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The Lord Henry Enterprises, Inc. website, DrivewayAlarm.com was a website devoted to our robust line of driveway alarms, wireless driveway sensors, and driveway signal bell products.
If you came to this page after trying to go to our site www.drivewayalarm.com, we are the same company, but now with a new name! We offer the same great alarm products on this website. To see our full line of driveway alarm products, please click this link: Driveway Alarm Monitoring Systems.
What are driveway alarms?
Driveway alarm systems are products that send an alert when a car (or person depending on the model) passes through a monitored zone. Similar to an entrance alert system, these products usually consist of a combination of wireless transmitters (sensors) and plug-in or battery-operated receivers. The main difference between a driveway alarm product and an entrance alert product is the coverage of the sensor. Driveway alarm sensors will tend to shoot out a more narrow, straight beam, with the intent to shoot the beam across a driveway, whereas an entrance alert sensor will tend to emit more of a fan-based or conical-shaped beam.
Technically speaking, these products use the term “driveway” although they have many more uses. For very large openings, like a mall entrance, these work great. Simply set the sensor a foot or so off the ground and shoot the beam straight across the opening. When a visitor enters your store, the clerks will hear a gentle chime sound, alerting them they have a visitor.
Three basic types of Driveway Alarms:
The big differentiation between driveway alarm systems is the type of sensor. Below is a brief explanation of the types of sensors, with the pros and cons of each
- Passive Infrared, Motion Based Sensors: These sensors use a small cell inside the sensor to detect the combination of heat and movement to activate. When activated, they will generate a signal. The benefit of these types of sensors is their versatility in that they will detect anything (with a heat signature) that passes through the detection zone. A leaf, for example, should not set off the sensor because it does not have a heat signature.
- Pros – These are great when you want to know if a personal, animal, or car enters your driveway or other monitored area.
- Cons – If deer, skunks, or other animals pass through the monitored zone, they will set off the alarm. Some homeowners want to know when anything passes through, some just want to be alerted when a car passes through. With that said, there are some “tricks of the trade” you can use to position the sensor to not detect animals – call for details. These are the easiest sensors to install.
- Top Sellers – We have two top-selling driveway alarms that use PIR-based sensors and they are the Di2000S-A wireless driveway alarm and the DCMA-4000 Driveway Alert set.
- Magnetometer-based sensors: These types of sensors work by emitting a magnetic field. When something with a magnetic field passes through the monitored zone, it essentially changes the magnetic field of the sensor. When this happens, the sensor is triggered.
- Pros: These sensors will ONLY pick up large metallic objects like cars and trucks. It will not be triggered by motion from animals, humans, etc.
- Cons: Typically these sensors need to be buried (not very deep) parallel (next to) or under the driveway. Sometimes, metallic rock or large metal objects next to the sensor may interfere with the sensor’s ability to see the small fluctuations in its magnetic field.
- Top Sellers – the DCPA-4000 is our number one selling magnetometer-based driveway alerts kit. The MAPS-BS-Kit is an extremely long range kit (range of several miles) that’s great when you need to be alerted from a long distance.
- Pneumatic sensors – These are the sensors used in Driveway Signal Bell Kits you see commonly used at gas stations and dry cleaner facilities. A rubber hose is laid across a driveway and when a car rolls over the tube, the generated air pressure triggers a device to generate a signal. In some models, a receiver is wired to the sensor to trigger an alarm bell or chime, while other models use a device to generate a wireless signal that will generate a chime sound at a remote location.
- Pros – These models are extremely reliable.
- Cons – must lay the hose across the monitored surface. The surface must be hard.
- Top Seller – The DCHR-4000 driveway rubber hose kit by Dakota is a best-in-class driveway alarm kit. It uses a rubber hose sensor and transmits a wireless signal up to 1 mile to the compatible chime receiver.
For all of our Driveway Alarm Models, Please Click the Following Link: All Driveway Alarm Models
