The Tale Of The Driveway Alarm

[oldfella]

The Tale Of The Driveway Alarm:

Off-and-on I've been trying to alarm my driveway for the past ten or so years, basically to alert me when some one drives up to my house. The motion detector didn't work, as it would pick-up every dog, cat, rabbit, bird, and tree-limb motion. Recently (7 months ago) I tried the buried probe, which detects large metal objects – it detected lightning, rain, sun, and nothingness. This project required me to dig about 50 feet trench 8 inches deep and bury the probe 12 inches deep – not an easy task for an old fella, since my driveway is concrete-hard gravel/crushed rock. Finally I returned the whole kit back to Dakota Alert – very nice people, they worked with me throughout these problems. Finally they suggested the rubber hose alarm, even though the hose may get beat-up by the sharpness of the gravel, but it's inexpensive to replace and this system is almost foolproof. I just got through installing it, and it is working fine, so far. To be fair to Dakota Alert, they admitted that the magnetic probe has failed for no apparent reason on some locations – mine being one such location. That's my story. What's yours?

Pete

 

[Tom M]

While I've never alarmed my driveway, I've certainly startled my garage on a few occasions!

 

[HAWKEYE10]

Sounds like you got it fixed now. Maybe you can take
a rest now. Don

 

[bamabiker]

Driveway alarm

I have 3 driveway alarms. Here is 2 and the other 1 is outside waiting on the next trespasser.

 

[jimmyj]

Hi:
Without seeing your driveway alarm, it sounds like the ones service stations use to have with the rubber hose stretched across the gas pumps drive to let the employees know that a customer was out front.
Jimmy

 

[gunsmith11]

Paint the black hose the same color as the gravel, altho I have no idea how long that would last

 

[m1gunner]

My buried probe Dakota Alert has been trouble free. I did make sure to have ir far enough from the street and any other buried metal objects. And it is located in a good choke point that can not be avoided.

Also, the transmitter is mounted on a wood pole and not a grounded metal pole.

Far and away the best driveway annunciators I have ever run across was a small self contained unit that looked like a motion detector, but it was a magnetic detector. Excellent range, and no problems with false alarms.

They were made by a small company in Ca, and were top quality. They sold out to Mighty Mule, and the new company had the parts made in China instead of the US, and they flat do not work now. Customer service at MM is something to be experienced, think of the Soup Nazi on steroids.

Anyway, the Dakota is the best system available for under $400 these days IMHO/

 

[oldfella]

Jimmy - The hose is exactly like the old gas station's alarm.

Gunsmith - I thought about paint it, but the paint will soon crack and peel off.

Gunner - I'm glad yours is working fine. Mine is located about 35/40 feet from the street, too far to be affected by passing traffic - and the alarm would go off traffic or not. The transmitter was mounted on the side of the house (brick), about 50 feet from the probe (the length of wire provided). This info was provided to the manufacturer, and they were stumped as to the reason for malfunction.

Pete

 

[Rule3]

Try the new spray paint for plastic. Krylon? It might hold up. Noting to lose except the $4-5 it costs.

 

[oldfella]

Try the new spray paint for plastic. Krylon? It might hold up. Noting to lose except the $4-5 it costs.

Thanks for that info - I wonder if they mean hard plastic - I'll check it out.

Pete

 

[Cobroller]

A clear hose might be a little less visable. You can get it (sprayer tubing) at a farm supply store.

 

[oldfella]

A clear hose might be a little less visable. You can get it (sprayer tubing) at a farm supply store.

I'll check it out, but I suspect it is not heavy-duty enough to withstand the wear'n tear - thanks.

Pete

 

[em-man]

If your gas staion hose crosses your driveway, put it in a shallow trench with sand instead of gravel. It will last a little longer than with the sharp gravel. I saw that at truck scales at the gravel pit...

 

[Hamden]

We used a rubber hose air signal across a gravel drive. The hose got ate up until we sleeved it with a piece of small fire hose type material

 

[oldfella]

Good ideas - I'll wait to see how this one holds up. The gravel in my driveway is small (1/2"), and well worn - I'll implement some of your ideas when/if this one needs replacing. Thanks.

Pete

 

[Double-O-Dave]

Pete,

I had problems with @#$%^&* armadillos digging up my yard one year. I tried rigging up a motion detector alarm to let me know when they were in the yard (usually very early in the morning - before dawn) without much luck, until I mounted the unit on a 8 foot pole and angled it downwards. Worked like a charm after that. If your driveway alarm doesn't work out for you, maybe the motion detector on a pole might be the way to go.

Best of luck,

Dave

 

[oldfella]

Thanks Dave - Something to consider, although, as I said before, I've already tried the motion thing and didn't work for me.

Pete

 

[dld]

oldfella
you could just sit on your porch sipping ice tea with your 12 ga across your lap and you would see ever thing that comes up your drive way, any other problems let me know.

 

[oldfella]

oldfella
you could just sit on your porch sipping ice tea with your 12 ga across your lap and you would see ever thing that comes up your drive way, any other problems let me know.

I do that in the day time, at night is when I need a bit of advance notice to reach for the 12 Ga.

 

[m1gunner]

I understand you have had bad luck with the probe and are moving on, but problems like this are a good study to help others in similar situations.

I get talked into doing installs on oddball stuff like this every now and then, and try to stay up on obscure gremlins that may infect some of these products.

Certain burgular alarm systems in one northern city about 20 years ago started generating false alarms at increasing intervals. These were commercial buildings, and resulted in expensive police dept responses.

That case turned out to be caused by some new police radios on previously unused frequencies. The radios bled over enough to interfer with the microwave based motion detectors in the buildings.

In another neat example a wireless alarm system (then a linear, stare of the art, and expensive) in one of the island nations in the Carribean just flat out wouldn't go 2 days with out false alarms. Every piece of equipment was tested and/or replaced, but no luck fixing it. Till.... it was found that the cordless telephones in that country were on or too near the RF frequencies used by the alarm system.


The reason I mention these stories is the Dakota uses RF transmissions to trigger the annunciator. Plus, induced voltage in the sense line or the cable connecting it to the transmitter may result in spurious transmissions. Were you able to localize the "trips" to the buried sensor, or were the false alarms the only evidence?

Are there any buried power lines, phone lines, cable-TV, irragation system, gas lines or water lines on your property? Most of these can cause problems with M.A.D. equipment. Cars on the street with unshielded ignition systems can make RF receivers do odd things, and computers are one of the worset at sending out broadband RF interference.

Your hose setup should fix you up, if not, there is yet another technology you can use. Dakota doesn't sell them, but there are some strain gauge detectors that are around. They can be put on a beam, bar of metal,plank,nearly anything that is relatively solid, Bury in your driveway, calibrate it, and you are done. I have seen these put on floors, steps, roofs, etc, but no reason they can't be put in a driveway. Essentially a hi-tech pressure switch with no moving parts.