driveway alarms

[RadarTech]

hey folks,

been giving this a little thought lately..
At our new house there are no windows or ways to see the driveway area.

We have 3 S-Curves coming up the drive and you can't even hear anyone coming up the drive..
So this has led me to see what is out there..

northern tool has this one:
Chamberlain Wireless Pedestrain & Vehicle Alert System with 2-Way Voice Communication and Remote Control | Security Alarms | Northern Tool + Equipment
And I have seen lots of em on a google search.
But it would be good to put my hands on one to see how durable it is before I drop $150-$200 on one..

What have yall tried?

 

[Willl]

I've been through a few driveway alarms, best so far is the Chamberlain Reporter.

 

[Willl]

Funny this should come up, just yesterday I had to shut the indoor alarm off cause the outdoor batt went dead and it starts to 'cry'.

Going out right now to put a new batt in. (guessing its 1.5 yrs old)

 

[zzvyb6]

Front door, back door, balcony and refrigerator.

 

[Willl]

ZZ, I've got one of those also, he sits on the inside of the gate.

The above alarm sits on the outside.

Gotcha on both sides.

 

[QRTRHRS]

Driveway alarm: Post a sign that says "Electronic surveillance in effect, smile for the camera ". A few feet further on, set up one of those black silhouettes of a person in a prone position holding a weapon. Provide turn around space as this will eliminate unannounced visitors.

PS, wearing camo while shouldering a weapon during routine groundhog patrol also gets the message out.

 

[ragkar]

This thread has a good discussion
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/rural-living/128167-dual-system-driveway-alarm-press.html

 

[Stimw]

I bought one of the cheapo $29. ones and it sucks! It would go off and there was nobody there. I finally stood at the window and watched on a hot totally windless day and it kept going off. I figure it was picking up the thermal images. I already knew the heat was arriving! I even tried putting a partial block on the sensor but that didn't work.
A friend had an infrared unit that went off when the beam was broken. He got it at Radio Shack but they don't carry them anymore.

 

[DieselPower]

I installed a service bell in my driveway. The kind you see or use to see at gas stations that rang when someone drives over the rubber hose. I picked it up at the local auto parts store. I think NAPA has them in their catalog. Mine has worked great for darn near 15 years now.

 

[DennisArrow]

I have used one of these for a couple of years now. Yes, it had to be replaced once for a repair; but this was done promptly and even updated.

Dakota Alert. Wireless Alarms Security Equipment for the home, acreage, farm and business.

The factory in S.D. is super helpful and honest. No they do not eat batteries. I have mine set on the highest power useage setting and it uses a battery about every 4 months. Yes, aiming it so that dogs and critters do not trigger it is a bit of a hassle but once you figure out where to put it so that this doesnt happen you can count on it.

It is just another one of the many little tools that add up to having home "security". God Bless........Dennis

 

[CurlyDave]

I got one of the really cheap Harbor Freight ones. I mounted the transmitter about 8" off the ground, and so far it is much better at picking up deer, dogs and rabbits than cars.

OTOH this has opened up some interesting hunting possibilities. Since both transmitter and receiver are battery operated it seems I could use a few of these to "state out" some likely clearings.

If I put the receiver maybe 100' from my blind I can still hear it, but the deer are going to have their attention attracted to the wrong spot.

Anyone know if this is legal?

 

[srjones]

I'm not sure about hunting, but I know it's pretty effective at letting you know that at about 2:00am there's something out by the chicken coupe.

I still wake up with a jolt of adrenaline whenever that happens. The bad thing, however, is it's hard to load and aim a 12 guage with 'the shakes'.

 

[forgeblast]

I also have one of the hf ones. Any shadows it will pick up so when its windy it goes off all the time. It got to the point where you ignore it, which is what you dont want to do. I ended up taking it down and went back to letting the dogs be our doorbell.

 

[lhfarm]

I've used a Cartell Driveway Alarm System system for 12 years. (Warming - lots of sounds with the web site) The probe is buried next to the first curve on my 1400' drive. The wire is buried in the woods and the control unit (used back then) is located in my pump house. It is linked to my home automation system and announces the arrival of any vehicle.

If we aren't home, the alarm triggers a series of events to turn on all the lights (if it is dark) and sends me an email. This isn't part of the basic driveway alert, but the alarm itself has been rock solid all these years.

 

[heehaw]

i've tried about every drive way alarm out there, except the cartell: never heard of them until this thread: but the best by far has been the dakota alert that uses the rubber hose as a sensor: it has never failed to signal a vehicle: ALL the others would miss vehicles, especially white ones: i guess the white doesn't give off as much heat?? i still use a couple reporters too: but they are for the folks that are walking an refuse to jump up an down on the rubber hose.
heehaw

 

[Ray2210]

I have a Dakota as well. It has a heck of a range and it's run for 2 years on the same set of batteries. I have it tied into a x10 control that turns on lights when it's activated. Not cheap but was worth every penny.

 

[JohnDeere4300]

hey folks,

been giving this a little thought lately..
At our new house there are no windows or ways to see the driveway area.

We have 3 S-Curves coming up the drive and you can't even hear anyone coming up the drive..
So this has led me to see what is out there..

northern tool has this one:
Chamberlain Wireless Pedestrain & Vehicle Alert System with 2-Way Voice Communication and Remote Control | Security Alarms | Northern Tool + Equipment
And I have seen lots of em on a google search.
But it would be good to put my hands on one to see how durable it is before I drop $150-$200 on one..

What have yall tried?

I have two of the drive way alarms on gates, they work OK.

I know this is about alarms but wanted to share something about security cameras.

I have 4 cameras in different locations, so no one can even get close
to my house, property, equipment___etc..(the cameras are wired)

Where i used to live we had a pool in our back yard, with privacy fence around, my wife would lay out in the sun and we thought we had privacy with the fence. I had a neighbor that i didn't trust, he was a thief, so i bought one (WIRELESS CAMERA) when i hooked it up all i could see was (MY) pool, but my camera was in the front yard.

He had a camera on a electric pole and had it looking over our fence, his camera was a (WIRELESS) and mine was also, i was picking up his signal, (so you probably know what the law and court did to him)

We don't live there anymore, but where i live now i installed 4 (WIRED) cameras, if we go out of town for a week or two i record while we are gone. The only way i could prove that i picked up his signal was recording what he saw with his camera.

So if anyone uses cameras and is close to anyone i would use WIRED cameras, not wireless. but if you don't have any neighbors close then wireless would be OK. I think they sell something now so a person can tell if anyone has a wireless camera.

After this happened, i took my wireless receiver to many of my friends and checked to see if their neighbors had a camera, but nothing turned out.

* I just thought i would share that.*

 

[Pirate]

I have Dakota Alert too with the probe that gets buried. It didn't work right out of the box. Sent the transmitter in for repair, they replaced a board (1 of 2). I got it back quick. It still didn't work, so I packaged up the entire mess and mailed it back to them. They replaced another board (2 of 2). Not sure why they just didn't fix it right the first time. It works fine now. Don't bother to email them, they won't answer email. Call them.

 

[heehaw]

the first dakota alert i had was motion detector type: came in the same enclosure as the one i have now with the rubber hose: anyway, the first one didn't work any better than the reporter does, but cost a lot more.
heehaw