A few driveways sensor questions

[sherwood]

I just purchased a Sure Action P8000C directional driveway detector. The instructions state to bury the sensor at least 5 ft away from power cables. Does this mean just the two probes or do I have to keep all the probe wiring 5 ft away from electric lines? I just trenched 400 ft for my driveway lampost and it would save a whole bunch of time if I could run the probes wires in the same trench.

Second, this is my very first project and even though I've been lurking around here for awhile, I'm unsure how to get the input into my PC for a TTS announcement. The system comes with it's own chime which will suffice for a while, but some TTS capability would be great. I have no security panel yet and no software yet so really what I'm looking for is an inexpensive way to get one input into the computer without having to buy an Elk at this point.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Sherwood

 

[FrankMc]

Hi Sherwood


I think you need to ask the positioning of the sensors wires and driveway lighting with the suppliers of the driveway sensor....I would imagine if you could keep at least 30mm (1 ft) seperation then is should work..but i dont think the supplier would give an ironclad approval of anything thats installed outside of their specs.......

As far as connecting to a pc maybe this device...I think it costs approx $50.00 AUS ($40 US)..

http://wiredliving.blogspot.com/search/label/USBMicro

It has an xPL Plugin and xPL is free and im not 100% but i do think some xPL Users are using some sort of TTS ...This might require additional hardware ..not sure..
HTH
Frank

 

[Rupp]

I just purchased a Sure Action P8000C directional driveway detector. The instructions state to bury the sensor at least 5 ft away from power cables. Does this mean just the two probes or do I have to keep all the probe wiring 5 ft away from electric lines? I just trenched 400 ft for my driveway lampost and it would save a whole bunch of time if I could run the probes wires in the same trench.

Second, this is my very first project and even though I've been lurking around here for awhile, I'm unsure how to get the input into my PC for a TTS announcement. The system comes with it's own chime which will suffice for a while, but some TTS capability would be great. I have no security panel yet and no software yet so really what I'm looking for is an inexpensive way to get one input into the computer without having to buy an Elk at this point.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Sherwood

Yes just the sensors. The power/communication cabling can be buried along side of other cables. My suggestion to you would be to put the sensors in place and connect up the receiver and test before burial. As far as TTS announcements, it depends on the HA package you are using. I have my mail sensor beeper connected to a powerflash module. This in-turn speaks the fact that Mail has arrived as well as it emails me this information as well.