Hi, all:
I am not an electrical engineer. I am a chemist and an attorney. I love doing auto electric, restore cars and work on cars and motorcycles and do car audio installations as a hobby.
My question is what do I need to search for on DigiKey or Mouser to find a light sensing device that is very small that I can mount anywhere that just has two wires going to it? The purpose is to turn on some accessory LED light strips I want to mount on a sport bike for accent lighting. I want to tie a relay into the headlamp circuit and power the lighting from a sub panel I put in the bike. But I want something to control the power so the lights only go on at night. For those not familiar with motorcycles, the headlamp goes on whenever the ignition key is in the "on" position. 12 DC system.
It needs to be very small. I have a light modulator for the headlamp on this bike that uses a micro sized controller and a light sensing device that just looks like a tiny dome sticking out of the end of a two wire pigtail with a rubber cover over the base where the wires go in. I can put my own waterproof heat shrink tubing on the wire entry area but need something that would mount on the end of a wire circuit and then could be just zip tied to a mirror or body work on the bike.
So far I have found some things that are called "ambient light sensors" and "phototransistors".
Thanks for the help.
I am not an electrical engineer. I am a chemist and an attorney. I love doing auto electric, restore cars and work on cars and motorcycles and do car audio installations as a hobby.
My question is what do I need to search for on DigiKey or Mouser to find a light sensing device that is very small that I can mount anywhere that just has two wires going to it? The purpose is to turn on some accessory LED light strips I want to mount on a sport bike for accent lighting. I want to tie a relay into the headlamp circuit and power the lighting from a sub panel I put in the bike. But I want something to control the power so the lights only go on at night. For those not familiar with motorcycles, the headlamp goes on whenever the ignition key is in the "on" position. 12 DC system.
It needs to be very small. I have a light modulator for the headlamp on this bike that uses a micro sized controller and a light sensing device that just looks like a tiny dome sticking out of the end of a two wire pigtail with a rubber cover over the base where the wires go in. I can put my own waterproof heat shrink tubing on the wire entry area but need something that would mount on the end of a wire circuit and then could be just zip tied to a mirror or body work on the bike.
So far I have found some things that are called "ambient light sensors" and "phototransistors".
Thanks for the help.
