💬 AM612 Passive Infrared Sensor Breakout Board

[MasterCATZ]

Or a 12x DIP switch and a Jumper

Jumper for the shortest and longest Time settings
Then pads for installing the 12 Resistors for Time in Seconds the LED / Relay etc is activated for ?

also, how were you mounting these boards with no screw holes? just something for the lens cover to clip into

[NeverDie]

@MasterCATZ That's a reasonable request. In the future whenever I post a board to openhardware.io, I'll endeavor to include the complete set of KiCAD 6 files needed to make simple changes like this, so then I'm not the bottleneck. However, I did this work, and most of my other work to date, in Diptrace, which AFAIK doesn't allow that kind of easy change by other people.

Meanwhile, if anyone wants to re-do the board and post it with the asked-for change, feel free. Because I don't have that need myself, I won't be doing it, because it involves also spending time finding files in some forgotten archive from 5 years ago in order to resurrect it even before making the change.

In any case, I'm glad that at least some people have found it useful, which is why I posted it in the first place. :-)

[MasterCATZ]

all good at least I can steal your sensor hole placements and can stumble along modding in KiCAD

tho unsure why the board size is smaller when I converted it it seems to trim along where the cover's holes are and not leaving any meat behind

did you come across any other sensors better than this for the price?

[MasterCATZ]

@waspie

https://robu.in/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Pir-BM612.pdf

planning on switching over to these as well

sensitivity setting and better times

[NeverDie]

@MasterCATZ said in 💬 AM612 Passive Infrared Sensor Breakout Board:

did you come across any other sensors better than this for the price?

I vaguely recollect having since come across a newer aliexpress sensor with an even lower power consumption, but I can't say for sure. If that matters to you, it may be worth checking. It wouldn't surprise me, as there is constant progress, and 5 years is a long time.

[NeverDie]

@MasterCATZ and anyone else: If you come across a comparable PIR sensor at a comparable price but with a meaningfully lower current drain, please do post an update to this thread letting us know what it is. I do recollect there being at least one, but by now there may be even more. I could possibly create a new breakout board for it. As I just recently discovered, for a small board of this size, you can order 30 custom PCBs for under ~$5. The first five PCB's would cost $4, but after that the marginal cost is just pennies each. AFAIK, that kind of discounted pricing for hobbyists didn't exist 5 years ago. Either it's the new normal or else it's a temporary thing because of the pandemic or a grab for market share. Not sure which.

[ejlane]

@NeverDie Seems that JLCPCB has had great pricing for at least the past 3-4 years or so. It's been very consistently low every time I've gone looking. I think that's about as long as I've known about them.

[NeverDie]

A quick, cursory look at digikey, and I see that $5 (quantity: 1) will buy you a pir sensor that consumes only 3ua of current at 1.8v while in passive detection mode: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/excelitas-technologies/PYD-1598-7655/6615456
That seems like pretty good performance to me, especially in such a tiny package. In contrast, the AM612 is 14ua at a cost of around $0.85 each (quantity 10 pricing).

Panasonic PIRs that operate at 2ua are available, but at around $20.

Sparkfun claims their PIR board (with a panasonic sensor in it) draws just 1ua, but their price for it is $33.50: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/17375

So, if price is no obstacle, there's a lot to choose from. However, here's how I look at it: use 2x lithium AA primary batteries to power your project (https://data.energizer.com/pdfs/l91.pdf). That's about 3500mah. Then, ignoring other power drains like wireless communications and self discharge, then with the AM612 (at 14ua current drain), those batteries should last you more than 28 years, which is longer than the 20-year shelf life of the batteries. So, unless I've made a calculation error, 14ua seems good enough to me. I guess the argument for the lower drain PIRs might make sense if you're doing energy harvesting.

[waspie]

for what its worth IIRC i'm getting at least 6 months on the ol' 612 with a CR2450.
Close to two years on a CR123a. So yeah, if I made more I'd design a new board for the new PIR sensors you're finding out there but the 612 even with its higher dropout voltage seems to work fine with even a moderatly sized battery.

[NeverDie]

@waspie said in 💬 AM612 Passive Infrared Sensor Breakout Board:

for what its worth IIRC i'm getting at least 6 months on the ol' 612 with a CR2450.
Close to two years on a CR123a. So yeah, if I made more I'd design a new board for the new PIR sensors you're finding out there but the 612 even with its higher dropout voltage seems to work fine with even a moderatly sized battery.

Unless the actual current drain is larger than the 14ua I'm assuming, it sounds as though the other drains on your battery are what's dominating. So, if my calculations are right, you likely wouldn't get more than a small percentage more battery life out of using the 3ua sensor instead of the AM612.

[waspie]

@NeverDie said in 💬 AM612 Passive Infrared Sensor Breakout Board:

@waspie said in 💬 AM612 Passive Infrared Sensor Breakout Board:

for what its worth IIRC i'm getting at least 6 months on the ol' 612 with a CR2450.
Close to two years on a CR123a. So yeah, if I made more I'd design a new board for the new PIR sensors you're finding out there but the 612 even with its higher dropout voltage seems to work fine with even a moderatly sized battery.

Unless the actual current drain is larger than the 14ua I'm assuming, it sounds as though the other drains on your battery are what's dominating. So, if my calculations are right, you likely wouldn't get more than a small percentage more battery life out of using the 3ua sensor instead of the AM612.

I'm using mostly 328p with edbyte radios with a resting current (no PIR) of like lets say 5-7ua? I haven't tested it in forever. with 2 years of battery on a 123 it just didnt seem worth the trouble worrying about any of it. and thanks for your designs that got me off the ground with that stuff btw.

after the fix for the 51822 and 832 i put together a few of those and those are using the cr2450. i think those rest at like 4.5ua (minus the pir of course). 6+ months on a button cell is quite all right with me.