Looking for a PIR (or similar wireless) driveway alarm

H

horseflesh

Getting the hang of it
Jan 3, 2016
262
33
I'm currently using a Dakota Alert PIR sensor to get a chime indoors when a car or person comes down my driveways or across the lawn in between the driveways. Unfortunately, it hasn't been very reliable. It's prone to false positives in the brighter months even though light never falls on the sensor itself. Worse, it sometimes just misses seeing a car.

Can anyone recommend a similar product that is more reliable?

My goals are these:

- Wireless sensor that will detect any person or vehicle crossing the lines indicated in the picture below
- Sensor range is at least 60 feet, with high reliability
- Minimize false positives
- Sensors run on batteries, not AC
- Sensor trip triggers a sound indoors at some kind of base station
- Multiple 'channels' or some other means to generate different sounds for the two driveways
- Ideally, base station includes a contact closure so I can hook up the alarm to my NVR, etc.

Any products to recommend? The Dakota Alert stuff that I have meets all these requirements except it just is not very reliable.

Click to embiggen:

driveway.JPG

(If only there was a way to get a Hik NVR to play different alarm sounds... I might be able to replace all this with line-crossing alarms.)
 
How old is your Dakota alarm? This is the one I just installed at my vacation home. It has a long (+400') driveway. I've only had it installed for about a month. During the first few days, I had several false alarms. However, I had the jumpers set to filter OFF, range HIGH

The span I'm covering is about 45'

2016-04-16_16-05-05.jpg

I've since dropped the range to med and filter ON. I've not had a false alarm (or missed vehicle) since.

That is not to say I won't at some point. But perhaps they've improved their product? Worth calling and asking if you haven't already.

I'm using the output relays to trigger my alarm system. It notifies my Vera Edge home automation controller, which sends a command to my BI server to capture video/stills - and send me a push notification. So far, knock on wood, it's working 100%. I'm 1200 miles from the house, but will have a 10 sec video clip and stills of the 'visitor' before they ever make it to the halfway down the drive.
 
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PIR ones suck.. bah, really good outdoor PIR that wont false costs more than any of these complete systems do.. by double.. it has to have a processor in it to determine if its really a object of interest and not a branch blowing, dual tech with pir and rf, and visible light blocking optics to keep sun and headlamps from messing it up.

your going to want something like this for a driveway: http://www.amazon.com/Dakota-Alert-DCPA-2500-Cycle-Probe/dp/B00443BDHS/

or: http://www.miltonsbells.com/
 
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nayr said:
PIR ones suck.. bah, really good outdoor PIR that wont false costs more than any of these complete systems do.. by double.. it has to have a processor in it to determine if its really a object of interest and not a branch blowing, dual tech with pir and rf, and visible light blocking optics to keep sun and headlamps from messing it up.

your going to want something like this for a driveway: http://www.amazon.com/Dakota-Alert-DCPA-2500-Cycle-Probe/dp/B00443BDHS/

or: http://www.miltonsbells.com/
Click to expand...

His requirement to detect a car OR PERSON will knock that one off the list, nayr.

FWIW, for my primary home, I use these beam sensors. TX on one side, RX on the other. They have four beams, and two need to be broken simultaneously to trigger (keeps cats and small animals from falsing it). They've been 100% - though you have to be careful not to aim the RX portion towards the sun. The problem is, I believe these have a max outdoor range that is shorter than what you need. I've got these at each side of my garage door. Anyone enters, my cell phone push notifies - and RGB bulbs in the house start flashing a distinct color pattern.
 
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@erkme73: I have the Dakota 3000 series:

http://www.amazon.com/Dakota-Alert-WMA-3000-Wireless-Motion/dp/B000AOMO50

Inside the case is what looks like a normal indoor style PIR sensor.

https://www.dakotaalert.com/products.php?cdf=12

I've set the jumpers inside to the recommended outdoor settings, which I think was just filter to On. I have not tried reducing the range, but it might be worth sacrificing the last segment of range if that helped it work better.

I have had it a couple of years, and I bought it because it said it had a longer range than the 2500, which was also for sale at the time. 2 sensors looking at each other overlap over the lawn so I should, in theory, have driveway coverage and coverage of anyone walking in between the driveways. But... while it seemed to work OK at first, it's gone down the drain.
@nayr: The drive-over detectors won't cover the case of a person walking across the lawn, which I am also interested in handling. I'm stuck with wireless, unfortunately. The false positives I get must have something to do with sunlight because they pick up on sunny days and never happen at night, or cloudy days. I was surprised to get so many because there is nothing in front of the sensor for well over 100 ft. I suppose I could try angling them down more, so the sensor was looking at grass or asphalt instead of trees, distant though they may be. They are really hard to aim precisely, though.
 
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My experience with this model is too limited to be of any real value to you. Can you mount the sensors in locations where the sun would be at the sensor's back? As shown in my pic above, I could put the sensor on either side, but chose to mount it on the tree (left arrow) since it would always be looking away from the sun - and the tree shades the sensor from the sun. Just ideas...
 
am I missing a sidewalk or something? do you ever see any foot traffic? it seems like the 'people' requirement is pretty unreasonable at this location.. that camera shot has absolutely no hope at IDing a person.. mebe a close up trip wire sensor closer to the camera where it might have a bit of a chance of being usefull for people.. but at those locations where the lines drawn, your mother wouldn't recognize you.

id be recording 24/7, you'll never miss shit person or bigfoot.. 6TB Purple for $200, why bother recording on trigger.. just use the sensor to tell you when someone comes up the drive or email a photo/video offsite.. your looking at a road with traffic, if there was an accident or something there you'd want it recorded.. but it wont be when your sensors ignore road traffic.

If a person does come up on foot, you'll record it.. and use closer sensors to your building to notify you someone is poking about.. this is a big wide open area, not the ideal location for detecting people, you want to get human size targets in a smaller choke point for reliable detection and proper identification w/out false alarms.
 
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nayr said:
am I missing a sidewalk or something? do you ever see any foot traffic?
Click to expand...

There is no sidewalk but there is foot traffic, yes, so I would like to know if any of it strays into the yard. It's unlikely but then again so are all the things that I bought cameras for. (There are multiple cameras covering the area around the house, recording 24/7.)

The PIR sensor is for a different purpose, to let me know that something is happening right now if I am home to hear the chime.

Driveway coverage is the most important thing, covering anyone on foot in the grassy area is a bonus objective that I haven't given up on yet--since this all used to work fine. The PIR sensors may just be getting crummy.
 
PIR Sensors outside exposed to UV do age and have issues, most of the plastic body is UV protected but the transparent lens cover typically is not... it discolors, becomes brittle and may even completely fail.. might go poke it and see if it just falls apart.

if you have direct sun exposure, its good idea to build a little awning or cover to give it a sunshield..

this is a great reliable outdoor motion sensor, but you'll have to setup your own wireless transmitter and stuff.. it dont run off batteries or anything: http://www.amazon.com/BOSCH-SECURITY-VIDEO-OD850-F1-Detector/dp/B0041WX11I
 
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In my case the sensors are both in shade, and inside waterproof enclosures. (http://www.diy-security-cameras.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/053483020b8b.jpg) The sensor can only see out through a protective membrane. They are pretty safe from the elements, and still look new when I open the enclosures... but maybe temperature cycling is doing them in.

I didn't think to check the exterior membrane though... It looks fine but cleaning it can't hurt.

Thanks for the link, that Bosch looks nice but I'm stuck with DC power out there.
 
@nebo -- That does look nice, I'll take a closer look. Much more expensive but there may not be a cheap way to get what I want.
 
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horseflesh said:
@nebo -- That does look nice, I'll take a closer look. Much more expensive but there may not be a cheap way to get what I want.
Click to expand...
If the walkers are a big concern, it said multiple sensors could also be used in series to set a perimeter. that would be cool. I think it could alert by zones so you know which way to point the boom sticks before looking...I..um...mean...which door to walk out.....

and yea they seem pricey...but maybe worth it....
 
If the beam sensor are compatible with your existing receiver, that could save you some $$. Call Dakota Alarm and ask them if they are compatible.

I just looked at the link you provided on your 3000 system. Both the PIR transmitter and receiver look quite a bit different.
 
the bosh runs off 10-15vdc, 62mA max.
 
Walkers are not a big concern. I mean, where I live, I am not really concerned about much. But we all just like to know things, right? I have all these cameras and stuff partly for Serious Reasons, but also because it's just fun when the PIR goes off at midnight and it's a coyote in the yard. Likewise I do not need LPR, but I still look forward to @nayr's project.

So, in my driveway scenario, the driveways are the most important thing, that'll alert me to auto traffic when I am home. That is important. I want to know when I have visitors before they knock, and my neighbors often go on vacation, so I want to know when someone drives down their side too.

Coverage of walkers in my yard between driveways is a bonus. It's probably not worth the $300 break-beam system, but I'm not giving up on it quite yet.
 
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I find the opposite effect, coyotes, deer, wildlife would set the chime off 19 times out of 20.. then a car would come up that one rare time and then nobody would realize it.. at least for those remote environments where nobody's concerned with that much, like even locking doors.

For notifications/alerts I'll take 1 missed event out of 10 then 1 false alert out of 10.. a alert everyone ignores has as much value as no alert at all.

what you really want is to know when a car pulls up the driveway, as soon as possible.. I come from the school of thought: one tool designed for the job at hand very well... not a multitool that does many jobs kinda half assed.. if you want to detect other things, then use a different system to augment the first with a different tone.. so at night you know the difference between a definitely a car and a maybe a coyote.
 
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Another consideration is a PIR/microwave sensor. There are several brands that offer them. They are a bit more expensive, but they reduce false positives pretty well.
 
I have a computer setup with free version of Ispy. It can use any sound on the computer for any cam setup with it. I have the driveway cam setup so when some one or some thing enters the driveway spock from star trek says "intruder alert". Bugs the sh it outa my wife, that alone makes it worth it. My dogs even know what it is, it goes off around 5PM and the dogs run up stairs and start barking wild like and greet my wife when she gets home, she is the dog treat person so the dogs like it when she gets home. My drive way is 800 ft long and the cam can see a car coming before the dogs can here it so they have learned to listing for spock's announcement.

I now have just bought 4 new HIK cams and installed a HIKvision NVR but think I am going to keep the Ispy computer for alerts as it can be setup on the substreams from my new HIK cams.

I'll set it up to announce motion on any of the camera zones I setup such as drive way, lower yard, upper yard back door and if I have it announce the name of the zone in a computer voice I can know without looking where the possible intrusion is, then check that cam. Actually works pretty good once you get the camera motion detection zones tuned in Ispy, did I mention it's free? :D

Robert
 
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