Arduinos for garden lighting...?

[spikenipple]

Hi people!

I'm looking to set up an active garden lighting system, whereby a segment of the garden or a pair of lights are lit up as you walk past, activated by a series of PIRs or similar devices, and turn off a few seconds after the sensor no longer detects you.

Is this something I can achieve using an Arduino or something along those lines, or would it be more effective to make this sort of thing with a 555 type circuit?

I'd quite like to get into programming Arduinos anyway, but I'm all ears!

Thanks in advance
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C50 > GN250 > XJ600 > SV650S K7 > 2001 RSV Mille R > MT-09, XR400R > 2005 Fireblade (trackbike) + 2022 MT-09 + ZXR400 race bike

[Shinigami]

No idea but sounds a nice idea!
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Current: Honda City Fly CLR125 2003 Honda CB600F Hornet 2008 Yamaha FZ6 S2 + 1991 Kawasaki GPZ500
"Once you realize what a joke everything is, being the Comedian is the only thing that makes sense.

[TQ]

Definitely do-able with an Arduino just not sure if it's overkill to be honest.
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First Bike :Gilera DNA 50 | Second: Imported 1989 NSR125
Third: 1998 Yamaha XJ600N | Currently: 1999 Yamaha FZS600

[ScaredyCat]

You might want to look at https://labs.ideo.com/2011/09/08/musical-staircase/ which is an extension of sparkfun's musical staircase.. although I'm not sure what sort of lighting you're expecting to use. Planning on using relays? How many lights?

You might find is simpler to buy cheap PIR lights and narrow the field of view on the sensor by masking them. Simply daisy chain them off a single cable. IIRC you can get some where you lay the cable and just clamp the lights at any point along the wire.


Andy
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Honda CBF125 ➝ NC700X
Honda CBF125 ↳ Speed Triple

[J4mes]

Could also be done with break beam sensors and delay timers, whereby you break the beam and it then keeps the garden lighting on for X amount of time until you reach the next beam and that activates the next set of lighting.

[spikenipple]

Maplin appear to sell metal-encased PIR sensors for about £2.50 each, so if the range/sensitivity is any good they could be up for it. The lighting set up will be 3-4 pairs of lights, one either side of the garden path. I will decide the type/power(/power source) depending on what solution I can come up with it.
Relays could work, what is a typical output voltage for an Arduino?
I'd like to have them fade in/out with a duration of 0.5s(in) and 2s(out) but I'll work out the basics first
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C50 > GN250 > XJ600 > SV650S K7 > 2001 RSV Mille R > MT-09, XR400R > 2005 Fireblade (trackbike) + 2022 MT-09 + ZXR400 race bike

[J.M.]

Genuine concern: what are you going to do about wildlife?

Say a cat walks through your garden, lights come on. Could happen several times a night!
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2004 R1 & 2018 XSR900

[spikenipple]

I'll knock up a motion-sensing laser that only targets small animals...

Or wire it up to the current PIR switch in the house
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C50 > GN250 > XJ600 > SV650S K7 > 2001 RSV Mille R > MT-09, XR400R > 2005 Fireblade (trackbike) + 2022 MT-09 + ZXR400 race bike