MCT-302 for outside usage?

[petermdevries]

Last weeks I have been working on building a new fence in my garden and now I am thinking to add a sensor to the gate.
I have a Visonic MCT-302 which I could use, but of course this sensor is built for indoor usage. Does anyone have any experience with using this sensor outdoor or modify the sensor to make it weatherproof?
I am not going to use this sensor as a real security sensor, just for my domotica system.

[Bwired]

I think Bastiaan has some experiance with this in his garden....
I think If you put some extra silicon stuff on there it will last a long time!

[DJF3]

I'm also interested in this solution. Want to do the exact same thing.
Maybe an extra case (Conrad?) that you can seal to so the 302 remains untouched?

DJ

[Snelvuur]

if you use the external contact, you can actually put the sensor itself (with the battery) in a better enclosure.

[Esteban]

A waterproof enclosure should work fine. You might want to think about adding some insulation in the box in case it gets really cold as the thing is battery powered. Other than that it should work for a good while...

[petermdevries]

I think a simple waterproof enclore from Conrad would be a nice solution. There are some enclosures rated for IP54. Should that be enough for outside usage? According to http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP-code I would say it should be fine, isn't it?

[Digit]

I was more thinking in terms of a small plastic bag over it or something like that, not to big, transparent, specially designed for not letting fluids through
I think/hope that will suffice... I have (had) 2 KAKU doorsensors; 1 at the front and 1 at the back gate. The only protection i applied was a piece of tape over the place where the battery goes into the enclosure, nothing more. They survived.

[Bjochems]

This is my solution, just a small piece of transparant plastic. Works perfect for more then a year now (incl. snow, heavy rains etc.)

mct-302.jpg (61.92 KiB) Viewed 9005 times

[petermdevries]

Today I mounted my MCT-302 outside. I decided to put the internal print in a plastic bag so hopefully that will be enough.
We'll see.

I'll check after a couple of weeks whether it's still dry inside.

Now that I've installed the MCT, I am wondering if someone has used the 2nd input to determine whether the door is locked or not.
I am thinking to look for a small switch and put it inside the lock hole.Has somebody done this before?

[DJF3]

Now that I've installed the MCT, I am wondering if someone has used the 2nd input to determine whether the door is locked or not.
I am thinking to look for a small switch and put it inside the lock hole.Has somebody done this before?

Haven't tested this, but it's absolutely a great way to use the 2nd port. You could also use that for a rain sensor.

DJ