Wiring a Dusk to Dawn Photocell Sensor

I bought a photocell sensor on eBay after learning Lowes, Home Depot, and Walmart were either out of stock on them or did not carry them.  No problem, I thought, 3 wires and it should come with instructions.  It arrived, but with no instructions except on the little plastic part (see second photo).  I am NOT an electrician, but usually can handle easy projects.  If it had 2 wires, it should be easy, but with 3......that's a problem.  I went online to instructables, Youtube, and a few other sites.  Although I could not find anything showing what I needed, I did gather enough to attempt it.  Here is my wiring diagram ( third photo) and instructions:

CAUTION: BLACK WIRE IS 120 VOLTS, SO TURN OFF SWITCH OR CIRCUIT BREAKER.

Connect sensor's black wire to black wire coming from house.
Connect red sensor wire to light's black wire .
Connect all 3 white wires (from house, from sensor and from light) together.

Now wasn't that easy. :-)

Comments

[dla323usa]

The photo is blurry. I’ve attached a hand drawing.

[dla323usa]

Hi, Here’s the photo of the pole light sensor I purchased. I appreciate your description of the connection but this one looks different. Is the white wire hot? Thanks.

[CharlesM202]

Their are three wires to and from sensor red black and white I wired each to its color but light still does not work new bulb as well

[sephiroth180]

Call a licenced electrican

[graydog111]

My friend is an electrician When he knocks on your door, that costs $175.00. I am retired & cannot afford to take your advice to “Call a licenced electrican” / sic /

[MrMTHero]

Red always goes to the black of the light.
Sensor black goes to inbound "line" black. Whites all are tied together as are the grounds. I posted a much more in depth explination higher upGood luck

[BillR85]

The red wire should be directly wired to the HOT circuit supply wire the black wire should be connected to the black wire on the lamp you are trying to illuminate and the white to neutral.

[Scoobe]

Either the light is no good or you miss wired the P/C.

[jamiehawn13]

I got sensor hooked up but in day light it comes on and goes off all the time. In the night it stays on. Why?

[graydog111]

I’m no expert, but I’d guess the light sensor is not getting enough light in the daytime. My friends & I are removing photo sensors, using LED bulbs & leaving them on 24/7. The cost of electricity used per year is minimal.

[ryneplatz8524]

Photocells are not run in series. Please stop using YouTube to dyi electrical stuff. More people get killed a year from 120/208. Although I do hot work all the time I am trained and have hot gloves and a electrical blanket if needed to work on large buss bars that are hot . Call an electrician we love to do side work

[graydog111]

Maybe I should have it titled “IT WORKED FOR ME”.

Why don’t you write an “Ibles” showing how to wire it.

I’ve been doing DIY stuff for 81 years, ever since I stuck my finger in a light bulb socket at age 6 & learned not to do that again.

[abinc]

My house was built in 1964. 2 post lights were installed, in series. No ground, no return; just two white wires to one where I wanted to install a photocell controller. So that post light is in series with the other, like old fashinoned Christmas tree lights used to be. The posts are about 140 feet from each other and the wall switch is remote from both. It is impractical to try and run a return line. I installed a two-wire photocell controller about 20 years ago. It wore out recently and the only replacements available were 3-wire. I've tried all configurations, but I have to face the fact that the 3-wire photocells require a parallel circuit with a hot and a return. They appear to be designed with an internal electronic relay to allow the device to handle heavy electrical loads, whereas a two-wire photocell in series easily handles current for a couple of low amp LED lamps. But this means that with a three-wire control, in any configuration, electricy is able to flow through the device to the load (the LED lamps). When the three-wire photocells fail, they do so in the "ON" position. To make sure it was not a faulty photocell, I had to check with another, new one. When that gave the same results, I concluded that ONLY a two-wire controller would work. It took some digging but I found them on-line from ZING EAR. Should be here in about a week.

[cblack6540]

i bought a dusk to dawn flood light a few years ago and out of the box it stayed on all the time so i set it back and used another. today i bought a new sensor for it (hoping that was the problem, but it still stays on all the time, even when shining a bright light dead into the photocell. what do you think the problem is, could the factory have wired it wrong inside the housing. and if so does anyone have a diagram of one. This light is a Uni tech with a vapor bulb and a plug in sensor, and inside looks like a large capacitor is attached.

[MrMTHero]

Did you accidentally wire the line and load backwards? That'd explain the sensor staying closed.

[AussieAlf]

Hey CB,

Did you get your sensor to work? I had the same problem but figured it out

Let me know if you need a hand.

Cheers,

Maurie

[p0tty]

How would I get this to work on a usb light? I put one in a circuit but it doesn't work, USB is 5v and ~500mA, so 1.5w? The Photoelectric Switch i got is "Voltage Range: AC 80V~277V, Rated Voltage: AC 120V/220V, Rated Load: 200W/400W". Is USB too low power for this to work?

[MrMTHero]

Yes, that fan is designed to be plugged into the wall. USB is DC your fan is AC

[ellisnaifeh1]

I am trying to wire a photo cell to an outside light that is controlled by a light switch.The line black is wired to the light switch and the line white is wired to the light. Another black comes from the light switch to the fixture. How would I wire this outside at the light fixture.

[MrMTHero]

Hi there, Firstly, safety safety safety!  Electricity is always trying to get back to the earth/ground, we're just caging it and controlling it to do work for us before allowing it to go home. Preferably our body isn't what connects that electricity to the ground.  Good practice for DIYers is wear rubber soled shoes or similar insulating shoes and even stand on an insulating mat of rubber or similar if you have it.  Remove lose jewelry and rings tie back longer hair etc....you really set don't want an arc welded wedding ring stuck on your finger and the switch box and still at 800°F or more.

⁰)Turn the circuts power off at the breaker so there's no power to the circut you're going to work on....not just turn the switch off thinking it's then safe (half of that switch even when turned off carries 120 volts at 15-20amps.... well beyond lethal electrocution levels. Remember a little taser uses just a a little 9volt battery but that's a discussion for another time on volts amps transformers and capacitation).  Now if you're the type to make toast while taking a bath I'll understand why you ignored this most important rule...the rest of you...drill it in your head...no matter how small or fast the fix is  Always turn the power off at the breaker.

Now to the wiring.

The black going into your light switch is the "line" it's the 120v inbound line. Then your light switch should have another black out of it, a white neutral (think of the white as another ground wire that's taking the long path to ground back at the breaker panel where the white and your bare copper ground wires all become 1), and a ground wire that's typically a bare copper wire in and sometimes a green wire;

¹) whenever possible I will always try to connect my grounds first, they are a sort of safety net if you screw up or if something is miswired elsewhere or a short occurs, because electricity ALWAYS takes the path of least resistance getting to that ground and thankfully copper wire has less resistance than human flesh. 

²)When turned on the light switchs' outbound black becomes the a continuation of the "line" relative the photocell...so wire those 2 black wires together. 

³)The photocells red wire (its "line") you will wire to the black wire that comes from your light fixture.

⁴) sum all the whites together (1 at the wall mount or similar, 1 from the photocell, and 1 from the outbound or "load" side of the switch minimum.

⁵)check all your connections one last time with a gentle tug.

⁶) If you have 2 light fixtures you'd have another white to sum at the wall box and another black to tie in with the first light fixtures black to the photocells red wire, and another ground wire.

Hope this overly wordy response help clarify.  Good luck and BE SAFE!