Hi all,
I have been away for a while but recently I have been doing some tinkering again so I thought I'd share a recent idea here. Hopefully you have some inputs, there should be multiple ways to do this.
What I am thinking is to automate the lights in my carport to only turn on if one of my vehicles is coming up the driveway, but not when the plumber, postman etc are arriving.
I found one idea here where a device is added to each car, but due to the shape of the road and my driveway it was imprecise - hard to control when the sensor triggered the action with this solution, unless the range can be precisely controlled.
So I was wondering if there a camera that can read license plates could be a solution. Does anyone here have a recommendation for a camera? Or a better solution?
Good question @JohnRob- I would like to be able to see in the dark to ensure I have the right angle so it will need to come on by the time I am a couple of meters away, at least.
Ideally this would be adjustable so I could tune it. A camera can be adjusted so this is one of the reasons I though of that solution, there must be lots of ways of doing this though.
Why the importance of restricting the light from turning on if others approach? People have been doing this with security lights for many years and it shouldn’t be a problem if it’s not you triggering it in my opinion. Especially with LED bulbs that cost very little to run.
I would think that it would be a benefit to illuminate your carport so people can’t mess around with your car in the dark, undetected (For example, to cut out your catalytic converter).
Although a standard security light with LED bulbs would probably suffice, you could add a Phillips Hue outdoor motion detector. I put one at the front of our house so that our tenant had light when stepping out of the car, but I found that our car pulling into the driveway also activates the lights.
I already have a motion sensor that turns the ceiling lights on when people or vehicles are inside the carport.
For my vehicles I would like an additional, different "scene", I am toying with the idea of either having a row of small lights in the floor along the side walls, or spot lights that illuminate the lower part of the side walls. These "landing strip" lights might continue for a bit outside the carport as well.
I realize this is an unusual idea
The effect would be that when it is dark, the carport "recognizes" my cars and turns on these guide lights while I am navigating towards the carport. Once inside the main lights come on as well.
