Harbor Freight (!) Driveway Alarm

[PSEUDOSENTIENT]

I used to use an old baby monitor for my garage. I just left it on. That way if someone went in there at night I would hear it in the house. It finally died after being plugged in for a few years, and I never got a chance to hear someone in there because no one broke in.

 

[rgeudy]

Picked up one for 10.99 with coupon, so far works outstanding! We have several at work that cost over 50 from northern tool, and this one blows those out of the water. Very loud alarm on these babies.....but it could **** out in a month, so maybe im pulling the trigger on the praise a lil early? lol

 

[nathanmc]

There a big jump in pricing. But I chose to go with an Optex Wireless 2000 system. It costs more, but it's infra red so it only picks up moving heat. I was tired of tree branches always setting it off - http://www.absoluteautomation.com/optex/index.html

 

[Mandres]

We use one of these for our driveway to let us know when guests arrive and it works great. I do get a ton of false-positives though, I wish there was a way to adjust the sensitivity so that anything smaller than a car would not set it off. Tree branches/brush blowing in the wind set it off like crazy.

 

[Ben Buck]

I went to Harboring Freight today, and purchased two of the driveway alarms, both had the same id number on the back. $9.99 each, the clerk tried the 20 percent off coupon, but no go, anyway, on to the battery store for the batteries, beer store after that!! But I digress, got home installed the batteries, both receivers working off one sensor, this is great!! I installed them on the property, sensors , that is, and now await the arrival of the wife from X-Mass shopping to set them off. It's raining, so this should be a good test of the inferred!

 

[Toolman12]

Best money i ever spent if your garage has windows plant big cactus plants under them and let them grow big it helps

 

[gritsngumbo]

I've spent more on 9v batteries than the system is worth, lol. 9v are expensive if you haven't priced them

I'd say the batteries are more expensive than the system COSTS. Personally I think it's worth is PRICELESS (especially for the price).

 

[gritsngumbo]

Transmitter detects a vehicle only some of the time. Last night we had two different food deliveries (teenagers ). First one chimed as it came through, the second didn't, entering or leaving. I have my receiver mounted on a three foot post a few feet behind our entrance gate posts and facing the drive. Wonder if it needs to be higher? Seems to work fine with people or animals. Chimed the other night at 2 am and my wife put a spotlight on the drive and there was a big yellow tom cat strolling down the drive

Edit: Anyone know of a way to change the frequency so that multiple transmitters chime one receiver?

 

[vartz04]

Glad I'm not the only one using one in my garage as an alarm. There is no way to get to it before it goes off. After getting robbed I figure it was cheap insurance. Batteries are still good after 4 months.

 

[DAVE VAN]

I put one inside my brick mailbox. It only goes off when the mailbox door is opened. Now I know when the mail comes without that 100ft walk to check! I had to open it up and extended the antenna wire through a small hole in the back of the brick. Works great.