I have put this together and it appears to work ok but I have a couple of questions from my initial testing.
Testing in dark when I shine a torch on the ldr, the relay switches and my test lamp goes off. However there is a low buzzing noise coming from the circuit, I have it mounted in a box. Is it supposed to do this, I’m not sure if this continuous or not yet? What is it thats buzzing? It seems related to being just between switching states? The relay switches almost straight away once I remove the torch.
How long is this delay that is mentioned in the switching, i’m unsure if it’s doing this.
Can I use the same 12v power source to power the circuit as I use to power my lamp. or will this cause a problem? This is what i’m doing at the moment.
Testing in dark when I shine a torch on the ldr, the relay switches and my test lamp goes off. However there is a low buzzing noise coming from the circuit, I have it mounted in a box. Is it supposed to do this, I’m not sure if this continuous or not yet? What is it thats buzzing? It seems related to being just between switching states? The relay switches almost straight away once I remove the torch.
Check if C3 is correctly mounted
How long is this delay that is mentioned in the switching, i’m unsure if it’s doing this.
There is no specific time, it swith smoothly when the voltage level is to low.
Can I use the same 12v power source to power the circuit as I use to power my lamp. or will this cause a problem? This is what i’m doing at the moment.
Yes, but check if this power supply can deliver the nessesary current for your lamp.
I took my box apart and yes I think C3 was not soldered very well, loose on it’s point, I had to improvise a bit as I couldn’t get it to resolder to the solder point, but I think it is ok now.
It doesn’t make as much noise now just a little ‘whine’ noise for about a second before it goes click and it switches. (like an untuned am radio type noise).
I’m leaving it for tonight and will see how it performs over a few days. I’m fairly confident it’s working as intended now.
I have it mounted in the shed and plan to use it to switch on my low voltage led garden lights. (12volt battery power)