What To Expect When Having A Driveway Alarm System

Driveway alarms have gotten quite popular over the years, and there are different types on the market. Some are wired, wireless and others with motion sensors. Regardless, of the, you want a system, you want a driveway alarm system that provides a notification when a person or vehicle appears on the driveway or property. There are so many options that you might know what to expect or which to choose to get the type of results you want.

Let’s look at some of these types of sensors for a driveway on the market. There are four major types of sensors for the driveway, and these include the motion sensor, magnetic vehicle sensor, rubber hose sensor and the break beam sensor.

1. Motion Sensor
Also called the passive infrared sensor, these type of sensors for driveway will detect any object moving across it, and these include both individuals and vehicles but can also monitor animals. Since it checks for any form of motions, you need to ensure it doesn’t run any false alarms. It is common for most people to use this form of the sensor due to the cost and ease of use.

2. Magnetic vehicle sensor
The magnetic vehicle sensor detects the magnetic field and not motion sensor. They are used to detect moving vehicles and trucks as well as smaller metal objects like bikes. Magnetic vehicle sensor can be placed beneath the driveway or along it, and ti can detect within a range of 8 to 15 feet depending on the speed of the onrushing vehicle. It comes with a receiver and wireless transmitter.

3. Rubber Hose Sensor
This works by laying a rubber hose on the area that needs to be monitored for detection. The hose connects to a diaphragm that detects the movement of air caused by an onrushing car or truck. It is easy to deploy as it simply lays on the road, but the only problem with this form of sensor is that it could be damaged by snow ploughs or worse.

4. Break beam sensor
These form of sensors are also known as photo beam sensors, and they use a sender device that has multiple beams aimed at a receiver. The way it works is that once when one of the beams are broken by a moving object, the system will trigger and there will be a

Decide Between a Wired or Wireless Property and Driveway alarm system

So, when choosing the property alarm for your driveway, you might be torn between going for a wired option or a wireless option. A wired driveway alarm system is the best option, and it is quite economical as they are not prone to interferences–neither do they run on batteries that have to be replaced regularly. The only problem with a wired driveway alarm is that there is a limit to the distance that you can wire them to or should we say, a limit to where it becomes impossible to run a wire. Safety precautions should be taken when using wired alarms as wires should be buried beneath the surface to prevent them from harming people or animals.

The second option is the wireless alarm option which is quite simple to install as it requires no wires to run them from the sensor to the receiver or chime box that sounds the alarm. They are also quite flexible and cheaper to install. The primary consideration with them is that you have to be conscious of the distance between the sensor to the receiver. They often have an ‘open air’ distance which creates a direct line of sight distance without interference. The stated range for a wireless driveway alarm system is usually lower in reality based on the number of trees that surrounds you or any other obstruction that might make it difficult to achieve.

The third option involves using a hybrid option of the wireless and wired driveway alarm system. The wire between the probe and wireless transmitter can be anywhere from 50 to 1000 feet and the wireless transmitter may allow for another 1000 feet to the receiver.

Decide What Needs To Happen When a Vehicle or Person is Detected

So, this step is quite crucial. You need to know what will happen when someone violates the rules you have set in place with your driveway alarm system. The most popular application is to have an alert sound inside your home or garage to alert you. This is often the standard behavior for most alarms systems, so you don’t have to plan much when you decide to use this option. But if you would like to have alerts in more than one building, you need to ensure the system can support multiple receivers.

One receiver will be in your building and another in the second building of your choice. To do this, you have to use a wireless system which means you will need to check the distance between the sensor to the receiver. Buildings made of metal or with metal siding would block signal so you should avoid those. If you have the tendency to constantly move around the property, you can also consider a system whose receiver is battery powered so you can move it around easily.

Depending on your preference, you might need to flash an indicator light or sound an external siren. To do this, you need to enable the system with a voltage output to run a small strobe of light or a relay output that can be used to trigger those devices. For a relay output, a separate power supply will be required as well as basic electrical knowledge which could mean going above your budget for installation.