Dakota MURS driveway alarm modifications?

RobA · Jun 4, 2015

I recently purchased the Dakota MURS driveway alarm with the buried probe. There is a relay in the back of the base unit to attach a bell or siren. Has anyone used this relay to trip lights? I want my barn lights to come on when the driveway probe detects a vehicle which would be several hundred feet before motion detector lights would come on.

mark02tj · Jun 4, 2015

Call Dakota's tech support and they will probably point you in the right direction. I talked to them 2 days ago before buying another motion detector for my driveway. Super helpful folks.

RobA · Jun 4, 2015

mark02tj said:
Call Dakota's tech support and they will probably point you in the right direction. I talked to them 2 days ago before buying another motion detector for my driveway. Super helpful folks.

Thanks. I'll probably be calling them sooner rather than later. I didn't have a chance to bury the probe yet - just ran it over with the mower and cut the wire! :duh:

mark02tj · Jun 5, 2015

I talked to them briefly about the driveway probe. I think that he mentioned that the cable could be unplugged, but that might just be from the transmitter and not the probe itself. He did mention that it was a good idea to put the cable inside a piece of 1.5" conduit in order to protect it once you decided where you wanted it.

JRobyn · Jun 5, 2015

Do you have the M538-BS base? It has two simple spring-latch connectors on the back to control external lights/buzzers. The contacts are normally open, rated for 5A at 28VDC according to the Dakota Manual.

http://dakotaalert.com/manuals/M538BS.pdf

For 120VAC lighting, I assume you would want to use the base unit relay to control a second higher-amperage relay for the 120VAC.

I ran my probe wiring in cheap 1/2" PVC conduit and then rigged up several adapters to increase it up to 1-1/2" for the probe itself. Buried it all just a few inches deep. Works perfect. It DID false alarm with the as-delivered sensitivity setting whenever there was heavy rain or nearby lightning. I find that a setting at about 11 o'clock to 12 o'clock is about right.

- Jay

RobA · Jun 5, 2015

I talked to Dakota. I may use their light timer which plugs into the back of the base unit. It can handle up to 250 watts. I'm thinking of wiring a spotlight with a plug in cord instead of hard-wiring it, to take advantage of their timer/relay which accepts a plug.

Industrial Toys · Jun 5, 2015

It would be nice if you could interface this to a Z wave or Zigbee format control system. Ten years ago, I would have suggest an X-10 transmitter that has a contact closure input, but this new stuff has replaced that and as yet I have no experience with it. I am waiting for prices to come down..

RobA · Jun 6, 2015

Industrial Toys said:
It would be nice if you could interface this to a Z wave or Zigbee format control system. Ten years ago, I would have suggest an X-10 transmitter that has a contact closure input, but this new stuff has replaced that and as yet I have no experience with it. I am waiting for prices to come down..

I have some Insteon stuff in the house. It works well. Easy too. But I can't figure out how to interface the 2.