Don’t be caught unaware. Protect your home or business from unexpected visitors. The WMA Wireless Motion Alert system sends an immediate alert when a person or car enters your property. The transmitter operates on one 9V battery, is weatherproof, and easily mounts to a tree or post near the driveway. The transmitter uses a infrared beam to detect people or vehicles to a distance up to 80′, then sends a radio signal back to the receiver, which can be placed in your home up to 600 feet away. Dakota Alert WMA-3000 / Includes one Transmitter and one WR-3000 Receiver / Transmitter uses a passive infrared (PIR) beam to detect people or vehicles up to a distance of 80′, then sends radio signal back to the Receiver up to 60′ away (actual range will vary depending on local terrain). / Operating temp range: -30 degrees F to 120 degress F.
$ 113.40
At last – one that really works,
This is the fourth remote driveway alarm we have tried. The others ranged from a $70 GE unit to a $250 unit that supposedly worked “up to four miles.” They would either not have the range needed (about 100 yards) or would stop working after a few days. Replacements were tried for all, and all had the same failures or problems.
This one, however, has now been working flawlessly here for two weeks. It has been through a major rainstorm and several extremely foggy mornings. Temperatures here have been as high as 94 degrees.
Other pro’s:
Worked out of the box with both receivers. The default settings were fine and setting switches was not necessary.
We like the ability to choose the alarm sound. We chose the short musical selection for the house. The workshop/garage has the sharp whistle tone, as there is often other loud noise going on.
Con’s:
Like most infra-red receivers, it does occasionally pick up dogs, deer, and even a crow that flies close enough. It does not trigger on trees or leaves, even in high wind (and where we have it mounted, there is a small forest across the driveway.) I suppose that would be possible, however, if the tree/leaves were in the sunshine, and thus hotter than the surroundings. BTW, although called a “motion sensor,” the manufacturer says an object must be a minimum of six degrees warmer than the surroundings to be detected.
Suggestions:
We found that vehicle pickup is more reliable if the sensor is pointed somewhat down the driveway rather than directly across it.
Setting it higher off the ground reduces the triggers on dogs, but also makes it possible to miss some vehicles that do not produce a heat signature that high off the ground. We set ours at about four feet. It still picks up medium and larger dogs, but has not missed a single vehicle. It does not pick up cats, skunks, etc.
If you get false alarms, especially at similar times of day each day, try changing the transmitter and receiver subcode. One of your neighbors may be using the same unit.
Update, 2009:
Well, it’s still working fine almost two years later. It does occasionally miss a vehicle, and we have noticed that almost all of the ones it misses are painted white. Maybe that has something to do with the temperature difference requirements. Maybe mounting it a little lower would help.
It has stopped working once. That was one of those so-foggy-everything-is-soaked mornings. I brought the transmitter indoors and removed the battery. Then I set the opened case in front of a small fan for a couple of hours. After the drying it again worked fine, and has since. Still highly recommended.
Update June, 2012: Same as above update. Still working fine.
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|Dakota vs Chamberlain Wireless Driveway Alert,
I first purchased a Chamberlain “The Reporter” alert, returned it, and then purchased the Dakota alert. The Chamberlain is very cheaply constructed, difficult to adjust, and I could never get it to give reliable alerts, despite numerous adjustment attempts.
The Dakota is by far superior in terms of construction, performance, operational options, and ease of adjustments. It’s well worth the additional $75. My only complaint about the Dakota is that it is extremely sensitive, even at the lowest settings, so I had to play around quite a bit with location and angle of the mount before I eliminated most erroneous alerts. When I called Dakota to ask for setup advice, I reached a technician who was actually very knowledgable about the technical operaton of the unit and therefore, quite helpful.
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|Dakota Driveway Alert,
I own a similar system by Dakota, but mine uses the magnetic detection sensor that is buried in or along side my driveway. The transmitters are the same as well as the reciever.
The PIR sensor type is sensitive to false alarms due to wind (swaying trees) and wildlife (the neighbors dog). This is unacceptable to me as I only want to detect vehicles of all sorts although it will actually detect a person if they walk directly over the magnetic sensor.
Range is very good as my driveway is about 1/2 mile long and is down over a hill and it works almost to the bottom of the hill.
My two complaints have been solved by me. The first is a single common 9 volt battery only lasts a month and near the end of that time won’t work if it is very cold. After the sun comes up it starts working again. Using Lithium batteries and wiring in extra parallel batteries extends reliable operation.
The second problem was it was not waterproof and stopped working. I dried it out with a hair drier and it worked again. I used Vaseline over the O ring seal and it has worked well and stayed dry for the past 7 months.
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