Illuminated Kitchen Handles!!!!

[bukokhe]

Hi!

I'm an extreme novice to electronics and here is my project:

To design an illuminated kitchen handle that works on a dusk to dawn principle but only lights up when activated by motion.

I need to integrate 2 circuits: a dusk to dawn circuit and a PIR / motion activated circuit.

HELP???

I already have a working LDR circuit for the dusk to dawn part, I just need someone to please help me figure out how to add the IR sensor into it??

Please help??

 

[HarveyH42]

What are kitchen handles? I don't speak British to well...

 

[The Mad Professor]

Fascinating , I have something very much like it in mind for the kitchen at our place. Julie has been asking for under cupboard lighting this christmas and I thought it would be a neat trick to use the PIR sensor module from a sentry light to switch them on and off. Price wise it is far cheaper to hack an existing module than buy the parts individually.

 

[Hero999]

What are kitchen handles? I don't speak British to well...

Handles on the kitchen cupboards?

 

[HarveyH42]

Thanks. Just seems like most things in the kitchen has a handle. So basically this is an nitelite type of circuit.

 

[Sceadwian]

The only actual difficult part of this kind of project is figuring out how to get power to the device without possibly killing people, or starting fires =)

 

[audioguru]

You need to make each lighted handle work wirelessly!
A big battery hidden in behind the handle that you can charge in the daytime.
Never mind the cost.

 

[justDIY]

if your budget is largish, how about this

1) a lithium coin cell or a pair of aaa batteries for 3v
2) an led or two of chosen color
3) a small atmel or microchip microontroller
4) assorted bits of wire

the microcontroller will sense ambient light presence using the LEDs which also double in their role of illuminating the pull (as cabinet / drawer handles are called here in the states)

ambient light = yes, leds in standby, unit draws a few microamps

ambient light = no, leds pulse (faster than your eye can see), alternately illuminating the pull and checking to see if the lights are on, unit draws roughly 25-30ma per led (as limited internally by your uC)

should last many many weeks

batteries hide on the other side of the drawer front or door, as guru suggested.

 

[The Mad Professor]

I suppose one could glue a small solar panel to the cupboard as a sort of decorative feature or perhaps it could form part or all of the handle.
Depends upon the average ambient light in the room and may not be suitable for this application.

 

[audioguru]

It would take a pretty big solar panel (like a garden light) and it would need to be in full sun (not even behind a window) all day and pointing at the sun or it would be useless to charge a battery.

 

[tunedwolf]

if the drawers have metal runners...you could power those with a few current limited, mains Isolated volts and draw the power from them...same goes for the hinges on the cupboards...

 

[audioguru]

Wouldn't runners and hinges be in ter mit tent?

 

[tunedwolf]

To a point, but I would assume that with a decent enough resevoir cap in there, it shouldn't be too much of a problem. At least, it worked out fine for me a few years ago when I done something similar to this at my cousins new flat. I did have to manufacture spring loaded brushes to rub on the runners though, because the wheels on hers were plastic, and that doesn't conduct too well...
The lighting I used was a strip of Red EL string(at the time my choice was red, or sickly green) running off of a tiny inverter that was just less than 1 cubic centimeter in size, which I plunge routed a space for in the back of the drawers. The cupboard doors being capable of being hinged either way round, already had hiding holes, they gave you blanking plugs for the unused holes, so I hid the inverters in those. As the handles she had chosen were wooden, I just cut a fine V groove down the underside of them and glued the string in place. The power supply was a regulated CB power pack that hid up behind the Cornice around the top of the wall cabinets. There wasn't anything fancy controlling it however, just an additional fused spur on the wall under the wall cabinets.
The drawers fronts and cabinet doors were wired with very fine gauge enamelled wire. At the time it looked brilliant when the kitchen was dark, 6 months later it looked dated and cheesy...I always figured that's why she sold up and moved about 18 months after it was all finished

 

[bukokhe]

hey everyone!! thanx for all the replies. so long as one component on its own doesn't cost more than £100 i should be OK for cost. so basically you could say I have a large budget. thing is, I already have ideas on what I want... i just need a circuit diagram of a solution that works!!

i'm willing to pay?

 

[bukokhe]

here's one circuit i have for the dusk to dawn:

http://www.kpsec.freeuk.com/trancirc.htm

It's the one under the heading "Using a transistor switch with sensors" for when it's dark.

can anyone get me a really really really basic one for a motion activated circuit?

 

[picasm]

It is much easier to buy an IR movement sensor than make one yourself because of the lens/reflector that it needs to work well.
That is what I have done in the past.

Either buy a burglar alarm room movement sensor and use it's relay output together with your light sensor circuit.

Or get a cheap outdoor security light with an adjustable IR sensor - this should be removable from the light and then all you need to do is work out how to power it and use it's relay output.

For the handles perhaps you could use fluorescent plastic or paint and illuminate them with a UV lamp or UV LEDs above the kitchen units?

 

[The Mad Professor]

Circuit:
http://www.glolab.com/pirparts/pirparts.html
and many others to be found around the web (thanks to Google)

Did a quick look through the RS (Radio Spares) website for you, looks like they our out of stock for the Pyroelectric phototransitor sensor at the moment. Maplin Electronics have gone right downhill of late and don't appear to stock them at all. Greenweld might have some , as may Bull Electrical.

Ready built module:
**broken link removed** £8.99
[please note: this device was built to powered from a 240 VAC supply, and contains a transformerless power supply, please excerise caution ]

 

[bukokhe]

thanx for the link mad professor. i showed that circuit to my lecturer and he said its too complicated, i need to simplify it (as if that's an easy task)... im thinking of buying a lights that does what i want and taking it apart then trying to remake my own model on a smaller scale...

 

[bukokhe]

good idea about the flourescent plastic / paint picasm... once ive figured out the circuit i can start on my handle

 

[The Mad Professor]

Here's the little blighter , found the sensor over at Farnell.
https://uk.farnell.com/jsp/endecaSearch/partDetail.jsp?sku=1006209
£1.66 , and a circuit diagram can be found in the datasheets (quad amplifier IC and 555 timer.. at push you might be able to get away with two op-amps ) However you may well also a require some form of lens to collect and focus infra red energy on the sensor as its field of view is quite narrow. Add to that the price of a box and the cost is getting awfull close to that of the ready built module.

I like the idea from "picasm", another way though a bit more expensive would be electroluminescent sheet, same stuff as EL wire only flat and can be cut to any shape, popular with the computer case modders.