Brad_The_Lucky Posted July 29, 2007 Share Posted July 29, 2007 Has anybody integrated a driveway alarm w/ their C4 system?When somebody pulls in to my driveway, I'd like one of the lights on a C4 dimmer in my kitchen to blink.Not sure which driveway alarm would be the best. I'd prefer something that is burried and completely invisible. I found this in a quick search: http://www.gadgetshack.com/wiprdral30ft.htmlThanks,Brad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R_Willis Posted July 29, 2007 Share Posted July 29, 2007 I'm going to use these guys.http://www.dakotaalert.com/They seem to make some good stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJF Posted July 29, 2007 Share Posted July 29, 2007 I installed this one at my house:http://www.sureaction.com/directionalprobe.htmhttp://www.basshome.com/product_104379_detailed.htmWhat makes this one unique is that it's directional . It uses 2 probes which determines whether a car is entering or leaving your property which is very important. Example: it sounds a chime to let us know when a car arrives, but doesn't sound the chime when I'm leaving for work in the morning. You can have it open a gate only when leaving.You can have it turn on exterior lights when a car arrives but not when a car leaves etc. It has 2 contact closures which can be used to interface with a home automation system. I don't have a C4 system yet but I will be using my driveway sensor with it when I finally have mine installed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pharmdsmith Posted May 3, 2009 Share Posted May 3, 2009 Hate to revive an old thread, but Brad the lucky did you ever come up with a solution for a driveway sensor to intergrate with control4? Anyone else found a useful way to do this. Would love to have camera come on as well as lights based on detection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tebery Posted May 3, 2009 Share Posted May 3, 2009 I use a Card Access motion sensor. It's mounted on the garage, so I get notified (by voice announcement) when they are in front of the house, not when they are pulling up the driveway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad_The_Lucky Posted May 3, 2009 Author Share Posted May 3, 2009 I still haven't done this yet. My dealer gave me a good deal on the Card Access garage door kit, so I opted to do that first. I still plan on doing the driveway sensor some day though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akg4y Posted May 4, 2009 Share Posted May 4, 2009 Regarding the two-way ability I guess you could program something in to 'mimic' that, like for example when the security system gets armed the motion detector for the driveway stays off for 5 minutes because you're probably leaving. Otherwise on weekday mornings you could have it no do an announcement as most of the traffic will be leaving the home, etc.Not as elegant as the directional sensor but workable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tebery Posted May 4, 2009 Share Posted May 4, 2009 My dealer programmed my sensor not to activate the announcement if a garage door is opened. That way it does not go off when I leave in the morining (and usually if the kids are playing in the drive the garage is opened) and i can open the garage before the sensor picks up my vehicle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pharmdsmith Posted October 4, 2009 Share Posted October 4, 2009 My dealer and I installed 2 Mier DA-500 sensors. One at the end of the driveway and the other 50 feet closer to the house. I buried both in pvc piping that ran down my 500 foot driveway. We did two sensors so that I could create a variable so that certain commands would initiate based on the car approaching versus leaving. With one sensor I wouldn't have been able to differentiate whether a car was coming or going. It works perfect with control4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bebster Posted October 4, 2009 Share Posted October 4, 2009 Nice! I'm just about to dig up my driveway for new cable service to be run, and have wanted to do something similar. Mind answering a few questions?Did you lay 500' of PVC piping all the way or just a piece of pipe around each sensor? What gauge wire did you need to run?Does it interface to the C4 controller dry contacts?Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pharmdsmith Posted October 4, 2009 Share Posted October 4, 2009 The sensors come with their own wire which can be ordered in different lengths. I put all of it in pvc piping, just in case I made need to pull it all out (you can bury the wire without any pvc, but I wanted to play it safe). I can attatch a very long string to the end of it and then pull the other end out and then use the string to pull it back. The sensors come with a brain (small box) that the wire attatches to. The brain has contact spots to attatch to. Orginally I was going to put the brains in the garage so we used a card access switch . We were able to use one switch for both sensors. I wound up putting it in the basement with the rest of my control4 gear. I don't know for sure, but I would think you could use the dry contacts on the controller and not need the contact switch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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