What Garage Motion Detector Is For Me?

[Rocky Rotella]

I’ve got a normal-sized three-car garage and there are times I leave the overhead door(s) open when going in the house for a break, leaving shortly, etc.

I’ve been considering adding a wireless motion detector that I can turn on when in the house to alert me by chime (not necessarily a siren/alarm) when someone enters the garage. I have lots of car friends who arrive without notice, but it'd be a nice security measure too.

What do you suggest?

I’ve seen the Driveway Patrol. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000645RH/?tag=atomicindus08-20 Anyone have any experience with that unit? It seems awful reasonable for what its capability. Is there something comparable that's better quality if that unit isn't?

 

[rsanter]

I think they have a wireless setup that is suposed to alert you when someone comes up your long driveway

bob

 

[oldgoat]

I have one that I got from Harbor Freight that looks a awful lot like the the one you are lookng at. It does do the job of letting you know if someone comes in and breaks the beam, but the thing I didn't like about it is that it seems to eat up batteries leaving you with no protection. I'm going to try to find something that plugs into a outlet I think.

 

[VDubJoe]

I use Voice Alert. A little expensive but you can add sensors and assign a message to each one and batteries last forever.

Joe

 

[bravada]

I'm using a Reporter w/Voice http://www.smarthome.com/7316.html on my driveway with the sensor 500ft+ away from the base.
When it senses motion it makes an alert tone at the base and turns on the microphone on the sensor so you can hear what's going on at the sensor. You can then hit the talk button on the base to talk through the sensor and the person at the sensor can answer back. Maybe a little more than you want to spend though.

 

[Stuart in MN]

Personally, I never leave my garage door open if I'm not in the garage, but then again I live in the inner city and my garage faces an alley with lots of 'interesting' people walking by...

A thought just occured to me - assuming your door openers have safety interlock photocells shining across the bottom of the door opening, it may be possible to hack into the door opener circuitry to use the signal from the photocells to ring a bell or buzzer whenever anyone walks through the door. You'd need a schematic to figure out where to hook up a small relay, and then the relay would power the buzzer.

 

[Rocky Rotella]

Thanks for the thoughts guys, I'll look into these options. I rarely leave the doors open if I'm going in for a long time, but there are times I do and it'd be nice to know when someone walks into the garage while I'm in the house.

 

[Galvatron]

I'm using a Reporter w/Voice http://www.smarthome.com/7316.html on my driveway with the sensor 500ft+ away from the base.
When it senses motion it makes an alert tone at the base and turns on the microphone on the sensor so you can hear what's going on at the sensor. You can then hit the talk button on the base to talk through the sensor and the person at the sensor can answer back. Maybe a little more than you want to spend though.

This semms like a very good idea for my property. The entrance to our driveway is about 500ft from the house. The only problem is that there is not a direct line of sight, our barn is in the way. From reading the reviews it seems you need to keep a line of sight for the reporter to work.

The one draw back would be wildlife constantly triggering the sensor. We have deer roaming our property on a daily basis.

 

[PoorOwner]

I had the driveway alert..

it does not eat up battery for me, the alert part can be used with A/C adapter (you
supply your own) but the remote detector's battery seems to last a good while...

It is cheap and effective for what you want to do. I used one inside the car so if anyone gets inside the alarm in my bedroom will sound, it as never false alarmed in this use but does annoy everyone in the house everytime I leave or drive back

 

[52RustRocket]

Don't let the cheap cost scare you away. The electronics in these things are not complicated at all. It's just a motion detector linked to a door bell.... practically. I worked in the security alarm industry for about 9yrs and have hooked up many of similar systems. I even used a few surplus parts to make one for my garage. A photo beam, a transformer and an indoor alarm sounder..... You better be wearing earplugs if you wander into my garage unwelcomed...lol

 

[bravada]

I don't have direct line of sight with my setup, it's going through brick and a little hardie plank shed, of course your mileage may vary. I've tested it successfully to 750 feet, where I wanted it mounted wasn't that far though. As far as the animals, despite it saying it's animal immune I've had it go off on a cat so that could be an issue with deer.

This semms like a very good idea for my property. The entrance to our driveway is about 500ft from the house. The only problem is that there is not a direct line of sight, our barn is in the way. From reading the reviews it seems you need to keep a line of sight for the reporter to work.

The one draw back would be wildlife constantly triggering the sensor. We have deer roaming our property on a daily basis.