# Troubleshooting a wireless remote light fixture **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 2, 2026, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/troubleshooting-a-wireless-remote-light-fixture/1027315 "2026-02-02T18:28:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2026, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/troubleshooting-a-wireless-remote-light-fixture/1027315/1 "2026-02-02T18:28:01Z")
My 3 front porch lights are powered by a wall switch with a wireless remote dusk to dawn motion sensor. The wall switch can also dim and turn the lights on and off. I bought the system 20 years ago and have had to replace it 5 or 6 years ago. Heath Zenith no longer sells the system and all the ones on Ebay are just old stock. For the past few years it had become erratic and finally stopped working. It hasn’t turned on the lights for nearly a year. But when the temperature got down to 10 degrees F it began working perfectly again. And 10 F is the cutoff point. Below that it works, above and nada. There is an LED that blinks when motion is sensed and that always works. So it seems to be in the signal transmission to the wall switch. Any thoughts on what is wrong? I suspect some capacitors have leaked and de-tuned the frequency and somehow the cold weather makes them function again? ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2026, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/troubleshooting-a-wireless-remote-light-fixture/1027315/2 "2026-02-02T18:50:36Z")
It could be that there is a cracked wire or something which breaks the connection. In the cold, the wire might contract and be able to close the gap and restore the connection. If that’s the case, you could try wiggling the lights and switch around. If it causes the lights to turn on, then there’s probably a loose connection somewhere. An alternative would be to install lights which can do dusk-to-dawn and automatic dimming on their own. Look for porch lights with 3 modes. They turn on at dusk in a dim mode, but will flip to bright when motion is detected. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2026, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/troubleshooting-a-wireless-remote-light-fixture/1027315/3 "2026-02-02T19:40:00Z")
A 20 year old system needs to be re-capped. 90% chance of that fixing the problem. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2026, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/troubleshooting-a-wireless-remote-light-fixture/1027315/4 "2026-02-02T23:43:56Z")
I pulled a unit apart and the 2” square circuit board has 8 electrolytic caps. They are grouped together and I will probably have to remove one to even read the specs. The board has 2004 printed on it. Pain in the butt. ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2026, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/troubleshooting-a-wireless-remote-light-fixture/1027315/5 "2026-02-03T16:29:49Z")
Just curious–why not just replace the bulbs with LEDs with built-in sensors? Y’know, with all these “smart bulbs”, what I want is one that connects to a service that knows dusk/dawn times and turns on/off then. I use the ones with sensors but the one by my grill irritates me because when I’m grilling at night (common) and there’s any sort of flareup, it shuts off! A smarter bulb wouldn’t do that. For extra credit, they could let me choose between nautical, civil, and astronomical twilight, just because. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2026, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/troubleshooting-a-wireless-remote-light-fixture/1027315/6 "2026-02-03T23:32:19Z")
These are recessed light fixtures so I don’t think that would work. The only lamps that fit in have to match the classic 60 watt bulb shape. It would negate being able to use the wall switch also. ---
**Author:** ![phs3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8491ac/32.png) [@phs3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phs3)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2026, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/troubleshooting-a-wireless-remote-light-fixture/1027315/7 "2026-02-03T23:57:22Z")
Maybe; the ones I have are standard A10 shape/size. And switch would still work, just not in the daytime? But you’d know better, you can see the fixtures! ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/troubleshooting-a-wireless-remote-light-fixture/1027315/8 "2026-02-04T01:58:36Z")
I have many Z-Wave in-wall switches. All the caps are starting to fail. Every few months I have to pull one out of the wall, tediously dismantle it, and replace the caps. It takes me around 2 hours, but that’s better than spending the $50 and who-knows-how-long to re-program the controller. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2026, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/troubleshooting-a-wireless-remote-light-fixture/1027315/9 "2026-02-06T20:19:25Z")
Where is the best place for small electronics orders today? Is it still Digikey? I miss Radio Shack:( ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2026, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/troubleshooting-a-wireless-remote-light-fixture/1027315/10 "2026-02-06T20:46:41Z")
DigiKey or Mouser. It’s annoying to have to pay $4.99 to ship a 1¢ resistor, but there’s little choice, if it’s an obscure part.