the light on and off?

 

[Panjandrum]

You might have wired it right.
Some of these lights will turn on and off at the switch as you describe - until you do something in particular at the switch - then they behave as I expect you want yours to. Check instructions.

 

[SallyFloyd]

There were no instructions in the box! Not ideal... thanks for coming back though.. any other thoughts?

 

[theshogun]

check through the wiring from the light to the sensor ,some times the internal wiring uses the red cable as a switch live from the sensor to the light ,in this case the brown will be on it's own and this is the cable you want to connect the live(red) from the house switch cable too,.

 

[SallyFloyd]

Thanks, so in theory if I swap the live from the house main from the red to the brown in the light it might work...?

 

[theshogun]

yes but do check to see if the brown is on it's own

 

[bathjobby]

Can't help you with the wiring but can with the operation of the auto / manual security lights. Normally they are as follows;
1) Switch off for more than 5 seconds (or after no power as would be the case before installation) then switch on and the light comes on and in automatic mode i.e. will stay on for preset length of time and then go out if the light conditions permit.
2) Switch off and on again quickly (in under 5 seconds) and light stays on as it would do with a normal switched light until you repeat step 1) to put it back into auto.

Because of the conditions in step 1) the lights always go into auto mode when first powered up. Most have 2 controls, 1 to adjust the ambient light sensitivity (i.e. you don't normally want it coming on in auto mode during the day), and 2 adjusts the duration the light stays on when activated.

Your light may well be working in auto mode but if you have these 2 controls set at extremes (i.e. come on during daylight and stay on for maximum amount of time - normally around 30 mins) you may be fooled into thinking its on in manual mode. Switch it off for more than 5 seconds, switch back on again to put it in auto mode, then adjust these settings to their minimum and wait a few minutes for the duration timer to expire and see if it goes out.

 

[SallyFloyd]

Tried that too, but thank you! I am fairly certain that it is not wired properly I will have a go at the weekend (too dark in the week!) and see what happens!