Anyone use the Smart Light 1000 motion-sensing outdoor light? - Dutchmen Owners
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Old 12-10-2014, 04:03 PM   #1
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Anyone use the Smart Light 1000 motion-sensing outdoor light?

So I've been tempted to replace my outdoor TT light with one of the Smart Light 1000 motion sensing lights. It's not that I'm so much concerned with security with the boondock camping that we do, but I'm just sort of obsessive with providing light. The LED bulb that I currently have will be compatible with this lamp, so I'm not concerned about battery draw. It would also provide a nice additional outdoor on-demand light where it is parked at home for winter.

Has anyone used one that can comment on it? Thanks.

Motion Activated Security Light - 12v for RV - PPL Motor Homes

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Old 12-10-2014, 06:59 PM   #2
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ewarner ,our aspen trail came with the led lighting built into the awning so when we rolled up it at night we had no lighting. we bought the smart light from ppl . I mounted it above the steps so we would have light coming and going at night. it comes with an led bulb installed from the factory. it also has a low battery monitor and a day/night sensor. I am very satisfied and thinking about buying another.
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Old 12-10-2014, 07:13 PM   #3
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Great to hear! Thanks for the feedback
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Old 12-10-2014, 10:26 PM   #4
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Yes, I've got them on my rig. Nice item, works as advertised.

One note though... You can NOT have 2 of these installed on the same circuit. I bought 2 of these for the 2 doors on my 5th wheel. From the factory, both were controlled by the same switch. One worked fine, the other stayed continuously on. Re-read the direction, all was good, couldn't figure it out. Then called Customer Service... where I found out. Put the 2nd one on a separate switch... both work as advertised now.
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Old 03-29-2015, 09:59 PM   #5
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my wife got me one of these for Christmas. I just got around to installing it today. Looks good, I'll report back with any issues!
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Old 03-29-2015, 10:26 PM   #6
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I have one on my maybe going to do it one day list.

I have a couple of other more pressing mods to take care of first. Like the 12v outside plug for the Fantastic Vent Endless Breeze fan

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Old 03-30-2015, 04:08 PM   #7
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So I played with the motion sensing last night and confirm that it works as advertised! The light includes potentiometers for adjusting the sensitivity of the sensors and the default setting is maximum sensitivity. It registered my movements and turned on from about 30' away.
The status LED is a nice touch, then you know if it is on auto or not with a relatively quick glance. During daylight, the LED with flash blue. After dark, when the auto mode would have the light turn on when motion is detected, the LED changes to flashing green. Green also corresponds to their "battery status" feature which means system voltage is greater than 11.5V. It claims that this LED would change to red if system voltage is below 11.5V. While that sounds great, 11.5V is too low to be very useful for monitoring system status. Even the dummy lights on the stock voltage meter are more useful than that. Too bad they didn't do something like a red/yellow/green where yellow could be something like between 11.5V and 12V.
It is nice that it came with an 1141 LED bulb; however, the light I replaced also used an 1141 that I had already swapped the incandescent out for a bulb-style LED.

Because my existing bulb-style LED had more LEDs on it than the one provided, and based on a purely subjective brightness comparison test between the two, I stuck with my original LED and I'm keeping the one provided as a back up. The one they provided seemed interesting because all the LEDs were mounted flat and pointed in the same direction and you could aim it. But I went with more light all-around with the bulb.
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Old 03-31-2015, 10:43 PM   #8
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So to update my post, the sensor turned on the light at more like 20 feet max. And really it is not that reliable at that distance. 10' or less and it was pretty good. My dogs could also trigger the sensor which is something I was hoping for. They are medium to medium/large sized dogs.
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Old 03-31-2015, 11:49 PM   #9
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I installed 2 of them, one above each entry door. Love them! The one above forward door I had to turn sensitivity almost to zero because of my water heater near the door but it still comes on at about 20 feet. The rear one actually detects moement at about 50 feet, it will come on before front even when approaching from the front. If you do hook up two, remember ATVGUY's tip that they each need to be on seperate switches to function properly.
My 10 pound dashounds do not set them off.
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Old 04-08-2015, 03:25 PM   #10
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I notice some unusual behavior from mine. I can see the camper where it is parked from our home's kitchen with the motion light facing towards the house. It is about 60-70 yards away. Every morning before dawn, the TT outdoor motion light is on. Now maybe every morning there are deer or cats or other critters with big enough heat signatures to turn it on. But this has been every morning for the past week or so. My garage motion lights also cover roughly the same area as the TT outdoor motion light and they are not triggered on. What is more peculiar is that the light doesn't seem to turn off once the sun comes up. The motion light is still in auto mode because I can see the green LED flashing. When I return from the work at the end of the day, the light is off. My first thought is that maybe the sensitivity is set too high. I backed it off a quarter turn last night, but this morning the same results. The light was still on when I left for work this morning and it was full day light. Green LED was still flashing as if it was still dark and motion had triggered the light on. I'm not concerned about battery draw, the main LED hardly draws a thing and I've got plenty of Ah capacity plus solar. But this behavior does not seem normal and I don't recall it acting this way when first installed.
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