OKJello:
Looks like U finished up before I even read Ur post, but sounds like U had to
remote it to get its photovoltaic sensing , unless you are visually confirming
the LED’s states from afar.
My slant on the solution would have been to detect lamp/circuit
continuity,using 5 cheap, common components.This could be placed at the power source
in a very small insulated box, or by virtue of being so small, built inside a
larger heat shrink tubing shroud. The circuit would consist of the AC lines hot
side feeding one lead of a 100w lamp the lamps other lamp lead would then go to
the positive leads of a pair of shunted 1N4007 diodes with the diodes other
leads going to the AC lines low side.This runs the lamp at ½ voltage for long
life/reliability.
(The shunted diodes give a 2x current cushion and the 7 series of the diodes
give a PIV cushion.) For indication a sample is taken from across the shunt
diodes.The neg term of a LED goes to AC low side then its pos term goes to a
7500 ohm 1w resistor (or 2 shunted 15k ½ w units) the res then feeds to the
cathode of a 1N4007 with its anode then connected to the common cathodes of the
shunted 1N4007’s. The current limiting res for the LED may require some tweaking
in accordance with the LED type/current specs or if an even lower degree of
luminosity is desired.
The electronics would be in a sheltered area at the AC source, and if the
lamp had to be remoted an extension cord could make one connection at the AC
line gnd and its other connection at the common diode cluster apex.If using
an extension though, from the safety factor and prevalent codes, one might
well place a 1a fast blow fuse in line at the AC hot side as well as a 130-150v
MOV across the complete AC line just past the fuse. An unlit LED is indicative of
an open lamp ckt or a power outage.
AC Hot IN..................................AC Gnd In
....O..........................................O
....|...........................................|
[1a Fuse](opt).............................|
....|................(opt)....................|
....|---------/[MOV]/--------------|
....|...........................................|
[100wLamp]................................|
....|.............(2x)........................|
....|_ _ _ _[1N4007]_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ |
....|......(+).........(-)...................|
....|..........................................|
....|_ [1N4007]_ _/\/\/\/\_ [LED] _ |
,......(-)....(+)..7.5k 1w....(+)...(-).....
73’s de Edd
[email protected] (Interstellar~~~~Warp~~~~Speed)
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<p>[ November 12, 2002: Message edited by: Edd Whatley ]</p>