drive way alarm from lowes

heehaw · Mar 20, 2005

well, i finally gave up on the motion type of driveway alarms, like the dakota alert and the reporter: they work really well, except they tend to miss white cars: especially my wifes camry..i installed the alarm from lowes this morning, and it seems to work ok, as long as its laying down. every time i stand it up, using the stake provided, or tying it to a tree, it goes off about every 10-20 seconds??? i have a 6 inch pvc pipe going under the driveway for a culvert, if i can't make it work standing up, i may put it on something to hold it up off the bottom of the pipe and slide it into the culvert, to the middle of the drive...i do plan on calling the 800 number in the morning, to see if they have any ideas why it goes off in the upright position??
heehaw

beenthere · Mar 20, 2005

I have the Reporter installed, and your comment about missing white cars, helps explain the ones mine is sometimes missing.
However, most of the cars are detected, and I am happy with the Reporter. I have it hooked to trigger the doorbells when I am here.
When I am gone, I made a switch box, and wired up a timer from a motion detector that will be activated by the detector, and turn on a light in the house for about 5 minutes. May let visitors think there is someone in the house with a light on.
I've thought about activating a digital camera to take pictures about every 4 minutes when the alarm is activated just in case there is suspicious activity going on, and I can get photos of whatever it is (not sure I will be that diligent to do it /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif).

Junkman · Mar 20, 2005

I know of someone that hooked it to a endless loop tape recording of vicious dogs barking. After listening to that for 4 or 5 minutes, no one would even thing of going near the house.

heehaw · Mar 21, 2005

i called the GE help desk this morning, and they agreed, the monitor is defective..i brought it in the house, and stood it in the corner, it alarmed every 23 seconds...i think i will exchange it and try one more time..
my reporter went off several times last night, so i got out the 1million candlepower light and saw a bunch of deer right across the fence from the sensor..
i haven't hooked the receivers to anything yet, the buzz they make has been good enough..but i am also considering putting up an electric gate, TSC wants $500 for them, and the local Atwoods had them for $277...
heehaw

Panache · Mar 21, 2005

Check the batteries in the outside unit. In the one I have when the batteries got low it started beeping like that.

heehaw · Mar 22, 2005

batteries where new..and the unit would work fine, laying flat down on the ground..i swapped it out at lowes, and so far, the new one hasn't gone off...also haven't had any cars on the drive, but at least it isn't sending false signals..now i wait till the wife goes somewhere, to see if it will signal with her car.
heehaw

heehaw · Mar 23, 2005

the alarm from lowes worked on the wifes white car!!! i have 2 of the reporters, and they both missed her car as she went out this morning, but the one from lowes worked...
and it transmits further than the reporters do...now if it will just last longer than the dakota alert did, i will have a good set-up..
heehaw

beenthere · Mar 23, 2005

Now I am curious. How is the 'lowes' alarm different from the other two, Dakota and Reporter? Anything obvious, different principle, ?? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

I've decided missing a the few white or silver cars isn't worth getting too uptight about, but then --- if there is a better trap, then I am interested in hearing about it. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Panache · Mar 23, 2005

The one from Lowes is a metal detector. The Reporter is a motion detector.

beenthere · Mar 23, 2005

Thinking it is using capacitance?
I thought the 'motion' detector was an infrared (heat) detector thus the white car doesn't reflect as well.

But these things are beyond my 'electronics' and 'physics' expertise.

Just that my 'motion' detecting yard light will trigger immediately if I set a pail of hot ashes outside the garage door, but I can step outside in the same location and walk around quite a bit before it triggers.

Do you have a company (seems you said you contacted GE) and model number for the unit from Lowes?