Hello everyone

I joined Av Forums a week or so ago whilst looking for new ideas for our home cinema and have only noticed the home automation section on the forums just now! I thought I would post a few pics of a recent project my wife and i have just finished. Basically we wanted some kind of a lighting feature in the hall of our home and after alot of hunting around the internet and head scratching we settled on the idea of illuminating our staircase hence the title 'stair lights'.

There are 13 super bright white LED's, one on each step, and an infra red sensor at the top and bottom. When you place your foot on the top or the bottom stair it triggers the LED's to come on by breaking the invisible infra red beam. The LED's stay on for 10 seconds (althought this can be ajusted) and then fade out step by step from the direction that you came from. It's a really cool effect ! The wires are all hidden carefully behind a secondary panel that we routed out to accomodate the cables on the one side and to create a smooth and complete looking stair case on the other. The illusion is therefore created with our visitors looking at the stairwell light up and then at the other side with disbelief as to where the lights came from ! It's a neat job although still needing the final finishing touches to the wood stain to make the staircase look finished again. The wires were all fed into the circuit board in a cupboard that we made under the first few steps of the stairs that was previously boxed in.

I thought the pics of the install might be of interest to anyone considering a similiar project so here they are.




If you have an questions please feel free to ask !

[Johnny Thunder]

Superb job mate............
I can see this catching on. Could we have links to the kit please.

Cheers.

The kit can be found here along with a few wmv files that demonstrate the LED's working. The guy was really helpful, and although the delivery is from canada the price was really reasonable.

[dobbin]

AutoMan,
I like your style.
Another great project (that I want to copy!)

1. Can you show us a photo of inside the wiring cupboard please.

2. I see that you wired before the kit arrived. What wire did you use and where do you buy it from?

Thanks

Originally Posted by dobbin

1. Can you show us a photo of inside the wiring cupboard please.

2. I see that you wired before the kit arrived. What wire did you use and where do you buy it from?

Thanks

1. Pics below

2. The wire is standard 4 core telephone extension cable which we bought in B and Q. I think it was a 30m roll we bought. The LED's themselves only require 5v so any lighter electrical wire would do like bell wire or the kind of wire you use for security alarms. We went with the telephone 4 core wire because after having done all the wiring if we had found there was a break anywhere we knew there would be 2 spare cores because the LED's only require 2 wires.

As well as the 13 LED's (one for each step) you will have an infra red transmitter and receiver at the top and the bottom of the stairs. While the transmitter only needs 2 wires the receiver needs 3, so rather than trying to juggle two different types of wire, it was easier to go with just the one type and cut off the excess wires once we were happy everything was working as it should. We ran the wires from the LED holes down the outside of the staircase to the hole in the side leading into the cupboard, and as we did each one, we labelled them so it made the connections to the board much easier. When the kit did arrive we had the thing up and running within about an hour. It was well worth the effort beforehand. The LED position on each step needs to be identical so it's worth making a little template to work from. The drill bit size for the LED holes is 6mm. Once the lights were in and working we were able to tinker with the angle of the lights to get them all the same when they lit the stairs, before putting the final board on the side of the stairs to hide the wiring.

Use the link on my earlier post to the guys website where we got it from, and you can download the installation manual, which has loads of step by step pictures and instructions. We let him make the LED's up rather than making them ourselves, and likewise the circuit board too, as this would have been really time consuming.

Hope this helps, and if you do decide to go ahead, we would love to see the pics.

[Darren Blake]

I did a simpler version of this a while back. One very bright LED (for some reason I chose red) on each side of each stair, activated by pressure pads on the first and last stair. All the lights come on and go out together, and as above the length of illumination can be adjusted from 10 seconds to 10 minutes.

I also added a photocell to the controller which can be tuned using a preset pot so that the lights only come on when it is dark enough.

The controller is a simple 555 timer circuit running off a 12V DC supply. The timer turns the LEDs on via a single transistor.

The red is really spooky looking !! I really like the way the lights look on the stairs as they turn.

It's a great effect and we are really pleased with the way ours turned out.

[Darren Blake]

Originally Posted by AutomanUK

The red is really spooky looking !! I really like the way the lights look on the stairs as they turn.

It's a great effect and we are really pleased with the way ours turned out.

Cheers! My Dad said it made my house "look like a knocking shop"

Actually, I am considering a change to white or blue LEDs because the novelty of red has kind of worn off.

[shahedz]

Automan, what a brilliant idea, great post, very detailed, what was the total cost?

Total cost for kit was £68 ish plus i would say another £40 for wood plus stain and the wire all bought from B&Q.

[JackMan]

This may sound bit silly but here goes.....

A mate of mine has done a similar job, but has put the lights into the risers. Has anyone ever heard of a similar job?

Never heard of anyone putting lights into the risers before. Does it illuminate the steps or just blind you so that you trip and fall back down the stairs again

p.s. im a big bender fan "compare your lives to mine and then kill yourselves"

they look really nice, I have noticed the kits are from the USA, what is the best place over here to purchase kits.

D

I looked around for a while before buying from Canada but couldn't find anything similar. There are a few that use pressure pads under the carpet but i didn't think it was just as tidy as the infra-red

[mjn]

Stop giving me ideas!!!

[eddidaz]

Heh, very nice. Bet that raises a little smile in the morning when you have to get up for work

[snowyslopes]

Hi,

Just seen your post. What an excellent idea!! Hope you don't mind if I copy you as we're in the process of re-decorating our hall etc at the moment and this will look sooooooo cooooool!

What were the delivery times like from Canada?

Cheers

John

[Dunwa]

Damn you Automan, i'm planning to replace the banisters over christmas and I "might" just have to invest in this. Very impressive WMV's on the site.

[Dunwa]

Not sure if you are still around Automan but where did you get the power supply from ?

[dobbin]

Deepcore

I followed Automan's lead and bought exactly the same thing from the same guy in Canada.
Install was pretty straightforward.
I just used a universal power supply with adjustable power settings.
Bought mine from Argos but I'm sure you can buy them from a load of places.

[Dunwa]

Thanks Dobbin

My wife saw the video and now wants them :D

[dobbin]

Yes they do get a lot of positive comments when people see them. They add a touch of luxury as well as being practical.
The manual says that the power supply should output between 9-12volts DC with a current rating of at least 500mA (0.5A).

[Dunwa]

Once again many thanks. Once I get the Bank Holiday projects out the way I think I'll place an order.

[Mrs AutomanUK]

Originally Posted by Deepcore

Not sure if you are still around Automan but where did you get the power supply from ?

Sorry haven't looked at this thread in ages. We used an old telephone answering machine power supply we had.

[Hitman]

I bought this kit a little while back and am about to start installing it. I bought a Power Supply from Maplin which does the trick. I can't remember the exact code, but it is 1000mA rated and has adjustable voltage. It is manufactured by Sunpower and has a series of connectors. I also bought a female transformer socket to connect up to the board to enable easy connection to the transformer.

I'll let you know how the installation goes subject to me getting things going soon!

[Mrs AutomanUK]

That's great Hitman... let me know how you get on. Would love to see some pics of your installation too.

[cb31]

That kit looks fantastic and I will be installing it later this year when we put in a new staircase. Is there an easy way to add an adjustable photocell or something so it only works in the dark? Does it look a bit strange coming on in the day or are the lights dim enough so they don't really stand out in daylight?

[dobbin]

Originally Posted by cb31

Is there an easy way to add an adjustable photocell or something so it only works in the dark? Does it look a bit strange coming on in the day or are the lights dim enough so they don't really stand out in daylight?

I don't know much about electronics so I don't know about adding a photocell. What I did was to add an adjustable timer between the power supply and the socket. I can then adjust that so that the lights (power supply) only comes on between 5pm and 8am.

The lights are pretty bright and they do stand out in daylight (unless your stairs are in very bright sunlight).

[Mrs AutomanUK]

We thought about putting in something to make it only work at night, but if your stairs are pretty brightly lit with daylight they probably won't come on anyway. Otherwise just bear in mind that they are only on for about 10 seconds when the beam is broken, so what the hell if they come on in day light !! They are LED's so they use very little power and because it's light, their being on doesn't really stand out like a sore thumb.
I'd love to see pics of your installation if you have any dobbin !!

[dobbin]

Originally Posted by Mrs AutomanUK

I'd love to see pics of your installation if you have any dobbin !!

It was a very standard installation on a very ordinary flight of stairs! Your photos were so good, and explained the whole process so well, that I thought my photos would be a bit of a waste of time!

But if you want to see some photos I will take some and post them here as soon as I get a moment.