Jesse's Hunting > Game Cams > Homebrew Cams > How To Modify The Lamson Homes HS3100 and HS3110 PIR Light Adapter For Game Camera Use

How To Modify The Lamson Homes HS3100 and HS3110 PIR Light Adapter For Game Camera Use

This motion detector is made by Dimango's Lamson Homes and sold under the model numbers HS3100D. HS3100C, H3110D and HS3110C. It is powered by a 9 volt alkaline or lithium battery and draws 60 ua or .060 ma at idle, which is way more efficient than the Regent MS20 PIR sensor. It took me approximately 10 minutes to modify the sensor.

The unit draws 25 ma when the sensor is tripped. It has a 50 foot PIR sensor range and a 120 degree field of view for the sensor. I bought this unit at HomeBase for $22.95. You get this sensor online at the above Lamson webpage for $34.80.

Set the SW1 option switch for 24 hour operation by setting switch #1 to "Off" and set switch #2 to "On". You can access the option switch SW1 by removing the white access cover on the bottom of the unit. The instructions with this unit explain the settings also.

You can cut off the mounting stem that sticks out the back of the sensor if you don't need it. Cut the telco cord off the spotlight adapter and skin back the telco cord to bare the green and red wire. The red and green wire provide a pulsed high of 9 vdc when the sensor is tripped. Solder these 2 telco cord wires to the TLC 555 timer's trigger input and ground. Set the TLC 555 timer in a one shot (mono), mode that can then trip a reed relay to close the camera shutter contacts for 2 seconds.

A TLC 555 timer will add .2 ma of battery draw, so with the total battery draw at idle will be about .260 ma, which is still 7 times more efficient than the Regent PIR sensor draw of 1.5 ma at idle. Make sure you use a TLC 555 timer as they use less battery juice than a regular 555 timer circuit.

Ramsey Electronics has a 555 timer kit for $8.95. You'll have to get a TLC 555 IC from Radio Shack part # 276-1718 at $1.39 each, and swap out the regular 555 IC that comes with the Ramsey timer kit for the TLC 555 timer IC.

Red LED walk test light - Radio Shack part # 276-270 at $1.99 each. This LED already has the resistor inside the case so you just have to solder in the 2 wires. To get to the circuit board inside the Lamson PIR, remove the Phillips head screw on the bottom of the sensor housing, then pull off the top cover of the sensor housing. Gently pull the circuit board up and out of the bottom housing, it comes out just like the Regent PIR. If you are using the Radio Shack part #276-270 LED, wire the red wire to pin #16 of the IC and the black wire to negative.

You'll have to cut a hole in the Lamson PIR housing to feed the wire out of the housing. If you put the circuit board back into the lower housing you'll be able to get an idea where to cut the hole in the rear of the housing.

TIMER CIRCUIT - if you have your cam on a feeder or bait pile or you don't want pics taken in real short periods of time, you'll need to build Tinhorn's timer circuit and hook it between your PIR sensor and the camera. Huge thanks goes out to the electronic Jedi Knight Tinhorn for his time in getting this circuit figured out. We are not worthy. Click here for the Tinhorn's schematic of the pic timer. Use a relay to connect a ground to the timer input.

Click here from Marty's timer circuit. Thanks Marty for allowing us to use your timer.

Kevin has made some timer kits using Tinhorn's 2 stage timer that has from 2-5 seconds for the shutter closure and 0-5 minutes for the delay between pics. It will work with any PIR, too. Price is $25.00 for all the parts you solder to the etched circuit board. Kevin's email is kevinmay@bigfoot.com. If you are using a large capacity battery you can get a 2 stage pic delay timer kit for about $20.00 at Quality Kits, it's part # 8015. All you have to do is solder a few parts to the pre-etched circuit board and set what time delays you want.

SOME NOTES ON THE LAMSON HS#3100/3110 PIR SENSOR

The IC on the board is a LM346N, which is a quad op-amp. IC pins #1 and #16 both go high (9vdc), when the sensor is tripped. Both RJ11 telco jacks have the same pulsed 9 vdc outputs when the sensor is tripped. I didn't check out the circuit thoroughly yet, but it appears Q5 is a switch that puts a ground (low), to one pin of the RJ11 telco jack.