Home Security - chime/alert in house when vehicle coming up driveway

[ATCclears]

I thought I'd ask here...

We're outside the city. Private, shared road. Our drive is perhaps 50' long and off the private road. We have dogs.

I'm skeptical of the value of cameras for an after-the-fact image given Prosecutors and Courts are leaniant with thieves, and the vehicle or plates might be stolen anyway.

Any experiences with a remotely-placed motion sensor that can send a signal back to a unit in the house, and the unit in the house issues an audible signal?

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[salmon creek gary]

You can detect traffic up your driveway with wireless PIR or magnetic detection systems. I tied a couple of inexpensive PIR systems, but they all suffered from short wireless range and false alarms on kids & wildlife. I skipped trying expensive PIR systems; they might have longer range, but false alarms would still be a problem. Instead, I switched to the least expensive magnetic system I could fiind. It is marketed by Mighty Mule (the electric gate folks), has much better wireless range, zero false alarms, and perfect detection of vehicles (even my riding lawn mower). When a vehicle is detected, an audible tone sounds with adequate volume, a distinctive dit dit dit dah (Morse code "V") pattern. There is also a green LED that lights up; it remains illuminated until you reset it.

When I bought my system, it cost less than $80 at Amazon. The claimed wireless range is 400 feet. Mine is installed 250 feet from the house and the wireless link is 100%, even through some trees and an exterior house wall. The little transmitter at the remote location is only 12" above ground, but that seems to be high enough to ensure wireless range (and low enough to be unobtrusive). I have the receiver mounted on the living room wall that faces the remote sensor. Reception in other rooms is possible, but has proven to be iffy, especially when there is foliage on the intervening trees. Each pair of AA alkaline batteries in the remote sensor has averaged longer than 12 months. Annual battery replacement (an easy task) has ensured reliable operation over the past 7 years.

Currently, Mighty Mule offers wireless driveway alarm system FM231, which is like mine but seems to have upgraded capabilities (including blue tooth, solar power, and Alexa compatibility). I question the utility of those improvements, but it is still available for less than the $80 that I paid if you're an ebay shopper. I just found one there for less than $70 shipped. Even Amazon still has it at a reasonable price.

 

[rgold1963]

I have this one with two receivers. https://www.guardlinesecurity.com/products/1-4-mile-wireless-driveway-alarm
You can get them at Amazon for just over $50
My transmitter faces South so I have had a few false alarms over the years when there are puddles and the sun hits them just right but overall, it's been very reliable. Never had a vehicle make it into my driveway without me knowing.

 

[cigars]

Dakota Alert does MURS radios but they also do the driveway alert stuff. I've got a couple of their radios, solid stuff.

4000 Series – Dakota Alert

dakotaalert.com

 

[edzz]

Around here you see a lot of bird / bat houses, a good percentage of them contain motion sensors.
Along with hiding the sensor (in plain sight) they are also used as a mask to focus the area of detection.
Also don't discount the camera systems as many also include the ability to set an audible alert when motion is detected. Some also allow for "smart" detection allowing them to ignore some triggers.

 

[salmon creek gary]

I have this one with two receivers. https://www.guardlinesecurity.com/products/1-4-mile-wireless-driveway-alarm
You can get them at Amazon for just over $50
My transmitter faces South so I have had a few false alarms over the years when there are puddles and the sun hits them just right but overall, it's been very reliable. Never had a vehicle make it into my driveway without me knowing.

Thanks for posting about that one-receiver, multi-sensor system. It sure looks to beat the cheap PIR ones I've tried that all needed a separate receiver for each sensor. I would probably not use it for full time monitoring of our long driveway (because of falsing on wildlife), but I can see real potential for nighttime coverage of a few sensitive areas close-in to the house (such as our breezeway, front porch, and raised deck). I'd just have to carefully adjust PIR sensor coverage & range to avoid PITA alerts every time our yard is visited by wildlife and the neighbors' pets (although we love to watch the squirrels, racoons, opossums, and deer during daylight hours, we sure don't want to have those harmless critters repeatedly jolt us to DEFCON 1 in the wee hours).

Reading the comments about that system, I particularly enjoyed this subtly-worded one:
"I purchased a Guarline unit for my drive and it worked great. I purchased another receiver with 10 sensors to alert me of Coyotes coming on my property, it worked flawlessly. My Coyote problem is decreasing every nite with help from my thermal scope. Thanks Guardline for a great product!!"

 

[Provincial]

I have been using a Dakota Alert system for over ten years. The sensor is located almost 100 yards from the house, and the signal has to penetrate steel siding. It is very reliable, sends alerts in all weather, and the batteries seem to last a long time. The one drawback to this motion sensor is that it also senses deer and other animals. It also senses motion of tree limbs and any swaying vegetation. I have been able to eliminate the vegetation that was triggering it, but the deer set it off practically every night.

I could reduce the triggering by deer if I put a backstop across the road from the sensor. That would keep it from sensing any movement beyond the road, but that would allow someone to bypass the alarm by going through the hayfield, and also alert trespassers to the location of the sensor.

Dakota Alert also makes a sensor that is triggered by the steel of an automobile passing over it. You bury it in the road a few inches deep. That would eliminate the false alarms from animals and wind. If I install one, I will bury a piece of PVC conduit so I can pull the sensor out and replace it if it fails.

 

[Nick Burkhardt]

Game trail cameras.

 

[papersoldier]

Probably not practical for large properties or long driveways, but I just have a IP camera pointed at the end of my driveway with a motion sensing zone implemented right at my gate. If anything moves in that small zone I get a text to my phone alerting me. It would be easy enough to set it up to ring a chime or something like that, and it has the added benefit of recording what is happening as well.

 

[Jay Walk]

I thought I'd ask here...

We're outside the city. Private, shared road. Our drive is perhaps 50' long and off the private road. We have dogs.

I'm skeptical of the value of cameras for an after-the-fact image given Prosecutors and Courts are leaniant with thieves, and the vehicle or plates might be stolen anyway.

Any experiences with a remotely-placed motion sensor that can send a signal back to a unit in the house, and the unit in the house issues an audible signal?

My buddy has one on his rural driveway, says it works great. Invisible beam where you set the distance, does not need a receiving device like across from your garage door beam.

 

[ma96782]

Without an actual breech of the fence line (with well placed and numbers of appropriate warning signs etc...) and/or unless there is an actual breech of the home's structure.....

I'm skeptical of the police and/or the prosecutor's efforts, actions or legal response.

BUT, But, but.....think of all the fun? Not to mention what is happening along our southern border.

"Sorry, I no know what d sigh saze?"
"Wat? I no see noting."
"No whal. So I just walk."

Aloha, Mark

 

[Alexx1401]

I put this in here last year. Probably more than most want since I bought one with 4 sensors. You can buy it with just one sensor if wanted. Solar powered and so far they have not needed to be charged. I bought 4 so as to monitor all sides of the home since I live on a LARGE fenced and gated property. After the place is locked up I wanted to know if anyone is moving near the home. They pick up movement only if what is moving has heat. So stuff blowing in the wind does not seem to set them off. Critters do though. Each sensor here has a different sound to let us know what side of the house its picking up. One sensor is pointed at the main road here so during the time the place is open I just point it down. So it does not pick up people driving by, only if someone walks closer to the house than the road. One could be easily positioned on a drive so that it only picked up the drive and not stuff going by on the other side if desired.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0932SMC6N/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

 

[Defense Minister]

Game trail cameras.

^^^ This. Get the ones that send a photo to your phone with a notification

 

[2Wheels4Ever]

I thought I'd ask here...

We're outside the city. Private, shared road. Our drive is perhaps 50' long and off the private road. We have dogs.

I'm skeptical of the value of cameras for an after-the-fact image given Prosecutors and Courts are leaniant with thieves, and the vehicle or plates might be stolen anyway.

Any experiences with a remotely-placed motion sensor that can send a signal back to a unit in the house, and the unit in the house issues an audible signal?

I have your solution. Trail cameras are too slow.


https://www.amazon.com/Driveway-Wireless-Outdoor-Resistant-Detector/dp/B07SJ4L2TJ?keywords=wireless+solar+motion+alarm&qid=1648521819&sr=8-5&th=1&linkCode=ll1&tag=ironridgeoutd-20&linkId=9c1678ba0d6449866805e23c1b3d9aa9&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl

Seriously, these are exactly what I needed. My house is out in the woods, with no cell reception. I installed this motion alarm a year ago and could not be more impressed. Solar, wireless, impressive range, water proof, and works perfectly. We live on a flag lot with a 2000ft driveway. I was tired of being in the house and not aware that someone was on my property until they ringed the doorbell. With two sensors, you know that if both go off in order, that someone is driving down your driveway. Also, unlike our cameras, these don't rely on wifi.

They do go off if a bird, deer, rabbit, cat, etc. walks by the sensor, but I've never been off guard with a visitor since I installed these. You can get them with 1-4 sensors. I just have two, the furthest is about 1000ft away, and I get the signal through a lightly wooded area.