Wiring help - adding motion sensor to battery powered prop

[Hecubus114]

Sorry if a better place for this exists, as this is not a prop from and movie or TV show, but I know someone here has the knowhow I'm looking for.

I bought this electrical box prop for my halloween display this year:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Home-Accents-Holiday-28-in-High-Voltage-Junction-Box-With-Electrified-Cables-7342-28919/301148626

It's nice and loud, and will look pretty cool in the dark outside. What I am trying to do rig this up so that it is triggered by a motion sensor, rather than the simple on/off switch. As you can see in the link, there is a wired button that can plug in and control it in "demo mode" (try not to read that in Lotso's voice), but again, this works simply as an on/off button.

What I am wanting is for this to get triggered when people walk within about 5-8 feet of where I will have it on the wall. Anyone who can help an electrical amature would have my utmost gratitude!

 

[propmaster2000]

Home Depot has a motion sensing outlet that you maybe can plug an alternate low voltage DC power supply (transformer) 6vDC into, which you may be able to modify in order to power the Halloween decoration?

 

[Hecubus114]

Home Depot has a motion sensing outlet that you maybe can plug an alternate low voltage DC power supply (transformer) 6vDC into, which you may be able to modify in order to power the Halloween decoration?

View attachment 845597

Interesting - this may be a good place to start - thanks!

 

[propmaster2000]

This will also eliminate the need for battery replacement for the "electrical box decoration".

If you have other items that can be plugged in (120vAC), lights, smoke effect, etc. you may be able to tap
off the same sensor outlet plug as well...
Happy decorating


.

 

[teslabe]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/led-strip-...m=222969234446&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

Here is an option.

 

[Hecubus114]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/led-strip-...m=222969234446&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/VKkAAOSwSUJa6sk8/s-l1600.jpg

Here is an option.

This is great, but I'd still need to know how to attach this to the battery powered prop - that's how limited my knowhow is :cry :lol

 

[Luke0312]

Ideally, you would replace the sound activation with the motion sensor or run them in parallel (without them back feeding). Without it in front of me and taking it apart, I can’t describe how to do that exactly, but there’s another way that would work.

When set to “demo” and you holding the red button switch, does it stay on continuously or go off after 40 seconds?

If it stays on, then you can probably use the sensor from eBay posted above with an AC adapter in place of the batteries, but will need to drop the voltage from 12 (voltage of the sensor above) to 4.5 (I’m assuming the prop uses three AA batteries in series) after the sensor and before the prop. I can explain in more detail, but first need to know if the red switch keeps it on continuously when held.

 

[Hecubus114]

Ideally, you would replace the sound activation with the motion sensor or run them in parallel (without them back feeding). Without it in front of me and taking it apart, I can’t describe how to do that exactly, but there’s another way that would work.

When set to “demo” and you holding the red button switch, does it stay on continuously or go off after 40 seconds?

If it stays on, then you can probably use the sensor from eBay posted above with an AC adapter in place of the batteries, but will need to drop the voltage from 12 (voltage of the sensor above) to 4.5 (I’m assuming the prop uses three AA batteries in series) after the sensor and before the prop. I can explain in more detail, but first need to know if the red switch keeps it on continuously when held.

I'd say when you push the demo button, it runs for about 20 or so seconds and then shuts off. Pushing it again makes it shut off before that. And yes, it uses 3 AA batteries.

I thought maybe pulling the innards from another "3 AA battery" halloween prop that already uses a motion sensor was the key somehow, but again, my wiring knowledge is a tremendous speed bump here, lol.

 

[MrSouthpaw]

Sorry if a better place for this exists, as this is not a prop from and movie or TV show, but I know someone here has the knowhow I'm looking for.

I bought this electrical box prop for my halloween display this year:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Home-Accents-Holiday-28-in-High-Voltage-Junction-Box-With-Electrified-Cables-7342-28919/301148626

It's nice and loud, and will look pretty cool in the dark outside. What I am trying to do rig this up so that it is triggered by a motion sensor, rather than the simple on/off switch. As you can see in the link, there is a wired button that can plug in and control it in "demo mode" (try not to read that in Lotso's voice), but again, this works simply as an on/off button.

What I am wanting is for this to get triggered when people walk within about 5-8 feet of where I will have it on the wall. Anyone who can help an electrical amature would have my utmost gratitude!

I think the Voltage box sold by Spirit Store is motion activated.

 

[Luke0312]

I'd say when you push the demo button, it runs for about 20 or so seconds and then shuts off. Pushing it again makes it shut off before that. And yes, it uses 3 AA batteries.

I thought maybe pulling the innards from another "3 AA battery" halloween prop that already uses a motion sensor was the key somehow, but again, my wiring knowledge is a tremendous speed bump here, lol.

Hmm, then what I was thinking won’t work.
I thought the manual switch might just be completing the circuit, but from what you described is actually sending a high signal to a timing circuit, to start and stop it.

If you can find something that uses a motion sensor and 4.5v, you can swap them like you mentioned or if Spirit has one already with the motion control, that would be the easiest and cheapest route (unless you do want more experience with electronic controls, in which case I say dig into it).