Driveway vehicle detection

WayneW

Senior Member
Has anybody tried any of these? What do you think of them? I know that people love the wired buried magnetometer sensors from Cartell, but my driveway isn't that long and I am not sure I want to spend that much. I also live somewhat close to a railroad track, so I am wondering if that will affect anything. But I am outside the minimum distance that Cartell recommends for their probe, so if Cartell works, maybe I am safe.

http://www.smarthome.com/7317.HTML
http://www.dak.com/reviews/2029story.cfm
http://www.basshome.com/product_8853_detailed.htm
 
I have the first unit on your list. I use it to turn on some lamp posts along the driveway. It is kind of sensitive and can be false triggered by moving branches and such so I don't use any kind of chime or alert with it.
 
The SmartHome.com one doesn't look great, but it does pick up people, while the dak.com one doesn't. The STI seems to be based on the same technology as the Cartell hardware.

I have been wanting to monitor my driveway as well, but I want to be notified when it is a car or a person, and I want it to work when there is serveral feet of snow on the ground. I haven't found a suitable system yet, so I am just using my X10 floodlights right now. The only other option I was considering was an outdoor long range motion sensor (a better version of the motion sensor in the X10 floodlights), which won't trigger when there are sudden temperature changes (maybe radar based?).
 
I wish I had a drive way. What I would do is put multiple motion detectors, probably x10 because they are cheap, around the drive way and have multiple sets of lights controlled indivdually. Any time any of the detectors were set off the lights would light up in a sequence. I would light the lights in both directions from whatever detector triped. So if one near the house triped I would light it from the house to the street. If one in the middle triped I would light it from the middle to both ends at the same time and so on. But for now I can just keep dreaming about that drive way because I probably have another 8 to 10 years in this house.
 
Electron,

Have you considered one of the OPTEX IR Beam sensors? They work outdoor and most of them would only trigger if more than one beam is blocked at the same time (to prevent fals alarms caused by falling leaves or birds). They have a very long range, so you dont have to place them in entrance posts. An if you hide them they would catch any walking person.

Their cheapest unit (BP100) is $125. I got one but still have to install it. It is for my rear windows (not the entrance).
 
I use an X10 Active Eye motion detector thats mounted on my mailbox post. My driveway is about 80' in length. My mailbox post is located on the main road where there is alot of traffic. I limited the field of view (of the MS) with black electrical tape so as it will only trigger when someone enters the driveway. Before the use of the tape I got a zillion false trips from traffic on the road. After tape 0 false trips. It is about 99% reliable. I use it to turn my outside lights on when its dark, and to play a TTS announcement throughout my home indicating that someone is in the driveway. For the price of the MS (About $8) I am quite happy with the results.
 
elcano, the problem with beam type sensors is that when it starts snowing here, we get a lot of it, so it would be burried within days probably.
 
electron said:
elcano, the problem with beam type sensors is that when it starts snowing here, we get a lot of it, so it would be burried within days probably.
I was thinking about installing it at about 30 inches min. You dont get that much snow, do you?
 
My my gosh. Is that the day after tomorrow? :angry:

Hey! But, why do you need an annunciator? Who would dare to visit you anyway? :blink:

Just kidding. Be careful my friend - we might loose you in the snow any day.
 
elcano said:
Their cheapest unit (BP100) is $125. I got one but still have to install it. It is for my rear windows (not the entrance).
Did you mean rear entrance? Or windows? I didn't follow the windows reference.
 
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