Driveway alarms - Anybody every found a good one?

Not sure if the brand was mentioned, but harbor freight has a sensor get-up that would be perfect and cheap to monitor your driveway. Was listed in driveway alert.

Was going to buy it last year, but the wife gave me the evil eye. It was cheap, very cheap. Battery powered, but very cheap.

Didn't get to test it myself.

reply to post by ChuckNasty


The biggest lesson I learned is that IR ones (all of the cheaper ones, using infrared) just aren't going to cut it. Needs to be a radio signal to really work properly.

Yes, I can see how that can be an issue if you are running a business. Perhaps a consultant, in the form of a business vendor, might know of solutions, and can steer you to products that simply aren't advertised in the main stream.

That is how I solved my issue with the weather stations. I was directed by a vendor to a program that the National Weather service has to monitor private stations for their databases. I paid for the station, however they installed it and are responsible for it's maintenance. Of course, I had to give them access to the property at any time, and you understand that it's a good idea to keep that number as low as possible. In the end it worked out well.

Some thinking outside the box might be in order.

Another thread made me think of this...

With a two-mile range, additional units could be GREAT early warning devices in a SHTF scenario, placed down the road, to let you know when someone is close, especially with a different sound for different alarms, to know which one was tripped.

has anyone tried the 2500 systems from alert? I've heard some negative reviews on the MURS battery lives. I need about 1000 feet of range, but I don't want to be changing batteries every month. You can see the 2500 products here - www.absoluteautomation.com...

Picked up a laser unit at Radio Shack several years ago. I set it up with a beam acroos the end of my drive about waist high. This is so most animals don't trip it off.
I also used the same things to "encircle" my house, real close, so I can tell when anyone opens a window or door.
They have all worked as planned and I have no complaints.

Have you checked out the Dakota Alert 2500's? They work well and you've got a lot of options in terms of the sensor type. I've got a magnetic sensor at the front of my driveway, than infrared ones around the shop so I know if someone is snooping around. www.absoluteautomation.com...

a reply to: sirwildcard

Didn't realize this was the same thread where I'd asked for a review earlier. Well know you now, I'm happy with them!

Baby monitor?

Your people could pull up to the box housing the receiver and call for you to come meet them?

I have one for my shed/workshop in case wifey needs me for something.

A Goose.

Gaz, "Visonic" makes a great set of driveway alarms. I believe someone already mentioned homesecuritystore.com, which carries a great deal of their products.

If you don't mind me asking, do you already have a central alarm installed? If so, adding a few more sensors would be a simple undertaking!

this is kind of an old thread but just joined and came across this. Check this driveway alarm out. Great range and comes with a lifetime warranty:

www.guardlinesecurity.com...

If you don't mind me asking, do you already have a central alarm installed? If so, adding a few more sensors would be a simple undertaking!

Not yet. Instead, I have individual portal alarms. Mostly because it would be too easy to cut power, phone, etc. lines to disable a central alarm, given that we're in a rural area with overhead wires leading down.

It's a pain to maintain batteries and have the routine of arming them. Though each household member has their assigned ones to activate at bedtime. At night, driveway alarm not as much a thing as we can just close the gate.

I have a friend who lives a mile back from the public road, in the middle of his property. I am not sure of the make/model, but he has a sensor unit at the open gate, and then coaxial cable that runs to the house. His unit sounds a doorbell in the house, and sends a tone over a handheld 2-way radio (motorola) that he carries with him when working in the barn or out in the field.

a reply to: Gazrok

if you have // are prepared to have wires running from the buildings to the gate - just install a series of " break beam " or pressure strip .

all hard wired back to the buildings - and from there you can wire each to a different buzzer - or run the entire imput through a computer - and have a wi-fi alert to your phone

sensing that there is a car on your drive = dirt cheap - its transmittting the data back to the building via wireless that puts up the price of most units -

2 core wire = cheap

How are you at soldering and coding? Reason I ask is because there are a lot of hobby electronic components that you could build your own alert system with. In my spare time, I build circuits for (mostly) household projects. A long driveway monitor wouldn't be too difficult using a wifi board known as ESP8266. It's a cheep module with a lot of capability. You could have several of them along the driveway at the intervals you want. Each would read a sensor that gets tripped when something passes by. The 8266's would send the information to a controller in your shop.

Want me to build one for you?

if you have // are prepared to have wires running from the buildings to the gate - just install a series of " break beam " or pressure strip .

Yeah, just a long ways to run the wire, and to mow, I'd need to bury them well.... inside of some PVC or something.

That's just WAY more work than if I can simply purchase something that would send a signal.