Driveway alarms/motion detectors

Darien1

Senior Member
I have a feeding station in my back yard for deer and I check it occasionally to see if there are any out there. Sometimes I actually catch them there and I enjoy watching them. For the sake of not making wasted trips out to the porch to see what they are up to I was thinking of getting a driveway alarm that would let me know when they are there. Does any one have any experience with these products that give some advice? I was thinking that some sort of beam across the game trail or across the station would alert me.
 

Semi-Pro

Full-Pro
I think you would be surprised at how many time that thing will go off. There aRE A BUNCH OF DIFFERENT OPTIONS, I DO NOT LIKE THE ONE WE HAVE.
 

holton27596

Senior Member
In Maine, they use them for hunting coyotes at night. put them up around bait piles. it sets off an alarm and they get up and shoot the coyote.
 

Darien1

Senior Member
That sounds like what I need. I just don't know anything about them. I don't want to shoot them but I can't see it from any of the windows in my home so I have to go out on the front porch and look down the side of the house. It gets cold out there at night.
 

sinclair1

Senior Member
It should work well, I am setting one up for my mom for when my Alzheimer's father try's to escape the house and go get lost.
 

rjcruiser

Senior Member
Why not just invest in a game camera?
 

DAWG1419

Senior Member
I have a driveway doorbell. Dang thing likes to go off at 3/4am lol. Im sure other animals such as coons and squirrels will set it off too
 

Semi-Pro

Full-Pro
I have a driveway doorbell. Dang thing likes to go off at 3/4am lol. Im sure other animals such as coons and squirrels will set it off too

that is what i am thinking after a while paranoia may set in with the mrs. Is someone out there? better off not knowing what lurks in the dark sometimes
 

Darien1

Senior Member
I would think that when you don't want it to go off you can unplug the receiver in the house. I don't invest in a camera because the camera doesn't notify me when the deer and wild life are there other than making a time record of when it takes the pic. I want a ding and then I can go look without having to walk out there every few mins to see if anything showed up.
 

NOYDB

BANNED
That sounds like what I need. I just don't know anything about them. I don't want to shoot them but I can't see it from any of the windows in my home so I have to go out on the front porch and look down the side of the house. It gets cold out there at night.

Could move your feeding station to where you can see it from inside. Or put in a new window where you need one.
 

Anvil Head

Senior Member
Set the trip beam up higher than a big dog so mostly only the deer size animal will set it off. Used one to catch the guy stealing gear from my boat. He attempted to steal my 200# Haye-Budden, but found he wasn't man enough to carry it past the corner of the house. He still had my HmBird and Lorance in his car from a week earlier.......what a dummy!
 

rayjay

Senior Member
We have been using the "Reporter" driveway alarm from Northern for many years. It is set off by birds, squirrels, rabbits, cats, dogs, deer and even bees and spiders. Also trips on scum running from a wreck they caused, missionaries, salesmen, politicians, wild indians, delivery trucks, mail trucks, etc.

That being said, I would rather have 100 false alarms than one unexpected knock on the door. The way our house and drive is laid out you WILL NOT hear a car drive up.

The sensor lasts much longer if you put a cover over it to keep it dry in the rain.
 

Napi

Senior Member
I bought a Chamberlin brand driveway alarm. It has a sensitivity setting and the receiver has an adjustable volume. My daughters dog sets it off regularly. I bought it new off ebay. Don't remember right now, but it wasn't very costly.
 

NOYDB

BANNED
We have been using the "Reporter" driveway alarm from Northern for many years. It is set off by birds, squirrels, rabbits, cats, dogs, deer and even bees and spiders. Also trips on scum running from a wreck they caused, missionaries, salesmen, politicians, wild indians, delivery trucks, mail trucks, etc.

That being said, I would rather have 100 false alarms than one unexpected knock on the door. The way our house and drive is laid out you WILL NOT hear a car drive up.

The sensor lasts much longer if you put a cover over it to keep it dry in the rain.

I got an outside thermometer that can't survive rain. (Didn't say until fine print half way into the manual.) As you know it never rains in China)) Don't assume an "outdoor" product will survive if used as designed.
 

Killdee

Senior Member
they sell one at Harbor freight for about 20$ that works real well. has a motion/heat sensor like a trailcam/motion light and a ding dong in the house with 2 noise levels. Very sensitive and all critters will set it off. No problems with rain but a piece of step flashing would protect it and you can tape off the bottom of the sensor to cut down on small critters setting it off. Try not to point east or west to cut back on false alarms from the sun.
 

grif

Senior Member
I've got the one from Harbor Freight and it works fine. Was getting many false alarms from the sun. I bent a small piece of tin to shade it from the sun and no more false alarms. It goes off regulary at night from deer crossing the driveway.
 

Rebel 3

Senior Member
My in-laws have one from tractor supply that works good. They put it near a persimmon tree and get woke up every night when they drop.
 

rayjay

Senior Member
Last night's alarm setter offer was a racoon.
 

EAGLE EYE 444

King Casanova
I agree with others about the Harbor Freight item. The following item costs me less than $ 20.00 total.

This is the item that I got for my girlfriend in Texas a couple of years ago and it works great. I also got one for myself and it picks up motion very well. It also has two different levels of sound activation on your inside alarm as well.

One additional thing that I suggest that you do is take a piece of black electrical tape and place it over the little red light that comes on when it is activated. It took three small layers of black electrical tape to keep from seeing the red light glow when it comes on. This would eliminate a person from seeing this unit when it activates. (I also do this to ALL of my 16 trail cameras as well just to keep anyone and anything from seeing the activation light come on and it works like a charm as deer come right up really close to the camera).

The other suggestion is like others have said, place this detector in an area that has some type of overhead cover above it for protection in the weather.

This is the unit:


 
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