Wardrobe lights question

[DavidA1982]

I am building some fitted wardrobes and want to include some in-wardrobe lighting that comes on automatically when the doors are open. Each wardrobe has two sliding doors. I was really hoping that there was a product out there that would do this for me, but I’m really struggling to find it. The purpose of this post is to see if there is a product out there I’ve not seen; and if not, to see if one can be made easily.

Ikea do what looks to be the ideal product – a strip of LEDs that you can mount on the ceiling of a wardrobe. It is light-activated, so senses whether a wardrobe door is open or closed. The problem is, the sensor is mounted on the light unit itself. My wardrobes are quite shallow. They are about 1200mm wide, with a vertical panel in the middle, dividing the space in to two separate hanging compartments. This is about 2m high. There is then a shelf above this, leaving a small space for storage. The shelf is about as deep as the wardrobe itself (i.e. there is very little gap between the edge of the shelf and the doors to the wardrobe. Therefore the light would do a great job of lighting up the relatively small space above the shelf, but would not do anything to light up the hanging space, which is where I want the light. Ideally the LED strip would be at the back of the hanging space, just under the shelf. However the sensor doesn’t work very well then because it is mounted on the light unit and so hidden behind the clothes. And I cannot put the light at the front of the wardrobe under the shelf because it would just be in the way.

There are also a number of products that have a switch that is physically closed when a door is shut. However as I have sliding doors it would be complicated to make this work – I think I’d need 4 switches and some complicated circuitry.

Essentially what I’m after is a product that has a strip of LED lights that is turned on and off by some sort of light sensor (or motion sensor?), rather than a push-switch. I want to be able to mount the lights on the back wall of the wardrobe under the shelf, and fit the sensor at the top of the wardrobe. Battery-powered or powered from the mains would be OK.

Does anybody know if such a product exists? If not, is this the sort of thing I could make easily? I did a GCSE in electronic products about 15 years ago and have rarely used a soldering iron since!

 

[Burnerman]

Just google a V3 microswitch......can be N/O or N/C when the doors are closed.
Any use?
A light activated switch requires an LDR or similar, and there will be current drain even when off.
John (Electronic products teacher (retd))

 

[Ricardus]

Well its been over 20 years since I did my ONC/HNC in Electronics and I can barely remember Ohms law, but for a low voltage application all you should need would be an LDR and a simple transistor based switch to sense light/darkness and turn on the light, or a couple of microswitches if you want it to turn on when you open the doors.

EDIT - beaten to the punch!

 

[Burnerman]

HNC??
I bow and scrape to superior knowledge and qualifications
John

 

[DavidA1982]

Thanks both. The problem I have with switches is that I cannot see how they can work on a sliding door. As you know, one door sits a few cm in front of the other to allow them to pass each other.

Imagine that the front door is on the left hand side, and the back door is on the right hand side. If I open the left hand side door (push it to the right), it would release the switch there and the light would come on - that's fine. But what if I then move the back door to the left hand side (closing the wardrobe)? It won't close the switch on the left hand side, because that will be in line with the front door. So the wardrobe will be closed but the light will still be on.

As far as I can tell, I'd need 4 switches, and some complicated (for me!) circuitry for it all to work.

I think I'll try it with a simple LDR switch.

 

[Burnerman]

The switches would be fixed to the door frame, and operated with the door contacting them.
Look up domestic lighting circuits dealing with 2 way switching and you should get somewhere.....one switch would be N/C and the other N/O with the doors closed.
John

 

[foxhole]

Movement sensor with a time switch would do it.

 

[Astra99]

Four microswitches (such as those used on fridge doors) wired in parallel switching one or more lamps would do the job! It would not be a complicated circuit, and each switch would be placed so that they are depressed (i.e. OFF) when the door is closed. Opening any door will "make" the circuit, and if two doors are partly opened at the same time, the circuit will be made through two paths, so the light will still illuminate.

HTH

 

[foxhole]

Problem with fitting any switch to sliding doors is they are rarely returned to exactly the same position making switching difficult.

 

[DavidA1982]

Four microswitches (such as those used on fridge doors) wired in parallel switching one or more lamps would do the job! It would not be a complicated circuit, and each switch would be placed so that they are depressed (i.e. OFF) when the door is closed. Opening any door will "make" the circuit, and if two doors are partly opened at the same time, the circuit will be made through two paths, so the light will still illuminate.

HTH

Thanks - but I don't think it works in parallel. Even with the doors closed, two of the switches would still be "open". What I need is something that turns the light on if:

LHS front is open OR LHS back is open; AND
RHS front is open OR RHS back is open.

This is by no means impossible, but it is rather an inelegant solution and as foxhole says, physical switches and sliding doors are not ideal.

I'm going to try the movement sensor idea and failing that, just get a few normal switches!